It had been more than 20 years since George and Libby cruised the Whitsundays, so their return was long overdue. This trip was a chance for them to revisit these beautiful tropical islands and to share the adventure with Audrey and April. But most of all, it was an opportunity to relax and unwind from the bustle of work and study.
As everyone settled in to Debonnaire on Tuesday afternoon, we planned our cruise for the coming days. Our guests were especially looking forward to snorkelling, so we made sure we would visit the best reefs. Unfortunately, on Wednesday we had to put our plans on hold because it was quite windy. So we had a relaxing morning in the marina and in the afternoon went out for a short sail in the calmer waters in the lee of Airlie Beach. We returned to Abell Point Marina for the evening, preferring a quiet night secure in our berth.
On Thursday, the weather was a little better and we set off for Blue Pearl Bay to go snorkelling. The conditions were pretty good for the first half of the trip but as we headed into Whitsunday Passage the wind increased to 25 knots and the sea became unpleasant. We could see in the distance that there were no boats visiting Blue Pearl Bay, probably because it was open to the weather. We decided to divert to Stonehaven, the nearest sheltered waters, and to make our way to Butterfly Bay instead. (If you haven’t been following our travels on Google Maps, be sure to look at the Chart page here. For the Awburn’s trip, slide out the menu on the left-hand side, scroll down the Whitsunday layer, select the track for “11-16 July” and zoom in to see where we went.) Butterfly Bay was renowned for snorkelling but the coral has been severely damaged by Cyclone Debbie. Although not as good as George and Libby remembered, we still enjoyed our afternoon exploring the coral and tropical fish.
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We back-tracked to Stonehaven and were lucky to pick-up the last mooring before the late afternoon rush of other cruisers looking for a sheltered anchorage for the night. The moorings are in high demand because they are secure, easy to use and located in the best spots next to coral reefs. If you can’t get a mooring then you have to anchor, and in some bays the water is quite deep and more difficult to anchor securely.
In the morning, the crowd moved on and we were able to relocate to a mooring further south in Stonehaven that was next to a great spot for coral. Later on Friday morning we cruised a short distance to one of our favourite spots, Blue Pearl Bay. There we found the crowd from Stonehaven! Luckily, there was one mooring still available. Blue Pearl Bay is the best reef we have found for plentiful tropical fish. Even in knee-deep water you can see schools of colourful fish. As you swim around you can be surrounded by a dazzling array of fish.
Friday afternoon we made our way to Nara Inlet for the night. We went ashore and walked to the aboriginal cave to look at the paintings and listen to the audio installation.
It had been a busy day of snorkelling, cruising and walking, and we were ready for bed early to have a good night’s sleep in this peaceful anchorage. But there was one more treat before the day ended: a surprise spectacle of bio-luminescence in the dark waters surrounding Debonnaire.
On Saturday, we circumnavigated Whitsunday Island and along the way stopped at the pristine beach of Whitehaven.
While we enjoyed the sun on the fine, white sand, George, always searching for adventure, set off through cyclone-ravaged trees to explore the scrub behind the beach.
Despite incidents with buckets overboard and close shaves with navigation marks, we had a pleasant cruise and made it safely to Cid Harbour for the night. Once again we had to hustle for a spot to anchor among the gathering crowd of boats. We nestled into a nice position and were then surprised to discover to whom we had anchored beside: Dino, Ricky and their families, old friends of mine from Adelaide who were cruising in the catamaran Mandala. What were the chances of that?
Sunday’s plan was for an easy cruise back to Airlie Beach. That was until Dan called us to extract him and Gigi from South Molle Island. After their voyage with us from Lizard Island to Airlie Beach, Dan and Gigi continued their tropical holiday with 5 days of luxury at Hamilton Island resort and then 5 days of austerity camping on the virtually deserted South Molle Island, and from today they were to join us again for a family cruise around the Whitsunday islands. They had booked a water taxi to pick them up later in the day but since we were in the area it was a good opportunity for us to rescue collect them. We arranged the rendezvous and used the tender to transfer them from the beach to Debonnaire. I’m not sure if we were more excited to see them or them relieved to see us!
We returned to Abell Point Marina later that morning. George, Libby, Audrey and April still had more unwinding to do and headed off to Peppers Resort at Airlie Beach for a few days. Catherine and I had a great time taking them around the Whitsundays. We hope they enjoyed the cruise, relaxing in the warm weather far from the daily grind of work, study and commuting; snorkelling among colourful fish and corals; and reminiscing about their previous holiday in the Whitsundays many years ago, including George’s romantic proposal to Libby on the foreshore of Airlie Beach.
Debonnaire 