We said goodbye to Claire and a hello to Sarah and Amanda, some of Anna’s friends from school, the next day. After we laughed at Sarah’s white skin (she has been in Canada for the past year) and she laughed at Anna’s very orange tan we all headed back to the boat in Joy who managed very well with all four of us rocking her around.
After they got settled into the port hull we left late in the afternoon for Funnel bay, a nearby anchorage. The bay was suitably named, with strong wind gusts hitting the boat on a regular basis, especially because of the strong wind warning. All four of us managed to cosily sleep inside the hulls, even with Sarah and Amanda’s extra gear and lots of food, although being so close to all the food was too tempting for Sarah who couldn’t help herself and participated in a midnight feast.
With winds around the 30 knot mark the next morning and predicted for the next few days, we headed to the shelter of Woodwark Bay. We left under our tiny storm jib and surfed the waves downwind to Woodwark. As we rounded the headland we hit smooth water and with the fully reefed main and storm jib up, we were still sailing at 6-7knots! It was a welcome relief to get to the sheltered spot right down the end of the bay where we could anchor close to the beach in the shallow water which allowed us to walk ashore at low tide.
The exploring was interesting here as there were many huts from a Polynesian village on the shore left over from an old film set but which had now being converted into a private holiday villa. We spent the next three nights here, having art and painting sessions and playing music around the campfire at night with our guitar and Sarah’s didgeridoo.
As soon as the strong wind warning was lifted we were free to head across the channel to Hook Island and explore the snorkelling spots.
Deciding that Amanda and Sarah would love the white sand we headed around to Tongue Bay and Whitehaven Beach for a couple of nights. We had an amazing spinnaker run in sunny weather downwind from Whitehaven to Hook Passage.
Amanda caused some action when she jumped off the bow (topless), travelling between the hulls and pulling herself up the ladder (losing her undies in the process) as we travelled quickly, surfing the waves with the spinnaker.
We anchored in the shelter of Cid Harbour for another night and climbed Whitsunday peak with spectacular views. In the morning we had an unexpected visit from a large turtle who surfaced underneath the boat, hitting its shell on the bottom of the hull with a loud thud, causing us to leap out of bed in alarm thinking we had hit a rock. The turtle appeared to be ok and surfaced by us regularly for the next couple of hours.
On the way back to Airlie Beach we dropped Amanda and Sarah off in Joy and they took some good photos of the boat while we sailed circles around them. They did look funny bobbing around in Joy in the middle of the bay far from land. We had our memorable last sail that afternoon, taking Volante from Airlie Beach to Cannonvale with full sail up through all of the hundreds of yachts anchored around the shoreline. We felt very confident and made us realise how much our sailing skills had improved.
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