Whitsunday Islands - Part 2 (25th - 29th July)

After snorkeling at Blue Pearl on Monday we decided that Stonehaven Anchorage would be a good and comfy spot to spend the night.  Luckily we managed to score a mooring which is pretty much surrounded by the coral fringing reef which is always nice.

Just because we hadn't had quite enough snorkeling it was back to Blue Pearly Bay on Tuesday.  On this occassion we timed our arrival for a bit later in the morning and managed to get onto a suitable mooring pretty quickly.  Again the usual herd of fish came out to greet us for feeding - amazes me that they all seem to have endless appetites!.  Before long we are donned in our wet suits and snorkeling gear to delight in the coral and fish that inhabit this lovely bay.

Nara Inlet - Sally at Anchor

As we haven't been off the boat for almost a week we leave Blue Pearl Bay and wander our way down to Nara Inlet with the plan to stop over for the 2 nights remaining before we head back into Airlie Beach.  We find a nice little anchorage and as it is getting a bit late in the afternoon we opt to have a swim off the back of the boat before settling in for drinks at sundown.  Apparently the rumour is that Nara Inlet is the local breeding ground for Hammer Head sharks!.  Luckily enough we didn't get the opportunity to see one however, the time in the water seemed just a little shorter than usual.

Nara Inlet - Ngaro Rock Art

Wednesday and we decide to wait until lowish tide before we head to the beach at Nara which has a short walking track up to the site of the Aboriginal Rock Painting done by the local Ngaro People which is quite fascinating but as with all these things it is now all roped off etc to protect it from the humans that visit.

After our 10 or so days wandering around the Whitsunday Islands it is time to head back into the chaos that is Airlie Beach.  We have heard from Michael Arcaro who is up at Airlie this week doing some work on Verve so we catch up with him for a spot of dinner at the Whitsunday Yacht Club which has a view to die for.  It is always good to catch up with someone from home to hear how things are going down south. 

We will be staying at Airlie until Sunday when we will head over the Hamilton Island to pick up Rick  Potter who will be on-board for the next part of the adventure to Townsville.

The Whitsunday Islands Part I (18th - 25th July)

Balancing Rock
South Molle Island

Monday morning and we leave the chaos of Airlie Beach and head to the quieter waters off South Molle Island.  We were hoping to drop into Day Dream Island for lunch on the way but as it is also awash with people and water craft we decide to go direct to Bauer Bay on South Molle.  As it is a lovely day we decide to tackle one of the walks at South Molle which covers the north east part of the island and takes us to Balancing Rock, Lamond Hill and back to Bauer Bay via Paddle Beach.  We have a quiet night in at South Molle and prepare ourselves to take on the summit of Spion Kop on Tuesday. 



Again the weather is sunny and warm so we head off on the walk to Spion Kop which is not all that long but does take us past some great look outs and the view from the top is excellent.  After a spot of morning tea at the Spion Kop look out we wander back to the boat only to find some very friendly bat fish on the way back to the boat.  Luckily we have packed some bread so couldn't help but to give them a few morsels.

Bat Fish Feeding
South Molle Island

View of Bauer Bay from Spion Kop

Wake Boarding at Whitehaven

As the forecast for the next few days is looking really good we decide to move to Whitehaven Beach on Wednesday.  The wind is back a bit today so we have a good sail around and as usual when we arrive the place is just going off with charter boats, ocean rafting craft, float planes and plenty of bare boaters to boot.  Luckily most of them leave in the afternoon and leave the rest of us in a bit of peace and quiet for the night, apart from some yachties that have taken up wake boarding at dusk!!

Whitehaven Beach - A Day in the Life!

We take the walk around the Solway Circuit and over to Chance Bay on Thursday morning before the chaos starts yet again!  Whitehaven is kind of one of those places where you can spend hours just kind of watching the coming's and going's and never get tired of it!

Friday morning and it is time to move on again (mind you the average sail these days is between 5-10NM so hardly taxing) with the plan to head to Tongue Bay which is at the north end of Whitsunday Island.  As we had been warned this seems to be the latest place for everyone to hang out and is looking really busy so we elect to move to Apostle Bay which is just next door and have the place to ourselves - apart from a couple of green turtles and also a couple of Dugong's which seem to call this place home.  We are pretty excited as it is really rare to see Dugong's.  Most of the afternoon is spent on the back of the boat looking out for more turtles and dugongs.

As we have down plenty of walks we figure it is now time to get in some hot snorkeling action so on Saturday morning we head off to the north end of Hook Island .  Our first stop is into Manta Bay (luckily we are the only ones here - yet!).  We pull up a mooring and before you know it we are feeding fish off the back of the boat.  This place is pretty awesome for snorkeling so we are both in the water pretty quickly to check out the coral and endless supply of fishies.   Just as we get out the water the charter boats start to arrive so we consider our timing to be "spot on".
In the afternoon we move down a couple of bays and pick up a mooring for the night and again go for another snorkel to check out the scenery in this bay. 

Sunday morning and we are hoping to get back into Manta Bay but unfortunately miss the chance as all the moorings are taken so we move along to the next bay which just happens to be empty and also has some lovely snorkeling so we can't complain!

Seems like we still cant get enough of this snorkeling stuff so we head over to Blue Pearl Bay which is on the western side of Haymen Island.  Luckily there is a mooring left and we quickly grab it as they are very sought after in this part of the world.  With a name like Blue Pearl you can only imagine how pretty this place is and again how good the snorkeling is.  Wish we had an underwater camera but we don't so you will just have to imagine how good it is.

At this stage we are planning to head back into Airlie on Thursday so will hopefully get to write another update then on the rest of our time in the Whitsunday Islands.

BTW I had a triple thriller weekend regarding sporting activities.
Carlton quite easily accounted for Essendon (and Eddie got 8 goals - *YAY*)
Stoner won the Moto GP at Laguna Seca
Cadel Evans - the first Aussie to win the Tour de France



AWESOME!!!

Brampton Island to Airlie (via Hammo and other islands) - 9th to 15th July

After a few lovely days at Brampton Island we started to make our way north towards Hamilton Island (more affectionately known as "Fat Island")  The first trip we did on Saturday was a 10NM hop to Goldsmith Island  We had a lovely sail with gentle winds and arrived at Goldsmith at around 11.30am.

Sunday we had a similar jaunt but this time around 10NM to Thomas Island sailing via Coppersmith and Silversmith Islands.  The winds were a bit more lively and we made good time into Thomas Island.  As there are plenty of fringing reefs in the anchorage at Thomas it was an excellent spot to go for a bit of a snorkel and check out the local coral in the arvo.  To our surprise we happen to come across 3 turtles during the swim which was pretty awesome. Not sure who was more surprised - the turtles or us!!

We know we must be getting close to the madness of the Whitsunday's as we spotted our first bare boat today!  Monday and we have another short hop to Shaw Island which is part of the Lindeman Group.   Today we did a PB and managed to get our anchor down well in time for morning tea at 10.00am.

Tuesday morning and we are off to Fat Island.  We took the scenic route to Hammo via Pentecost Island as they wont allow arrival's before 11.00am.  The marina crew at Hammo are fantastic and not only lead you to your berth but also help out with lines, setting fenders and anything else that might be required at the time.  Hamilton Island, as is expected, is a hive of activity and there are plenty of holiday makers which is great to see as many of the other resorts are looking a little down in the mouth or shut.

Cocktails at the Bommie Bar - HIYC

We went up to the new yacht club for a couple of pre-dinner drinks and watched the sunset which was pretty nice before heading over to Romano's for a swish dinner!  The next day at Hammo we decided to take the bus ride around the island and went over to the main resorts to check out life on the other side!

As the winds are forecast to blow again on the weekend accompanied by some rain we decide that it would be prudent to head over to Airlie for the weekend - via Long Island.  This will also enable me to go and watch the big game of Carlton V Collingwood (not sure if that is a good or a bad thing yet!)

Ragamuffin

Thursday and we leave the madness of Hammo and on the way to Long Island we spot our first Maxi - Ragamuffin - heading over to Whitehaven Beach.  We pull up a mooring in Happy Bay which is just off the Club Crocodile resort and make our way to the beach.    The resort hasn't changed very much since we were up here in 2003 but seems to be doing quite well and we find out that there are some nice walks on the island so figure the walk over to Palm Bay would be a nice way to spend the afternoon.  Along the way we spot a wildlife in the form of a scrub turkey.  There seem to be plenty of these on the island along with the usual Curlews that hang out in the resort and also the Lorikeets which flock around the resort at dusk for the daily feeding.  After having a couple of sun-downers at the beach bar whilst we wait for the tide to come back in we then went back to the boat for a quiet evening on board.

Long Island - Scrub Turkey

Curlews @ Club Crocodile

Friday and the forecast is pretty much holding up so we are going to head into Airlie Beach for a few days to do the usual marina stuff before heading out for a couple of weeks exploring the Whitsunday's

Bird Feeding @ Club Crocodile

Mackay to Brampton Island (3rd to 8th July)

After a few good days in Mackay, while the wind continued to blow, we finally made our escape on Sunday (3rd July) and the forecast is looking good for the next week at least.

Scawfell Island Camping Area

Our first destination is Scawfell Island which is about 20nm North East of Mackay.  We had a great (and quick) sail with a lively 15-20knot beam reach!  We decided that a leisurely afternoon was in store so retired to the aft deck for some reading and as always the obligatory swim. 

Scawfell Island Beach

On Monday morning we were both keen to go and have an explore so the dinghy was quickly inflated and we were off to the beach.  Scawfell Island is pretty much untouched so it is virtually impossible to do too much walking apart from the beaches but they are pretty nice so we didn't mind.  It also gave our dinghy a nice chance to catch a few rays whilst waiting for us on the white sandy beach.  We have heard on the grapevine that there is some pretty good snorkelling at Scawfell so we make plans to check out a few of the bommies in the afternoon.  As with all these places tides seem to make a big difference to everything you do.  Unfortunately for us it just happened to be high tide on the afternoon of the 3rd so although the coral and the fishies looked great they were all about 12 feet below us.

Bearing this in mind we decided to change to order of proceedings for Tuesday and snorkeling was on the list for morning activities.  This time we decided to go a bit further afield so the dinghy came with us and after finding a suitable rock to tie it to we were both in the water having an excellent time exploring all things underwater.  The coral was amazing and in really good condition with little sign of damage from weather etc.  

Blue Tiger Butterfly
Brampton Island

Wednesday morning and we decided that it was time to move on again so we are off to Brampton Island which is around 20nm North West of Scawfell.  We arrive and there are plenty of other boats in the anchorage and it seems like this is a popular place for boats of all types to visit especially as it is renown for having some excellent walking tracks.  We have also been told that the resort has recently shut down which is again a bit sad but there are also rumours that it may be redeveloped - I guess time will tell. 


After our first shore party on Tuesday afternoon we have re-named Brampton Island as Butterfly Island as it is literally swarming in butterflies which is just beautiful.  Wednesday and we are off to do the Island Circuit Walk which takes you on an 8km jaunt around the island.  There are some amazing sights with one of the most special views being that of Oyster and Dinghy Bays.  We stopped for a bite of lunch at Turtle Beach (they do have excellent names for their beaches up here) before finishing off the walk followed by a refreshing dip off the back of the boat.

Oyster & Dinghy Bay's

Turtle Beach

Carlisle Island

The one walk everyone must do at Brampton is the Brampton Peak walk so we are up early to hopefully get the best of the wildlife on this walk.  It is not all that challenging but it is a couple of km's uphill so you certainly know you have been on a walk when you get to the top.  The have put up a couple of excellent lookouts so again you get some great views of Carlisle Island next door and islands further afield.

Tomorrow the plan will be to head up to Goldsmith Island and then keep moving north as we close in on the Whitsunday islands proper

Yeppoon to Mackay (27th June to 1st July)

This probably didn't end up being the best part of our adventure to date. As already mentioned the military have bought forward the date for exclusion to the Shoalwater Bay area which means we really don't have any option but leave Yeppoon on Sunday (27th June) and means we are not able to linger either and have to be out of the area on Monday. This along with the forecast of 25-30knts for the entire week didn't bode that well for our adventure to the islands in this area.

En-route Port Clinton to Hunter Island

Despite all this we were up early on Sunday as it is a fair haul to Port Clinton. We were joined by a couple of other yachts also heading in the same direction but a number of yachts intending to head off have thought better of the weather and have elected to stay in Yeppoon till the weather abates a little. The trip to Port Clinton was pretty good with 20-25knot winds blowing but the seas are pretty short and sharp making it pretty rolly on board. We arrive at Port Clinton and caught up with Cloud Nine who has been travelling with a group from Royal Prince Alfred YC and have pretty much been with us since we left Mooloolaba. After some discussion Cloud Nine think it might be a good idea to stick with us for a bit so we are all off to the Duke Group on Monday and hopefully the anchorage wont be too uncomfortable.

Anchorage at Hunter Island

Again the trip out to the Duke Group was pretty good with moderate winds but again the seas are a tad uncomfortable.  We originally were planning to drop the pick off Marble Island but after a bit of a look-see decided that the anchorage at Hunter Island was going to be a lot more comfortable for the night.  In order to get to this new anchorage we had to go through the "Lola Mantes pass"!!   Looks like we weren't the only ones with this idea as we found about another 10 yachts already anchored up for the night.  During Monday night the wind really started to blow but we figured it was best to keep plodding along as things were still not forecast to get any better for some time.  We left Hunter Island and got to feel the full force of the wind which was now blowing at 25-35knots.  Luckily we only had around 30NM to cover to get into our next port of call which is Curlew Island.  After much rolling around and plenty of ducking & weaving between rocks, islands and shoals (which seem to be everywhere!) we arrived at Curlew Island. 

Sunset at Hunter Island

 Unfortunately due to the high winds and large sea state the anchorage is pretty rolly so not a lot of sleep was had on either Sally or Cloud Nine so think we were all pretty keen to head off early and get into the Mackay Marina.

  

Cloud Nine with their
Cruising Storm Jib

As it is still pretty windy Cloud Nine decide to go with their storm jib today as it has to be better than going with no sails at all (as they did the previous day) as it does settle the motion down a lot plus with 25-35knots blowing you can actually sail quite well with not much sail up. 

Mid afternoon on Wednesday we pull into the safety of Mackay Marina.  After a number of days at sea with Cloud Nine in company and many radio chats we actually finally get to meet the Cloud Nine team in person!.  As we had all had a bit more adventure over the last few days than was on the brochure we all decide to wander up to the yacht club and share a meal, plenty of good wine and many tales of dare and do before heading off to the comfort of a still bed for the night. 

As the wind is forecast to blow for a few more days the plan is to stay in Mackay till the weekend and then head off the tackle the southern islands in the Whitsunday Group - and hopefully we will get to spend a couple of weeks out of a marina this time!

Great Keppel to Yeppoon (22nd to 26th June)

Another Beautiful Beach
Long Beach on Great Keppel Island

As the weather was so delightful we decided to spend another day on Great Keppel and tackle yet another walk over to the south east end of the island - Long Beach, Monkey Beach via Morris Lookout to the resort and back to Leekes Beach via Putney Beach.  We were both feeling a bit foot sore after our hiking so the rest of the arvo was spent swimming and relaxing on the aft deck.

Sharpie Worship at KBSC

Thursday morning we headed over to Yeppoon which is only about 10NM so we arrived late morning.  We took the bus into town to check out the local scene and I think I found my tropical spiritual home at the Keppel Bay Sailing Club where they have mounted a Sharpie at the entrance of the yacht club for all too worship!  Naturally we decided that this was the place to be and went along for drinks and dinner on Friday night which also happens to be members night so the place was going off.  We hoped to emulate our efforts at Coff's Harbour and win the meat tray but unfortunately this was not to be and we left empty handed but we did have a nice meal.


As the military have brought forward exercises at Shoalwater Bay we now have to leave the safety of the Yeppoon Marina tomorrow (Sunday) so today is going to be jam packed with shopping, cleaning and washing.

At this stage the plan is to have our fist night out at Port Clinton and then work our way around some of the island groups between here and Mackay.  Again we are not likely to have good mobile reception so will update the BLOG again when we get a chance.

Turkey Beach to Great Keppel Island (17th to 21st June)

With a name like Turkey Beach, how could we resist.  We did the short hop from our overnight anchorage around to Turkey Beach.  Yes it really does exist and to prove it we have a stubby holder that says so.  There is a small township of mainly fishing shacks and a general store.  It is a really tidy little place although we did notice a lot of places are for sale which is apparently because of the close proximity to the ever growing area of Gladstone. 

We were very happy that Sally comes fitted with some excellent fly screens as they once again proved there worth as the back of the boat was covered in sand flies when we arose on Saturday morning. 

Cape Capricorn

As it is a fair old hike to Cape Capricorn (~45NM) we left Turkey Beach bright and early.  The weather has been stunning with cool nights but sunny, warm days with light South Westerly (offshore) breezes.  Today is the day when we get to cross the Tropic of Capricorn at
23degrees 30' S) - YAY!!
As the forecast was for stronger winds from the SW during the evening we decided that Cape Capricorn wasn't going to be the best spot for the night so headed over to a beach approximately 5NM west and had a very comfy night there and shared a bottle of Moet Chandon to celebrate our arrival in the tropics.

Hummocky Island

With some recommendations from the Bundy locals Hummocky island is our destination for Sunday - this was all of 6NM from our overnight anchorage.  Hummocky island was quite spectacular and rugged and reminded us a little of the Bass Strait Islands.  The water is amazingly clear and blue with a beautiful sandy bottom.  After having a chat to a couple of fisho's who were enjoying a coffee break on the beach we went for a wander around the rocky headlands as the rest of the island looks a bit rough for a bush walk followed by a snorkel in the afternoon.

A bit of R&R for Juddy
on Great Keppel

Monday morning and we are off to the well known Great Keppel Island which is approximately 20NM NW of Hummocky Island.  We dropped our anchor in Leekes beach as this was a little quieter than the more popular Second Beach - this is one of the busiest anchorages we have been in for quite some time but luckily there is heaps of anchoring room for all.  As Carlton had such a good win over the Swans yesterday we decided that Juddy was due for a bit of R&R and a sun bake at Great Keppel to recover. 

We wandered over to the resort side of the island although the resort was shut down some time ago so it is all looking a bit dejected these days but they do have some excellent white sandy beaches so it is easy to understand the attraction for tourists and resort goers.  There is still some rental accommodation, a back packers and a little shop where we stopped for a cool drink and ice cream before heading back to the boat

Map of Great Keppel Island

Tuesday morning and we are off for a bush walk around the North and Eastern parts of the island.  On our trek we went past the Great Keppel Homestead, Second Beach, Svendsen's Beach and Eco Resort,  Butterfish Bay and then across the island to Wreck Beach.  After a spot of lunch under the shade of a really old Quinine Tree we went along the Light House track and back down to our starting point at Leekes Beach.  Doesn't sound like much but it took us around 5hours to do the circuit.  As you can see from the photo the beaches are certainly a big hit and very popular spot to hang out when at Great Keppel.

Butterfish Bay

Local Sign Post on Great Keppel

At this stage we might end up spending another day at Great Keppel as the weather is great and there are some more walks that we are considering but all will depend on the updated weather report at 17:00H.