Lianne
Champagne cork popped and our first guests, (and possibly only with all the lockdowns in Australia), were welcomed onboard Pyrenees. We hardly gave Richard and Nadine time to put there bags down before we had the lines cast and we headed back around to Horseshoe Bay. Lunch and bubbles en route.
There is no free ride for our guests, as soon as we had the boat safely anchored it was all ashore for the job of putting our new dinghy wheels on TT which Richard and Nadine bought with them. Just to make sure everything went well, Nadine and I left the boys to it and went for a walk to the small strip of shops in the Bay, ended up in the pub out of harms way waiting for the guys to join us. Back out to the boat for sundowners and maybe another drink or two.
The next morning it was a long slog out to Orpheus, unfortunately not a pleasant sea. Discussion was had on whether mask and snorkel would be appropriate safety equipment as the boat twisted and rolled in the swell! We opted for Pioneer Bay and were lucky enough to grab a public mooring whilst being watched by the water police. No sooner were we all secure and they were alongside and wanting to do a safety check. Of course, Mr Organised, had everything that was asked for plus more and Pyrenees (I should say Stuart) passed with flying colours. Whilst the safety inspection was being done down below, the rest of us had a good chat with the other officer about the area and how long they patrol for at a time (out for a week). Not pleased to hear that just around the corner was a creek with crocs!
Next day was explore day! Out in TT an where did we head ?– yes – around that corner in choppy seas, towards the creek! After an initial freak out by two of the party (I wont embarrass Stuart and Nadine by mentioning their names) after seeing something in the water and the other two in the party confirming it was a rock , we headed back into Pioneer Bay and onto the beach. We had heard there was a walk to an old homestead but it had become overgrown. We fossicked around and found a path and in a short time we found the old stone hut ruins. There is not much information on the hut except it was an old Shepherds Hut from an early European Settlement.
Further on from the hut, we found a trail marked with pink tape around trees. This led us across a dry creek bed and up a hill. As we climbed higher the vegetation changed from scrubby bush to open grassland. All the time we had a very loud chorus of bird song but we saw very few except for a massive eagle that was riding the thermals above us. At the top of the walk we were on the “seaward” side of the island looking East over sheer cliffs.
We retraced our steps and went back to the beach, interrupting some skinny dippers before we all jumped in – clothed! The water was beautiful. All the cruising guides and notes, mention that Orpheus has a giant clam garden, so we headed over to the southern end of the bay to see if we could locate it, ready to come back later in the day to snorkel over them. We were trying to find the area when in the distance I spotted a fin. Then two. We cut the engine, drifted and watched, it took us a while to work it out but it was a Manta Ray! It was doing sweeping circles in the bay feeding. One sweep was right beside us and it was larger than TT! We estimated its wing span to be about 3.5m. Truly amazing to watch and we were all disappointed when it swam away.
That afternoon,, we headed back over to the same area and found the clams. I have to admit I would have loved to have grabbed one of the old shells and bought it home with me! There were so many, and the coral was in really good condition, making a great snorkel. The reason for so many in this one spot is unknown, but the story that seems is often told is that the clams were bought o Orpheus as a clam farm was going to be started. Just love that they are in a protected marine park and wre there for everyone to enjoy. The University of Queensland also has a research centre in this bay, so I am sure the health of the section of the marine park will be well looked after.
It was movie night on the deck of Pyrenees, much to the surprise of our guests! Rugs and red wine accompanied Top Gun – an oldie but such a great soundtrack and with the wargames in full swing just south of us it seemed an apt choice.
All to soon, it was time to head back to Townsville. The run back was much calmer that the sail out and when we got in, long showers before a walk up into town, a well earned beverage and then dinner out. After discovering our restaurant booking had been cancelled at the Thai we were heading to, we found a great restaurant and feasted on a 5 course degustation dinner paired beautifully with an array of wines. A sad farewell the next morning at 4.45am, as Richard and Nadine departed for their flight home.
Decision time for us – so we headed back to the safe bolthole of Horseshoe to read weather forecasts and compare what they all were saying. All modelling showed a good weather window to head south. We had planned to go further north to Dunk Island and I really wanted to get out to Fantome Island and photograph the old Lock and Leper Hospital Doing this though meant some long days, timing the tides correctly and not necessarily being able to find protected anchorages from the southerly trade winds. After weighing up the options and the weather, we decided it was time to head south towards home (well eventually)
Prepping the boat, our decision was a wise one as we have snapped the genoa halyard (layman’s: the rope that holds the front sail up). The sail is still up but needs attention so calls to Airlie and we have a rigger booked (boats!). Now to get back there.
Early start and we retrace our steps to Upstart Bay. Eleven and a half hours later we are in and anchored after a long motor into the wind. A few other boats sailed in that night and the next morning we headed for Cape Gloucester. It was wildlife day heading down, our first sighting of the day was a whale breaching about a1.5nm miles off the port side. With another boat sailing behind us (Sea Lanes) we radioed them to advise there was a whale. No sooner had we done that than another whale was cruising leisurely south a few hundred metres from us. To keep us entertained we also had a few dolphins pop up. When we were almost at our anchorage, we had a pod of Snub Nosed Dolphins just off our beam. It took a while to work out what they are and after looking up on Mr Google we found out that they are found on the Northern Coast of Australia and are nearing extinction.
Mooring that afternoon at Cape Gloucester was a disaster. Numerous attempts to grab the mooring line/chain in strong winds. Finally grabbing one only to find the mooring line was wrapped around the block cain. Loosing a boat hook as I could not get the line up onto deck (we retrieved it!) Swapping Stuart to the bow and me to the helm – still no luck. One last go and we were going to anchor but we got it and definitely needed a drink. Absolutely the worst mooring we have ever had/done in 16 plus years of boating!
Seafood plates were calling so into the eco resort for dinner. Unfortunately on the way back to the dinghy, I slipped on the path. Legs out from under me, straight down onto my hip, shoulder and then wham with my head. Took a while to overcome the shock, get up, somehow get into TT and back on board the boat. Stuart aka Dr Manley, was shining lights into my eyes, forcing hydra lite into me, making me have a conversation and all I wanted was bed!
Cape Gloucester and the endangered Snub Nosed Dolphins
Quite sore and sorry the following day, so pleased that we are sitting out some weather here for a few nights. Taking it easy doing some photo editing, catching up on emails and resting. We dined at the resort again this time with Sea Lanes, the boat that was with us heading down to the Cape and enjoyed their company and stories of sailing in their local area of Cairns. Believe it or not we all got really cold and started to head back to the boat. This time Stuart went for a big slide, but luckily managed to catch himself before he fell.
From Cape Gloucester we had an easy passage down to Nara Inlet, with Sea Lanes leading us through a narrow channel and then following us into Nara. A few whales on the way and a couple of dolphins. Nara is a very protected anchorage and we were surprised by the number of boats in as we arrived just on lunch time. The bay certainly filled up!
Next morning we headed over to the aboriginal caves which are a short uphill hike from a tiny beach at the end of the bay. The Ngaro people are the indigenous owners of The Whitsundays and Nara inlet is sacred to their culture. It has been well protected and signed posted for the two-legged animals that visit and the electric fence keeps the four legged visitors, primarily feral goats, out. The drawings date back thousands of years, and it is wonderful to see this heritage so well looked after. I was amazed at the clarity, still what I remember from visiting almost 14 years ago.
The walk to the Ngaro Indigenous Caves at Nara Inlet
With winds expected to increase we decided to stay in Nara and had a movie night with Sea Lane, American Graffiti was on the “big screen” and a feast was produced from the freezers of both boats! A great way to finish off this leg of our trip.
Stuart
Our first guests of the trip arrived Monday at lunchtime and after obligatory welcome champagne’s we cast the lines off and headed to Horseshoe Bay on Magnetic Island. Richard and Nadine had brought a package for the boat with them which was a set of retractable (Beachmaster) dinghy wheels for the tender. We have been enviously watching others roll their dinghy up the beaches above the high tide level which due to the large tide ranges up here can be a long way. We all travelled to the beach where Richard and I fitted the wheels to TT and had time for one beer at the bar before heading back to Pyrenees for sundowners and a beautiful sunset – yes, another one!
Next morning, we weighed anchor (a little later than planned) and began the 38 mile passage to Orpheus Island. The first 27 miles of the passage were quite rolly with a metre or so beam sea until we were in the lee of Great Palm Island. We caught one green wave on the transom which almost came into the cockpit but otherwise it was just uncomfortable. The last few miles were in relative calm seas with Richard and I on watch whilst the ladies caught up on some sleep down below. We managed to pick up a public mooring in Pioneer Bay so were very secure on a quite reasonably windy evening with winds over 25 knots as Lianne and Richard skilfully picked up the mooring line. The Queensland Water Police watched us pick up the mooring then came alongside to conduct a vessel safety equipment check which we passed with flying colours. The 2 guys were really nice but did tell us about all the croc’s around …. maybe I shouldn’t have teased them about the State of Origin 😊
Stuart’s new best mates
Our first morning at Orpheus started out with rain and the wind direction had changed to be coming directly into the bay during the night though not particularly strong though it did create a small chop around Pyrenees. We explored the bay in the tender including a walk up to the peak of Orpheus Island with views over Pioneer Bay and also out to the Coral Sea. It was quite warm after our walk, so we took a welcome swim at the beach before continuing our exploration of the bay over towards a university research station where we looked for giant clams but were lucky enough to see a very large manta ray feeding. We drifted with the engine stopped for some time and the manta ray did its final sweep into the bay passing around the 4 of us in the tender. What a graceful and beautiful creature that we were so blessed to see and at such close range.
Thursday was our return to Breakwater Marina of 46 miles and we’ve now covered over 1,000 nautical miles since leaving Southport and nearly 1,400 miles since leaving Pittwater in May. There was less than 5knots breeze so we ended up motoring again to make sure we got our guests back to Townsville for their very early flight the next day and of course some reprovisioning. We dined out a good restaurant on the other side of the Ross River about 15 minutes’ walk from the marina enjoying a 5 course degustation with matching wines 😊
After fare welling Nadine and Richard at 0445 the next morning, we managed a little more sleep before doing some boat chores whilst waiting for the tide to rise for our exit from Breakwater Marina to head out to Horseshoe Bay on Magnetic Island. It was a beautiful day and nice breeze promised a good sail but we snapped our genoa halyard (hoists the sail to the top of the mast) so spent an hour tidying that up and will now need to head into Airlie Beach for an appointment with a rigger to go up the mast and work out what went wrong as part of the halyard is twisted around the top furling drum. It wasn’t a great start to our afternoon and the breeze (as forecast) turned to the north and created quite a sea coming into the bay so we ended up deploying quite a bit of anchor chain as Pyrenees and the 30 other boats in the bay, were moving around quite a bit. The wind eventually turned to the southeast and dropped around 9pm so sleep was OK.
Saturday was spent cleaning the boat including scrubbing along the waterline to remove some dirt. It was a beautiful sunny day so we capped it off with a swim off the back of Pyrenees and sundown champagne. The wind was almost non-existent so sleep was easy though possibly too hot. We are close to halfway through our 5 month trip and have recorded our northern most anchorage of Orpheus Island and although we didn’t quite reach our target of Dunk Island , we feel it’s time to start heading south. The weather looks good for Monday and Tuesday to start retracing our tracks south to Cape Gloucester but also we are halfway through our 5 month voyage so it makes sense to start the southern migration. Sunday was spent preparing Pyrenees for the 110 miles she’ll cover over 2 days to get us back to the Whitsunday region and into Airlie Beach to get the halyard repaired. It’s hard to believe we are halfway as time has flown though we have been busy getting ready for passages or doing the miles. We’re looking forward to a good block of time in the Whitsundays and sitting at anchor, fishing and paddle boarding!
Our passage from Magnetic Island to Cape Upstart started with an 0430 wake up alarm, coffee and a reasonably calm anchorage. We weighed anchor at 0500 as planned and steamed out in darkness between anchored yachts and a trawler that had just arrived and was still storing it’s catch. The seas increased as we came out of the lee of the island and we proceeded to punch into a 1.5m sea and 10 to 15 knots of wind all directly on the nose of Pyrenees until we eventually rounded Cape Bowling Green after 5.5 hours. It was then another 5 hours into Cape Upstart before we anchored behind the massive headland which provided us with great shelter from the trade winds. They eased as forecast over night and our 48 mile passage to Cape Gloucester was motor sailing with the mainsail in a beautiful 10 knots of southeast breeze that shifted east as we past the Abbot Point coal terminal which meant a gybe in towards the loader which is quite a large structure and a long way from the shore when you get close to it. The wind proceeded to keep shifting left and built into a 15 knot nor’easter as we sailed into Cape Gloucester. Unfortunately the wind was funnelling through Gloucester Passage where we were mooring at the resort and was blowing over 25 knots as we tried to pick up our mooring. It took us 5 attempts which is very unusual for us but of course the wind eased an hour later. We have now sailed over 1,500 nautical miles since leaving Pittwater in May which is quite a milestone for us.
Our 3 nights at Cape Gloucester confirmed the reviews of the anchorage that it was quite open to almost all wind directions and provided very little protection and we found with shifting breezes Pyrenees was rocking around whenever the wind picked up. The upside is you are at a resort that welcomes yachties and let you use their moorings for free if you eat ashore which of course we did. We have fond memories of a night here with Mark and Fi Hellyer in 2016 that probably makes us want to come back rather than pick a protected anchorage at the end of the bay. The reality is that I need to have phone and data coverage for a conference call so we had to choose here, complete with bar and restaurant 😊
Many of the foreshore rocks have been defaced over the years by visiting boats at Nara inlet, – Pyrenees far left.
With winds forecast to shift to the north after Cape Gloucester we motor sailed to a bay called Nara Inlet which provides extensive shelter from any wind coming out of the north, east or west. The winds outside the bay were around 20 knots and as is often the case, these spill over in gusts or “bullets” into some bays and Nara is no exception. Though the waters were completely calm we did have a reasonable amount of wind at times which helped keep the boat cool in what were summer wind temperatures in Sydney terms – you gotta love Queensland winters!
Two On The Loose 
Great update thank you. 🥂
Regards,
Brad Parker 0423 783 921
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