Whitsundays and Bait Reef

Well, we finally feel like we have made it to the Whitsundays. The weather has been nothing short of perfect most days with light but sailable winds and mostly sunny days. The anchorages here are very good and very close together - makes for lazy cruising. It easy to see why it is so busy here with boats but you can get away from the crowds if you forget about public moorings (which are rarely available even with the "two hour" time limit*)and go to places where charter boats aren't allowed.

One such place was Bait reef, only 18Nm from Hook Island and simply stunning. The water was so much clearer then any of the water we have see so far on our trip. The reef is very healthy and being protected from fishing has a great range of wildlife even just under your boat. We had several GT's and Bat fish join as immediately when we arrived. On day two we were treated with perfect weather and our own whale show. For much of the day whales were hanging out just outside the reef. We took the tender out to explore the reef at one stage and were surprised by a whale launching itself completely out of the water only 50m from us - no camera with us of course. Later that day a pod of whales came into the lagoon anchorage and swam about coming within 15m of our boat. It was our best whale experience to date.

Anyway, I need to get back to enjoying this weather so that's it for now.

* In Queensland "Two hours" is anything between two hours and two days. Similar to the car hire in Mackay Marina where half day hire is actually four hours, very short days in Mackay.

Stonehaven Anchorage

Small manta ray by the boat at Stonehaven

On a mooring in Butterfly Bay

Great photo of Bait Reef showing The Stepping Stones and anchorage - from http://mskiana.com, the dive boat we met there

Perfect conditions at Bait Reef

 Bat fish by the boat at Bait Reef - moored in 10m of water - check the water clarity!

Pod of humpback whales right by the boat at Bait Reef

Whales between us and the only other boat on the reef

The slick in the foreground is disturbance made by a whale less than 15m from the boat

 Snorkeling and diving at Bait Reef

Returning through the passage between Hook and Hayman Islands

 

View to Black Island near Hayman Island

Mackay to Hamilton Island

Here we are at Hamilton Island, smack bang in the middle of the Whitsunday Islands. Being here feels a little like coming full circle as it was in the Whitsundays that we first caught the sailing, scuba diving and all-things-boaty bug (bugs?) on our honeymoon back in 2002. It was, in a sense, the beginning of the journey that has brought us back via 4000 nautical miles and more than 10 years.

You can stay in the marina here for $105 per night which is really expensive as marinas go but - here's the clincher - you have full access to the resort facilities. Cocktails by the pool for us!! (Well, mocktails for me, but I can pretend...) When others are paying many hundreds of dollars per night, even thousands, we feel a bit like we're cheating but then our whole lives feel a bit that way these days... We keep expecting someone to come along and tell us its not allowed and we have to go back to reality!

OK, a quick recap of the last few weeks. Our short stop in Mackay was much longer than planned as the weather came in and we couldn't seem to motivate ourselves to battle strong winds and choppy seas. This QLD cruising is making us soft! Oh well, it gave me a chance to break the back of a work project and Michael to do some much needed painting and boat projects. We were also able to scope out a nearby boatyard where we will most likely haul out Bass Voyager and leave her over the summer while we're off in Adelaide having a baby.


Finally we sailed from Mackay about 20 miles north to Brampton Island. Its a very picturesque spot with a public jetty and walking trails around the island, however it had an eerie atmosphere as the resort on the island is all boarded up and off limits - another apparent casualty of the struggling QLD tourism industry. From there we stopped for a few days at Goldsmith Island, another beautiful anchorage with none of the uncomfortable surge and swell that we'd come to expect in the southern islands. The tides are getting smaller as we head north and that seems to make a difference to the comfort at anchor.

With strong winds in the forecast we scoured our cruising guide for the area and chose nearby Shaw Island as a place to hole up for a few days. Its an excellent anchorage, again totally swell and surge free, even in developed trade winds. Just a few of the notorious Whitsusnday "bullets" (where the wind rockets down the gullies and makes the boat dance around the anchor for a minute) to contend with. Not in any great hurry to be anywhere, we settled in and waited for the weather to improve. All the other boats in the anchorage seemed to have the same idea and, like us, not many seemed inclined to get off the boat while the weather was so blustery. We did manage to do some exploring on land though, and as you'll see from the photos below even "bad" weather in the Whitsundays is pretty spectacular!
 A few hours north of Shaw is Hamilton Island. We expected the worst of Hamilton and so have had our expectations exceeded by quite a lot. I had this image in mind of a noisy, over-the-top resort stuck in the 1980s, probably run-down because of the GFC, and horrendously overpriced. Instead its very tidy, beautifully landscaped and ... dare I say it ... fairly classy as these things go? Perhaps I have been away from civilisation a little too long...

Generally we like to eschew the crowds and built-up resort-iness of places like Hammo but after a few weeks getting back to nature we get a real kick out of the opportunity for a restaurant meal and a bit of people-watching. Plus there is an awesome bakery here and we were also able to get an order from Coles sent over on the ferry saving us having to go in to Airlie Beach for another few weeks.

Tomorrow we'll head out again and bum around the islands for the next week and a half before we meet family in Airlie Beach!

Views around Brampton Island

Whale near Goldsmith Island

Views of beautiful Shaw Island

Rare picture of pregnant Caitlin. Back-burning a few weeks earlier made it possible for us to climb a hill for spectacular views over the anchorage.

Checking out the facilities on Hamilton Island

Spot salty old Bass Voyager among the superyachts at Hamilton Marina.

Middle Percy Island

We almost didn't stop at Middle Percy Island, despite its great fame among the sailing community ("you MUST stop at Percy!") The main anchorage on Percy, while beautiful, has a reputation as an uncomfortable anchorage - as our cruising guide puts it diplomatically, "no one would describe it as the most comfortable anchorage they've ever visited." After three nights of big tides, surgy anchorages and sleepless nights we were seriously considering bypassing MPI and starting on the 2 day trip to Mackay. We are so glad we decided to stop as it was one of the great highlights of our trip so far.

Middle Percy has a long and interesting history and has long been a popular stopover for sailors heading north to the Whitsundays, largely because since the 1960's the leaseholders have welcomed yachties with open arms, offering fresh produce like honey, fruit, vegetables and goat meat for sale. In recent times the island has been subject to a great deal of controversy and a protracted legal battle after the elderly and ailing caretaker was conned out out of his lease for just $10 before he passed away. The island's facilities were left to deteriorate, animals died, and yachties were no longer welcome. Thankfully in 2008 courts awarded the island back to the family of the original leaseholder. His cousin, Cathryn, has returned the island to its former glory as a wonderful, welcoming place for sailors to meet, socialise and enjoy their own little slice of paradise.

(There is an interesting article here which details the dramas of the island's recent history: The possibility of an island).

The caretaker Cate was happy for us to spend the night on the island so we packed up our camping gear and mozzie coils and camped out by the beach under a full moon. We and the other boats in the anchorage were invited by Cate to meet at the fire-pit behind the A-Frame for a dinner of peacock stew! I'll try just about anything once and the peacock stew was delicious. The closest I can compare it to is a strongly flavoured version of turkey. 

The island is a long boat ride from the mainland (two days sail if you stop overnight on the way) and so the residents have to be pretty much self sufficient. Like many other QLD islands, goats were introduced to Middle Percy in the 1800's to feed passing mariners, and the homestead also keeps bees, peacocks and chickens. Interestingly kangaroos were also brought to the island for food, a native introduced species.

We had a great night socialising with the other yachties and the island residents, and were talked into staying an extra day and visiting Cate in her homestead at the top of the island the next day. 

In the morning, after waving off the visiting replica tall ship Joshua C from the lagoon, Cate offered to drive me up to the homestead in her ute, saving the poor pregnant woman the steep hour long walk. There have to be some perks to being up the duff, right??? We met the resident goats which, having been on the island for so long, are a really pure genetic strain which Cate is very proud of. She gave us tea and biscuits while we checked emails - you can access precious internet and phone reception from the mainland at the top of the island. We picked limes with backpacker Sarah who a week earlier jumped ship and has decided to stay for a while. We waved goodbye to Cate and the goats and went to visit resident Steve at the nearby "Rondavel", a circular stone house hand-built by previous residents of the islands. The steep but beautiful walk back down to the beach topped off a fantastic day. Not since visiting Three Hummock Island in Tasmania have we been to such a unique place so welcoming to sailors. Middle Percy's website is: http://percyisland.com.au/

The next day, getting very low on supplies, we reluctantly upped anchor and started the passage to Mackay, stopping overnight at Curlew Island. We're now stocking up on supplies and getting a few boat jobs done before we head into the southern Whitsundays over the next few weeks.

Paradise

The famous Middle Percy A-Frame - the Percy Hilton" - full of decades of memorabilia left by visiting yachts. We added our own little sign and felt suitable communal!

The beautiful replica tall ship Joshua C careened against the jetty in the Middle Percy lagoon. Unfortunately the huge tides in the area mean only catamarans and boats able to careen up against the jetty are able to enter the lagoon and escape the swell outside!

Cute MPI goats

A goat that thinks it's a dog

Michael with resident Steve and visiting backpacker Sarah

Rows of coal ships off the Hay Point port South of Mackay

 

Flowering cane fields

North Keppel Island - Island Head Creek - The Percys

After leaving North Keppel Island we made our way slowly to an anchorage called Freshwater Bay, part of the Army's training grounds which stretch around to Shoalwater Bay. While it's a convenient place to stop for the night you are not allowed to make landfall. There was some confusing activity involving three vehicles on the beach in the dark.

The next mooring we made for Island Head Creek and one of the most comfortable and beautiful places we have been in Queensland so far. With lots of mountains and lush mangroves it really was a great wilderness. Again being part of the Army's training area you can't go on land but we spent five days enjoying the fishing and very comfortable water. The weather was perfect each day and the fishing wasn't too bad except that the mud crabs seem to be hiding somewhere?

Leaving Island Head Creek we made for Hexham Island for a short overnight stop. The next day we made for South Percy Island. A very beautiful island with a great beach and rock pools. Unfortunately the Anchorage was very prone to surge with the 5 - 6m tides we were experiencing at the time. Moving to North East Percy Island the next day didn't improve much.

Island Head Creek

Hexham Island