Debonnaire

Catherine and I had a sensational week cruising around the Whitsunday islands with our family. We shared some wonderful experiences and enjoyed spending time together, in contrast to our normal daily routines that send us in different directions.

We had already collected Dan and Gigi when we sailed past South Molle Island on Sunday morning. We were joined later that morning by Alex, Grace and Sam who flew up from Melbourne. We hadn’t seen them for weeks and were so excited to see them arrive at Abell Point Marina.

We set off on Monday morning, another warm, sunny day in the Whitsundays. We ended up at Stonehaven which we knew would be good for snorkelling. What we didn’t expect was one of the highlights of our trip: a manta ray cruising around our mooring. We had just finished snorkelling when we spotted a stingray close to Debonnaire. Dan and Gigi quickly jumped into the tender and rowed closer to get some photos. There was a lot of squealing and splashing but amid all the excitement Gigi kept her cool and sculled like an Olympian after the ray. It wasn’t until we reviewed the footage below that we confirmed it was a large manta ray as big as the dinghy.

It was only the first day of our cruise and it was hard to imagine something more spectacular than a manta ray up close. Over the following days we saw whales, dolphins, dugongs and turtles, which were fascinating but a little too far to appreciate in detail. It wasn’t until our last night that we were fortunate to witness an event even more spectacular than the manta ray. We were in Nara Inlet on a very calm, dark night. As usual, we could hear little fish splashing occasionally. But then, as we were winding down for bedtime, there was a cry on-deck: “Dolphin!” We all raced outside to find a dolphin feeding on the fish around our boat. We followed the action with our torches, seeing the silvery fish skipping over the water desperately trying to escape from the dolphin. The dolphin, probably 2.5 metres long, calmly chased the fish and, almost playfully, snapped them up with ease as they flew into the air. On one occasion, a small fish right below us played dead as the dolphin slowly approached with its mouth open, and then darted away a split second before the dolphin’s jaws snapped shut. The dolphin seemed to take advantage of our torches lighting up the fish but we had no doubt it could catch fish just as easily in the pitch black of night. The performance lasted for probably an hour, with the dolphin circling around and under Debonnaire. Then a second dolphin joined the show. And if that wasn’t enough, the water was bio-luminescent and lit up the dolphins with a soft glow when we turned off the torches. I wish I had photos to share but unfortunately it was too dark for our cameras to capture this unbelievable sight.

We had a great time snorkelling at different reefs around the Whitsundays. We saw lots of tropical fish at Blue Pearl Bay. We also got a great tip from a local skipper who recommended a good reef for coral at Stonehaven. (Click on the photos below to enlarge them.) This trip we were bitten by something in the water, maybe sea lice or possibly stingers. It’s not the season for the dangerous stingers but Catherine and I wear stinger suits anyway and didn’t get many bites. The others got more stings but they were only a minor nuisance, no worse than mosquito bites.

We spent a day at Whitehaven beach enjoying the sunshine, warm water and soft, white sand.

Gigi ran a group yoga session, perfect for stretching our lazy muscles and getting our blood circulating.

We also got on land a couple of times for short walks at Cid Harbour and Nara Inlet.

Nara Inlet walk

Nara Inlet cave entrance

Aboriginal cave paintings

Listening to audio reflections

Anchored in Nara Inlet

Breakfast at Nara Inlet

We enjoyed spending time with the kids, cruising around the Whitsundays and playing card games and board games in the evenings after dinner. The week went quickly but this time Catherine and I didn’t have to say “goodbye” because we all flew back to Melbourne on Sunday. We spent the next 10 days with the family in chilly Melbourne so that we could be home for Catherine’s Dad’s 90th birthday celebrations.

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.

Click to enlarge

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.

We had a fun week cruising around the Whitsunday islands with the Harrisons: Eliz, Richard, Bennett, Myles and Oliver. They were much relieved to arrive in warm Airlie Beach and escape the cold winter in Melbourne. But before we could set sail, we had a busy day in port preparing Debonnaire, doing the laundry and buying provisions. As usual, there was some maintenance, like sail repairs and rigging checks which Dan looked after.

We kicked off the holiday spirit with happy hour at the marina bar overlooking the glistening sea as the red sun set on the horizon.

We spent the first night in Abell Point Marina and then set off on Thursday for Blue Pearl Bay on Hayman Island. The snorkelling was terrific with plenty of tropical fish. We spent the night moored at Stonehaven and then went to Butterfly Bay for more snorkelling. We had lunch back at Stonehaven and then made our way south to Nara Inlet for Friday night. We saw 2 whales along the way, which inspired us to keep an eye out for more whales the following days.

After a peaceful night at Nara Inlet, we went ashore to look at an aboriginal site. It took us some time to shuttle everyone ashore because we can carry only 3 people at a time in our small tender. Fortunately, on the way back a friendly boatie with a much larger tender helped ferry our passengers. Most of the time, however, we had to make several trips between Debonnaire and the coral reefs or beaches to shuttle the 7 of us back and forth. By the end of the week, Oliver did a great job handling the tender and was our ferry-man.

One of the highlights was Whitehaven Beach. We spent a glorious Saturday afternoon relaxing on the fine, white sand and swimming in the warm turquoise water. It doesn’t get much better than this beautiful beach!

We moored in nearby Tongue Bay from where we could see whales in the distance leaping out of the water.

On Sunday morning, Richard, Bennett and Phil got up before dawn and went ashore to a lookout to watch the sun rise over spectacular Whitehaven Beach. The outboard motor didn’t want to start* but we rowed ashore undaunted. Our efforts were rewarded with the most sensational view.

Sunday was a sunny day with a gentle breeze so we set sail and slowly cruised past Hamilton Island on our way to Cid Harbour for the night. We enjoyed beautiful sights and a stunning sunset. That evening, like others, we had fun playing board and card games.

Monday was yet another day of glorious weather and we took the opportunity for one last visit to Blue Pearl Bay to go snorkelling among the tropical fish again. We then returned to Airlie Beach feeling quite relaxed by the leisurely pace of cruising.

We enjoyed spending the past week with the Harrisons, sharing the adventure and having laughs along the way. It didn’t seem to matter that the accommodation was a little over-crowded, with some sleeping on the saloon floor and out on deck in a hammock.

Richard, thanks for letting me use your terrific photos in this log entry.

* Did I mention the outboard was submerged one night at Lizard Island? Although the tender was tied behind Debonnaire, a 30 knot gust of wind must have flipped it over and dunked the outboard. The owner’s manual said to get it to a service centre within 3 hours! That obviously didn’t happen. I did the best I could to save the motor from damage and it has run surprising well for the past couple of weeks. And since the dawn hiccup at Tongue Bay it has continued to run normally. Fingers crossed the outboard survives!

After a well-earned break at Townsville, it was time to continue our voyage south back to Airlie Beach. We had 2 long days ahead of us and the forecast for fresh 20 knot headwinds meant it was going to be a bumpy ride. Once again we wanted to arrive at our destination before sunset, so we departed the Townsville marina just before 5:00am. We set sail soon after and made good speed through the darkness with Townsville in our wake.

Here is the same scene with some light so you can see Catherine at the helm.

Once we left the shelter of the bay, we found ourselves in 15-20 knot headwinds and 1.5-2.5 metre waves. There was no sunrise to greet us, just a dull, cloudy dawn. It was a bumpy, wet ride. Some of the bigger waves broke over the bow and washed over the boat, sending water pouring into the cockpit and out the transom. It was inevitable that leaks would be revealed and it became wet inside as well as outside the boat.

Hard to believe but we actually enjoyed the challenge of the tougher conditions. It was also our best day for spotting sea life: 1 turtle, 2 dolphins and 3 whales. We rushed on deck when Dan yelled “Whales!” We missed seeing one whale breaching just 50 metres away but were fortunate to get a close-up view of a whale that came up for air next to the boat only 10 metres away. Its tail gracefully arched into the air as it dived alongside us. It was spectacular.

We made good progress and reached our overnight destination by 4:30pm. Upstart Bay was well protected from the wind and waves so we had a calm evening at anchor. Dan and Gig had a quick swim. We enjoyed drinks and nibbles watching a beautiful sunset. Dinner soon followed and then early to bed because, once more, we were going to weigh anchor before dawn.

We still had headwinds for our final day but by 5:00am the wind and waves had moderated. The weather continued to improve throughout the day and by lunchtime we had terrific cruising conditions. It was still going to be a long 12 hour day so we had to optimise the wind shifts to maximise our speed to windward. We had been doing this for several days now as our southbound journey was always into the wind. Our on-board analysts, Dan and Gigi, applied trigonometry and wave propagation theory to work out whether we should keep heading off-shore, tack in-shore or motor directly into the wind. The brains trust did an excellent job and we arrived at Airlie Beach ahead of schedule. Yay, go maths!

We celebrated the homecoming from our Lizard Island voyage with Carpe Diem at a nice restaurant in Airlie Beach. We had lots of laughs reminiscing about our adventure. Some of the highlights we recalled included:

• the joy of sailing, particularly on warm, sunny days knowing that it was a cold winter back in Melbourne;
• hiking to Cook’s Lookout on Lizard Island, retracing his steps of 247 years ago;
• snorkeling at Lizard Island, seeing not just many colourful tropical fish but also scary reef sharks;
• seeing several whales, some of which appeared on cue with Catherine’s “wailing” calls;
• the quintessential tropical beauty of Blue Lagoon on Lizard Island;
• the camaraderie of sailing in tandem;
• arriving at beautiful tropical islands like Orpheus and Dunk and exploring the reefs and beaches; and
• marvelling at awesome sunrises (Lizard Island) and sunsets (Upstart Bay).

Thanks Dan and Gigi for being a part of our southbound voyage from Lizard Island. We couldn’t have done it without you! Enjoy the next stage of your holiday on Hamilton and South Molle Islands. We look forward to having you back on board in a couple of weeks.

After carefully watching the weather forecasts, we left Lizard Island on Monday 26 June and were relieved to get reasonably good conditions. It’s quite possible for strong 25-30 knot trade winds to blow for days and even weeks on end, trapping boats in the sheltered bay at Lizard Island. Fortunately, we had winds of only 15-20 knots and the seas were mostly about 1 metre, conditions not unlike those we might encounter on Port Phillip.

Monday and Tuesday were long days sailing into the wind, from sunrise to sunset. Our progress was slower than our north-bound voyage. Tiring but it gave us more time to marvel at the rugged coastline of this part of the world. We stayed at Cooktown on Monday night and Port Douglas on Tuesday night. After 9 days on the boat, we enjoyed refreshing showers, dinners out and quiet nights tied securely in marinas.

On Wednesday we left Port Douglas at dawn for a relatively short 6 hour trip to Cairns. Dan and Gigi spent the afternoon sightseeing and in the evening caught up with Gigi’s childhood nanny. Catherine and I spent the afternoon shopping for more anchor chain! We finally found what we needed in the third shop and were trying to work out how to get 100kg of anchor chain back to the boat when David called unexpectedly. As luck would have it, he was in Cairns, too, continuing his family holiday, so we loaded the chain into his rental car and he helped us load it onto Debonnaire.

Thursday’s voyage from Cairns to Dunk Island was the longest leg, 79 nautical miles (147km) into the wind. To make sure we arrived during daylight, we left Cairns at 3:30am. It was a windy day with showers, so we were feeling quiet weary and ready for bed by the time we anchored at Dunk Island at 5:30pm. We originally planned to have a lay-day at Dunk Island to recovery after such a tiring trip. However, we were expecting strong winds in a couple of days so we decided to push on while the weather was still good. Friday morning was another early start, up at 5:30am to weigh anchor by 6:00am and head to Orpheus Island.

Come Saturday morning, the weather was better than expected so we decided to take the opportunity to move onto Townsville and spend today having a break. Carpe Diem preferred to stay at Orpheus Island for Saturday and travelled to Townsville today instead. We had a terrific time in Townsville, enjoying dinners and brunch out at nice restaurants; sightseeing, including the Townsville Aquarium; and relaxing on the boat in the marina.

Everyone on board is well and enjoying the cruising holiday.  So far, we have seen 2 whales, a turtle and a sea snake, all of which raised much excitement.

Tomorrow, it will be another early start. We have 2 more long days into the south-easterly trade winds to reach Airlie Beach, the end of our Lizard Island cruise.

(I had hoped to post updates of our voyage more frequently but the combination of early departures, late arrivals and poor internet access at sea has left less time for correspondence.)

After nearly losing The Endeavour and all her crew on a reef, Lt James Cook needed to find a route out of the Great Barrier Reef into open ocean. While repairs continued at Cooktown, Cook went 20 nautical miles offshore to Lizard Island and from the mountain top was able to see a safe passage through the coral reefs.  We also climbed the mountain on Lizard Island to Cook’s Lookout, a 90 minute hike to the 358m peak. It marked the end of our “pilgrimage” following Cook’s voyage up the east coast of Australia, from Point Hicks in Victoria, past Botany Bay in NSW and finally to Lizard Island in far north Queensland.

It has been a 2,100 nautical mile (3,900 km) voyage from Melbourne to Lizard Island. It has taken Paul and Phil two years to prepare and we’re so pleased to have reached our northern-most destination, overcoming challenges and having plenty of laughs throughout our adventure. We celebrated with Carpe Diem—Paul, Helen, Cathy and Harry—but they forgot to tell us the theme was “island wear”.

We had a quick trip from Cooktown to Lizard Island on Sunday 18 June. We anchored in Watsons Bay next to the resort and were immediately greeted by reef sharks circling the boat. Plans to swim off the back of the boat were cancelled.

Having travelled for 9 days, we were looking forward to relaxing at anchor for the week. We sat on the beach, read our books, swam in the bay, snorkelled to look at the colourful tropical fish in the coral, hiked up the mountain and walked to Blue Lagoon on the other side of the Island. The warm, tropical beauty was in stark contrast to winter in Melbourne.

This part of the world is dominated the by south-easterly trade winds. Not until Lizard Island did I appreciate how strong and relentless the trade winds are. And the mountains on the Island seemed to funnel the winds through Watsons Bay in particular, often blowing at 20-30 knots. This meant that we couldn’t sit at the back of the boat for happy hour or sail out to the Cod Hole, a famous dive spot on the outer Barrier Reef. It also tested our anchor, which had trouble holding in the strongest winds. We had to set our anchor, or a second anchor, 17 times during our stay because it dragged: not much fun at 3:00am in pitch darkness and howling winds. (Sorry Rosie, that wasn’t in the brochure.)

We bid farewell to David and Rosie at Lizard Island.  They had cruised north with us for 12 days from Airlie Beach—thanks guys, we thoroughly enjoyed having you on board. As their light aircraft flew back to Cairns they would have had sensational views of the Great Barrier Reef. We then welcomed Dan and Gigi who flew in to Lizard Island on Saturday 24 June to join us for the cruise south back to Airlie Beach. They were able to spend a day enjoying what Lizard Island has to offer before we set sail south.

(Sorry for the delay posting this log of our stay at Lizard Island.  Mobile internet access was unreliable.)

It’s amazing that Lt James Cook travelled as far as he did up the east coast without running aground on uncharted waters. His luck ran out in far north Queensland where he struck a reef and sustained significant damage. He was able to free the Endeavour and make it to a safe inlet for repairs at a place which is now known as Cooktown. He landed on 17 June 1770; how fitting that we arrived today on 17 June.

We left Port Douglas at 6:00am this morning in flat water and calm conditions. We followed dramatic mountains along the coast, passing famous places like the Daintree Forest and Cape Tribulation.

The winds increased during the day to 25 knots. Fortunately, the wind continued to blow from the southeast and we had a quick downhill run to Cooktown. We arrived about 3:30pm and had time to look around town before happy hour and dinner at a pub.

We even had time for some fishing. A school of enormous gropers are regularly fed at the marina so we joined in the spectacle.

Tomorrow we depart for Lizard Island. We are very excited about reaching our final destination. I hope to continue updating this log but we might not have mobile coverage so there might not be any posts for about 10 days.

Just a quick post while still within mobile range to update our movements.

Thursday was a lay-day stopover in Cairns. Busy buying provisions and servicing the boats before pushing further north. Although not a restful break, we did enjoy some good restaurants ashore.

On Friday we travelled to Port Douglas. Just a short trip, arrived at 1:00pm and had time to wander around town and relax on the boat.

On Saturday we head to Cooktown which will be a long day on the water.

Mobile communications are likely to be more difficult in this remote northern region of Australia.

Standby for updates to this log entry.

Debonnaire out.

It was a big day today, 79 nautical miles (146 km) from Dunk Island to Cairns. We were up at 5:30am to weigh anchor by 6:00am while it was still dark. It was so beautiful at that hour looking over the calm, peaceful anchorage.

We had breakfast along the way and thanks to Chef David we had delicious savoury French toast with bacon.

The weather started off pleasant but became more windy in the afternoon, reaching 20-25 knots. The seas started to build but we were quite comfortable on Debonnaire because we were travelling downwind. It was cool and we had to take shelter inside when there were a couple of passing showers–everyone except Rosie who was driving the boat!

We followed the mountainous coastline along a relatively straight course. We had good speed, often around 8-9 knots, and took almost 11 hours to reach Cairns. When not at the helm, we spent our time relaxing, doing things like reading, snoozing, splicing ropes and watching the scenery. David took aerial photos from his kite, like the following one showing Carpe Diem and Debonnaire travelling in tandem.

We had a delicious dinner tonight at a seafood restaurant. Cairns has so many restaurants abuzz with lots of people, particularly in the tourist areas along the foreshore.

Tomorrow, we’re looking forward to sleeping in and spending the day in Cairns.

Saw our first whales today! We weren’t expecting to see whales until a bit later in the season so we were excited to see a mother and calf just off our course lolling about and splashing their fins.

We were on our way from Orpheus Island to Dunk Island just off Mission Beach. A relatively short day, just 49 nautical miles (91 km). Most of the day we had a 15-20 knot southeasterly breeze from behind, making it a comfortable and fast cruise. The wind faded away in the afternoon and we motored the last few miles to reach Dunk Island just before 3:00pm. We anchored at the resort which is still closed since Cyclone Yasi in 2011. We relaxed on board, reading and taking in the beautiful view. Dave launched his kite and took the following photo of Debonnaire at Dunk Island.