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Starblazer - 11/08/2015 - A delightful week in the Whitsundays



We left Mackay last Tuesday at midday so it was fitting that we left Hook Island on our way to Cairns at midday today. It is a truly stunning cruising ground and a week went very quickly; we only visited a few of the islands and none of the outer reef system.

Our first anchorage was on Brampton Island, almost joined to Carlisle Island, north of Keswick and St Bees, west of Cockermouth and Wigton islands. It should come as no surprise that these islands are part of the Cumberland Group! Brampton used to have a resort but it closed a couple of years ago and there was nobody in evidence though we didn't go ashore.

Just north of Brampton is the James Smith group, comprising Goldsmith, Anchorsmith, Tinsmith, Locksmith and Ladysmith, not forgetting Bellows, Anvil, Bullion and the 2 Ingot Islands! Don't you just love the names? Sadly we didn't stop at any of these but headed for Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island.

I should mention the sailing conditions. With only about 6 knots of wind in the anchorage and GRIB files suggesting 15 we pulled up the mainsail before the anchor. Motoring out of the bay on the north side of Brampton Island the wind whistled up to 25 knots gusting 30 from straight behind, flicking from side to side trying to gybe us, I dropped the main completely! We then had a lovely sail on genoa alone, starting with very little until the wind moderated. The current was against us most of the way but turned in our favour shortly before we approached the very narrow Solway Passage between Whitsunday Island and Haslewood Island.

Whitehaven Beach lived up to our expectations, it was stunning! The publicity photos do not lie: about 6 kilometers of very fine, pristine white sand that squeaks as you tread on it, just like Champagne Beach on Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu, without the money grabbing charges! In fact there are only a few facilities on the island provided by the National Park. We should have moved a little further up the coast for the second night but a few boat jobs got in the way.

From there we sailed to the northern coast of Hook Island where all the bays have a number of free mooring buoys provided by the National Park. They are colour coded for different length vessels, the majority are for up to 20 metres. You may only stay for 2 hours but if you pick up a mooring after 1500 then you may stay until 0900. We spent the first night in Luncheon Bay, the snorkelling was very good. The next morning we headed west to Manta Ray Bay where the corals and fish life were even better. Then we went east to Butterfly Bay where we stopped for the night. If there were empty buoys we didn't feel too bad about overstaying our 2 hour time limit!

Continuing our circumnavigation of Hook Island we navigated through the narrows between Hook and Hayman Islands and picked up a mooring in the northern half of Stonehaven Bay then moved on to the southern half. As in Butterfly Bay, we motored slowly around in the dinghy, drifting over the coral but saw very few fish. In Butterfly Bay we found the stream bed where the butterflies were very active and in Stonehaven Bay we explored the amazing rock formations.

Our last night in the Whitsundays was spent at anchor in the Nara Inlet in the south coast of Hook Island. We had scarcely got the anchor down when we were visited by a pair of birds, swift like with iridescent blue/green backs, red throats and white chests. We dinghied ashore to find the Ngaro cave paintings, thousands of years old. It is a large inlet offering shelter from just about every direction with very good holding in mud.

Time to leave the Whitsundays but not before a last snorkel in Manta Ray Bay, so we completed our mini circumnavigation, motoring through the narrow channel between Hook and Whitsunday. The pilot book warns a tide against in all the narrows is uncomfortable, with a counter wind it is very uncomfortable. We have been lucky every time, carrying the tide through with the wind behind or absent! In Manta Ray Bay we had to lurk around for about 20 minutes for a tripper boat to leave one of the 2 moorings. The snorkelling wasn't quite as good as before though the very large fish were there, including a huge Bumphead Wrasse. At midday, 45 minutes before our 2 hours was up, we dropped the mooring because another boat had slowed and approached the bay so we set off on our trip to Cairns.

Where oh where have the trade winds gone? We are motoring.

Joyce
(Approaching Cairns, first time I've found a 3G signal.)

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