Nara Inlet to Coral Sea Marina

Lianne

We left the cocoon of Nara Inlet early and headed over to Coral Sea Marina. After waiting for permission to come into the fuel wharf outside the marina entrance , we refuelled and safely put Pyrenees into her pen.  As planned the riggers arrived on the boat first thing Monday morning to head up our mast and check out what has happened with our halyard.  Not good news which I am sure  Stuart will explain in detail.

We spent the couple of days re provisioning, doing the obligatory run to Bunnings and of course the washing! To get relief from boat chores we headed into town for the Shag Islet Cruising Yacht club drinks night (yes there is such a club, well patronised by cruising boaties, and the funds raised support Prostrate cancer research). Another night into town with local friends, Sea Lanes and friends of theirs who were in town inspecting a boat to purchase.  Airlie is a lovely little town, and an easy walk from the marina. It unfortunately like many tourist areas in North Queensland is suffering with no overseas or local tourists, and many of the shops are boarded up.

As the boat could not be fixed immediately (no parts in the local area) we headed off under strict instructions to be gentle with our girl , and not sail. So, we are officially a motor boat till August 10^th! Next stop Whitehaven Beach

As you approach Whitehaven from the North, its craggy rocks, and deep bays. Then Hill Inlet with its turquoise waters appears and from here the 6km expanse Whitehaven  Beach arcs southward. We have been here numerous times before, and this time, like the all the times before takes my breath away.  The aqua water and the white sand is nature at its best. Anchoring at the Southern end, we notice that a few boats we had met before were here too and it was not long before the call for sundowners on the beach was made. One of the nice things about being on the beach, is that other cruising boats see you and just join in, even if they have never met you before, all up we had about 9 boats at drinks, with no one else on the beach.

Although we have been to Whitehaven before, we have never anchored overnight as conditions had not been favourable. Last night was perfect and we both got a great nights sleep. Up before sunrise we headed to the beach so I could do some  photography whilst the beach was empty and Stuart walked to one of the lookouts – he certainly got the better shots, though I made friends with lots of seagulls!

 After a swim and walk along the beach, the day boats were starting to arrive and disgorge passengers onto the beach signally time  to head back to Pyrenees and to our next anchorage. Whilst lifting TT onto the davits, we had a visit from Gladys the grouper (named by the catamaran Alexis, as she turns up every day at the same time no matter what 😊) We managed to get some photos of the gentle giant that hangs around the boats, probably waiting for a free feed.

Next stop was Maconna Bay, via Solway Passage or as I call it the boiling pot.  A narrow passage between Haselwood Island and Whitsunday island that can get some very interesting tidal action! This track took us through Fitzalen Passage , past Hamilton Island and back into Whitsunday Passage. It was the long way around but who cares.   Maconna is a lovely protected bay on Hook Island, our first time here and it has some large reef areas that you have to give a wide berth.  Anchoring is a little unnerving as the reef always looks closer than it actually is. Stuart even took us  over to the reef in the dinghy to put me at ease as I was concerned we were too close. We had a little tiki tour of the bay and tried to spot the dolphins who had surfaced amongst the boats just prior to us launching the dinghy, to no avail.

With time to potter we headed up to Stonehaven, spying a whale in the distance and decided a few days here would be nice. The moorings are only 24 hours, so on our second day we switched moorings and managed to get one of two that is inside a little lagoon, fringed by reef. Stunning!  Stonehaven is such a favourite anchorage for me.  We finally got the paddle boards out and explored the reef on them. Snorkel and masks strapped to the front of the boards, so we could grab them if anything interesting appeared.

Sundowners was on Pyrenees, mainly as she has the largest cockpit and there were four boats that had been at Whitehaven anchored nearby.  Lots of stories, with many people still trekking north and swapping anchorage tips on places we have all been, with G& T’s flowing of course.

Passing Langford, a little island which is more a sand spit and hardly visible at high tide, we made our way around Hayman Island to Blue Pearl Bay. Hayman, in my opinion, is one of the least pretty islands in the Whitsunday’s. In comparison to the others it is quite arid and the beaches are hard work to walk on or to land the tender,  being coral  rubble. Hayman is still showing the wows of Cyclone Debbie in 2017 more than the other islands, with many bare trees still visible.

Blue Pearl Bay, is on the northern side of Hayman (opposite side to the resort) and is a popular spot for snorkelling and on the outer limits fishing. With our previous failed attempts at fishing  we decided to snorkel instead.  The water is still cool (for us) so wetsuits were in order to extend our time in the water with the masses of fish. Parrot fish were prolific, munching on the coral, damsel fish, butterfly fish and a very large cod hiding under a bombora. We delighted in watching the fish stop at a cleaning station.

Later in the day, I was experimenting with an idea I had for photography, but had to abort as a large angel fish thought my subject would be nice for afternoon tea, and I did not want him to get hooked up. After a while when I figured the angel fish had wondered off, I tried again. This time a turtle thought it would be good to see what was  happening. Needless to say I stopped again and photographed the turtle instead!

From Blue Pearl Bay, it was an easy trip around the Western shore of Hayman , then down to Hook Island and into Butterfly Bay.  Reefs line both shores of Butterfly so you are spoilt for choice of where to snorkel. Cyclone Debbie caused quite a lot of damage to the coral in here as the bay faced straight into its path. As you snorkel there is a lot of dead and broken coral  It is though, very heartening to see the way the coral is recovering with new shoots appearing everywhere and the soft coral thriving.

The afternoon (prior to sundowners) entertainment was watching a charter boat come in and head deep into the bay. We thought it was going to turn around behind Sea Lanes, but luckily Sea Lanes realised they were not turning and called for them to STOP as they were heading to one of the many bommies  submerged in this bay. Narrowly missing it, they turned back to a mooring near us. The mooring lines are huge and are difficult to get onto the cleats, so with some yelled instructions they got the boat onto one. Stuart did his good deed for the day and went over to ensure the boat was all secure and to ensure they had a safety line onto the mooring. They were very appreciative of the assistance and we found out how little instruction these charterers are given!

Off to Maconna, by circumnavigating Hook Island was thwarted by the swell and our need to be gentle with Pyrenees, so we turned 180deg and headed back through Hook Passage into calmer waters. Whilst navigating back through the weather forecast changed, so we changed our destination to CID harbour. Enroute whales!   A mum and bub were taking a leisurely swim down Whitsunday Passage, we think possibly nursing the baby.  We watched them for ages, when we thought they disappeared we put the motor back into gear and started heading south again. No sooner had we done this than they appeared again, 100m off the stern of the boat. Straight back into neutral and we got front row seats as they made there way across the passage. When they had gone again, we steered towards Cid Harbour, and in the distance, just off Cid Island we could see a couple of whales breaching. Too far away to capture but still wonderful to see.

The next four nights we stayed in Cid as the wind gusted outside the Harbour. We moved spots once, to get a bit more clearance from the other boats and hopefully get some data coverage (to no avail). We were one of the closest into the shore, which gave us some nice protection and ensured no boats came close. By the second night I counted about 45 boats hiding out here. We spent the days pottering on the boat. Even though we are in paradise, there is still ovens to be cleaned, floors to be swept and stainless steel  to be polished.  Hard work deserves sundowners on the beach, watching magical sunsets with  Champagne, (supplied by Pyrenees) and Caviar (supplied by Sea Lanes). 😉

With Pyrenees booked in for the repair work, we headed across the bay towards Airlie whilst the weather was somewhat calmer. Our plan was Funnel Bay for tonight, but it was living up to its name as we passed by it early this morning, so we are in a little known anchorage called Bluff point.  There are no beaches, just rocky shores and mangroves. Great thing though, we are tucked in out of the wind with  only us and one other boat in the bay.

Stuart

From Nara Inlet we headed into Coral Sea Marina for repairs, refuelling and reprovisioning. We had a new depth sounder and log installed which provides boat speed through the water which helps with navigating in these waters where the current often flows quite quickly. The broken halyard turned out to also include a damaged genoa foil (track that the sail slides into) and a damaged forestay all of which needed parts to be delivered and the work couldn’t be started till mid-August. The end result is no sailing until the work is finished so more motoring for the next couple of weeks. Whilst in port we replaced the filters on our trusty water maker as they had been in fairly constant use for the last 3 months.

From Airlie Beach we headed east to Hook Passage steaming between Hook and Whitsunday Islands where we encountered some mild tidal overfalls with small breaking waves where the wind waves stand up against the tidal current flowing in the opposite direction before heading south to the iconic Whitehaven Beach where we anchored for the night. The next day we continued with a clockwise circumnavigation of Whitsunday Island passing through Solway Passage and Fitzalen Passage before anchoring in Macona Inlet which required careful navigation through a narrow channel before entering a quite wide bay. Macona provided good protection from winds coming out of the north and a very peaceful night.

As the wind shifted around and went very light, we headed north to the Stonehaven anchorage at Hook Island where paddleboarding and snorkelling were in order. The snorkelling was continued at Blue Pearl Bay off Hayman Island where we spent the night on a public mooring buoy. Next day was off to the northern end of Hook Island to Butterfly Bay and though the winds were out of the North East, they were very light and we had a peaceful night and more snorkelling.

A return to strong south east trade winds saw us take shelter in Cid Harbour for 4 nights which is a no swim zone due to sharks. We recorded a maximum wind speed of 33 knots here but our fabulous Rocna anchor held strong along with a good length of 12mm anchor chain deployed.

We were due to head back to Airlie Beach on Sunday but decided to cross Whitsunday Passage early Saturday morning as the forecast showed a slightly lower wind speed Saturday. I’m not sure that eventuated as it was quite bumpy on the crossing until we passed through Unsafe Passage between the Molle Islands – it is in fact quite safe for yachts and smaller ferries! The Molle Channel was a lot calmer than Whitsunday Passage due largely to the lower tidal currents

Our intended anchorage at Funnel Bay near Airlie was very windy and had what would have been an uncomfortable sea running down it so a plan change saw us venture to Bluff Point which we had never been to, 3miles north of Airlie and nicely protected for the 25-30 knot southerly blowing outside. We had another fairly calm night at anchor here before heading into Coral Sea Marina at Airlie Beach where Pyrenees will be berthed for nearly 2 weeks whilst we have a land break on Hamilton Island.