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Firefly - Champagne sailing and breaching humpbacks



Its Friday 7th August and Firefly is approaching Magnetic Island. We spent last night anchored behind the spit at Cape Bowling Green and at about 0600 the wind started blowing from the south and Firefly's rocking woke us up. With no lie in possible this morning we hauled up the anchor and have been on a very fast reach with a favourable tide, covering the 35 miles to Horseshoe Bay in 4 hours.

Our time in the Whitsundays was very enjoyable, spent in company with Pat and Stuart from Brizo - the weather improving every day we were there. We spent most of our time on the west and north of Hook Island and particularly enjoyed anchoring off Langford and One Foot Island where we had a memorable walk and sundowner on the beach at sunset, witnessing a 'green flash'. Lunch at the exclusive 'One and Only' resort on Hayman Island was a real treat to Celebrate Stuart's Birthday. We then moved onto Butterfly Bay for our last 2 nights and arranged a dive in Manta Ray Bay. Visibility was quite poor and there were no mantas to be seen but we did get very close to the resident Napoleon Humback Wrasse called George and 'GT', a very friendly Giant Trevally.

Two days back we said goodbye to Brizo (who are leaving the boat and flying home) and left the Whitsunday Islands and sailed to Jonah Bay on the mainland just to the north. Friends, Kay and Rob, that we met during the ICA Rally earlier this year have a 'camp' on the remote beach. While they are away, Kev, from the next camp has been keeping an eye on their place. Now Kev is a real character, a real 'Crocodile Dundee' type. He has lived on the beach for 35 years and told us that the council in the nearest village gave up trying to evict him a long time back. Kev free dives for crayfish and that is his currency for everything he needs, he certainly seemed happy.

Kay had written Kev a letter (for us to give him) asking him to look after us when we showed up. We had beer ready to exchange for crayfish. Despite having a long untamed beard and living under a series of tarpaulins, Kev did have a mobile phone, a fridge, a cooker and a motorcycle and was definitely more up to date on current affairs than we were. So the letter was not required as Kev had received a text from Rob a few days back and there were already 2 huge crayfish waiting for us. We spent a few hours with Kev as the sun went down, chatting about our experiences and sharing a bottle of port before we took the dinghy back to Firefly.

At 0530 the next morning we left Jonah Bay, bound north and motored for the first hour or so around Gloucester Island. As the batteries became fully charged the wind filled in and we were beam reaching at 5 knots and above. With the wind coming off the land and the Great Barrier Reef keeping out any swells we were sailing in flat water, a real luxury - champagne sailing as we were promised in the pilot book. Add to that the cloudless sky and the relatively shallow water with a sandy bottom causing the water to be a shimmering turquoise. It really was a time to wonder if things could get any better?

They did - in the distance we saw a huge whale emerge from the sea and crash back in with an enormous splash. This happened several times and in between we could see the whales blowing. We have an excellent book on board 'Whales, Dolphins and Seals' and this was bought up on deck so that we could read the section on 'Humpbacks'. We were confident we were seeing Humpbacks and had already spotted them several times since arriving in Australia. Southern Hemisphere Humpbacks spend their summers in the Antarctic where they feed on krill. Then in the winter they migrate to the tropics to either breed, give birth or both, their gestation period being 12 months.

The coast of Northern Queensland is a place they frequent and this time of year is the peak. They are famous for their surface displays. Breaching, spy hopping, lob tailing and fin or tail slapping. Now Humpbacks are generally 11 to 18 meters long and weigh up to 40 tons. Firefly is 13 meters long and weighs 9 tons so these are big creatures and the book does say that people whale watching have been killed when breaching whales have landed on their boats. Despite this slightly worrying possibility we did hope that we would see some surface displays closer up.

All afternoon we kept scanning the sea and on about 5 or 6 occasions we spotted a blow or the outline of whale surfacing. Then just before sunset there was an eruption from the sea about 100 meters in front of Firefly and a Humpback breached clear of the water. Two whales were then visible every 10 seconds or so as they swam just in front and we altered course to try and keep some distance. Fortunately nothing too exciting happened when they were very close but once they were about 100 meters behind there was another huge breach - what a fantastic sight.

Paul and Susie



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