Hook Island to Airlie Beach.
23 August 2015 | Refuge Bay, in Nara Inlet, Hook Island.
fine & warm
August 23rd.
Last Monday under main and Genoa we sailed over to Stonehaven Anchorage. The sail over was excellent with Seaka doing around 6 knots the whole way. As we arrived at Hook Island I saw our first whales in the Whitsunday Islands. [Our first for the trip had been seen out at Bait Reef]. Our arrival was early enough that I was able to take up the inside mooring within the reef at the southern end of the anchorage. It looked good, but found we were buffeted by constant wind bullets off the ridge we were anchored in front of. I got the outboard back on the dinghy but it was too windy to even think about going for a snorkel.
The next morning was calm with no wind so by 0800 we were underway with the iron sail to Langford Island some 2 nautical miles away. Once there I was able to take up a mooring and I settled in waiting for the tide to ease off a bit. Around mid-morning I went in for a two hour snorkel dive. While the water looked really clear from the surface once in the water was quite milky. The coral showed some damage, from dive fins, the closer I got to where the commercial tours take their snorkelers. The only thing of note was a 30 cm size male green turtle which allowed me to observe him for some time before I broke off. I had a rest on the sand island to the east of Langford Island and while there searched for cone shells, but was unable to find any of the rumoured many. I decided to return to the Stonehaven Anchorage for the night, Langford being a bit exposed, and on the way back 2 whales surfaced just in front of Seaka. Dropping the iron sail back to idle, they surfaced a couple of times before heading off to the north.
Back at Stonehaven Anchorage we headed for Anchor Point and took the inner mooring to the south of the point. Once established I went ashore for a walk on the small beach to view the sculptured sandstone. The next morning I went in for a dive on the bommies and straight away saw a large fish. Mmmm, so I went back to Seaka and checked the zoning which was general use. I got out the hand spear and back I went, but of course that fish was long gone. Oh well, so I started to snorkel around the area when I noticed some Bream like fish at least 30 cm long which would make them legal takers. After a few dives I had them sorted out and popped off the largest off them. So it was fresh fish for tea.
With the winds predicted to be 15-20 knots on Thursday I took the dinghy onboard in preparation of moving to Nara Inlet tomorrow. The next morning the seas were flat but as I moved out of the shelter of Hook Island the strength of the wind became evident. So the plan of going 17 nautical miles clockwise around Hook Island was abandoned in favour of the shorter anti-clockwise 6 nautical mile trip down the west coast of Hook Island to Nara Inlet. Once I cleared Stonehaven Anchorage beyond Baird Point it became very evident that I had made the right decision. Now we were under the iron sail as we were heading directly into the wind and to make things worse we had the tide with us. That meant that tide was against wind and the resultant waves were 1.5 to 2 metres high with the frequency between of about 3 metres. Generally we managed to maintain about 3.5, to just under 4 knots, but at times we were stopped dead by the waves. We then had to round False Nara Inlet which put us broadside onto the waves and while it never looked like Seaka was going to take any waves onboard we did get to do a bit of rolling around. It took us an hour to get to Nara Inlet and again we saw whales, just before entering the inlet. Once in the inlet we proceeded up to Refuge Bay and anchored in 8 metres of water. The reason for going into Refuge Bay was to get out of the swell that Nara Inlet is subject to with any southerly wind.
Since being in Refuge Bay I have sorted out the cockpit lockers and prepared a shopping list for our return to Airlie Beach. We were due to return to Airlie Beach on Saturday morning but we awoke to rain, first for some time, and the wind was still from the SE. A check of the weather now has us going over on Sunday. Well Sunday dawned and we had a SW wind of 10 knots, just perfect but what happened to the Met Office 5-9 Easterly? Our 13 nautical mile sail, with just the Genoa, over to Airlie Beach was done at around 5 knots. A very pleasant sail indeed.
Since our arrival in Airlie Beach I have done the washing, got rid of the rubbish and did a small shop for food. Will sort the other out tomorrow with the plan to go north on Tuesday to the SICYC meet at Gloucester Passage.
New photos in Gallery.