Day 7, Year 3: Scawfell to the Whitsundays–Shaw Island
Date: Friday, May 16, 2008
Weather: Picture Perfect Day; Winds SE 10-15
Water and Air Temperature: 72.5 degrees F
Latitude: 20 degrees 30.137 minutes S
Longitude: 149 degrees 02.907 minutes E
Location: Shaw Island, Queensland, Australia

We’ve been out of Bundaberg a week now and we have arrived in the southern Whitsunday Islands. These islands are a playground for Queenslanders and for people from all over the world who come here to charter a sailboat. We were here twelve years ago when our daughter was in college at James Cook University in Townsville. Townsville is couple of hundred miles north of here, but while visiting her, we chartered for a week in the Whitsundays. It was the first time I had ever been snorkeling and
I just couldn’t get enough of it. The underwater world was so full of color and fantastic life. I’m hoping to enjoy that underwater world in just a day or two when we return to Butterfly Bay on the north side of Hook Island. That was my favorite place to snorkel when we were here before, and I hope it won’t disappoint this time.

Today was another motor sailing day although we did have periods of sailing. When the winds were below 10 knots, we motored, but when they increased toward 15 knots we sailed. It was just a gorgeous day. The seas are totally calm since the winds have died down and that made for an easy day as well. I did laundry and that was about the only work that happened on Windbird today.

We haven’t decided where we are going tomorrow. We think we might like to head to the mainland to Airlie Beach. There is an internet cafe there and we could make some Skype calls home. After the Whitsunday Islands, our next stop will be Magnetic Island just across from Townsville, but unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be an internet cafe out on the island. We would have to take a ferry to Townsville. That’s no problem, but getting there by 8 am our time is a bit of a problem. In order to see
Sam before his bedtime, we need to call by 8 am here, so we’ll give this a try in Airlie. And who knows, maybe we will sail into Townsville as well. There are only a couple of towns north of Townsville that have internet, and then we will have a long dry spell until we reach Darwin in July. The northern part of Queensland is definitely outback and internet cafes are just not there. There are only crocodiles, and they don’t need the internet to communicate!

080516 Day 7 Scawfell to Shaw