Ian arrived yesterday and we organised ourselves to head off on Friday, but the weather was against us. It was forecast to blow 30 knots (60kph) so we were not keen but Chris and Ian thought it would be protected in the Narrows and I was reluctant. But the guys at the Marina seemed to think it would be OK. So we cast off (moving around the dredge) about 0830 and headed up the Narrows. This is a thin strip between the mainland and Curtis Island – part of which dries completely at low tide, so much so that it is a cattle crossing in parts. We had to get the tide right! We did get the tide right and the wind (so far, 1700h) was very kind to us, only blowing about 15 knots maximum. We cleared the Narrows with a minimum depth of 1.9 m. We are now in Pacific Creek with a couple of other boats and one million mangroves, and I owe Bucket a Cointreau on ice as he picked the weather. Tomorrow we will head to Gt Keppel Island and then after a couple of hours kip on through the night to the Percy Islands as the military have closed off all the land in between and therefore forcing all the yachties to stay at sea. This is of course the peak time for yachts to head north – duh.