Low tide was late in the afternoon so only Robert went in the water for a last look around the Coral Gardens while I viewed the corals from the dinghy drifting over them. The water was so clear, it was a great pastime.
Our next stop is another tropical island, Brampton Island. Our start was delayed when Robert discovered water in the engine bilge - previously it was always dry. So this is a new issue. It seems that on a boat, if it's not one thing, than it's another thing to fix. After some poking around in the extremely inaccessible engine area, he thinks it is from the seawater pump used to cool the engine. It's not much water dripping so safe enough for the time being - a job for another day.
The journey to Brampton Island was short and smooth. There was very little wind and so we motored all the way, about two and a half hours. This is Pegasos anchored at Brampton Island.
Brampton Island and Carlisle Island are two islands very close together separated by a narrow stretch of water that dries out at low tide and one can walk across. We walked along the beach next to a resort which closed in 2012. It's a bit depressing to see the resort falling apart and the vegetation reclaiming the abandoned airstrip. In its day it must have been a lovely place for holidays with safe swimming areas and lagoons formed by the receding tide. It also looks like Cyclone Debbie did some damage to the resort with many paving slabs and bricks washed off and half buried in the sand and crumbling retaining walls.
Although it's scenic and has walking tracks to look out points, Brampton Island doesn't really appeal to us, possibly the charm is gone with the dilapidated resort so we decided that the next day we would set off for yet another tropical island, Goldsmith Island, a short distance of 10 nautical miles further north. This was a very pleasant sail with calm flat seas and just enough wind from just the right angle to get us gliding along nicely. We recorded 6 knots of boat speed with only 8 knots of wind, which is very impressive performance for a cruising yacht.
Although Goldsmith island has an attractive and secure anchorage it is quite difficult to get ashore. The access to beaches are very rocky and we couldn't find a route between the coral and rocks that would enable us to land the dinghy onto a beach.
So once again we spent only one night there and sailed on to the next island with a safe anchorage, Lindeman Island.
There are scores of islands dotted around but most are very difficult to get to by boat because of fringing reefs of rock and coral. We've sailed past many stunning deserted beaches and pristine islands that are hardly ever visited.
The weather turned and the winds became stronger than what we like for sailing so we spent another day and night just parked off at anchor at Lindeman. By Thursday conditions were a bit more manageable and boredom had made us braver and so we sailed on in quite rough weather.
Many of the islands in the Whitsundays group are heavily developed for tourists. Hamilton Island has a busy airport, fancy marina, trendy restaurants and high rise apartment blocks. Dent Island has a golf course. We can do without all that and so we sailed past these two islands on the quiet side of Dent Island where there are few buildings apart from this charming lighthouse.
As the day progressed the wind and waves diminished and in the end we had a very enjoyable day's sailing. We ended the day in the very protected and popular Sawmill Bay anchorage on Whitsunday Island.
Contrary to my expectations,the attire for sailing around tropical islands is not floaty sarongs. When we are sailing we wear PFDs, even when we are just sitting in the cockpit. A PFD (Personal Floatation Device) is a lifejacket with a small gas canister so that it can be quickly inflated.
When we leave the cockpit and go on deck we always clip onto a line secured around the boat, with a safety strap clipped onto the harness of the PFD.
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