Bowen - Airlie Beach - Bait Reef - Airlie Beach
15 August 2015 | Whales at Bait Reef
Windy and Fine
Aug 15
This post will cover the last 12 days.
When we left Bowen on Monday 3rd August I elected to exit the harbour by the northern channel and in this we had all sail up in the channel before hardening up to the east as we turned to starboard to make for the Gloucester Passage. At first it was a bit rolly but that flattened out as we got closer to the Passage. The wind was from the SE and we just had enough of an angle to make the Passage, mind you at one stage I thought I would have to go around the northern end of Gloucester Island. It would have been better to exit Bowen Outer Harbour by the western end.
We arrived at the Gloucester Passage with the tide still making which meant we had a free ride through. This time I got all the navigation buoys in the right order and we exited the Gloucester Passage onto a flat sea and no wind. Well 2 knots from the SE did not do much but ruffle the water. I tried but eventually resorted to the iron sail, so we proceeded south at 4 knots to our planned overnight anchorage behind Olden Island. When we rounded George Point, giving us a clear view all the way down to Airlie Beach, we discovered a flat sea. As it was just on Noon the decision was made to keep going to Airlie Beach if possible. As we came inside Armit Island we went through an area shown on the charts as having turbulence during tidal movements. In this are we saw a meter wide Spotted Eagle Ray leap over 2 meters into the air, that's all I saw so had no idea why it did that. Later I saw two dolphins chasing and catching bait fish, which is the first time I've seen that. I had the lure out but no success. As we approached Grimston Point, off Woodwark Bay, the tide changed and we battled for over 30 minutes to get pass the Point. So the day ended at 1630 anchored in my favourite place at Airlie Beach. We did 35 nautical miles over 9 hours.
I spent four days at Airlie Beach during which I made contact with Derek from Silver Lady who gave me an original 1963 magazine supplement for the original English timber Top Hats. I did all the usual things done in port; such as washing, stealing hot showers [if you know how], shopping for food and other supplies. One thing I did do was to get some cheap wheels for the dinghy and so far I found them to be absolutely brilliant. No longer am I limited to smooth sandy beaches but can haul the dinghy up any flat surface by myself.
On Wednesday it was my birthday! A great day.
On Saturday I slipped up to Coles and got some ice and meat and then sailed off to Butterfly Bay at the top end of Hook Island. We had a great sail over doing close to 6 knots the whole way until we had to go between Hook Island and Hayman Island where, as the tide had turned against us, we had to add the iron sail to the mix. The next morning we were up by sunup and heading north to Bait Reef out on the Great Barrier Reef. With a good wind still blowing we manage to maintain between 5 to 6 knots the whole way. Only saw an Olive sea snake on the way out. Should point out that at this stage I'm yet to see a whale but that is about to change.
As I approached the reef I was having trouble picking out the yellow navigation buoy and to complicate things a motor boat was fast on one of the Stepping Stones. Request on the VHF radio soon brought in guidance and with the aid of my Polaroid glasses I was able to see all the stepping Stones and make a safe entry into the mooring area. There was only one mooring available but it was behind a zigzag in the bommies so we tied up behind Tony's Outahia until a closer mooring became available. I then got the dinghy in the water and set up so I could have a look at the zigzag route. The channel was deeper and wider than I had thought so dropped that first mooring and moved into the inner mooring. The reason I needed to get onto this mooring is that it's a lot more protected by the reef so that Seaka will not roll around as she would have on the outer mooring.
Immediately after we had settled in we got our resident GT in place, it's about one meter long. We would also be visited from time to time by one of the one meter plus Maori Wrasse. Of course it goes without saying that we also had a collection of Bat Fish below at all times. Went for a snorkel then had a coffee with Tony before getting in another snorkel. That afternoon I also saw my first whales for this trip. On Monday morning at 0630 Tony had a couple of whales 5m off the stern of his catamaran inside the reef. Being high tide they exited between the Stepping Stones! I was still asleep.
During Monday we had several pods of whales go pass the anchorage and there was also plenty of jumping action off shore in the deeper water. I went for a snorkel several times that day around the Stepping Stones and inside the reef. The damage from Cyclone Yasi is still in evidence and I think it may be some tens of years before it is pristine again. But that's nature's way.
After two nights on the mooring it was now time to move on so after a last quick snorkel we were underway just after 1140, when the sun was high enough to easily see the reef, under motor for Butterfly Bay on Hook Island. The trip across was done on flat water at 4 knots. We saw about ten whales and one Olive Sea Snake again. On arrival at Butterfly Bay I was bustled by a large charter catamaran trying to get to a mooring that I was approaching instead of two other choices in the bay. Next morning I dropped the mooring at 0900 and motor sailed to beat the tide change around the corner towards Stonehaven Anchorage. Once there I found that the wind was onshore so put that off. Now during the morning radio schedules for the charter yachts in this area the advice for them had been to anchor in Nara Inlet tonight because of predicted high NW winds followed by a SE change in the morning. Now I also had been thinking about going there but decided on the spur of the moment to take advantage of the calm conditions and the 10 knot wind and go straight over to Airlie Beach. I put the helm over and we enjoyed a 4 to 5 knot sail across the Whitsunday Passage.
That night I ended up behind Grimston Point to shelter from the NW winds. But before I got there I managed to land a Spotted Mackerel, the third fish trolling this trip. The next morning we motor the 3 nautical miles over to Airlie Beach and anchored in my usual spot outside the second entrance to the Abell point Marina. I went ashore to get ice and a free shower then ashore later to do a bit of food shopping.
Nothing happen yesterday. Today I meet Rick of Kalita who was in Nara Inlet on Wednesday night and he said there had to have been 80 to 90 yachts in there! Glad I didn't go in now, it would have been really stressful. So we have one maybe two more days of 20 knot SE'ers then we will go over to Hook Island to do those parts I have yet to do. After that we will be back at Airlie Beach to reprovision before going up to Gloucester Passage to the Shag Islet Cruising Club annual get together. I'm a member, in fact I'm Vice Commodore Dunbogan!
New photos in Gallery.