Breakdown

16/7/16 Breakdown

Rather dramatic tittle.  I’d like to say it was a breakdown of Shanti, but no, it was of me.

Yesterday I sailed from Townsville to Pioneer Bay on Orpheus Island, about 43 nautical miles.  It was foolish, as I was still tired from the rough passage to Townsville a couple of days before.  When I am tired I make mistakes and I can’t afford to make mistakes on my own.

I woke at 0300, had plenty of time for engine checks, shower, breakfast, etc. to be ready to leave the marina at first light.  I was feeling a bit low to be leaving friends whose company I had all-too-briefly enjoyed. Also missing my family and other friends left behind.

Heavy rain and a strong NE wind woke me this morning. I checked the forecast and found it had changed overnight, with much more north in it.  That put paid to my plan to sail to the anchorage at the top of Hinchinbrook today.  An alternative option was to head over to Lucinda to find shelter in the inside passage up through Hinchinbrook Channel. This is said to be the most scenic, calm waterway on the east coast, offering good cyclone protection in mangrove creeks.

The southern entrance has a shoal bar that needs a rising tide to cross. High tide was at 0800 this morning so I set off early to sail the 10 miles in a couple of hours.

Unfortunately the strong northerly knocked me about, at one stage putting the cabin windows under water.

This was too much and with hardly a second thought I turned and ran with it.

Where to?  Back to Townsville seemed appealing, where I could rest up for a few days.

This was a very low moment for me.  I hate turning around.

As I ran south it felt all wrong.  For so long I have been heading north that I was making wrong course corrections on the autopilot. I checked the forecast again and found strong SE winds returning further down the coast.

I really didn’t want to be bashing head on into that, so turned Shanti round to the north and sailed back to Pioneer bay again.  Six hours of sailing this morning to be right back where I started. Very demoralizing.

I slept for an hour and then ate something, which made me feel a bit better. It’s now a relatively quiet refuge to sit and contemplate which way to go.  I can see that this hard push north, moving on every day, takes its toll on me.