Photo: Champagne sundowners on Whitehaven Beach.

Airlie Beach is predominately a tourist town, dedicated to getting people out to the islands for diving, snorkeling, swimming and generally enjoying what the Whitsundays is all about. There are a host of backpacker hostels and accommodation in town. After a busy day reprovisoning, doing laundry, cleaning the boat and going out for dinner, we left Abel Point Marina, Airlie Beach on 16th Sept and sailed 6nm north to Woodwark Bay.
Woodwark Bay is on the mainland and is a deep, pretty bay with bush down to the water, fringing coral reef and sandy beaches. We had afternoon drinks on Waimea with Gordon, Maree and two of their friends, Cathy and Tony, who were also in the bay. The following morning there were several large pods of dolphins feeding for several hours, in fact they were still there when we left. We had a great close hauled 14nm sail across to Langford Island for lunch. After lunch we took the dinghy ashore for a walk on the sand cay and snorkeled off the beach, there were lots of different types of coral, fish and a turtle to swim with. Then it was back to the boat for a shower and off to Stonehaven Bay on Hook Island for the night. We picked up one of the public moorings, there to protect the reef, and spent a quiet night.
The following morning we motored around the top of Hook Island to Butterfly Bay, again using a public mooring. Brian and Gordon went for a dive off the reef at the head of the bay first, then we all snorkeled the inner reef. Later in the afternoon whilst we were having drinks, an old sailing ship, which we guessed was the replica of the Bounty, under full sail went across the bay a little way out unfortunately, but, through the binoculars she looked spectacular. After a quiet night, we headed to Manta Ray bay early the following morning. The snorkeling at Mantra Ray bay was the best we had seen, the corals and fish were amazing, at one point we had about 5 Maori Wrasse about one metre in length, swimming around us with a myriad of reef fish, oh for an underwater camera; maybe Santa! After our permitted 2 hrs on the public mooring, we moved to Luncheon Bay, about 600 metres away for lunch. Whilst in the bay we had turtles playing around the boat and off the head of the bay, through the binoculars we saw a large whale cruising past. From Luncheon we had a look at Butterfly Bay for the night, but with no available moorings we went back around to Stonehaven. Again off Butterfly Bay we saw a single whale cruising past.
In the early hours of the following morning, we both woke to the sound of ‘whalesong’; whales somewhere close singing to each other, awesome. The following morning in flat seas, sunshine and no wind, we motored around to Blue Pearl Bay, Hayman Island. The snorkeling at Blue Pearl Bay was on a par with Manta Ray Bay and in some areas the corals were more plentiful and varied, the fish were also in abundance, at times it was like swimming in an aquarium. Wednesday morning, as we came up on deck a humpback whale breached 200m off our stern, a great way to start the day. However it just got better, more whales were seen cruising past, then a pod of 10 pilot whales came through the anchorage 50 m from the boat, a large turtle came up to see what was happening and several large fish, known locally as ‘bat fish’, were swimming around the boat; natures own seaworld. Brian and Gordon then went for one of the best dives so far off Dolphin Point and as we were leaving the bay 2 adult humpback whales with a calf cruised past, we followed them for a while. What a morning.
After all the activity in Blue Pearl Bay, we motored with no wind to South Molle. We went ashore at South Molle and walked to the top of Spion Kop, also known as the ‘horn’ and then onto Mt Jefferies. On the way we scared a brown snake which shot in front of Maree and Gail probably scaring them more. The island has lots of Curlews (birds), who think that if they stand very still you can’t see them, we stood and watched one for several minutes and it never even moved its eyes. On the way back to the boats we walked through the resort on the island, it was depressing, there were very few guests and most of the resort venues were closed, including the bar, so much for our anticipated beer after the walk!
We left South Molle 22nd Sept and sailed 9nm under headsail only to Nara Inlet. At the head of the inlet is a short walk to an aboriginal cave and ancestral site, the cave has some aboriginal art visible and there are a couple of information boards giving information on the Ngaro people. Sitting on deck Friday morning there was a loud squawk and we both looked around to see what bird had landed on the boat, sitting on our back stay was a sulphur crested cockatoo happily watching us, he was in no hurry to move. Later as we were having drinks on the back deck with Gordon and Maree, we watched a mother and kid goat walk and skip up and down what appeared to be a smooth cliff face with no effort at all.
Saturday we motored 9nm across to Homestead Bay, Cid Island for the day. The anchorage wasn’t the most pleasant with the wind coming in; we left after lunch and went around to Cid Harbour on Whitsunday Is for the night. We listened to the All Blacks vs France and NZ Warriors vs Melbourne Storm (League semi final), good wins for both the NZ teams. Early Sunday morning, with no wind, clear blue skies and sun we motored around to Whitehaven beach. On the way we encountered a whale with its calf about 100m from the boat, we never tire of seeing them.
Whitehaven beach is about 3kms of pure white sand that squeaks as you walk on it, there is no fringing coral so getting ashore is easy. We walked half the beach, swam in the clear blue water and later had a swim from the boat. The weather was perfect and we decided to stay for the night. The following day we walked the other half of the beach after breakfast, then had champagne sundowners ashore in the evening. Life doesn’t get much better than this. With 24 – 48hrs of stronger SE winds in the forecast, we headed for our safe anchorage of Cid Harbour the next day, stopping in Tongue Bay for morning tea, a walk to the lookout over Hill Inlet and down to Betty’s Beach, lunch, a swim and off to Cid. To get there we had to go through Hook Passage, each time we have gone through we have been lucky with the tide and were again this time as we shot through at 10.6 knots, riding the eddies, tide overflows and whirlpools as we went. It reminds Brian or French Pass between Durville Island and the mainland in the Marlborough sounds. Brian and Gordon had some male time and walked to the top of Whitsunday peak again while the girls happily stayed on the boats, swam, read and pottered.
With a northerly wind change, it was off to Macona hoping the forecast was correct and there was no southerly component to the wind, given our last two experiences in the anchorage. We stayed 2 nights, went for walks on the beach and the boys tried to catch some barramundi, but despite seeing them, they failed to land one. Saturday had a southerly change in the forecast so we went around to Nara Inlet.
It was a perfect day and night in Nara, no breeze until about 8am Sunday when we upped anchor and had a great reaching sail across to Airlie Beach to provision, fuel and laundry before heading further north to Townsville on Monday. We could also get TV reception in Airlie to support the NZ Warriors in the rugby league grand final.
Next update will be from Townsville before we head off to visit family in USA, UK and NZ.