Double Bay, Northern Hook and the City of Cid

The Whitsundays proved they are the crème de la crème for cruising this last week. So much happens in just a week that you find it hard to keep up with the pace at times. We sailed north with 25 knots at our heels, finding that Volante did well sailing with just the Jib up downwind. We arrived at Woodwark Bay to recycle some washed up marine ply to make some boxes for the deck. The ply was washed up from the Tropical cyclone in summer where “50” boats were sunk and wrecked. We found some quality wood easily and moved around to the next bay (Double Bay) to set up a woodshop in an old fishermans hut. The anchorage was nice and small, with only 1 or 2 other boats around, but the wind bullets coming off the high hills were brutal at times, particularly at night when everything seems to increase along with the anxiety levels. Rob did some fishing on our new rod and caught a nice trevally for dinner.
After five weeks of relatively windy weather we finally had a forecast that has been by far the best, which turned into 4 days ranging from variable to 15knots of winds! Wanting to make the most of it we decided we would snorkel as much as we could, and get to some of the anchorages that needed calmer days. Our first stop was Langford Island, the Island with a mile long sand coral cay, the site of the TV ad with Lara Bingle, standing in turquoise water, white sand and a mountainous backdrop saying “what the bloody hell are ya”. Here we had a snorkel and walk up the cay, watching the reef sharks foraging just off the beach, where Anna finally got her chance for the mock photoshoot (perhaps to fulfil her dream of one day being in Womans’ Day).
Langford had the first of about 30 public mooring buoys located around different islands and bays containing deep waters and coral reef areas in need of protection from anchor damage. They are great as they are easy to use, where you don’t have to put down 60metres + of chain and are easy to sail off. The more popular spots have only limited space and a couple of moorings. A two hour limit applies to the buoys, but the catch is, if you get one after 3pm, you are allowed to stay on the mooring overnight, so it can become quite frantic, racing other “mooring competitors” to try and get a spot after 3pm. They also have size limits, and there are a handful scattered around that are only to be used by small boats such as us. However a small matter such as a maximum size limit unfortunately doesn’t deter large charter boats from tying up on the small moorings. Twice we have gently persuaded them off by sailed directly towards ‘our’ mooring.
With courage from our efforts of sailing through the Gloucester passage, we set off sailing through the reef littered passage between Hayman Island and Hook Island. After some confusion over what navigational marks were what and the direction that currents might be running, we escaped the channel unscathed and headed around the corner, towards some of the spectacular northern bays. We sailed into Maureens’ Cove, onto a mooring and had a great snorkel amongst fantastic staghorn and fan corals, and thousands of fish. In the morning we sailed off our mooring (without using the motor) apparently inspiring a charter boat to do the same, however without the desired effect as they were still attached to their mooring with their sails flapping a while later.
The next morning, seeing a lot of splashing offshore, we ventured a couple of miles out to sea to find out what it was, seeing a breeching whale and calf was rather exciting, although Rob also seemed more focussed on the flying fish leaping around our bow. Coming back in we spotted a large sail fish, shining an amazing iridescent blue swimming around on the surface. We headed into the most north-eastern bay, Pinnacle Bay, where all the water runs around the corner creating overfalls, swirling currents and oodles of turbulence. After mooring we spent an uneasy 10 minutes wondering whether we would be able to swim back to the boat if we were to venture for a snorkel. We decided to take Joy for a row to shore, and snorkel from there. Spotting multiple whales playing in the strong overfalls just offshore and having turtles in the water while we snorkelled made it pretty worthwhile to be here. We sailed back around the corner under jib, patrolling 2 bays that we were eager to get a spot at. One ‘mooring competitor’ under motor bet us to the first free mooring , and luckily we managed to squeak in past some friendly kiwis on a big monohull to get a spot at the desired Manta Ray bay. We put up our big flash umbrella to shade the deck and which is very useful on the days when we are moving regularly to different snorkelling sights. It gives the boat a tropical, relaxing and nearly Indonesian look and heaps of people comment to us about it as they drive by. We had a perfect night at Manta Ray Bay with a beautiful calm evening, amazing sunset and heaps of whales swimming around us. Seems we didn’t have to sail way out to sea to view them after all! At night under the stars we could hear the whales through the hulls singing as we slept, it gives the place a special feeling having the whales around.
The next day we headed back out to see to a small offshore island called Deloraine which was meant to have great snorkelling. However we found lots of locals fishing out there and found that it was not zoned green as we hoped but actually yellow which means fishing is allowed. This was a disappointment as we had found limited fish life where even only recreational fishing is allowed and especially none of the larger species such as coral trout. In the end we found Deloraine had too many currents and too deep to anchor anyway so we set off for Border Island instead, another place recommended for snorkelling.
The main highlight at Border Island, as the snorkelling wasn’t great with bad visibility, was our altercation with a charter boat. They had been rather snobby, telling the one decent member off on their boat who was waving nicely at us. Due to this (and the fact that they took their dinghy pass the reef protection markers and illegally anchored on the coral) Rob decided that a little sailing competition wouldn’t go astray so as they set off from their mooring and attempted to hoist their mainsail, we quietly sailed off our mooring and watched the debacle as we sailed closely by.
Twenty minutes later, and slowly drifting out to sea the 5 ‘crew’ were still peering up into space and wondering why the sail just wasn’t going up higher. We then heard an enormous crack that we wouldn’t want to hear on our boat and we could still see a wired cutting across the back of the sail. We left them in their chaos and carried on.
Our next trip out to Hayman Island was in pleasant breezes and sparkling waters and we had fun diving off the bow of the boat and floating through the hulls before catching a line we had hanging out the back and dragging ourselves back up to the boat.
Hayman Island boasts the famous resort, although they have scarred the island considerably by building roads and all the deforestation. We were heading there for the coral though, and were impressed by the good visibility and numbers and diversity of fish we saw. Especially the large friendly batfish, who greet you as soon as you hit the water, as well as the massive humpheaded parrot fish that was feeding by scraping the coral with its beak-like teeth.
After hearing some strong winds were headed our way we set sail for what Anna calls the ‘City of Cid’. This is a sheltered harbour always packed with boats and at night from a distance it looks like a massive floating city. We joined this city just on dusk after seeing some more breaching whales out in the bay. Cid Harbour was actually a pleasant surprise when we went ashore the next morning, with plenty of turtles and a lush ‘dry rain-forest’ filled with Hoop Pines where we were able to climb to a rocky point (Whitsunday Peak) which is the highest peak in the Islands that offers amazing 360 degree views of all of the islands.
Leaving later that morning to cross the Whitsunday Passage with wind against tide, we experienced our biggest waves so far, we were having a great time as we were running and surfing with them, but seeing the hulls and cabins of big catamarans disappear in between the swells with white water spraying everywhere as they were trying to head into it made us thankful we were getting a nice bit of luck for a change.