NE Island Percy Group

Today has been what is called in the Navy, a "make and mend" day. Dennis did the laundry, Jim hung it out and just wondering whether it will stay pegged in the winds we are getting! Dennis also made a loaf of gluten free bread from from a bread mix packet we found. Not too bad at all. Jim did some more passage planning - trying to make sure that (if we continue to get SE winds) we sail sailable downwind vectors and selecting alternative destinations on that basis, also keeping in mind the quality of various anchorages. Not too many that are any good around here. So, weather permitting it will either be Digby Is. (26 nm) or Scawfell (65 nm) tomorrow. Scawfell will only be possible direct if we don't get SE winds but that looks unlikely. The alternative is Digby first, then Scawfell in 2 days.
The Percys are part of the Northumberland Group and we are now about 100 miles south of the Whitsundays. This all means that we are just over one third of the way to Cairns - the northern Whitsundays being halfway. It sure is a big country! On that basis we should be in Cairns mid to end of May. Then we have a month to 6 weeks to get to Darwin so we need to keep moving. We didn't want to stop today but the pesky weather caused that. We don't particularly want to be out in 35 knots. In two day's time it is supposed to quieten down again so hopefully we can continue on. At least some of the daily distances coming up are longer than we've had for a while so we should cover more ground in a shorter time.
Over the next few days the tides get very big peaking on May 5th. with a range of 5.25 metres compared with today's range of 2.65 metres. So, it's not an east coast to sail by any means although the big plus is that the wind is with us and not against. For us this means sailing at least 30 degrees off the wind in vectors - we can't sail directly downwind in these seas and winds. Hence the passage planning and working out possible destinations which will suit the wind angles.
Cheers from us..........
www.tiaretaporo3.blogspot.com

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