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American Spirit II - Day 208; Departed MacKay for Holiday Island Marina and Numerous Whale Sightings; Friday, August 1, 2014



Up at 7:10 AM. Coffee and then I dropped off magnetic keys at marina gate and disposed of garbage. Once back at the boat we got the boat ready to leave. A slow process. Had to take the Rally flag and Dressing flags down;unplug and coil up the 100 foot electric cable; disconnect the electric cable from the transformer; coil up and put the electric cord plugged into the back of the transom away; secure items below so when the boat tilts nothing goes flying or gets broken; take off and deflate fenders; and finally cast off and put away the mooring lines.

We turned on the navigation system and it took a while for the system to 'catch' the minimum 4 satellites it needed to give us an accurate position on our chart plotter. Three satellites came up right away, but it took about 10 minutes for the 4th one to come up. Not sure why so slow. Not a good sign.

We departed the MacKay Marina at 8:17 AM. The weather was clear but cool, in the upper 60's.

A number of boats were still in MacKay awaiting parts or still being repaired: Celebrate, Ghost, Free & BrEasy, Chika-lu and Boingo Alive. Michael from Vivo advised me that he was dropping out of the Rally. Vivo is one of the largest boats in the Rally, a catamaran at around 60 feet. Michael, Bob,Merc and Dave will be missed.

Once under way I cooked breakfast: scrambled eggs, chilled pear halves and bread. Jeanine washed dishes after breakfast.

There was no wind and the sea was almost a flat calm. The boat thermometer indicated a water temperature of 68 degrees. Eventually it rose to 74 degrees. Winter in the southern hemisphere.

I had bought a pair of new binoculars in MacKay and went about setting up the focus of each eye piece. To do this you close your right eye and with your left eye open, focus with the center focus wheel. Then close your left eye and focus the right eye piece by itself, turning the focus mechanism just for that one eye piece. Voila.

At 11:50 AM the wind was 1.1 knots and our boat speed 5.4 knots. We had the motor on at 1,600 RPM's with the mainsail up. Islands were on both sides of us along with the mainland of Australia off to our far left. Joel and Jeanine were down below napping.

At 12 Noon I saw a whale 100 yards off the port bow. The part of the whale I saw was just its gray gigantic tail in the vertical position as the whale submerged under the water. I yelled below for Joel and Jeanine to come up. They were both sound asleep but the rule on the boat was to call all those off watch when a whale was sighted. Once they got up we saw two more whales. These other whales were black, with small dorsal fins; and one had a white splotch of white on its top. At first I thought the one with the white splotch on it might be a killer whale, but upon reflection I realized its dorsal fin was not large enough. All three of these whales were as large or larger than our boat. One of the whales was also traveling along the surface blowing air out of its blow hole. You could see the spray shooting up.

I called Dingy, another Rally sailboat a mile behind and to the right of us, and told them of our whale sightings. Lothar from Dingy said that they had sighted numerous whales to their starboard.

At 12:09 PM I we saw another whale tail port astern, straight up moving forward and backward, then the whale went under. The area we were in was between Brampton Island and Ball Bay to the west in 50 feet of water.

Another whale was sighted at 12:16 PM on the surface 1 mile away, off our starboard bow.

At 1:25 PM I sighted a large whale tail in the vertical position off the starboard bow about 1 mile away. The tail seemed frozen in that position for quite a few seconds.

Joel got up from his nap at 1:50 PM.

We saw another whale, starboard bow about 2 miles away. Its dorsal fin and black body were visible on the surface.

We rolled the jib out at 2:10 PM and picked up a half knot of speed. The wind was 8/9 knots and our boat speed 7.4 knots. We could turn the motor off and sail except that we had to make it to the Hamilton Island Marina before 5:00 PM as that was when the marina staff went home. So we kept motor sailing, eventually averaging 8+ knots.

I went below to nap at 3:00 PM.

At 3:15 PM Joel saw two whales and got some pictures using the 'sport' feature on his camera. With this feature the camera shutter moves quicker instead of the delay it usually goes thru in focusing the lens and adjusting the f stop.

We pulled into a slip at the marina at 4:38 PM. The marina had a small dingy with a motor come out to meet us and escort us into our slip. Once tied up in the slip we plugged into the shore power, celebrated with a Captain Morgan and then Jeanine recharged my cell phone as I had used up all of my pre-paid money I had on it. With my Australian SIM card I can call the US for $.15 per minute. Much cheaper than using my AT&T US phone.

We went to dinner at 7:30 PM at the Marina Tavern. Most of the restaurants were crowded and required reservation to get served. The high season in the Whitsunday Islands. During dinner we ran into the Russ and Laurie from Nexus; and two Australian friends of theirs. They had arrived in the marina right after sunset.

On the way back to the boat we stopped by an ice cream shop and each of us ordered an ice cream cone. Total cost, 25.30 Australian dollars. The most expensive ice cream I've ever had.

Transportation around Hamilton Island is either by free shuttle bus; driving around in your own golf cart; or walking.

Once back at the boat we watch the DVD Invincible staring Mark Walberg. Good movie.

Lights out for Joel and me at midnight. Jeanine was still up. Tomorrow we will visit 'Wild Life Hamilton Island,' where we'll see koala bears, wallabies, kangaroo, and crocodiles. And perhaps go golfing.

Brian Fox

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