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South Passage Daily Report

CLIENT: General Public Voyage

VOYAGE NUMBER:  20220816

FROM: Townsville to Mackay

DATE: 16 August 2022

POSITION: Cape Upstart

REPORT BY: White Watch

The call for breakfast came at 6.30, and to the delight of some, a hot bowl of porridge. As we left Townsville harbour we had a slow and clear start to our voyage. Glassy conditions with a very gentle breeze. No other traffic in the harbour apart from a solo stand up paddle board rider who decided to move from the centre of the harbour to the sidelines as we exited. Only 500 m out from harbour we had our first interaction with the local wildlife as a pod of dolphins cruised off to our starboard side in the early morning sun.

Although the wind was light, we were kept busy with our introduction to setting the sails which helped our progress under motor. The crew were dived into 3 “watch groups” responsible for different sails. We were all quickly warming up raising the gaff sails and head sails. The calm seas provided us with an ideal setting as we grappled with all the new information under the equally calm leadership of our watch leaders.

A few nautical miles out from Cape Upstart we were again treated to some local wildlife shows with humpback whales jumping out of the water and breaching with massive splashes clearly visible. They kept up the show while it was all hands on deck reefing the sails and slowly coming to grips with the mechanics of the ship.

The sun set was punctuated with plumes of smoke from sugar cane burn offs, impersonating volcanic eruptions and creating a spectacular sky as we dropped anchor and tucked into some magnificent dinner from Louise. Maybe we will be tired enough on our second night to sleep through everyone’s snoring in the cabin! Louise, Brett & Linda T

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