Day 8: Burnett Heads – Pancake Creek - Flingtime

Tuesday, 21th May 2013

We had a couple of potential anchorages on this leg but Pancake Creek looked the best although it was going to be  quite a long hop for us. Round Hill Creek near the Town of 1770 was an alternative but would be a much more difficult approach.

We had a very good nights sleep and were up at 5am. Outside, the temperature was 8C and the good SW breeze made if feel like we were going to freeze so on went the layers and the windproof gear.

05:20 We departed on the high tide and soon had the spinnaker set in the early dawn. TWS was 13 knots  from the SW which probably explained the chill factor. We were sailing along with a SOG of 6.8 knots as the sun put on a spectacular display.

06:45 TWS 18 knots, SOG 7.2, nice but we did not relish the thought of getting wet if the spinnaker became a problem so we turned to minimize the apparent wind while it was doused. The main (on the first reef) & jib were hoisted and we were soon back on track heading 310M SOG 6.6 Depth 12.5 metres.

We had 2 monohulls  some distance off and a large cat coming up from behind.
07:30 Michael had a fish on the trolling line and was playing it hard. The skipper asked if he wanted us to slow down as were were doing about 7 knots in the small swell with a choppy overlay. He said 'no problem' although we were down to the last of out 3 lures. Anyhow this battle went on for 20 minutes before the decent sized Mackrel parted from the line about 25 metres still to go. At least we had a picture of it as it planed across the surface.
(Our trolling rig was subsequently fully re-vamped after good advice from Kevin of SV Blue Lagoon. His other very good advice was to not muck around fighting it but to very quickly haul the fish out onto the trampoline where the mess could be easily hosed off)

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