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The marina at Mackay was nice and we were able to get a excellent coffee in the morning after negotiating all the locked gates into and out of the facility without a key.

The plan was to sail to Percy Island. The wind said that was a bad plan. We sailed through the night on a 28 hour voyage covering 240 nautical miles. There was quite a bit of tacking involved and there was also a lot more wind than was forecast.

On the way out of Mackay we sailed out through a massive ship car park. There must have been over 30 bulk carriers sitting empty at anchor out to sea – some well out of sight of the land. I got an aerial shot of some of the boats as we flew over on the way into Hamilton Island the other day.

It took all day but it finally happened. It seemed as if every time I took the camera down below decks whales and dolphins came by and whenever I brought it up they didn’t. And then just before sunset as I was at the helm the biggest whale of the day breached around 350 metres off the port forward quarter. I handed the helm to the skipper and raced down stairs in time to come up and snap a couple of flurry shots as it broached again. I then got onto the side of the boat as it broached off the beam – maybe only 200 metres away and snapped a beaut series of it rising and broaching. The best six sots of the sequence are below.

Saw my first whale today. The photo is not fantastic but I’ll include it anyway. I hope to get some better ones later

We got under way around 10am after a busy morning. I got up at around 6:30 and headed for the showers and then took some early morning photos while having a walk around. After the others got up we prepared sails, sluiced down the decks,  then packed provisions into the fridge, and checked the motor’s water and oil levels.

I flew into Hamilton island via Jetstar Airlines and the minute I hit the tarmac I felt the tropical heat. However I opted to walk the kilometre or so from the airport into the yacht marina over a small hill and carrying my bags. I was dripping by the time I got there. After wandering around for a bit and asking people who had zero idea, I ended up on the right marina arm and found Kioni, my berth for the next 7 nights.

The skipper Nick arrived at the same time as I did, and we started off by cleaning up the mess in the galley the previous crew had kindly left.