Pictures from Passages to Magnetic Island, Orpheus Island and Dunk Island
Aurora_b
Mike and Liz Downing
Wed 31 Jul 2013 13:27
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A few pictures from the passages to Magnetic Island,
Orpheus Island and Dunk Island. It was on the way to Magnetic Island that we had
our encounter with the breaching whale. Since writing the blog for that day we
have looked at the video I was taking. I was recording at the time, trying to
get our two headsails in, when the whale decided to try and fly!
Looking at the video you can hear the noise of the whale smashing back into the
water and see the mast, rigging and sails all shudder from the shock wave. It
was too close for comfort!
 We keep referring to our poled out headsails
- this is a reminder of what that looks like. With
wind dead astern (or close to it) the main
just gets in the way and blankets one of the other sails.
So as each genoa is bigger than
the main (just), it's
better not to use it. Together the two genoas
give 1,067 sq ft of
sail.
 Looking the other way. Going dead down wind
in a good blow, as we were on the way to
Magnetic Island, she is remarkably stable -
very little rolling. Shame I wasn't looking this
way when the whale came along! Creeping up
behind us was not in the script!
 The sea on that day. It looked rough and
confused, but was never big and never a threat,
but it was a lovely colour in the sunshine.
With our headsails poled out she hit speeds we
didn't
think we would get close to any more as
she's so much heavier these days!
 8.1kts, not bad and shortly after the camera
was put away she reached 8.7kts. As the sea wasn't
big we could happily do these speeds. In
bigger seas, careering down waves at these speeds is
a
bit hairy and the risk of breaking something
expensive much more likely. So in those conditions
we would generally keep both sails up
to keep her balanced, but reef both right down.
 Horseshoe Bay at Magnetic Island (off the
coast at Townsville). It proved a good anchorage for
the
3 nights we were there. The
buoyed off area is for
swimming. It was patrolled by lifeguards and
may have had shark
nets.
 The same bay taken from on board as the sun
goes down.
 Looking inland on Magnetic Island. There
were coconut palms along the shore, but it was all
eucalyptus
and open bush land further in, not tropical
vegetation that we're used to, although well into the
tropics.
 "You will see wild koalas on Magnetic
Island" was the message from friends who had gone
before!
This sign was
encouraging.
 Another sign that suggested they might be
right.
 So we walked up to the Forts - a bush walk
up to a World War II lookout and gun placement (here
the threat was from Japan), looking
down on this bay en route.
 Although bush, as we got further up it was
more rocks and boulders, but the path was a good one.
 The lookout and gun position perched high up
on the rocks, and not far away ........
 ................ our first wild
koala.
 Note the change in position - they do move
in the wild! It turned around a few times, had a good
scratch and settled down in the new
position
 Having left Magnetic Island the passage
to Orpheus Island could not have been more different.
No wind and the smoothest sea we have seen
in years.
 We motored on for 8 hours and not a breath
of air. But it was a lovely sunny day.
  Approaching Orpheus Island where we anchored
in Pioneer Bay.
 The following day en route to Dunk Island,
with a little more wind and Hinchinbrook Island in
the distance. The island is high, over
3,000ft and is often covered in cloud. The areas of
the
mainland to the west of it are some of the
wettest in Australia as the island forces the air up,
clouds form and down comes the
rain!
 The clouds threaten to expose the peaks, but
not quite.
 Anchored at Dunk Island. Further out than
the others as other boats had been there when
we anchored and with a high spring tide due
we wanted to make sure we stayed in deep
water. The tides here are higher than in
Pittwater and at springs the rise of tide was up to
11ft.
The island looked a lot more tropical,
with tropical rainforest covering the
slopes. The resort
on
the island was being rebuilt after the
cyclone in 2011. Having been an expensive up-market resort,
we had assumed it
would have lovely clear water, but were disappointed to find that we couldn't
see more than a foot or two down the anchor
chain. The islands not that far out and probably
gets
affected by the run-off from the
mainland.
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