Fai Tira blog Wednesday 25th August

Thomas Island 20:32.58S 149:06.50E

This is our fourth day of cruising in the Whitsundays. They continue to surprise and make us smile with pleasure, and the previous dearth of wildlife has now more than been made up for with the varied plethora we’ve encountered since leaving the mainland and Mackay.

The islands are almost magical, feeling in many ways like a combination of those of the Mediterranean and the spectacular ones now far behind us in French Polynesia.

Some of the surprise, for me, has been the number and close proximity of them. Look in almost any direction and overlapping silhouettes of green, blue and mauve land masses emerge. fading into the distance and almost pleading to be explored.

Our stop at Brampton Island provided the first taste of these delightful surroundings, at the same time giving me the opportunity of tightening up a few screwy things in an attempt to cure a slight diesel leak, causing the hot engine surfaces to smoke and give rise to a slight feeling of concern. It also provided our first, really close Hump- Back Whale sighting.

It was about 2.30am. Sleep, for some reason, had been a struggle, and I was woken from a shallow slumber by a dig in the ribs and Pete’s whispered voice announcing the presence of whales. He’d been up answering the call of nature and there they were, not much more than 50 yards from us, their graceful gliding movements accompanied by the haunting sounds of venting in the still silent night, hardly disturbing the reflective mirrored surface of the water.....Fantastic.

All three of us, in various states of undress, then spent the next half hour or so in muffled conversation, peering through the night vision monocular.

We set sail for Thomas Island, with engine behaving, burbling along quite merrily and now cured of its anti-social smoking habit. Soon we hoisted the genoa and before long gave the iron donkey a well earned rest and sailed in blissful silence, making 5 ½ - 6 knots.

There were more sightings of Humpbacks and we travelled the 15 or so miles quickly, gliding past beautifully shaped, coloured and textured waterside rock formations as we drifted into an almost deserted anchorage at about 2pm.

There was just time to unwind and relax before I made a trip up the mast to attend to the sulking anemometer that had refused to work since before our arrival in Mackay. So up I scampered, or was it plodded, and after a few kind words and gentle caresses, off she went merrily whizzing around again.

By the time I’d descended we’d been joined by the delightful Fiona and her affable husband Warren. They were a Kiwi couple on the smart steel boat Roxanne anchored close by, and they extended an invitation for us to join them later for drinks. However, before then we had a beach to explore. So, with the dinghy launched minus the engine, we rowed ashore to a narrow strip of sand flanked on all sides by spectacular rocks and dense greenery. Our Kiwi neighbours had described a rudimentary path to the opposite side of the island and, with the sun now rapidly setting, we set out.

Warren had indicated that the way was marked, and before long we found the signs. Flip-flops, plastic bottles, or other discarded colourful bits of jetsam hanging from often obscured, branches that led into a densely wooded interior along a barely discernible path.

We didn’t actually make it to the other side: with the failing light and distinct shortage of guiding flip-flops all getting the better of us, we retraced our steps and paddled back to take up our invitation on Roxanne.

The number of interesting people we keep bumping into is quite amazing, and we spent the early part of the evening, after a tour of their very smart and well laid out green hulled boat, in relaxed and genial conversation, with the owners, Ron and Suzie, recounting some of their last three years sailing.