Whitsunday Bareboat Sailing

Bare Boat Charter in the Whitsunday Islands.

Saturday:
We picked up our boat, a 34' catamaran named "Tropical Moondancer" During the briefing / skipper check out, Geoff was demonstrating the use of the traveller and oops, allows the boat to Jibe whilst the traveller was loose. The first swing took Brian in the face (luckily, just the main sheet, not the boom) and the second had the boom hit Steve (luckily, in the arm, not the face). Profuse apologies followed, but a good lesson in why it is a tad dangerous to Jibe. Guess he figured we could handle the boat as he left us on our own after a bit.

On the way from Hamilton Island to our overnight anchorage: Joe's Beach, inside of Cid Harbor on Whitsunday Island, we managed to convince our boat mates (who had told us that sailing in anything more than 10 knot winds would be dangerous and we should motor) that sailing was OK after all. We raised the sails and were making 4 knots with a beamside wind when Steve decided to trim the sails and boosted the speed up to 5 knots. This is more than we could make with our pair of wee little 9 hp engines, the sails were trimmed without capsizing nor smacking anyone with the boom. Hooray!

There was some concern that the anchor wasn't well set, so Kathy and Denise had a sleepless night, awakening often to ensure we were still anchored. Steve & Brian were sawing logs. We did end up fairly close (30 m) to another yacht, but finally figured it was due to a lot of anchor chain and the tidal change. (The stupid stinkin' markers on the anchor chain were mostly missing, so we had little idea of the chain we had let out until it reached the end. At that point, with dusk on us, we left it all out). The sunset was spectacular - see the cid harbor sunset photo.

Sunday:
A long day of sailing put us at Blue Pearl Bay at 12:10 pm for lunch, then around the N. tip of Haymen Island to Butterfly Bay where we found a public mooring bouy and overnighted there. The best snorkeling is on the northern bays of Haymen and Hook Islands. With south-easterly winds, things are looking good. Croc for dinner - it doesn't taste like chicken, for the record.

Monday:
Breakfast at Butterfly Bay with Kathy & Steve snorkeling on both sides of the bay. Fine, but nothing spectacular. A short trip to Maureens Cove provided awesome snorkeling for Kathy, Steve & Denise.

Wanting to see more, we made an error and left an awesome sight for another location, Manta Ray Bay (which is supposed to be yet better!) There were no mooring spots well in the bay, so we took one near the point. With an ebbing tide, the current was out to the ocean and Denise, occupied by a sighting of a "big fish" (Maori Wrasse) she didn't notice the tide was pulling her into the big sweels of the open ocean. Kathy finally got her attention as Steve swam to the Tropical Moondancer and released the tender for her grab and pulled everyone onto the boat. All ended well and we gained experience in rescues.

Brian preferred to motor through the swells on the north side of the island and we made it around to Saba Bay on the east side of Hook Island for the night as the winds were changing from south-easterlies to north-westerlies. It was a bit un-nerving as screws on the tiny motors kept coming out of the water as we went over swells. Kangaroo kebabs for dinner.

Tuesday:
Good snorkeling in Saba Bay first thing in the morning. We continued clockwise around Hook Island and hit Raven's Cove for some fair snorkeling. Due to the winds, we went into the well-protected Nara Inlet at Mako Bay. No snorkeling in this Hammerhead shark breeding ground. There were so many boats moored here, it appeared to be a marina (see picture).

Wednesday:
Now at the S. Tip of Hook Island, we decided to take advantage of our position and see what all the hubub about White Haven Beach was. Long (5 NM) beach with incredibly white sand, but really not that spectacular from the water. Careful around all the shoals, we took a peak of Chaulkies Beach, but the strong afternoon northerlies made this inhospitable. We continued to the S. end of Whitsunday Island to Turtle Bay. Kathy and Steve jumped in for a snorkle, but there was essentially no sea life - probably due to a large amount of fresh water run off.

We decided to get an early start to catch the tides through Solway Passage and to provide good timing for making shore at Tongue Bay, the nearest moorage for visiting Whitehaven Beach that is just around the point.

Thursday:
One person on the boat was NOT happy the the 0645 start to Tongue Bay, but traveling with the current through a narrow passage is the preferred way to do it!

We arrived and had breakfast at Tongue Bay around 0830 then took the dinghy to shore, while our boat mates chose to stay on the boat. Kathy & Steve hiked to the lookout for an incredible view of Bettys Beach & Whitehaven Beach. Wow! Hot from the climb, we went down to frolick in the ocean (without our stinger suits...gasp!). Fantastic. We decided we *had* to convince our boat mates to leave the boat and come try the beach. We succeeded over lunch and Steve took everyone around the point to Betty's Beach. All enjoyed the placid water and perfect views. Anxious to see how things looked with a different tide level, Steve & Kathy went to the lookout and took a few more pictures. A bit more swimming and back to the boat. Emu Fillets for dinner (bird with texture of beef).

Oh, almost forgot. Referring to the beached boat and bikini girls... OK, get this. Kathy and I are walking on the beach and these girls come running toward us. The blonde looks right at me and asks, "Are you strong?" (Honest, Kathy is my witness!). "Of course," I reply in a rich baritone. OK , really: "Why?" we ask. "Well, we ran our boat up too close to shore and the tide went out." We look over and see a dingy. "Sure, no problem." They reply, no, "That boat," pointing to an 18' power boat. Crikey! Well, turns out I was strong enough when I added my knowledge of physics. Was it Archimedes who said, "give me a lever large enough and I can move the world"?

Friday:
We set sail at 0700 toward Cataran Bay on Border Island in hopes of finding more good snorkeling. We put in and were to swim toward shore, but after a few minutes of seeing nothing but jellyfish, we called it quits and had breakfast. (there is more to this story - we'll tell you if you ask)

Sailed back to Whitehaven Beach for more swimming & sightseeing. Steve took the dingy our to take pictures of Tropical Moondancer under sail.

We made another snorkeling attempt, this time at Chance Bay, with plans to overnight at Turtle Bay, an easy sail back to Hamilton Island Marina in the morning. Snorkeling was fairly good, but by the time we returned, Brian and Denise had received orders from the ship owners to NOT overnight in Turtle Bay, but return to Whitehaven, due to an oncoming storm. On the return to Whitehaven through Solway Passage, enormous eddy currents pulled the boat off course, changing the tack by 40 to 50 degrees and the speed from 4 to 7 knots! Our first real white-knuckled sailing. Finally around the point, we made Whitehaven just before dusk.

Saturday:
Left Whitehaven at 0730 and had breakfast while underway for worry about not making Hamilton Island for our 11:00 turn-in deadline. We arrived at 0930 and handed the boat back to Geoff, the same fellow who did the briefing. Off to our first real shower in 7 days.


Other pictures - find the fish. I think it is a rock fish. I noticed him whilst taking pictures of the coral. Unfortunately, the ONLY one in sharp focus has part of the fish cropped out. Bat Fish (looks like a BIG butterfly fish), decent shot of a butterfly fish. Looks like a racoon b-fly, but the white is only a spot. Hmmmm? Oh, and a night shot of the mast. That bright star - part of the southern Cross. 6th brightest star in the Milky Way Galaxy. Makes Polaris look like a sissy.


Next up - Cairns.