Fai Tira Blog Tuesday 24th August

Brampton Island 20:49.35S 149:16.94E

We said our goodbyes to the crews of the boats who were leaving the rally and headed off for Brampton Island at 11.00am.  We were only about 2 miles from the marina when we sighted our first Humpback whale.  The wind was very light and on the nose so we motored the whole way.  After about halfway into our journey we saw another Humpback but this time it was breaching.  Although we were about half a mile away from it we were overwhelmed by the spectacle.  Time after time it reared out of the water splashing down with great force. 

   We carried on to our overnight destination of Dinghy Bay on the South side of BI. As we approached the anchorage at about 1430 we were overflown by a pair of massive fish eagles, what a treat.  We dropped the anchor in eight meters of water and sat down and relaxed.  Shortly after that we caught sight of a turtle.  Unlike the coral atolls and islands we’ve been to previously, these islands – the Whitsundays – are made of the same stuff as the mainland, being the remains of an antediluvian mountain range.  There are pine and deciduous trees, and (so far) no coconut palms for a change.

The evening saw Jeremy and I watching a Friends DVD whilst John cooked a stir-fry to go with our chicken portions. We went to bed early and it was during a midnight pee break outside on deck I heard a blow noise from a whale which was less than one hundred yards away.  I woke John and Jeremy and we observed it through our night vision monocular. We headed back to bed wondering what the morning might bring.