Happy 1^st day of Spring! Wow it was a beautiful start to the day. There was not a breath of wind as we watched the sun rise and this was the day we were going through The Narrows, crossing the Tropic of Capricorn & onto Great Keppel Island, it couldn’t have been more perfect.

 

We lifted anchor and slowly made our way to the first mark. As we came around the corner there was another boat starting to make their way through. We had a little chat & found that they had done the narrows several times so it was comforting to follow them through.

The channel is clearly marked & as we were a little early we slowed the motor down and kept an eye on our depth. We had a dolphin swimming with us for a while. We reached Boat Creek the point where the two tides meet. I was on helm at the time and I could feel the rudder being moved about by the water. We were 15mins before our predicted time and depth was no less than 3m. We still had the “cattle crossing” to cross but knew we would be ok. Our issue was that we would have tide against us for a small period of time, which we didn’t mind.



It was amazing to see the fence running into the water for the cattle crossing. It still shocks me to think that we motored over an area that completely dries and has cattle moved across it. Once we were past this we had the tide with us and we had a quick run through the rest of The Narrows.

 

Once we cleared the shallow parts, we hoisted the main sail, unfurled the head sail and made our way to GKI. We had a great sail with 10-15 kn NE winds and calm seas averaging 5.5kn.

As the wind was turning more northerly we decided to anchor off Long Beach in 3m water. There was only one boat anchored with us. It can be a little unnerving when you choose where to anchor. When you see other boats head around to the other side, you wonder if you’ve made the correct decision. We had a slight swell, but new this would die off.

Dean swam to shore and went for a walk, while I relaxed in the sun and enjoyed the view of white sand & turquoise waters. Over the next few hours another 5 boats had arrived confirming our choice was right. We enjoyed a walk along the beach before sundowners watching another sunset.

 

The Narrows - 11 nm, 3 hr 30 min, avg speed 3.04 kn, total motor 3 hr 30 min
Narrows to GKI - 25 nm, 4 hr 30 min, avg speed 5.35 kn, total motor sailing 0 hr
Total - 36 nm, 8 hr, avg speed 4.46 kn, total motor 3 hr 30 min