After several delays and thousands of dollars spent due to the uncompromising issues one leading to another, finally, finally, we left Scarborough Marina on May 23th.
The destination had been changed 3 times during the passage according to the weather conditions. We ended up sailing 26 hours to arrive at The Great Sandy Strait and anchored inside the bay. There are a few shallow sand bars outside the entrance to the strait, which gave us a bit of challenge getting through. Other than that, the passage was not bad at all - no wind for the first 6 hours (we motored) and then 17 knots, gust 22 knots of north easterly, perfect for a speedy trip, only we didn't want to sail that fast as we didn't want to get to the entrance to the strait in the mid of night. We had to reef the sails a lot to slow down and heave-to for 3 hours before sunrise to get the timing right for the hight tide entry.
Because there are many really shallow areas inside the strait, we have to follow closely to the tidal table. It took us 2 days to get out of the strait. During that time, we found that our inverter is not starting and the windless doesn't work properly, plus the starter of the engine became quite moody, i.e. sometimes it just doesn't start. (We've paid $264 for the marine electrician to have it fixed, but ...) So we decided to come to Bundaberg Port Marina to have those issues checked up. Another reason for us to stop over here is that we're having quite strong wind (25 - 30 knots) for these couple of days that is not so comfortable for sailing in the water with so much tidal current.
Anyway, here we are, tied up at the marina dock trying to fix all the problems. We really need to get moving as we are weeks behind out schedule and there is still a long way ahead to get to Darwin.