From Gold Coast to Mackay - A fast trip

On Saturday I will take a plane and travel from Sydney to Mackay, the flight takes approximately two and a half hours. Last Thursday Oscar and his crew left the Gold Coast City Marina and set sail towards Mackay. They arrived at dawn on Monday morning after four days and four nights sailing non stop.

Happily sailing along

This was indeed a fast trip when compared to our trip last year when we did almost the same route lazily sailing up the coast. We left the end of May and arrived in Mackay in mid July, spending a bit over a month and a half to get from the Gold Coast to Mackay. Along the way we stopped in many wonderful places but this year our choice was to make a 'fast' trip and get to warmer latitudes on the other side of the Tropic of Capricorn early in the season.

Mackay is at the southern end of the Whitsundays. Zenitude is now well positioned for the start of our sailing. We can and we'll probably go up to Magnetic Island stopping in places we haven't stopped before. There are many choices. From Magnetic Island we'll keep going north hoping this year we can cover lots of places all the way up to Lizard Island. When the weather collaborates, we want to make trips to the outer reef.  It is good to be back to our cruising life.

The Great Barrier Reef - Mackay to Lizard Island

G.

Back on the Water – Plans for 2015

This week Zenitude was gently deposited back on the water by the Gold Coast City Marina (GCCM) shipyard crew. This time she is not shinny and she is full of dust, waxing and cleaning will be done next week after engines work is finished. We are replacing the engines batteries that lasted 5 good years and installing heat monitors for the engines, a gadget that has taken us too long to finally get so that we can monitor engine temperature and take action well before the alarm goes off. With the impeller issues we had last year this was on the list of ‘have to have’.

Oscar is targeting Wed/Thu to depart. With hired crew he is hoping to be in Mackay in 4 to 5 days and then wait for me, while I finish my working duties in Sydney at the end of April. This year we plan to reach Magnetic Island, some way or another but hopefully slowly and without overnight trips, before the end of May. We have planned a month long land trip (Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam) during June. Zenitude will stay in Nelly Bay marina.

We’ll be back on the water in July. Our intention this year is go slowly north up to Lizard Island. We do want to spend time there to visit the outer reef as many times as weather allows. Hopefully then, the northerlies will come sometime in October letting us sail back south without too much ‘wind on the nose’ type of trip. Destination on the trip back will depend on many things and it is too far in advance at the moment to plan and get it right.

These are the plans, which of course may change, more than once, after all it’s good to go where the wind takes you.  

G.