A very long sail, Ingram Island and Howick Island

 Our passage from Flinders Island to Ingram took over 14 hours.  We had to beat into the wind all the way and had to tack down a narrow channel between the mainland and many reefs.  All was going well until we came out of the narrow channel and headed east towards Ingram Island.  The tide had changed and we encountered a very strong current trying to push us back up the channel we just came down.  Additionally the current was opposite the wave direction causing us to be sailing directly into very steep waves.  After fighting the current and waves for a bit, we gave up and started the engine to complete our passage to Ingram Island.  We arrived at about 20:30 which was well after dark.  We could not see the island or fringing reef but had to reply on the charts and depth sounder to determine where and when to drop the anchor.  The wind was blowing 25+ knots but we were able to anchor safely partially behind the island but still protected by the huge reef continuing to the south of the island.

Today we took the dinghy to Ingram Island to walk around the island and our onto the reef.  There were many birds to see and the reef was several miles in size.  We could have walked all the way over to some adjoining islands over a mile away.

Standing out on the reef looking back to Ingram Island.  True North is behind the island at the left end in the picture.


True North at anchor seen as we completed our walk around Ingram Island

After our walk we returned to True North, had lunch and then headed about 7 miles southeast to Howick Island.  This move will shorten our passage to Lizard Island tomorrow.  We tried to go ashore at Howick but the beach was behind a rocky shoreline so there was nowhere we could safely land the dinghy.  The wind was blowing 30+ knots so we returned to True North.

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