After a night to refuel, rewater and reprovision in Arlie beach we left the marina with brother Jeff on board and headed for Stonehaven for the night. A brisk windy sail across and the wind and swell didn’t really abate once moored in lower Stonehaven/Caves Cove. We tried fishing in the dinghy in somewhat extreme conditions – at least for the little dinghy – first time no fish!
What followed was an uncomfortable night courtesy of a difficult mooring, wind and tides all working against us. In the morning we discovered the mooring line caught under us between keel and sail drive – a crazy mooring design which allowed it to apparently move under a 2m keel and get caught between the keel and rudder – jamming the mooring float up against the side of the boat. We have since discovered it has caused scratches and markings on the underside of the boat. The moorings have all changed since we have been here before and you need a few hefty people just to lift the darn thing up let alone secure it to the boat in a wind.!! Anyway first lesson – don’t use blue moorings – way too big!! We will do a note on our experience to Qld Marine Parks.
We moved on to Blue Pearl Bay off Hayman Island for some snorkelling and while still brisk in the wind, the sun was warming during the day – it was getting better. The water was a little murky and still high tide so visibility not great – but still very pleasant – lots of fish, pretty coral. We then headed to Butterfly Bay for the night and enjoyed a relatively calm night (after some mooring adjustments!) and drinks with the gang from Lunacy.
On Monday we moved on to Luncheon Bay – a beautiful spot of blue green water and white coral beaches, and had the pleasure of enjoying it in relative solitude early in the morning before other boats and backpacker charters arrived! There has certainly been an increase in boats on the water in the last few days, school holidays no doubt but also a huge number of catamarans rather than yachts. Makes for interesting crowded anchorages.....
There seems to have been a lot of damage from the cyclones and weather over recent years – the beach shape has significantly changed and is very steep, there is also quite a bit of dead coral. The snorkelling was still good with variety of fish around and we haven’t really been able to see it in ideal low tide/low current and wind conditions yet. Plenty of time we hope! It was a nice warm sunny day and pretty near perfect anyway. We moved back to Butterfly Bay (other end) for the night – it was full however we jagged a mooring in the anchorage to the left – it turned out to be quite rolly again. Starting to get used to swinging in the night!
Woke to a smoky horizon again - the controlled burning has spread now to most of the Whitsunday Islands and is causing a little discomfort around us – and no doubt many others. Apparently they are burning the Islands for weed control! The weeds have grown since they culled the goats on the Islands! Bring back the goats! Qld Marine Parks may have cooked all the fauna on the Islands to kill the weeds – where does an animal go when the Island is burnt one end to the other!
We had planned to spend the day at Cateran Bay, Border Island but it was very cool and windy and hardly enticing to get wet! Decided to move on to Tongue Bay which was a great decision as we were able to go ashore at the right high tide to climb to the lookout and see the amazing spectacle of Hill Inlet and Whitehaven in the distance. Just sensational views in the perfect tide and sun conditions.
Then a dinghy ride (in extreme conditions on the ocean side – for the little dinghy!) around to the beach side for a stroll at low tide. Planned swim again abandoned in the cool and breezy conditions – saving ourselves for Whitehaven tomorrow! Boy’s only caught 2 dart, their efforts at fishing have been very poor these last few days and we remember now from past trips that they will probably continue to be very barren until we move south or north out of the main island group. Freezer stocks have been welcome!
Last night we didn’t learn our lesson from the other day and picked up a blue mooring - yes it got caught again – but we discovered this and moved at 10.30pm so at least we got a reasonably uninterrupted sleep.
A gorgeous sunrise this morning (helped by the smoke haze!) then onto Whitehaven for a swim and walk while it was warm and sunny. Classic Whitehaven – lots of charter boats and day trippers boats spilled onto the island . Interesting spectacle all by itself – but understandable as Whitehaven is really a great spot in the right weather which we generally had (although still on the cool side – 20 degrees).
A leisurely afternoon sail saw us arrive at Cid Harbour where we are spending the night before returning to Abel Point Marina in the morning to clean up, pack up before we fly out to Perth. We will be away for a week (half of which look like flights and airport waiting times.....) with visits to Perth and Sydney, then back on board ‘Echo Beach’ next Friday night.