Phase2: Farewell Whitsundays

Saturday 21 September 2013

Farewell Whitsundays

Sunday September 8 to Saturday, September 21 2013
It has been 2 weeks since the Multihull Rendezvous finished and since then we have had light N, NW winds. This is exactly the wrong breeze to sail north. The Queensland coast runs in a north westerly direction, so going north we don't want NW and going south, SE winds.

Turtle Bay looking south to Pentecost Island

It is not all bad news though because with these winds we have spent some time in anchorages not usually accessible with the predominant SE winds. Turtle Bay tops the list - good holding, lots of room, nice sandy beach for a swim and lots of places to explore in the kayaks. It has been a very relaxing couple of weeks.

Looking south from the lookout above Whitehaven

We also visited Whitehaven where we walked across to Chance Bay and Tongue Bay where Warren took the dinghy into Hill Inlet but decided it looked too shallow for Phase2. We also anchored at Macona Inlet where we had sundowners on the beach with a group of Shaggers, Nara Inlet and Plantation Bay on the south side of Lindeman Island. We were disappointed with this anchorage and the walking tracks I hoped to find were overgrown and we didn't try them.

Chance Bay

Our trip to Nara Inlet from Macona Inlet was via Hardy's Reef and Bait Reef. 84 nm in total for the day to end up about 1nm away as the crow flies. By the time we got to Hardy's Reef the tide was rushing in and we didn't like the look of the entrance. High tide was about 1700 and we didn't want to risk entering that late and not seeing the bombies. We then sailed to Bait Reef where we picked up a mooring but the NW gave a nasty chop so we decided to head back to the tranquil waters of Nara and a good nights sleep. We learnt a bit for the next time we head out that way and Warren caught a nice spotted mackeral.

Last night, Friday was at Breakfast Bay on the south side of Gloucester Island. Very calm in the NW conditions. The weather pattern is still not great but we decided to head off at 1000 today in little breeze and hope the predicted SE-NE winds develop and we don't have to motor all the way to Cape Upstart.