We had spent a few days at Shaw Island, wrestling with sharks, walking along the beach and seeing Stingrays in the shallows, so it was time to move on. We sailed north to Chance Bay (north East of Hamilton Island) on Whitsunday Island. With the winds turning North East chances were that it would be a nice sheltered bay. All the rent-a-yachts thought so too. Its quite a busy bay.
Today went for a walk across to Whitehaven Beach. The distance is a bit confusing. The sign when we started said 2.5km. On the way back the first sign said 2.3km after 600m there was another sign that said 3km. Anyway it was about a 2 hour walk each way.
We didn’t realise it was school holidays. There was a bit of a transformation from when we had seen the beach last month.
This morning we left Thomas Island early as we had very little reception. Two hours later we found enough reception at Shaw Island to join in on the Zoom call to Aunty Jean and Uncle Doug’s 70th wedding anniversary party. It was good to see everyone.
After the call we took uncle Doug’s advice and started fishing.
We landed a nice Mangrove Jack for tea. We did hook something large enough to run the line out about 100m before cutting through the trace. We also hooked something that bent the rod then snapped the 50lb line. The third time I had put a steel trace on the heaviest line we have. This time I pulled in a 1m shark (baby shark do do do do)
Now Sue has banned me from swimming off the back of the boat.
As the two ladies that were looking at joining us for the next 2 weeks both backed out and went sailing on other boats, Sue and I headed off on our own.
While heading for Thomas Island we broke a record! Going into 33knot winds and 1m waves we reached 10knots boat speed for a while. Pretty good as the boat is designed to do only 8knots, but we do regularly run at 9knots.
Two more crew joined us on 4th September, John and Joy. They had seen our note at the Whitsunday sailing club . They have sailed a lot around this area in their trailer sailer and then their catamaran but have recently sold their catamaran and were holidaying up here in Airlie Beach for the winter months (they come from South Australia).
We’ve spent the last 9 days sailing around the Whitsundays, coming back a little earlier than planned as the weather was not playing ball. We did get to visit Blue Pearl Bay, where our favorite butterfly fish swam around our boat, Luncheon Bay, Manta Ray Bay, Maureen’s Cove, Butterfly Bay East, Stonehaven, Langford island and Cid Harbour.
Whilst the fish life was good when snorkelling (we saw our favourite big Mauri Wrasses at Manta Ray Bay), John was disappointed in the state of the coral since he was last here. A lot of it is broken and covered in silt.
We did have too stay in a couple of the bays a few days as the winds got quite high and weren’t in the right direction for sailing where we wanted to go but it was a good trip. John did a fair bit of snorkelling and John and Joy went for some nice walks, the last one being at Cid Harbour where they climbed up Whitsunday Peak (a steep 2.5km climb up and then there was the downhill part too!). They said it was worth the hike because of the spectacular views of the islands from the top.
Still nothing new with the fishing but John and Joy seemed to enjoy Pass The Pigs! By coming back a little earlier they can stay their trip back to SA in good time as with all the border closures they have to go the long way round to get home.
We are back in Airlie for a few days before we take off again.
Sent from Iridium Mail & Web.
Yesterday we said goodbye to Karla, an old friend from Sue’s days in travel industry. We had a great couple of weeks despite the weather not always playing the ball. Will catch up with Karla and her family when we get back to Brisbane.
No fish were harmed in the making of her holiday (all catch and release!!).
GPS: 20 32.652s 149 06.046e
Run: 33.2nm (60.1km)
We have a new crew member. Karla flew into Airlie Beach on Tuesday afternoon. Sue and I went ashore to pick her up. It was an extra low tide and the sailing club marina was almost high and dry. We had to get out of the dinghy and wade it though the mud to the no longer floating pontoon. We were able to wash most of the mud off before heading into town to meet Karla. The first stop after meeting Karla was the booze shop. Sue and Karla had lots to talk about as they haven’t seen each other for 20 years. That evening there was a bit of swell coming in the bay which made Karla sea sick.
Wednesday morning we hauled anchor and sailed south to the southern side of Shaw Island. We found an unpopulated bay that was nice and sheltered. As Karla had taken sea sick pills in the morning she had felt good all day and was eager to partake in sundowners.
Thursday Karla was up early and watched the sunrise. After breakfast we went ashore and swam. In the afternoon we took the dinghy out and fished for a couple of hours. Sue caught two small Rock Cod and Karla caught a Damselfish and a baby Reef Shark. All were returned to the sea. Back on Imagine sun downers started earlier than usual. Everyone got a good night sleep.
This morning we left Shaw and headed across to Thomas Island and Naked Lady Bay. But it was too busy for us, so we went around the point to our own private bay. Eager to catch fish for dinner the rods were deployed . There was nothing biting then Karla called out my rod has got very heavy. Looking over the side of the boat, at first it looked like she had caught a fish big enough to eat. Then the turtle surfaced. It had swam passed the fishing line and the hook caught its shell. Before we could do anything the line broke and the turtle swam off. Isn’t that called tag and release? Upon winding the line in we discovered that it had broken close to the hook so the turtle should survive its ordeal. With fishing out of the question for a while we had lunch then headed ashore to explore, a quick swim and sunbathe. Back on Imagine and it wasn’t long before the rods came out again. Even fishing while having sundowners still resulted in nachos for dinner. One day we will have fish, so Im told.
Friday was the first race in the Airlie Beach Race Week. The first photo is as the start gun went, the second was taken 20 minutes later. It was not a fast race ! Yesterday the second race was not much better.
This morning we left Airlie before the race was due to start with zero knots of wind. We motored most of the way to Blue Pearl Bay where we are spending the night and maybe the next few days. Once again the large butterfly fish are swimming around our boat.
We met new crew in Airlie, the lady that had contacted us that was so eager to learn to sail and push her boundaries and her friend. We told them what we are doing and quizzed them on what they had been doing, their travels, clubbing etc. All was fine.
Wednesday 5th August
We sailed out to Blue Pearl Bay. Through chatting on the way we discovered that they had been to several large parties and clubbing. Also that her girlfriend was someone she met the night before that had travelled up from NSW. Another conversation went “1000s of people die in the wars in the world and no one cares, but a virus that kills old people and people that are already sick and the world is in a panic.” The lady that was pushing her boundaries was too busy on her phone to help sail. There were other things that Sue won’t let me say.
Thursday 6th August
The weather isn’t the best over the next few days so we set sail and returned them to Airlie Beach and said goodbye. They are now heading off to a party somewhere. We wanted to give them a 12 day sailing experience they said they were looking for but we have to look after ourselves and our friends.
We are self isolating (again) for 11 days until a friend hopefully still joins us!
On a positive note, we saw quite a few whales travelling past Blue Pearl Bay and we again had the wonderful big fish surrounding our boat and letting us swim with them (Toni Cunningham – not THAT big fish!!!).
