Chasing the sunshine

 

We enjoyed a lovely week in the Wide Bay Area, anchoring for a night each at Ungowan and Kingfisher Bay and two nights at Moon Point before we headed to the Great Sandy Straits marina at Hervey Bay. We made the most of Saturday and Sunday to stock up at the local supermarkets, filling our trolley and several bags with food. We also visited both fisheries for the best of local produce and had a meal and spent some money at the local boat club and arts cooperative. By Monday morning we were ready to continue north, slipping out of the marina just after 6am and cruising towards Burnett Heads. Conditions were perfect!

We arrived at the mouth of the Burnett River in time for lunch and anchored just near the shipping lane, but the rolling motion of the swell put us off staying there for the night so we continued upriver after lunch and anchored near the molasses terminal. The weather forecast for the next few days was almost identical, with light winds inshore and stronger winds (and more waves!) offshore; this put us off our original plan of going to Lady Musgrave island, 40 nautical miles off the coast. Instead we opted to continue north, starting Tuesday just on daylight, motoring until afternoon and anchoring at Pancake Creek (a popular spot for cruisers) and continuing on Wednesday past the many shipping facilities at Gladstone, through The Narrows (only passable at high tide) and anchoring in one of the many creeks in the mangroves of Curtis Island. A peaceful night, without even a ripple, was very welcome and we did our exercises and ate breakfast before venturing back into the Coral Sea, where a larger than expected swell had us hunkering down for the lumpy passage across to Great Keppel Island.

Our three nights at GKI were spent at three different anchorages. At Svendsens Beach we enjoyed a walk in the sand and met some fellow Boaties at the well set up shelter on the beach, enjoying a couple of drinks and a few yarns around the fire. At Monkey Beach we found a convenient mooring and watched snorkelers exploring the coral, zoomed around for coffee with friends at the Hideaway Resort and walked up to the lookout and scrambled down through the bush. At Long Beach we walked the length of almost deserted sand and marveled at the clarity of the water before enduring a rolly night in stronger than forecast wind and pulling up the anchor early in the morning.

We made our way into Keppel Bay marina on Sunday for a couple of nights, giving us a chance to restock the food supplies, taking advantage of their courtesy car, and have a delicious lunch in the local waterside restaurant. The forecast looks perfect for the next few days so we were keen to untie and take off on Tuesday morning, heading out of the marina at first light and cruising north, following the rugged coastline and tucking into Pearl Bay at lunchtime. This is one of the loveliest remote locations on the coast and we enjoyed a walk on the sand in the afternoon - warning signs telling us not to venture off the beach as it is a live firing range during military exercises! Another early start on Wednesday morning had us heading further offshore to visit many boaties’ favourite location, Middle Percy Island.

 We arrived at Middle Percy, after fabulous cruising conditions, just on 3pm. The tide was reasonably low, so we took the dinghy ashore to explore the beach and the “famous” A frame hut, beloved by many boaties and adorned with hundreds of plaques and other mementoes of visits here. We went hunting for our own plaque, to no avail, until a search through the photos on our laptop pinpointed the spot, upstairs on a roof beam, hidden from view! We returned to the beach armed with a new sign, plus drill and screws, climbed the ladder and put our two signs together - Manookatoo 2017 and Liberty 2024 - to mark our own visits to this paradise. 

 We enjoyed sunset drinks on the beach with an intrepid family from Melbourne who are living on their yacht, Miss Juniper, home schooling their daughter Zoe and enjoying the cruising life. We made plans to enjoy the hike to the homestead together the next day. BUT! You will recall I have mentioned before that a forecast can change at any time, and there is no internet coverage at Middle Percy island to hear any updates…during the night the wind turned and increased from the south west, making for a very bumpy, sleepless night, with the first mate retreating to the spare room (more centred therefore a little less bumpy) and the captain making camp on the lounge (towards the stern, so less movement or noise)… so at first light we raised the anchor and cruised away to find a more peaceful anchorage. Seas were very “lumpy” all day before we turned the corner and sheltered on the north east beach at Scawfell island. No internet coverage there, either, but we are lucky to have a satellite television so we could at least watch the weather on tv, even though it is more general than local, it gives you a good idea. The expected conditions had “sped up”, making Thursday windier than expected but Friday calmer than expected, which boded well for our plans to continue onto the Whitsundays and, hopefully, calmer conditions! After a peaceful night’s sleep, the first mate enjoyed her coffee in bed before we raised the anchor and continued north.

It was another “lumpy”day at sea, as we are a long way offshore so, even though the swell is from the southwestern (land) direction, it has a while to build up before it hits us! We tried a “new” anchorage that night, Thomas island; with a north easterly aspect it was smooth and calm.  The next morning we took a short trip around to Shaw island, a favourite spot opposite Lindeman island, looking over at the closed resort. It always surprises and disappoints us that this beautiful area is full of abandoned idyllic holiday spots, I guess the cost of repairs is just too prohibitive.

On Sunday morning we headed across to the iconic Whitehaven beach, on Whitsunday island. There were lots of boats here, many of them tourist boats from Hamilton island and Airlie beach, but lots of private pleasure boats too. It was great to see so many here; last time we visited, in 2020, during COVID, we were on our own. We walked the beautiful white beach and climbed to the lookouts, marvelling at the spectacular views. We anchored the night at Windy bay on nearby Haselwood island but returned early next morning to walk the beach on our own before breakfast, continuing cruising later in the morning past Hamilton island and into Cid harbour. Conditions were perfect, with clear blue skies and aquamarine seas and we decided to have two nights in this peaceful anchorage. We took the dinghy across to Sawmill beach on Monday afternoon; once the site of a hoop pine foresting operation, now a tranquil spot in the rainforest. We walked through the forest to Dugong beach and enjoyed the views across the water before lazing the afternoon away, turning on the underwater lights that night for an aquarium vista: hundreds of fish swam in and out of view! It was magical.

On Tuesday morning, we had an extra large breakfast and packed the backpack full of water and a snack for the climb to Whitsunday peak. A “challenging” upward slog of steep, rocky steps, clambering across fallen tree trunks with a couple of rock scrambles for good measure, but the views at the top make you forget your tired limbs and thumping heartbeat! You can see Whitehaven beach and Hamilton island one way and the inner islands and secret bays of the Whitsundays the other. The whole hike (5km return) took us 3 1/2 hours but it was worth it!

Next morning, we raised the anchor early and motored over to South Molle island for breakfast. The resort is still standing, wrecked, but a new jetty has been built, so there is hope for the future! After breakfast we continued across to Airlie Beach, where we had booked a berth in the marina. We enjoyed lunch in the newly refurbished yacht club, looking over the many boats bobbing about in the bay. Thursday was laundry day before a walk to the chandlery for a new flag - we’ve worn the old one out! Then we borrowed the courtesy car to stock up - first to Fishi, one of our favourite seafood shops, for prawns, fish and delicious seafood pies, then Wooliesand the bottle shop. All in all the local economy did well out of us, but we bought enough to last us until our next major stop, at Townsville in a few weeks. It was also good to see the local economy benefitting from so many tourists after a bleak couple of years of covid. That afternoon we motored back out to South Molle island for a quiet night on anchor.

On Friday morning we motored over to the new jetty in order to walk to a couple of the lookouts. The resort is fenced off but has had nothing done to it, although there is a caretaker on site who appears to look after the walking trails, which were in good condition. The walk to Lamond lookout is much easier than the Whitehaven peak, and, even though it is the same distance, we did it in less than half the time, with a detour to “balancing rock” on the way. We followed the path back to Bauer bay, clambering over a very large bush Turkey nest mounded up over the steep track! We returned to Liberty for breakfast before raising the anchor again, bound for Nara inlet.

Nara is one of the most beautiful inlets on Hook island. It is narrow and deep, surrounded by steep mountains. It is a favourite destination of ours. We cruised as far up the inlet as we could, happy to anchor well away from all the other boats and enjoy the solitude, disturbed only by the very noisy cockatoos that enjoy feasting and roosting in the hoop pines perched on the hillside. In the late afternoon we took the dinghy around to do the Ngaro art walk, up the hill to where the local indigenous people painted in an overhang. The site is well preserved and includes a “welcome to country” plaque and a collection of oral histories which are well worth listening to for the insights into country and culture.  We enjoyed a barbecue dinner on the back deck, enjoying watching the fish swimming around in the blue lights, but noticing the ominous shape of a hammerhead shark lurking just outside of the glow from the lights. Swimming did not appeal!!

On Saturday morning, after exercises on the flybridge and breakfast, we raised the anchor again and cruised out of Nara inlet, turning north and following the Hook Island coastline before continuing around Hayman island, famous for its lovely resort. We continued past Langford reef, where we have snorkelled before, around to the north of the island, pulling up a mooring in Blue Pearl bay, a lovely spot on the north side where coral reefs and bommies abound. We took the dinghy through the reef, admiring zebra fish and turtles and pulling up on the coral strewn shore for a short walk - coral makes a very rough, unstable surface for walking! Returning to Liberty we sat on the back deck for lunch, then dropped the mooring to continue on - the wind forecast from the north west may have been quite disturbing had we decided to stay the night. Instead we opted for another favourite - Butterfly Bay, at the top of Hook island, and, judging by the number of boats moored here before us, we’re not the only ones who love it! On Sunday morning we continued cruising, rounding the top of Hook island and travelling down the eastern side. We cruised through Hook passage, between Hook and Whitsunday island, and into Macona inlet, where conditions were perfect for a lazy Sunday afternoon. We cruised across to a little cove in the late afternoon for a swim in the balmy, 24 degree water and enjoyed a very peaceful night on anchor with home made pizzas in front of the TV!

Monday morning saw us venturing across the Hook passage to pick up a mooring close to Cairn beach. After breakfast we took the dinghy ashore, where the captain dropped the first mate and the backpack ashore and returned the dinghy to Liberty and kayaked across. The beach is very rocky and the tide was going out, so this was the safest way to ensure our timely return after our long walk…straight up a very challenging track to Whitsunday cairn, high above. 

We scrambled up through the boulders and around the grass trees, taking care not to stumble on loose rocks or slip in the dirt. The first mate even crawled up one particularly slippery section, returning on her bottom on the way back down! The views, once we reached the rock, were spectacular - out across the coral sea and outer islands on one side, all the way to the Conway range and the mainland the other way. We returned to the boat, moved a little way further to Lions Point (a calmer anchorage) and lazed the rest of the day away.

Tuesday was "dingy adventure" day. As it was our last full day at sea before our travels south, we decided to anchor at Happy Bay, on Long Island, closer to the mainland. The trip across was much rougher than expected, with stronger winds and higher swells. A rogue wave picked up the dingy from its cradle and swept it away from the boat, necessitating a quick U-turn and some clever use of the boat hook in order to retrieve it! When we were safely anchored opposite the (closed) resort, we pumped out the waterlogged dingy and went ashore, anchoring in the shallows and walking across to the only open resort on the island, at Palm Bay, to check out the facilities. Returning to Happy Bay we discovered the dingy in extremely shallow water, on a falling tide. It took quite a bit of pulling and pushing to get it into deep enough water to return to the boat - had we been much longer we would have had a three hour wait for the tide to come in! Later in the day we took the dingy around to Palm Bay resort, enjoying sunset drinks in the bar overlooking the bay - and the dingy - before returning to Liberty for a quiet night.

Early next morning we cruised across to Henning Island for exercises and breakfast, before entering the Hamilton Island marina. It is here we will leave Liberty for a week - the first mate flying to Sydney and the captain to Melbourne. On our return we hope the lovely, calm weather continues and we can travel on from the wonderful Whitsundays...