A whale

Wednesday, 30^th. 0605.

Anchor up and a longish day of 52 nautical miles to Upstart Bay, bypassing Bowen as the wind is cold and we want to make the most of some sailing with the wind coming from the SSE but forecast to ease off later in the day. It does. At Abbot Point we see a conveyer belt of 1.6 miles along a jetty taking coal out to a loading tower so we head further out to sea and watch a whale lazily drifting along with the current. We wave as s/he passes by and get a wave in reply!! Down to 5 kts of wind, cloudless sky, aquamarine sea flat, we motor the rest of the way into Upstart Bay. The land here is very steep, very rocky and rugged but no ragged rascals running round them. Surprisingly, there are dozens of houses built along the eastern shore, no roads that we can see but lots of small runabouts. Fishing is probably good around here as there is constant tinnie traffic. We anchor off Nobbies Inlet surrounded by mangroves and midgies so we midgie-proof Breakaway and spend a peaceful night.