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Published: August 27th 2008
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We left Bowen and headed the very short distance (108km) to another of our favourite spots, Airlie Beach. We have hired a bareboat power cruiser to cruise the Whitsundays twice before from here, but from first hand experience they are only really enjoyable if the winds are below 20knots - unless you’ve hired a yacht and you are an avid yachty. So we decided to wait until we got to Airlie to assess the forecast and take our chances on whether there was a boat available. The coastal waters forecast was good - winds under 20 knots expected for next 3 days. We made the enquiry on Saturday and were in luck, there was a 36 footer available on Monday morning for 5 days. We spent Sunday getting supplies (mostly happy hour ones!) and packing sarongs.
We arrived at the marina on Monday morning and packed the boat, then, after the lengthy 2 hour briefing (not as long as some because we have hired previously) we hit the water with me at the helm as skipper. We headed north through Hayman passage to Butterfly Bay on Hook Island, a 2.5 hour cruise away (I was singing the theme song from
Gilligans Island all the way……….”for a three hour cruise, a three hour cruise….”) We were in heaven. We dropped anchor in the bay along with about 8 other yachts and boats and reached for refreshments. We cooked a dinner of linguine with fresh prawns and herbs. The next morning we took the tender (dinghy, for those not up on boaty language) and went for a ride around the headland to Maureens Cove where we beached the tender and Wes braved the fresh winds to go snorkelling. After returning to the boat, we motored back through Hayman passage and down the coast of Hook Island to Nara Inlet. The theme from Gilligans Island came swiftly back to mind because…….”the weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed…………” Yes the winds had freshened with gusts of 25-30 knots and rounding the southern tip of the island and entering the bay was quite rough. Luckily it was only about 30 minutes worth. We chose to anchor in Refuge Bay where the wind was still buffeting the boat a bit, but not quite enough to spill the drinks, which is the main thing. We ended up spending two, albeit rolly nights here, just
reading, eating, drinking and relaxing. We did go for another run in the tender right down to the end of Nara Inlet, but the breeze was stiff and chilly so we didn’t go for long.
The next day the winds had calmed to 20-25 knots and even though this is not ideal and made the 2 hour trip quite lumpy, we left the mooring and headed through Hook Passage and down the eastern side of Whitsunday Island to Tongue Bay, which is just north of famous Whitehaven Beach. We anchored and had some lunch and then left and took the boat 30 mins south to Whitehaven beach, where we anchored again, took the tender to the beach and went for a walk along with the thronging day trippers. Unfortunately it was cloudy and so it wasn’t at its most picturesque, but nevertheless the sand is so white and so fine its like walking on talc and is well worth the visit. We left late in the afternoon and headed back to Tongue Bay which is supposedly more protected than Whitehaven for overnight moorings.
With winds still in vicinity of 20-25 knots with some higher gusts, we left at
8.00am on the slack tide (between low and high tides) and headed out through the notorious Solway Passage into the open ocean at the bottom of Whitsunday Island and hit a swell of around 2.5 -3 metres.........”if not for the courage of the fearless crew, the Minnow would be lost…………” Everything not tied down was tossed off benches, tables etc and Wes was kept busy securing and picking up. We were heading around to Hamilton Island for lunch and it took nearly 3 hours to get there. (I forgot to tell you that the boat motor is governed to a maximum speed of about 12 knots - probably about the speed of the SS Minnow in the ‘60’s). We took a public mooring in the channel outside the marina entrance and took the tender in. We had a walk around on our sea legs and had a nice lunch. Finally the winds dropped to the forecast 10-15 knots and conditions were again beautiful. We left Hamilton Island and headed around for our final night in Cid Harbour and a magnificent sunset. The water was like a mill pond the next day for our trip back to Abel Point Marina -
we did consider pirating the boat away until they found us.
Back at the caravan and walking like we were permanently drunk, we did some washing, replenished supplies and got ready for the 520km trip between Airlie Beach and Yeppoon the next day.
Most of our time in Yeppoon was spent relaxing (there seems to be a theme forming) and scenic drives, although we did have to meet with the real estate agent re the investment property we have here and have an inspection. See, its not all fun and games!
On to the Town of 1770 (303km), where we looked into investing about 5 years ago based on the rhetoric that it was to be the new Noosa - we wanted to see how far it had progressed from the skyrocketing prices back then. We were very happy with our decision not to invest because we can report that nothing had progressed, in fact some of the same houses were on the market and some of the developments had gone broke.
We left 1770 early to make it to Bundaberg in time for the first Bundaberg Rum Distillery tour of the day. This is our
mecca - yobbos that we are, we do like to partake in a Bundy or two and we now have a new appreciation for the stuff. The tour included two free drinks each - dangerous considering we still had 280kms to go to get to Coolum Beach on the Sunshine coast…………
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Carm
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Bundy
Congrats on your travels, reckon you start an outback travel agency! very jealous wish I was with you, enjoy the rest of your tour. cheers Carm!