It’s Magic at Maggie
During the overnight sail, the crew on watch overlaid the gybe mark by 7nm and Salt Lines sailed merrily on past us, as we headed well east and towards Fiji. After a sunny morning of downwind sailing, we rounded the headland to anchor on the northern side of Magnetic Island by 12pm and the 50+ vessels with the same idea, told us we had picked a great spot to escape the persistent 25 knots SE winds.
Heading ashore at Magnetic Island
The gorgeous Horseshoe Bay
We launched the RIB and ferried the crew ashore for a 1:30pm lunch booking with the Salt Lines crew a the waterfront bar and restaurant. I headed back to Silver Fern to run the water maker for a couple of hours and get the roast lamb in the oven. After a relaxing afternoon ashore the crew were back onboard before dark and we settled in for a great dinner and chat about our highs and lows on the trip so far.
Washing the sand off our feet
Mesmerising colours at sunset
We were enjoying Magnetic Island so much that we decided to spend the following day ashore as well. We were ashore by 9am and headed in different directions. Some took the bus to the southern side of the island, some did the 997 step walk to fort at top of hill and others swam inside the shark and jellyfish nets.
As the crew reunited on the beach at 2pm, the Gelato store across the road was calling our names. A quick order of “2 scoops please” and we were in the RIB and headed back to Silver Fern. Despite the agreement to depart at 3pm, Salt Lines got 30 minute jump on us. We saw this as a clear act of war and decided, we’d be pulling out all the stops in the 15-22 knots to beat them into Cairns.
David