Cruising the Whitsundays Islands

Safiya
Harvey & Sue Death
Sat 16 Jun 2018 23:08
20:15.96 S 148:42.54 E
With a nice clean boat and well stocked fridge we left the Marina in Mackay
and headed out to the Whitsunday Islands, so called because when Captain
Cook first passed threw them it was on Whit Sunday in 1770. Funnily enough
we also arrived on Whit Sunday!
This archipelago of 100 or so Islands and Islets are mostly uninhabited and
are located just a few miles from the East Coast of Queensland. Sheltered by
the Great Barrier Reef these islands are a yachtie's paradise. We've spent
three weeks hoping from one to the other, never sailing for more than two to
three hours at a time. Geographically they are mountainous and heavily
forested fringed with pure white sand beaches. Some of the islands have bush
walking trails but most were damaged by Cyclone Debbie in 2017 and are quite
overgrown so when we've ventured out for a walk we always keep an eye out
for snakes. One of the world's deadliest snakes, the Eastern Taipan can be
found along the Queensland coast!
A lot of creatures in Australia seem to want to sting, bite or kill you!
Whilst cruising around the Southern Whitsundays one of our group spotted a
big 'saltie" swimming around the boats, and if a croc doesn't get you the
Box Jellyfish which can deliver a fatal sting with one swipe of its 4 to 6
meters long tentacles may have a go!
Hamilton Island is a resort island in the Whitsundays, we booked into the
marina there for a few days with the rest of the fleet. After the rugged,
isolation of the outer islands it was a real treat to enjoy some
civilisation. It's a really smart resort with a number of restaurants,
pools, beaches, a golf course, go kart track and water sports. Harvey played
golf on the islands championship 18 hole golf course with some of the others
in the Oyster Golf Competition. The loss rate of balls averaged 1 per hole
per player! If a ball goes off the fairway into the rough you can't go and
pick it up because there are all manner of poisonous snakes lurking there!
After being thrashed at golf Harvey got his own back on the go carts which
is something he's much more at home with. While we were in Hamilton it was
our good friend Nigel's 70th birthday he threw a fantastic party and invited
all the owners and crew for a delicious three course sit down meal with
flowing wine.
Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday island is a 5 mile long beach. It's 98%
silica and pure white so that even in the baking heat it remains cool. We
had an Oyster beach BBQ one lunch time with beach games, the more energetic
younger members played volley ball and we tried to teach the Americans how
to play cricket which was funny.
The highlight of our time in the Whit Sundays was a cruise to the outer
barrier reef. Obviously there's no shelter out there so you have to pick
your weather window carefully. After 2 weeks of high winds it dropped to
nothing so we made the most of it and motored out to the reef. We negotiated
our way carefully through the reef and took a mooring buoy. As the tide
dropped the coral heads appeared and the colour of the water around the
fringing reef was amazing ranging from aquamarine to emerald green. When the
tide rose the coral disappeared and all of a sudden we were anchored in the
middle of the ocean - very surreal.
A trip to the Whitsundays is not complete without a visit to Airlie Beach on
the mainland. A backpackers paradise - San Antonio in Australia? The marina
drew us in and the opportunity to re provision. The crew had a few days
holiday off to let off steam and enjoy themselves. We went on a crocodile
safari to see them in their natural habitat in a muddy river fringed with
mangroves. We saw babies no more than 12 inches long right up to the Mamma's
and Pappa's at three to four metres long sunbathing on the river bank.
Today we commence our passage up the coast to the north east tip of
Australia and then on to Darwin where we will base the boat while we go home
for a couple of weeks.



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