Snorkelling the Whitsundays

Saturday, 11 August to Monday, 20 August 2012
After getting the forestay fixed in record time, we went into Abel Point Marina on Saturday to pick up friends Lois and Kel for a 10 day cruise of the Whitsundays. After restocking, we headed off Sunday towards Cid Harbour.

Airlie Beach Race Week fleet

We had our first whale encounter off North Molle Island where we had to dodge a mother and calf cruising north. Monday morning we climbed Whitsunday Peak. Having walked the Inca Trail earlier this year, Lois and Kel found it a bit easier to breathe on this climb from sea level.

Lois, Kel, Warren and Debbie on Whitsunday Peak

The views from the top of this climb are picture postcard perfect (although I read recently the term now is screensaver perfect).

Looking South towards Hamilton Island

Later, we were pleased to catch up with Len and Isla who arrived with their new Fusion 40 Waterfront. It is very spacious and looks a treat.

Tuesday morning we sailed up to Blue Pearl Bay in a strong south easterly and had our first snorkel. Lots of fish, large coral but the water was a bit cloudy due to the wind. Wednesday morning the wind had eased so we motored around to Luncheon Bay and found the coral much brighter (when the sun came out) and the water clearer. Plenty of fish to watch here.

The weather has continued to ease so we decided to head out to Bait Reef on Thursday. On the way out, Lois got a fright when she saw a large whale breach directly in front of us about 40 metres away. The rest of us just saw the massive splash. All moorings were taken when we arrived however Seawind 1160 Amour De La Mer radioed to say they were leaving as we were contemplating heading to Hook Reef. Less fish to see on the reef here although they like hanging around the boats.

Warren swam with this huge Maori Wrasse

The coral was bright and intricate in design and the water very clear. Warren spotted a couple of crown of thorns starfish on a dead patch of reef.  We stayed the night with 5 other yachts and had another snorkel in the morning before heading back to Stonehaven.

We spent Saturday at One Foot Island off Langford Island. With no wind, it was ideal conditions to snorkel here and see turtles resting on the reef.

Relaxing at One Foot Island

Sunday we sailed back to Airlie in windy, overcast conditions. Quite a contrast to the weather over the last week. On Monday afternoon we were treated to an impressive display from the RAAF Roulettes who performed amazing acrobatics over Airlie Beach.

Watch those masts!

A nice finish to Lois and Kels stay!

Top Gun stunt from the RAAF Roulettes

Lucky us!

“You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from.”
― Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men

To continue our story from the previous post, we are anchored in Tongue Bay having had a good sail down from Butterfly Bay. Lunch is finished and I am enjoying my cup of tea. Suddenly we hear what sounded like a rifle shot. At first, I thought someone had rammed the boat in a tinny. I raced up on deck asking Warren what had happened. He said "I don't know but the rig is slack." He went and checked the forestay and discovered this.

The forestay turnbuckle had exploded! For the non sailers reading this, the forestay is one of 3 main wires needed to keep the mast standing upright. We quickly stabilised the rig with the spinnaker halyard, lowered the boom to take the weight off the mast and took down the genoa and used the jib halyard to further stabilise the rig. Luckily there was only about 5 knots of breeze in the anchorage. With no phone or internet coverage, we decided to head off early back to Airlie in hopefully light winds and get in contact with Seawind and Tempo Spars.

Roland from Tempo advised that there had been a recall of these turnbuckles by Ronstan and over 20 Seawinds had had them replaced. Somehow we had been missed off the list! 

Broken turnbuckle

As luck would have it, Spot, the Ronstan man who had replaced them all, was in Airlie Beach for Race Week. He came to the boat as soon as we got to the public pontoon, confirmed this was the issue and arranged to get a new turnbuckle from a local rigger which he installed. All fixed within a couple of hours of arriving. A good outcome as we had thought it might take days to fix.

Spot reassembling the furler

So there was some good luck to fix the bad luck. Of course the worse luck would have been if the fitting had given way when we were sailing which might have led to losing the whole rig. Even worse if this had happened half way to PNG!

South to the Whitsundays in company

Friday, 3 August to Sunday, 5 August 2012 - 
Magnetic Island to the Whitsundays
Friday we sailed 85 miles to Upstart Bay - most of it to windward in perfect conditions for our genoa.We averaged 7 knots in winds that were 10-15 knots. Another 53 nm to windward on Sunday to Bona Bay. Less wind today and we motorsailed for much of it. Then an easy 31 nm to Blue Pearl Bay in light winds. It was champagne sailing that was made very special by the marine life we encountered along the way. We dodged whales (literally) all the way south.

We were entertained by breaching, tail slapping and this pair that kept bobbing their heads out of the water practising their synchronised swimming. We kept a very good lookout but were still surprised how many times we didn't see the whales until they were quite close. The closest surfaced 50 m off the starboard bow.

When we left Bona Bay we encountered 2 groups (pods or schools??) of manta rays. The first sailed right underneath the boat and gave us a good look at these graceful creatures.

We also saw dolphins, turtles and 1 sea snake. Only 1 fish landed, a large queenfish that we released as they are not great eating and don't freeze well.

Monday, 6 August to Wednesday, 8 August 2012 - Whitsundays
With such perfect weather, we decided to head out to Bait Reef - the closest outer reef to the Whitsundays. Very little wind most of the day and we motorsailed the 19nm out and motored back. Unfortunately we had a high tide in the middle of the day but the snorkeling was still good although not as clear as we have seen here previously.

School  of fish on Bait Reef

On Tuesday we snorkeled Luncheon Bay (great coral) and Manta Ray Bay (good coral and plenty of fish).

Butterfly Bay

On Wednesday explored Butterfly Bay by kayak before sailing south to Tongue Bay in a good breeze. We anchored in close in a nice protected position. What happened next had both our hearts racing...........

Halifax Bay

Sunday, 22 July to Thursday, 2 August 2012
We had perfect weather as we explored Rattlesnake and Herald Islands. Both were named after royal navy survey vessels that surveyed the area in the 1840s.

Rattlesnake Island

Rattlesnake looks as you would expect an island that is bombed regularly to look while Herald looks like the perfect desert island scene.

Herald Island Anchorage

Until you go ashore that is!

The anchorages here were fine in the conditions we had but with more wind forecast we headed back to Horseshoe Bay. We had 4 nights here and we walked to Balding Bay (local nudist beach) and Radical Bay and caught the bus to Nelly Bay. We then headed back to Townsville as the new GPS antennae for our AIS had arrived. We decided to stay at the Townsville Yacht Club which is situated up Ross Creek.

Ross Creek

While motoring in, our compass malfunctioned again so we contacted Raymarine who agreed to replace the unit with a new one. Barry from Navcomm Electronics was very helpful in resolving this issue without any further delays.

We  headed back to Horseshoe Bay on Wednesday, 1 August to catch up with Pam and John from Allikat II. They were at Lizard Island with us last year and are also doing the Louisiade Rally this year. We didn't get there until after dark and very surprised by a light on the sail that looked like a torch. It turned out to be  the moon reflecting off the water into the sail.