Whitsundays

We're in the Whitsundays!

The Whitsunday Group of islands comprise of the islands of Whitsunday, Hamilton, Hook, Hayman, Dent, Haslewood, Molle and their smaller close neigbours. Most are national park and are spectacular flooded mountains rising out of the sea, densely wooded rugged hills and a scattering of beaches along pretty bays and inlets. The sea is mostly calm and its a very popular destination for tourists on boats keen to dive and snorkel the many protected sites. So popular that at our anchorage in Sawmill Bay there were around 30 to 40 boats anchored, mostly catamarans and seemingly mostly chartered boats.

We went ashore to the small beach and found a path winding through the forest to Dugong Beach which has a small campsite. It was a short walk of about 40 minutes there and back but it was great to stretch our legs after a couple of days on the boat.  The next morning we packed a picnic lunch and walked along the track through the rocky rainforest to Whitsunday Peak about 437 meters high.

Its a steep walk and I struggled a bit in the 1,5 hours it took to reach the summit. Sitting around on a boat with little exercise for months has made me unfit. Once at the top, my peevishness with myself evaporated as the views are so worth every step. Sweeping scenic 360 degree view of surrounding islands, bays and inlets. A bird's eye view of mountains and sea to easily rival Cape Town's best views.

Some of the vegetation near the top looked like "grass trees".

Just as we finished our picnic lunch at the top, it started raining and we made our way down through the dripping trees listening to all the bird sounds in the forest.

The rain soon stopped and it was hot and sunny on the beach again.

We swam off the boat watching the departures and arrivals of various other boats.

One of the arrivals was a super luxurious cruising powerboat with staff ensuring the guests arrived at anchorage clutching drinks and still clutching their drinks when they were taken for a dinghy ride around the bay. Its become a habit of ours to listen in to the charter companies on the radio in the mornings as they call up their boats to log the day's planned activities of their customers. Its a good way to catch an updated local weather report and has its humorous moments as we eavesdrop on the interaction. Cruising Australians seem to measure out their day by where they will stop for morning tea and lunch. We soon recognized the names of the many boats anchored near us as charter boats and it is interesting to see them passing us as we all cruise around the popular sites and knowing which ones have to go back to the marina as their holiday ends. There's some smugness on our part as we can linger about for almost as long as we like.

Robert took another look inside the cramped engine compartment and after some tinkering said he thinks he has fixed the water leak from the engine, (fingers crossed).

I know that its only a matter of days before another boat issue pops up. Paul, the owner of Indian Summer told us BOAT stands for Bring Out Another Thousand - that's AUS dollars (R10,000 to us).

The next morning we swam off the boat and around lunchtime we set off for Nara Inlet just a short hop across to Hook Island. Its a long narrow fjord and we hoped to visit the dive site on the outside of the inlet's entrance. We anchored and went ashore to the tiny beach close to the entrance. The water was warm in the shallows and fairly clear.

The next morning as I was contemplating a swim off the boat, I saw a large dark fish shape swim under the boat.

Shark! Or Dolphin was my first thought. The shape stayed under the boat lazily swimming around. Robert was excited thinking it might be a dugong. After watching it for a while, it did not surface for air so perhaps not dugong. What about a bull shark?  We dangled a chunk of leftover roast beef in the water which was ignored as it swam past. Not shark. The photo isn't very clear, but here he is ignoring our piece of meat. There's a bit of fishing gut tied to the meat, but no hook! Catching this guy is the last thing we'd want to do.

Robert tried to take some pics with his underwater camera while staying safely out of the water. No mean feat. The shape swam up closer to the surface and it was a very large ugly fish with thick lips.

We googled and found what we saw was a Queensland Groper, a huge fish that likes to live in underwater caves or overhangs. This one is way bigger than either Robert or myself, well over a a meter and definitely a couple of hundred kilos. And we are NOT swimming next to the boat this morning!

We packed the dinghy for a visit to the dive site and set off.  However, once out of the inlet and round the headland into the sea, it was too choppy for me in the little dinghy and I chickened out of going further. I felt rather sorry that Robert missed out to snorkel the site but he didn't feel it was conducive to go back alone. Perhaps a swim at the boat ...... The huge fish was still under the boat, probably thinks its found a new cave home. By the time it got dark, many other boats came to anchor in the inlet. It was looking rather crowded. And the giant groper is still under our boat.

On Monday morning we saw that two of the boats which arrived in the dark were large yachts and they put out inflated water slides. We had a leisurely late breakfast (as retired people do) and watched the antics of people hurtling down the water slide and bombing into the water. Bet our giant groper was not under those boats.

Around lunchtime (the Australian cruiser time slots rub off) we set off for Langford Island hoping to snorkel around one of the recommended sites. At many places around these popular islands, the National Parks have declared no anchorage zones to protect the coral so a boat has to pick up a designated floating buoy to moor. My first attempt at picking up a buoy in the water with Robert's "McGyver" boat hook was successful. Yay!

In the meantime the wind had picked up and we noticed a very strong current so regretfully gave snorkeling there a miss and moved on to Stonehaven Anchorage where we anchored out of the no anchorage zone, along with several other boats, and it was comfortable. A short visit to a really tiny beach to stretch our legs was all we could do.

We researched some good recommended diving sites and the next morning set off for Butterfly Bay. Unfortunately, many other cruisers have read the same bible "100 Magic Miles" and towards the finish, it was a close race between ourselves, a large catamaran and a nippy monohull as to who would pick up the last available buoy. The large catamaran won and the losers diverted to nearby Maureen's Cove.

My second attempt at picking up a buoy was also successful first time, and we hadn't even hooked on the rope when we noticed large fish collecting under our boat. What is it with Pegasos and fish?  Maybe they intuitively know that we don't fish and are safe from being dinner. We snorkeled around the boat and it was super to see these larger tropical fish so close.

 Robert swam further to the shoreline but said there wasn't much coral to see. We went off to check out the dive sites and were a bit disappointed - lots of fish but very little live coral. A second bout of snorkeling was much the same - numerous fish but the coral is mostly bleached.

The weather forecast for the next day was strong 20 knot wind so we decided to move towards the southern end of Hook Island and shelter in Macona Inlet. It is a scenic inlet and we watched dolphins and flying fish against a background of green wooded hills. We took the opportunity of the still late afternoon to dinghy over patches of coral - again mostly dead coral. The surface was as smooth as glass and it's hard to believe that strong wind is coming. But it came, about 2 a.m. and Robert is the designated person to get out of bed in the middle of the night and check the anchor chain and other sundry mysterious noises.

The wind brought swells and it was a rolly night and morning. At least we have internet here to plan our next stop which is becoming a little more urgent as we are low on water and gas. Sitting out bad weather is a good time to catch up on family messages, Facebook, emails and update our blog -  with coffee and music. Not so bad after all.