Sailing Townsville - Whitsundays

[Tuamotus]

After any advice on anchorages between Townsville and The Whitsundays during northerlies, cheers!

[RaymondR]

It's an easy question to answer because there are very few anyway.

You can tuck in close to the beach on the western side of the sand spit at Cape Bowling Green and get protection if the wind is from the NE, which it tends to be rather than from due north, and since the north easterlies tend to be light it is usually a good anchorage.

Unless you go right down into Upstart Bay and can get into the creek there are no fully protected anchorages at Cape Upstart in a northerly however again the west side of the cape offers some protection during a light north easterly wind.

Both the anchorages are light weather anchorages and if it is really blowing a northerly I tend to do an over-nighter and go direct to Bowen however this has only occurred once or twice during my annual cruises down the coast from Cairns over the last sixteen years..

[Jim Cate]

when trying to get south on that coast, sheltering from NE winds is a questionable idea! One needs to take advantage of each minute of favorable wind if a pleasant trip is to be had!

Jim

[44'cruisingcat]

Yep, Cape Bowling green and Bowen, that's about it. Gloucester passage too, but that's arguably the Whitsundays.

[RaymondR]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

when trying to get south on that coast, sheltering from NE winds is a questionable idea! One needs to take advantage of each minute of favorable wind if a pleasant trip is to be had!

Jim

Whilst that's true Jim when the N Easterlies are light it tends to go dead calm at night.

Further south where there tends to be more swell and the reefs are further out I often keep sailing until eight or nine at night when it goes dead calm then heave to rather than suffer the rolly anchorages, the mainsail tends to kill the rolling and one cannot leave it up at anchor..

[JPA Cate]

If it's just the sea breezes providing the NE, they do go away after dark, and you can safely use any anchorage. However, Raymond R makes an interesting point: you can rest pretty well hove to, as long as someone's on watch.

Ann

[RaymondR]

I left Cairns going south yesterday and moored overnight on a marine parks mooring on the W side of Russell Island in the Frankland Island group. It was a five to ten knot E-NE day yesterday and I expect it to be the same today and I'll have to motor again.

Today's leg will be to Mourilyn Harbour then Dunk Island and Hinchenbrook each of the legs 20-25 miles. I'll then dawdle my way down through the passage and go ashore in Cardwell and Lucinda for a morning cup of coffee and a newspaper. I'll slip across to Pioneer Bay and hopefully get a couple of days of good easterlies with a stop at Havanah Island and maybe Rattlesnake if I choose to sail the leg to Magnetic Island. From Cairns to Townsville is a day sailing paradise.

If I am lucky enough to get south easterlies I could stop a week at Horseshoe Bay and get to do a couple of the walks then a run over to the duck pond for groceries at Townsville and do the section down to Bowen during the lull between a couple of highs. Since you're going east from Townsville to Cape Bowling Green something with a bit of west in it is handy then NE or E for the run south to Bowen.

From Bowen to Great Keppel Island is another day sailing paradise with the only lengthy leg that from Mackay to Digby, the Percys or Curlew or you can ignore Lucas and hang off the ledge on the south side of Prudhoe.

If you choose to go east down the outside of Curtis Island rather than through The Narrows and Gladstone Harbour do as Jim advises and just keep going whilst the N-Easterly is blowing as there is not a decent northerly anchorage before Burnett Heads.

What differentiates winter and summer weather on the Queensland coast is the effects of the low across northern Australia during the NW monsoon. Wherein during the winter months the highs tend to just ridge down a bit and keep the winds from the south east. The counter rotating lows in the gulf tend to close the back sides of the highs and one experiences north easterlies regularly between the highs and can fairly reliably day cruise.

Doing it as above I am expecting to be in the Great Sandy Straits mid to late December.

[JPA Cate]

That's interesting, Raymond, we usually aim for Tasmania by December, so are more obsessive about taking advantage of favorable winds.

Ann