We spent a week at anchor at Airlie Beach using the time to do some work on Volante, getting the outboard serviced and setting up the port hull for the arrival of our first guest, Anna’s younger sister Claire. We made friends with Al, who owns ‘Zenataos’, a catamaran so big that it could fit Volante between its hulls (without a mast) and be fine. After a week sharing dinners, stories, and some of the first coffees on our trip, (that kept us both awake for hours into the night), he has become a real neighbour.
Ken and Sue the couple we met at Magnetic Island sailed in next to us. It was great to see them again and they invited us over for a delicious dinner cooked on their camp oven. They were eager to know how our three day trip past the three capes had gone, with favourable northerly winds they were able to do the trip in one full day of sailing (with southerlies on the nose it took us three days). After the dinner we raced down to the bus stop to meet Claire who is going to be onboard for the next five weeks. We had a great sail the next morning (mainly thanks to Claire for doing most of it, while we got the chance to sit back and relax!) towards our first night anchorage at Tongue bay, a big bay near Whitehaven beach with magnificent views over the inlet and beach. We chose to anchor inside the other boats, thinking it to be nice a sheltered spot. Although we were protected from the wind and waves, we found we weren’t protected from all of nature, this time it was a whale that thought we needed a scare...
After a few hours sleep, Anna heard a whale spouting, rather close. After trying a few times to unsuccessfully convince Rob that there was any danger, she turned her attention to Claire, who she managed to rouse first time round. They stood entranced by what was going on hoping that ‘Mr Whalie’ would miss them, however the sleeping whale only drifted closer. Finally Rob got up after hearing a loud, “Get up now, it’s gonna hit us!!!...” at which point the whale was only a few meters away, where by now we realised it was too late to try awaken him, afraid it might stir with a fright and damage the boat. We could only wait out the last few seconds before contact, mentally preparing to jump and swim to another boat should anything happen... The very large whale awoke with a start once he bumped into our anchor line, annoyed that his sleep was interrupted. With a jerk and lunge with his tail, sending the boat into convulsions with all the water churning under us, he swam away with purpose, exhaling deeply, creating a fearful roar, before brushing forward and away from Volante. After a few moments and some trembling hands, we were able to re-gather our own breathes, as it seemed that we were going to be spared the Moby Dick treatment for another day.
The following morning while we sailed off our anchor, we were treated with a fantastic whale breaching display in the bay. Maybe the whale was trying to tell the story of the night before to his mates, “and I breached like this to get rid of them...” or maybe they were just showing off, It was nice to be able to leave the bay to the whales and their antics before any other mishaps occurred. We sailed south past Whitehaven, towards Solway Passage. The most unforgiving of the navigable passages around Whitsundays, known for its curling waves, overfalls and huge gyres in the right conditions (or wrong for those unlucky enough to encounter them), we were fortunate to get some wind behind us to get all the way through. We headed for Hazelwood Island which is a protected zone and less visited than many of the other islands. Along the way the tension cord for the newly serviced motor started to play up as they hadn’t put it back together properly after servicing it (ggrrr!) so we sailed most of the way. We edged over the reef near to high tide to get into the idyllic Waite Bay.Pristine white sand and crystal clear water greeted us and we quickly jumped into the water to cool off. Soon the tide went out and the boat was beached, enabling us to easily explore the reef and beach by foot. The snorkelling was excellent with many turtles and rays. After two nights here we moved to Whitehaven beach, anchoring away from the crowds that mostly came up for Hamilton Island Race Week (with some that were ridiculously too big, note the boat in front of it which is pretty big itself!!!!) we soon found we weren’t immune to the crowds either. With boats coming thick and fast, and a few trying to anchor within spitting distance. After having a diving competition off the boat we went for a walk along the pure white sands of Whitehaven and over the hill to another secluded bay, where we got to appreciate the Island some more. With the winds picking up we headed for Hill inlet to rest for a few days. Here we met our friend Al from Zenataos. The water was filled with orange stingrays and we had to be careful every time we stepped into it. At low tide we got to explore the tidal flats and mangroves and Rob met up with his good friends the thousands of soldier crabs marching around on the sand.
Leaving Hill inlet as the tide rose at 11am, we decided to go the long way back to Airlie around all of the islands. This is where we needed a super effort (a term coined from a book) to get round the 35 miles to get back to Airlie before dark. Leave it to Mr. Spinny, our trusty spinnaker. We cut down the first 15 miles in just over an hour and a half. Surfing and connecting 2 or 3 waves at times and passing yachts that were motoring. Dropping the spinnaker, we next, had to get past northern Hook and Hayman, Anna’s nemesis for getting becalmed and the swirling currents. We gave Claire a quick glimpse at the beautiful bays up north and the dark blue waters here, but we had to keep moving. And were we moving. We had averaged 8 knots for the first 4 hours. Before getting around Hayman and getting a southerly. And just like back in NZ, the southerly, even in the tropics can get very cold!! Tacking back and forth to get to Airlie as the wind died, we arrived a little late. Not being able to see the boats anchored in the dark night, we decided that we wouldn’t take the risk of trying to sail between things we couldn’t see. So we anchored out the back, to wait till the morning to head in closer...