03/07/2020

At 12am last night, J came and took over the shift and I went to bed. At 2am, my alarm rang. I asked J if he wanted to change shifts. J said he was not sleepy, so let me continue to sleep. I fell asleep and woke up at 5am. Got up and take over, at this time the Venus has risen, a layer of clouds was floating on the horizon, the wind was tighter, the jib had been pulled in a bit to slow down the boat, because we didn’t want to arrive at the island too early then we have to wait for the noon tide to enter. The boat was still traveling at a speed of about 6 knots, with this, it only need another three or four hours to reach the destination. I thought that the wind should be evened out to yesterday’s.

At sunrise, all thoughts in my mind were blown away like clouds in the sky, and it was a new day…

We were close to Lady Musgrave Island before nine o’clock and had to wait three hours. J adjusted the angle of the jib to cancel the wind with the main sail, it is called ‘heave to’. This way the ship can stay almost still.

The boat was swaying in the waves, and while I was about to fall asleep, it came a family of three whales. They decided to give us a show. They jumped out of water and spin, made big splashes. Bravo! I don’t know why the whale love jumping out of the water with so much effort. It must felt good getting out of the water and into the air. Whales and dolphins always want to jump out of the water, while people want to dive into it, whether it is to take a glance at an unfamiliar world.

At 1:30pm, the tide began to flow into the narrow lagoon entrance. We dropped down the sails and started the engine to cross slowly. The water changed from dark blue to turquoise, and the bottom was so clear so you can see coral beds underneath. Many boats were already in, so were many big ugly power boats.

This coral cay Island has an area of ​​14 hectares and is located at the southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef. It is navigable in the lagoon. However, we must pay attention to the ‘Bommies’, they are coral group under the water. Some conjectures saying that this deep water channel into the lagoon is not natural phenomenon, it might be dug by Taiwan or Japanese fishermen in the early days. From satellite image, you can bird view the whole lagoon.

We chose a flat sand bottom and dropped the anchor. We ended the 100-nautical mile voyage that started yesterday morning, and the rest is just to have fun.

Made spaghetti with vegetable protein for tea tonight.