We are anchored in beautiful Horseshoe Bay on Magnetic Island after a 60 nm run today. Departed Cape Upstart at 5am in darkness and rain, leaving in a flurry with wind associated with the rain squall pushing us along at 7 knots. That brisk sailing was shortlived as 20 minutes later the squall had passed and we were back to motorsailing at 5 knots. What we thought was the loom of Ayr-Home Hill turned out to be the full moon setting which looked great but didnt reproduce in photographs. The dawn however was unspecacular with a series of rain squalls to the east blocking much colour. It seemed to photograph ok though, see below.

We would be happy for the squalls to get closer,  dont care about the rain, but would enjoy the accompanying wind to make us sail faster!
Late morning we passed Cape Bowling Green and it reminded me of our first passage through here 27 years ago on our honeymoon aboard the first Balakera, a 28ft Swanson. We had our black dog Woof aboard and he needed to be walked each morning and night because he wouldn’t soil the boat. So dog walked, dinner eaten we set off at dusk from Upstart for the 60 mile overnighter to Townsville for Woof’s next walk. I stayed on watch to 4am and had hallucinations of galloping zebras alongside the boat. Bear had to take over while I sorted my head out!

The pic shows Cape Bowling Green close up without zebras. It is the lowest cape in Queensland,  just a sand spit really. Wind dropped and came directly aft so had to steam across to Cape Cleveland. Screensnap below from boatbeacon taken at 1300 hrs shows us half way across Bowling Green Bay with quite a bit of shipping nearby.

Navionics surprised us again today,, showing us heading SW while the ships compass and ais/gps both had us correctly heading NW. A reboot of the iPad got it sorted, I do prefer Navionics but it ain’t perfect!  Below is a pic of Baly at anchor at Horseshoe Bay, Maggie Island.

We will go ashore for a draught beer and steak at the pub, couldnt get into the marina at Nelly Bay as it was full due to Easter. Will do some victualling in the morning before the shorter run to Orpheus Island.