Island Hop Stop #5 - Sawmill Bay, Whitsunday Island, Queensland, Australia

Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Sun 23 May 2010 22:51
20:15.738S  148:56.498E
 
Another day, another dollar.  Whoops no, that would apply to you working folk.  No dollar for us, just another island.
 
Our third night anchored near Lindeman Island (Island Hop Stop #4) was rough enough to make our decision to move on to Island Hop Stop #5 an easy one.  At 2:30am that third night, we both woke up to a wildly bucking boat with its stern crashing down into wind-against-current choppy waves.  This is the opposite of bow slamming, and is definitely not a pleasant thing when one is trying to sleep in the stern cabin.  Apparently the wind moved further south while we were sleeping so that when the tide started going out, the current was pushing directly into the wind.  This caused short, choppy waves to form and attack the stern of our boat while the strong current held us stern to the wind.  Bow slamming while sailing into the wind is bad enough, but stern slamming while anchored and trying to sleep is a whole new experience not unlike getting caught up in the dirty laundry pile and shoved into a front-loader washing machine set on the heavy-duty wash cycle.  Slosh, roll, slam!  Slosh, roll, slam!  There was nothing for us to do but move our sleeping selves forward in the boat to get away from the worst of the slamming going on in the back.  After our forward migration, things were borderline tolerable until the outgoing tide slowed down and calm returned to the anchorage.  Ahhhh....the trials and tribulations of living on and sleeping in a floating vehicle.
 
So, on the morning of May 17th, we sailed a slow 15 miles northwest under gray dripping skies to Sawmill Bay on Whitsunday Island.  Whitsunday Island is very large, and as such, forms the centerpiece of the Whitsunday Islands National Park system.  Sawmill Bay is a very protected, dead calm spot tucked around the west side in a wide harbor.  There were eleven other boats there when we arrived - the most we've seen in an anchorage since leaving Brisbane - but we didn't mind as there was plenty of room for us and again, it was dead calm.
 
We stayed four nights - partly because we were waiting for Storyteller to catch up (they were busy picking up the first in a long parade of guests scheduled to visit them from now until halfway through Indonesia), and partly because it was our first experience in a completely calm anchorage since Island Head Creek on May 2nd.  Oh, and there was a third reason we stayed so long - good walking trails.  This time we walked to the top of Whitsunday Peak about 1200 feet up.  I should add that this particular trek was Don's idea and he made it up and down the 17,000 steps without a hitch (literally, without a hitch or an inclinator.  It may nearly be time to proclaim a full recovery.  Maybe in a few more weeks.
 
Pictures 1 and 2 - The drowned mountain view from the top of Whitsunday Peak.  Looking west toward the mountainous mainland in picture 2, and then north over Whitsunday Island's neighbors in picture 3.
 
Picture 3 - Whitehaven Beach on the east side of Whitsunday Island.  This is a 3-mile long stretch of pure white sand and well-behaved (no ocean swell) surf.  To get here, we spent a marvelous day circumnavigating Whitsunday Island on Storyteller with Sue and John and their guests Ron and Robin (of inclinator and Grange wine fame).  Whitehaven Beach was our lunch stop.  The day we spent on Storyteller definitely made up for the pain and suffering we endured during night #3 at Island Hop Stop #4.  This is the beauty of the sailing/cruising way of life - that perfect balance between misery and euphoria.
 
Anne

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image