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Published: April 3rd 2011
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G'Day mates:
We are offically in Australia ... After a three and half hour flight from Auckland, we landed in Sydney where we met up with our Canadian/Aussie friends Don and Hilary and boarded our two hour flight to Hamilton Island to start our Whitsundays adventure. Waiting for us was a 36 ft sailboat , Jasambri II. The first afternoon/evening we spent buying groceries and getting everything in place so we could set sail the next morning. By the way the temperatures are between 24-28 and this is without sun...
Day one: Gilligan emerged, ask Fred. We set sail from Hamilton Island at 10:30 for Nara Inlet on Hook Island. We both had a turn at the helm and despite grey skies and rain it was a great time. We anchored for the night as we waited out the storm. Which by the way didn't let up...
Day two: After breakfast, we set out by dingy to check out several waterfalls that had formed from all the rain. Then we went ashore for a hike to a Ngaro Cultural sight which has a cave with Ngaro art motifs on the walls and a nice view of a few small waterfalls. Still
raining, at times very hard, we set off for our next anchorage. After a 3 hour sail - very exciting at times - we anchored for the night in Cid Harbour. By the way it was still raining... Once we got set up Fred decided to try his hand at fishing, his first cast was lucky and he got a large fish to the boat... so he says, no one else saw it! But we did see the other two small fish he caught.
Day three: After breakfast we took the dingy and headed for Sawmill Beach. After spotting the biggest spider I've ever seen, we hiked along a trail through a semi-tropical rainforest. This trail took us to Dugong Bay where we saw a big piece of dead brain coral, and some soft coral and very unique rock formations. We then headed back to the dingy and set off for the sailboat in the pouring rain... but it's a warm rain! We spent a 2nd night in Cid Harbour.
Day four: We left Cid Harbour, sailed through the "Unsafe Passage" between North and Mid Molle Islands, and caught a mooring at Sunlovers Bay (there was no sun,) west coast
of Daydream Island, where we donned our very lovely stinger suits and went snorkelling. Spent an hour snorkeling over some of the most beautiful coral and fish. Spotted yellow-tailed fusilier, six-banded parrotfish, five-banded damsel fish, blue puller, beaked coral fish, Moon wrasse... After we got back on the boat we sailed between South Molle Island and Long Island, north of Dent Island into Hamilton Marina for the night to restock food and wine and shower. Oh yeah it's still raining
Day five: We left Hamilton Island and headed out under clearing skies... heading north up through the Whitsunday Passage for Butterfly Bay (beautiful spot). This was one of our longest day's of continuous sailing (five hours-45 km) we also seen the sun enough to get sunburned. Fred put his rescue skills in gear and helped another sailboat moor while we got set up for the night. While cooking dinner the rains came back and the wind picked which, set us up for a very rough night of high winds and huge swells. Even the dished didn't want to stay put... it was rough!
Day six: We left to Butterfly Bay and sailed between Hayman Island and Hook Island still under
Nara Inlet, Whitsundays
Some of the rock formation rough waters... and headed to Stonehaven where it did clear and Fred tried his hand at fishing and Don took the dingy and checked out the reef. After a short break the sun came out so we motored to Langford Island (about 20 minutes away) to go snorkelling, where we saw many fish and coral and Fred got photos of a big turtle. We left after two hours snorkelling and headed to Nara Inlet(where we spent our first night). Once we were anchored you could see and hear the cockatoo's getting ready to nest for the night. And we were even able to sit outside and listen to the waterfalls in calm waters.
Day seven: We headed out of Nara Inlet for Cid Harbour and our last night on the boat. The four hour sail was a good one despite the rain which at times very heavy - so we were wet again. We sailed into the bay and anchored for the night. After a break we decided to try one last snorkel so we took the dingy to Orchid Island...
Day eight: We headed back to Hamilton Island to return the boat ... after a fantastic week of sailing
... and get ready for the next part of our adventure. But I do think they should have called this area the Wetsundays! But then again Australia is the second driest continent on the planet!!!! Or so says Don.
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Michelle
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HI!!!...from Cold Lake
Hi Sherry and Fred... It looks like you both are having an amazing time!! All the pics are beautiful!! I keep on checking in on the blog...I love it!! What an adventure you guys are on......WOW!!!! Have fun and be safe...xoxoxo Love, Michelle.