Hi All,
We did the big trip in July 24 heading up from Sydney. We took 4 weeks which was wonderful but the Admiral got crook on the way up (walking pneumonia) so the 1st week was a bit of a write off for her. Finally correct diagnosis and antibiotics did the trick. We went to Hamilton Island after spending several days at the Coral Coast Marina and stayed for a week. Did several nice day sails and Hamo was great and easy to get around with the free shuttle bus to go explore or lounge at the pool. Left there to do the couple of days and nights staying at Chalkies and the inlet to get in the lee. Whales breaching, turtles and spectacular sunsets and moonrises were brilliant. Went back to coral sea marina for a further week. Did some day and overnight trips to butterfly bay and northern areas. Snorkeling was great but not what it was 20 years ago at Blue Pearl.
Can thoroughly recommend both marina's as a base .. especially with the missus recovering. In the end we didn't worry about a tender this time ... I swam ashore most spots but the boss probably wouldn't have been comfortable with that in several spots.
Leaving CSM on the last day Tues of the 4th week there was a big hire cat berthed on the end of one of the finger wharves and we had to make a 90 deg turn to port around it into the wind. I felt I had enough speed up up but the bow just would not come to to port and we were heading for the marina rockwalls. Had to reverse and ended up drifting into the stern of a couple of decent size moored boats ... beam-on the starboard side. Not too bad and end result was a chip in the gel-coat but the worst windage in my limited career. After the initial shock from the victim he decently gave us a good shove and managed to get around. I reckon I could have done it with a second go (not that I wanted to !!) but nerves of steel required to gun the the throttle that much with lots of expensive boats around. Had a little board and the rudders down.
Guessing its just experience but happy for any tips as usual ... rum and throttle ???
Webb
