Author: Phil46639

We had a bit of everything today. With only a short sail from Magnetic Island to Orpheus Island, we had time in the afternoon for some shore leave.

We departed Magnetic Island at 7:00am as the sun began to shine on the mountains surrounding Townsville. The day promised sunny skies, warm weather, fair winds and flat seas. We started in a gentle 10 knot breeze which soon freshened to 15-20 knots. It was terrific reaching conditions for Carpe Diem and Debonnaire to speed along at 8-10 knots. We got a blast of wind at 25-30 knots and even with a reef in the mainsail we maintained good speeds around 8 knots and passed other cruising boats. All on board loved the sailing conditions.

The winds shifted later in the morning and we took the opportunity to fly the spinnaker. The winds eased as we sailed between the Palm Isles and eventually we had to douse the spinnaker and motor the rest of the way to Hazard Bay at Orpheus Island.

Debonnaire and Carpe Diem had the bay to themselves. We anchored carefully to avoid the reefs. We then launched our tender to explore the bay. David and Rosie walked along the secluded beach and found lots of wildlife, including oysters, clams, stingrays and small fish. Catherine also explored the shallows and Phil went snorkelling in the deeper water to look at the coral.

Back on the boat, we relaxed in the warm late afternoon sun. Carpe Diem visited us for drinks and we shared stories of the day’s fun.

Catherine and Rosie prepared a delicious dinner of Moroccan chicken, cous cous and salad.

Afterwards, we marvelled at the stars in the clear night sky and watched the moon rise on our peaceful anchorage.

Another awesome day sailing to Magnetic Island today. Although cool and overcast, we had a following breeze in the morning that increased to a 20 knot reach around the middle of the day. David, Rosie, Catherine and I took turns driving the boat. It was great fun scooting along at 8-10 knots. David claimed the top speed of 10.5 knots.

We arrived at Magnetic Island at 4:00pm and were welcomed by the friendly marina staff. We washed the boat to clean off ash that covered the decks when we sailed through a plume of smoke from a large bush fire south of Townsville. We freshened up and then went out to dinner at a Thai restaurant. We’re staying on Magnetic Island for just tonight and tomorrow we head off to Orpheus Island.

David & Rosie arrived in Airlie Beach Friday evening and we were soon off to dinner with Paul, Helen, Harry and Cathy from Carpe Diem. It was a fun dinner and everyone was excited in anticipation of our next major voyage. In the morning, we were going to start our 9 day, 460 nautical mile cruise north from Airlie Beach to Lizard Island.

The first leg of the voyage from Airlie Beach to Upstart Bay was going to be a long, 11 hour day. We didn’t want to arrive late and set the anchor in the dark, so we decided to leave just before dawn at 6:00am. We quietly slipped out of Abell Point Marina and made our way north as the dawn sky began to get lighter. We enjoyed light winds and flat seas.

 

During the day we had an opportunity to fly our spinnaker. The wind increased to 15-20 knots and we were comfortably doing 8-10 knots. It was a sensational downhill run for a couple of hours.

The coastline was dramatic with imposing headlands and mountains further inland. Cape Upstart was a beautiful, rocky point. In the photo below you can see Carpe Diem passing the headland.

We found a good anchorage in Upstart Bay. We watched the sun set while having drinks and nibbles, a relaxing end to a wonderful day’s cruise.

We have another long day of sailing to get to Magnetic Island tomorrow, so after chicken pies for dinner we had an early night and set the alarm to be underway by 6:00am.

Last week, Catherine and I sailed to Sawmill Bay (see Whitsunday Sunset). As we crossed Whitsunday Passage, a drone appeared out of the blue. It swooped past and circled around us a few times before flying back to a yacht in the distance. We had no idea who was flying the drone until today when through the intertwined network of social media we were given a YouTube link to the following video shot on 29 May 2017. We were sailing with just the jib because sometimes we decide to “take it easy” and don’t bother putting up the mainsail, depending on the wind, how far we’re cruising and whether we’ve got the energy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Of2BgiMT8_E

Nice footage Emir Ruzdic.

As Melbourne rugged up for a chilly start to June, Grace and Sam booked a last minute weekend escape to the warmth of the Whitsundays.

Friday and Saturday were windy here so we spent our time in Airlie Beach. We wandered into town to look at the beach, foreshore craft market and Main Street shops. We went for a picturesque walk up Airlie Creek along a track into the hills behind Airlie Beach. We reached pretty rock pools with water cascading through boulders.

Along the way Catherine showed us fascinating mimosa plants. Their feathery leaves close when you touch them.

We also spent some time relaxing in the marina, hanging out in the hummock, reading books and playing card games.

Sunday was forecast to be less windy, so we decided to sail over to Blue Pearl Bay on Hayman Island to snorkel among the tropical fish. The following photo shows Grace and Sam enjoying the cruise–but don’t ask me who is whom!

The wind was supposed to be 15-20 knots but it came up fresher at 18-23 knots with gusts to 30 knots. The sea was a little bumpy but not that bad considering it had been blowing 25-35 knots for the past few days. Unfortunately, the wind and waves were from the wrong direction and made Blue Pearl Bay uncomfortable so we moved on to Butterfly Bay on Hook Island which was more sheltered. We buzzed over to shore in the tender to relax on the beach and go snorkeling.

The weekend was over too soon and Grace and Sam flew back home on Monday morning. Catherine and I enjoyed their short visit and we hope they took warm memories with them back to Melbourne.

For those interested in history, Sunday was notable for this region because it was Pentecost Sunday, a special day on the Christian calendar celebrated 50 days after Easter, also known as “Whit Sunday”.  It was on Whit Sunday in 1770 that Lieutenant James Cook passed through this region on his first voyage of discovery up the east coast of Australia. He named Whitsunday Passage and Pentecost Island.

 

Catherine and I spent Monday night at anchor in peaceful Cid Harbour on Whitsunday Island.  The photo says it all.

We had a fun weekend celebrating Catherine’s birthday in the Whitsundays with some old friends.

We had a surprise visit from Mr Chang, the noodle man. He dropped in briefly before he joined Helen, Paul and their friends on Carpe Diem for a cruise to Lindeman Island. He’s a little mischievous with a cheeky sense of humour, a spark of entertainment for plenty of laughter.

As we bid Mr Chang farewell we welcomed Gilly and Neil on board for a couple of days cruising around Hook Island. We spent our first night anchored at Stonehaven, not far from Hayman Island which is now closed until mid-2018 due to damage from Cyclone Debbie. We went snorkeling at Butterfly Bay and, although the coral was damaged by the cyclone and the water still cloudy, we saw our first colourful tropical fish. The second night we anchored at Nara Inlet. We went ashore and walked to an interesting cave decorated with aboriginal art. The highlight of the trip was the calm night in this anchorage, suspended in darkness with countless stars twinkling in the sky above and dazzling blue bio-luminescence sparkling in the water below. It was a magical, surreal experience.

We celebrated Catherine’s birthday back at Abell Point Marina. Helen and Paul joined us at the new marina restaurant where we shared stories of our cruises in the Whitsundays.

 

I’ve always enjoyed Melbourne’s crisp autumn mornings that often warmed into sunny days. So I was surprised to find that I wasn’t adjusting to the cool weather. It was getting too cold in Melbourne and the tropical warmth of Airlie Beach beckoned.

We enjoyed our short visit home. It was fun catching up with so many friends and family, hearing their news and telling them about our adventure.

We returned to Airlie Beach last week, excited to be travelling again. It was a chilly 9°C when we left Melbourne and a sensational 24°C when we arrived at Airlie Beach. But the good weather wasn’t going to last. Rain was on its way, a lot of it, and we had to be prepared. We expected to be holed-up in the marina for some time so we stocked up with plenty of food and filled the water tanks. We also fixed the leaks we found on our trip north from Melbourne. The rain started Wednesday evening, just a light shower at first that increased to a steady rain. Not a deluge but it just didn’t stop. It rained and rained, pretty much continuously for 48 hours. We collected 185 mm, about three times the amount Melbourne typically gets in a month! At times it sounded like water was dripping everywhere inside the boat but it was mostly just the echo of water sloshing all around outside.  We had only a handful of annoying leaks when the rain was at its worst.

Life in our “submarine” was quite pleasant actually. We had plenty of time to read, watch TV and mop up drips. We tried all the games Catherine brought along for rainy days and I thought they were a lot of fun. Catherine thought that I was being too competitive; if that was true then it must have been the pernicious effect of prolonged confinement.

It was a great relief to see the clouds break in time for sunset on Friday and to step outside into the fresh air.

The weather is much better now and we’ve spent most of our time catching up on the never-ending maintenance and repairs: winches, blocks, jib furler, anchor chain, teak and more. For us it’s a labour of love, but for you it’s just boring, so I won’t go on.

 

With the crews of Debonnaire and Carpe Diem having departed by last Friday, Dino, Catherine and Phil spent a few extra days unwinding at Airlie Beach. Apart from some minor boat and sail repairs to organise, and some maintenance we did ourselves, we had plenty of time to relax and explore our home-away-from-home.

We wandered around town and checked out some shops and restaurants. It was bustling with tourists, particularly with young back-packers from all around the world. The main street through town is nicely developed, probably updated in recent years. Despite Cyclone Debbie, most businesses seemed to be operational again. There must have been a huge effort to quickly clean up the debris. There’s a lot of work underway to repair the damage and I’m sure that before long Airlie Beach will be back to normal. Even the trees that were stripped of their leaves are already bursting back with new growth.

We have been on a couple of short cruises. On Saturday afternoon, we headed over to the Whitsunday Islands and visited Nara Inlet. This is likely to be a first-night stop for cruises around the Whitsunday Islands later in the year, so this was a short reconnaissance trip. The course was quite straight-forward and took just a couple of hours. Crossing Whitsunday Passage was reasonably flat despite the 15 to 20 knot southeasterly breeze.

On Tuesday afternoon, we went “around the corner” to Funnel Bay. We set the anchor and were pleased it all went according to plan. We’ve rarely used the anchor because we mostly berth at marinas around Port Phillip. We thought that we should start getting some practice before cruising around to tranquil island getaways. Catherine also took the opportunity to have her first, long-awaited swim in the warm, tropical waters.

Dino returned to Adelaide on Sunday and Catherine and I flew back to Melbourne yesterday. We expect to be back at Airlie Beach mid-May. Until then, may The Force be with you.

It is with great pleasure that I post for you a sensational film of our voyage from Sandringham to Sydney, brought to you by “Dr Jugband Films”. Nominated for best cinematography, editing and original musical score, it is a trilogy capturing the drama, action and spectacle of the first leg of Debonnaire’s voyage to Queensland. Thanks David, love your work, as always.

WARNING: This film contains scenes that will give some viewers an overwhelming desire for ocean sailing. Other viewers might find certain scenes will give them an overwhelming feeling of seasickness and they should take appropriate precautions.