26 Oct-3 Nov: Cid, Waite, Chance, Cid

Monday 26th October: Airlie to Cid Harbour

Borrowed the marina courtesy car again to take the tender to repairers this morning. We’ll pick it up on our return in a week or so. In the meantime we can use the kayak to get to shore.

Left Abell Point marina at 1030 our destination Cid Harbour via North Molle Island. A very light easterly wind saw us motoring until we passed the Molle group, then motor sailing most of the way to Cid to counter the very strong north flooding tide. Bad planning – we shouldn’t have left until the tide was turning!

Enjoyed a lovely couple of hours this evening sitting in the cockpit listening to Dean Martin’s beautiful voice floating over the water from a neighbouring yacht.

Some of the islands are exactly the same today as when Captain Cook first saw them, and this could be him now.

Thanks to our wonderful National Parks some of the islands are exactly the same today as when Captain Cook first saw them, and this could be him now.

Tuesday

Cid Harbour to Waite Bay, Hazelwood Island

Phew! Today was a big day.

The several narrow passages between islands around the Whitsundays are notorious for striking fear into the mariner who would dare to traverse them with a contrary tide and wind. Fitzalan Pass on the northern side of Hamilton is one such passage.  We left our anchorage at 7am anticipating a two hour sail to reach the pass at slack tide.
If we’ve learnt nothing else sailing it’s that plans rarely work out as anticipated. No wind this morning but we caught the tidal stream of the flooding tide. With the outboard barely above idle we flew down Hunt Passage and around the corner towards the pass at up to 7kn at times, arriving an hour earlier than planned. Fortunately the pass was mellow as what little wind there was was going with the tide.

Fitzalan Pass. One of the many narrow passages that has a bad reputation. Luckily it was well-behaved today.

Fitzalan Pass. One of the many narrow passages that has a bad reputation. Low rocky outcrops extend for quite a distance from the little island. That’s Hamilton on the right.

We variously motored, sailed and motor-sailed on to Hazelwood Island where we initially anchored for lunch near Lupton Island. This anchorage is deep and surrounded by coral. The trip into the beach without a tender would be a long way and I didn’t want to swim from the boat in such deep water. We upanchored, very unhappily bringing up a piece of staghorn coral the anchor had broken off and moved across Waite Bay to anchor on Hazelwood Island  in a couple of metres of crystal clear water over lovely white sand. Happy now.

Hmmm – ideal opportunity to clean the hull! As the tide dropped we were able to walk around Top Shelf scrubbing off the baby barnacles, slimy growth and even feathery pretty growth. Steve swam under the boat scrubbing the very underneath. It was hard work here for a couple of hours.  We were shocked at how much growth was on her. We won’t leave her that long again. We should fair fly through the water now with all that growth gone.

It’s a full moon tonight. We’re the only ones in Waite Bay – I’m sure this is heaven.

Once more we get to see a full moon rising on this trip - our 3rd so far. This time it's over Lupton Island and we're anchored in Waite Bay on Hazelwood Island. No one else here; an idyllic tropical experience.

Once more we get to see a full moon rising on this trip – our 3rd so far. This time it’s over Lupton Island and we’re anchored in Waite Bay on Hazelwood Island. No one else here; an idyllic tropical experience.

 

Wednesday – Thursday

We had a lovely gentle sail over to Chance Bay on the southern side of Whitsunday Island. After the last few days of predominantly motoring it was good to be able to enjoy the peace of sailing.

Chance Bay is a pretty bay with two lovely white sandy beaches bordered with low growing trees, pandanus palms and crinum lilies which are flowering now. The fringing reef made anchoring challenging until another yacht in the perfect spot left – we quickly took their place.

Steve pumped up the kayak, we paddled ashore and walked another leg of the Ngaro Sea Trail. This 8.5km return walk took us up over the hill, through eucalypts, acacias, large bloodwood trees and grass trees to Whitehaven Beach.

From the lookout on our walk. At the bottom of the cliff is Whitehaven Beach. In the distance is Chalkies Beach on Hazelwood Island.

From the lookout on our walk. At the bottom of the cliff is Whitehaven Beach. In the distance is Chalkies Beach on Hazelwood Island.

We enjoyed a well-deserved swim and chill on the beach watching the comings and goings of the day-tripper yachts, giant catamarans, super-powered rubber ducks, sea planes and huge private motor launches before making our way back to our quiet beach.

These guys give a whole new perspective to Street Food. On Whitehaven Beach.

These guys give a whole new perspective to Street Food. On Whitehaven Beach.

Back at Chance Bay we snorkelled for a while, but other than rocks covered with giant oysters and a few schools of fish, we didn’t see much. It’s supposed to be good snorkelling on the other side of our bay – next time.

Friday

Another perfect day of sailing today. Easterlies at 5 -15kn took us firstly over to Torres Herald Beach in Turtle Bay. We snuck in over the rocks to shore, not quite drying out, lunched and relaxed for a couple of hours. I got a meal prepared for tonight and put it into the DreamPot to cook. This beach is only small but could be the poster beach for any idyllic tropical beach you care to dream about.

Torres Herald Beach in Turtle Bay. This was a delightful luncheon spot for us. We arrived on a rising tide and were able to take Top Shelf right in to shore.

Torres Herald Beach in Turtle Bay. This was a delightful luncheon spot for us. We arrived on a rising tide and were able to take Top Shelf right in to shore.

With strong winds forecast for the weekend we sailed on back to Cid Harbour – again a great sail just sitting back watching the deep turquoise waters of the islands as they disappeared behind us.
We anchored close in to shore just to the south of Sawmill Beach and enjoyed our perfectly cooked silverside and vegies.

Saturday: Cid Harbour

Rained on and off all day today, accompanied by strong gusty wind. We watched movies and read our books.

Sunday: Cid Harbour

Today we climbed Whitsunday Peak. This is one of the highest peaks in the Whitsundays at 450-ish meters and quite challenging. Commencing at Sawmill Beach we followed the dry creek bed initially. It would be spectacular to be here to see it flowing – particularly the waterfalls over some of the huge boulders. The island is heavily wooded with hoop pines and eucalypts which kept us shaded and cool. Leaving the creek the ascent is steep with many zigzags and countless stone steps. A few pauses were needed along the way.

The views from the top were spectacular! We spent about an hour at the top just absorbing the beauty of this magical part of the world. How lucky are we!! It was fun to see places we’d anchored and plan where we’d go next. From up there it looked reasonably close belying the hours of sailing it takes to reach each destination.

The view north from Whitsunday Peak. Cid Island on the left, Cid Harbour the protected area between the island and the headland jutting out from the right.

The view north from Whitsunday Peak. Cid Island on the left, Cid Harbour the protected area between the island and the headland jutting out from the right.

Once back at sea level we washed the sweat off with a swim – don’t know the logic behind that, but it felt good, and paddled the kayak back to Top Shelf.

Monday: Cid Harbour

Today was kayaking day. The inlet looked so enticing from our sky-high view yesterday that we decided to explore it in the kayak. It was a good paddle following the coastline around. In the photograph you’ll see a tiny island in the middle. It has a lovely sandy beach, rocky headland covered in oysters, all sorts of plants, including orchids, and as it doesn’t appear to be named we’ve claimed it for ourselves. Back to the boat another swim and relax after an enjoyable couple of hours paddling.

Dugong Inlet from Whitsunday Peak. Sawmill Beach to the bottom left.

Dugong Inlet from Whitsunday Peak. Sawmill Beach to the bottom left. Top Shelf is anchored just out of the picture on the left.

Tuesday: Cid Harbour to Airlie Beach

Back to Airlie today to reprovision and pick up our tender. This time we planned the trip to perfection and had a lovely sail, despite the winds being south-westerly when the forecast was for north-easterlies. We’re nothing if not adaptable.

Got a big fright coming into the marina. Our allocated berth was amongst the catamarans. As we were about to  turn the corner into the narrow finger to our spot a catamaran was coming out taking up the whole ‘road’. Steve handled it very well with a little forward and backwards, but needed a good stiff drink once we’d tied up.

Another rather impressive boat in the marina at the moment is Hemisphere, the largest sailing catamaran in the world. It’s doing charters up here for the rich and famous. At $360,000 a week we’re trying to get a group together for a trip – we’ll need around 3,600 friends I think – pity it only sleeps 10.

This is the largest catamaran in the world. To get a perspective of how big it is Denise is standing on the pontoon beside it.

This is the largest catamaran in the world. To get a perspective of how big it is Denise is standing on the pontoon beside it.

 

Hemisphere leaves Airlie. For an indication of size, see the catamaran behind her - that's an average-sized cruising catamaran.

Hemisphere leaves Airlie. For an indication of size, see the catamaran behind her – that’s an average-sized cruising catamaran.

For more photos from this week in our travels. CLICK HERE

17-23rd Oct: Cid, Stonehaven, Nara

After farewelling Nick, Kim and the beautiful Baby John yesterday we re-provisioned at the store on Hamilton and prepared the boat to leave. Steve’s birthday in a few days called for a celebration at the seafood restaurant last night, and a toast to Hamilton Island.

The tender has a hole, possibly caused when dragging it on or off the boat. Fix-it kit comes into its own.

The strong winds are back but we’re off anyway! We waited for the change of tide to take us north and, along with the south easterlies and just a jib, we made good time to Cid Harbour on the western side of Whitsunday Island. This is a beautiful very large bay with several beaches and anchorages that comfortably accommodated at least 30 yachts on the three nights we spent here. Cid Harbour is very deep and protected from all directions except the west, a benefit during World War II when troop ships anchored here; today you’re more likely to find cruise ships.

Sawmill beach, Cid Harbour. A truly lovely, very protected, anchorage.

Sawmill beach, Cid Harbour. A truly lovely, very protected, anchorage.

On the short walk across to Dugong Beach we reminisced about camping here with the boys in the 80’s and more recently doing this walk with friends we bare boated with several years ago.

It rained on and off on our second day here- our books received lots of attention.

The tender continues to deflate slowly – not happy!

Tuesday

Happy birthday Steve!

The winds are finally dropping. We head for Stonehaven, a bay on the north of Hook Island. A swell made the trip roly until we cleared Hook Passage. We picked up a mooring buoy and prepared for snorkelling. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has defined ‘no-anchor’ areas around many of the best fringing reefs to prevent them being damaged, installing mooring buoys for visiting boaties. These buoys have 2 hour  time limits on them, though if you’re on one at 3pm you can stay till the next day. The buoys are very good with long floating tags making it so much easier to pick up than the ones we learnt on – the boat hook was the way to go with these.

We’ve been welcomed, and farewelled, by turtles at EVERY anchorage we’ve been to so far. It’s uncanny. I’ve decided the turtles must have formed a Whitsunday Ambassadors group, taking it in turns to volunteer to welcome boats to the anchorages.

Turtles came to meet us, and farewell us, at every anchorage. I think they've formed a volunteer welcoming committee.

Turtles came to meet us, and farewell us, at every anchorage. I think they’ve formed a volunteer welcoming committee.

We arrived early to catch low tide, the best time for snorkelling, and snorkelled around the southern end. By lunchtime we were the only boat there so felt no guilt remaining on a mooring, though we did move to the eastern end in the hope the bullets coming down off the surrounding hills would be less. They weren’t – one bullet we measured at 35kn (70km/hr).

We stayed overnight, with all moorings taken by 5pm. Despite the bullets the anchorage was good as the boat turns bow into them – bullets are fine (when securely anchored/moored), it’s a swell that rocks the boat from side to side that makes life miserable.

Wednesday

After breakfast we motored the short distance over to Blue Pearl Bay on Hayman Island. This is reputably one of the best snorkelling and diving sites in the Whitsundays. Again we picked up a mooring to be surrounded immediately by beautiful bat fish. I’d guess that people feed them, hence their interest in us.

Dreadful photo, but you can see the size of the fish that were swimming around our boat at Blue Pearl Bay, Hayman Is.

Dreadful photo, but you can see the size of the fish that were swimming around our boat at Blue Pearl Bay, Hayman Is.

After pumping up the leaking rear side wall of the tender, again, we motored to the southern end of the bay for some snorkelling, but soon moved up into the central area where there’s a narrow marked channel for dinghy entry to the beach – this was the better spot for the amazing coral and fish. Steve videoed some of what we saw.
View a short video of our snorkelling – it’s only 2 mins.

We started to get cold, and the day-tripper boats were disgorging tourists by the score, so we lunched onboard then left, heading north around Hayman intending to spend the night in Butterfly Bay. But the wind was now moving around to the north and someone told us they’d had a very roly night there last night. We continued our circumnavigation of Hayman Island, putting up the sails as we turned west; exciting sailing as we watched for and prepared for the bullets to hit us. We finally anchored in Refuge Bay in Nara Inlet anticipating a quiet night.

Thursday

It was like a mill pond last night! We’d anchored in 9 meters of water, but noted as we drifted on the anchor the depth would drop (rise?) to 4 metres – still plenty of water for us. In the sunlight and with such beautifully crystal clear waters we could see we were drifting over corals. If the other name for this bay wasn’t ‘Shark Bay’, rumoured to be a breeding ground for hammer head sharks, I may have been tempted to snorkel over it.

Today we went out to False Nara Inlet, a tiny bay just outside Nara destined to trick the unwary mariner. Here we picked up one of two mooring buoys then took the tender (after pumping up her broken wing again!) to the shore. The rocks were covered with the biggest oysters I’ve ever seen. This isn’t an often visited bay and few, if any, had been taken. Without moving more than 3 meters Steve had got a cup of oyster flesh for me – pity he doesn’t eat oysters!

My lunch today - 4 dozen oysters au beurre, fresh off the rocks at False Nara Inlet.

My lunch today – 4 dozen oysters au beurre, fresh off the rocks at False Nara Inlet.

A lovely swim followed then snorkelling over the coral bommies. I stayed mostly on the beach side so the coral was OK, but the fish kept me enthralled for ages – so beautiful. We investigated how we could get Top Shelf inside the fringing reef onto the gently sloping beach one day in the future to clean her hull – looks like a line from the middle of the two reef protection buoys on the southern side to the rock wall on shore looking out for two large bommies at the beginning. The water is so clear we’ll probably see them clearly.

We lunched here. By the time we’d finished there were three other yachts with us, one on the other buoy, and two anchored, one of which was a huge trimaran with about 20 bronzed, bikini-clad girls and half a dozen guys. They were ferried over to the reef to snorkel, which they seemed to enjoy, but they’d already missed the best time just before and during low tide.

I swear I’ve never seen anyone else at this little bay – seems like when one yacht anchors others just have to join them!

Back into Nara Inlet for another peaceful night.

Friday

The winds are back up again today – 20 knots from the north. No matter, we’re staying here today ready to sail to Airlie Beach tomorrow.

We spent a lazy morning attending to ‘business’ on our computers. I cooked one of my favourite meals, Pujabi lentils, while Steve inflated the kayak.

Leaving the Ngaro Cultural Site. Top Shelf is at the FAR end.

Leaving the Ngaro Cultural Site. Top Shelf is at the FAR end.

We paddled down to the far end of Nara Inlet where National Parks has provided a short walk and boardwalk to view an Ngaro aboriginal art cave. The Ngaro peoples appear to be one of the earliest groups of aborigines on the east coast of Australia. Archaeologists have dated their presence here back more than 6000 years. That all ended in 1870 though with colonisation. They were known as the saltwater people, travelling around the Whitsunday islands in their hand-sewn paperbark canoes, even as far out as the Reef. They were very accomplished mariners.

In aboriginal culture it is common to ask their ancestors for permission before entering certain sites. This sign asks the visitor to pause and think about the people who walked here before them and acknowledge the Ancient Ones by putting your hand over the handprint.

In aboriginal culture it is common to ask their ancestors for permission before entering certain sites. This sign asks the visitor to pause and think about the people who walked here before them and acknowledge the Ancient Ones by putting your hand over the handprint.

After visiting this Cultural site we paddled on down to the dry waterfall then headed back to Top Shelf- all up over an hour of kayaking – I’m going to be sore tomorrow!

Another view of Nara Inlet. See our kayak on the little beach in the foreground?

Another view of Nara Inlet. See our kayak on the little beach in the foreground?

To see more photos from this part of our trip CLICK HERE.