Advertisement
Published: January 25th 2013
We're flying in that?
Hamilton Island AirportTuesday, January 22
Goodbye to Sydney but not a total farewell since we'll be back at the end of our trip - we've really enjoyed this city. A quick flight to Hamilton Island on Jetstar, Qantas's discount subsidiary, which seems to operate just as nicely as our regular full price airlines. The airport was full of families going on holiday as the school break is coming to an end at the end of January and this coming weekend is the big national holiday, Australia Day, similar to our Fourth of July.
Hamilton Island is the largest of the Whitsunday Islands, which are located about 1,200 miles north of Sydney on the Queensland coast, and it is one of the prime sailing destinations for Australia. There are 74 islands in the area, all rising mountainously out of the Coral Sea, looking much like the mythical Bali Hai.
The airport has been shoe horned into the island with the runway hanging out over the reef. Our boat is leaving from Airlie Beach, back on the mainland, and the options are ferry or air taxi. Following our (or at least my) adventuresome spirit, and more
importantly to be sure we meet the boat in time, we booked the air taxi. When we landed at the airport, which consists on one large open air building with the baggage claim consisting of a tractor lugging a flatbed with the luggage on it, we looked around for our GSL Air contact, and finding none, phoned them up - thank heavens for our Aussie mobile. The cheery chap on the other end assured me that the plane had just left and we could probably look up and see it landing just about now....which we could. The little 4 seat, single engine plane bounced in for a landing, pulled up to the fence and out hopped Andy, our pilot. After the obligatory "G'day", he stuffed our luggage in the hold in the rear and began what has to be one of our most well-listened to safety briefings ever. Steve climbed in the rear and I climbed in the front with Andy, he cautioning me not to touch the foot pedals or steering mechanism at my seat! Whoosh down the runway and up and over the islands with a gorgeous view. Yup, a bit bumpy but fun nonetheless and a great
way to get a sense of the islands.
A quick run into Airlie Beach to check in for our boat, the Solway Lass. Airlie Beach is a backpackers haven, with two dusty little streets filled with hostels, bars and pizza joints. Even though we've only brought our two 22" rolling suitcases and two small day bags on the trip, we have to pare down what we bring on board since the cabins are small. We find a luggage locker on the beach and proceed to spread out all our worldly goods on the floor and bicker about necessities for the next 3 days. Everything has to fit into 2 small bags they've given us, the size of small reusable grocery store bags, but thanks to the great packing cubes Lauren gave us for Christmas we negotiate this exercise safely, if not totally calmly. The lockers require $2 coins so we fumble through the assorted strange coins in our pockets, trying to figure out which is which. Counterintuitively, the $2 coin is the small bronze colored one, versus the huge six sided silver one worth 50 cents. You realize how used you are to just knowing what a
coin is worth without looking at - just reach into your pocket right now and jiggle the coins and you'll know right away what you have, versus peering nearsightedly at what appears to be pieces of eight, for all you know.
A lazy afternoon on the promenade at the beach, after pizza at a beachfront cafe, and then off to the Solway Lass early evening. The boat is a 110 year old wooden double masted schooner, 100 feet long, with a crew of 6. We are introduced to our cabin, which indeed is small. We chose this boat since it it one of the few boats sailing here that have cabins with bathrooms ensuite and in this case, it gives new meaning to small. Good thing we didn't bring our suitcases onboard! There is a very small double bed with a very small single bunk bed above it, room enough for one person to stand at a time, a tiny sink, and shower and toilet combined. Let's just say you could accomplish all your bathroom activities standing in one place by simply turning in different directions! We decide that the lower bunk is too small for both
of us so I gamely volunteer for the upper end accommodations. Steve says he is truly amazed at my ability to clamber up to the bunk and it is a sight that he will always remember. Once up there you definitely do not want to sleep very restlessly as there is no side rail, and the cabin ceiling comes down to meet you quickly. We laugh a lot....
We motor out of Abel Point Harbor about 7:30 p.m., as night comes quickly here with no daylight savings time, and drop anchor about two hours later in a protected cove at Hook Inlet. There are about 30 passengers - I can't imagine where they're all stuffed away - and we form a virtual polyglot United Nations. A young Italian couple on their month long honeymoon, taking the ship for another 3 days since they had such a great time the last three days, a foursome of Frenchmen, with one translating for all the others, a tattooed and earringed Swiss fellow and girlfriend, the Aussie family with the schoolteacher dad, mom and two kids, a middle aged single Australian woman, just finishing up a 6 month contract as a
Solway Lass
Sturdy and purdy... social worker in a remote town in the Queensland outback, a 50 something Swedish policeman and his partner who are on a three month round the world road trip, a pair of Brit girls, one of whom has spent the last year bumming and working around NZ and the other one happily escaping her work cubicle in freezing Dover for a few weeks of sunshine, and the only other Americans, a couple from LA, he a former tennis pro who have been in Melbourne for the Australian Open. We're the senior citizens in the group and I love being in a group such as this. A light supper on deck as it begins to rain a bit and then I get to ascend to the heavens for a good nights sleep...only it's a bit difficult when every time you turn over you worry about falling out of bed!
Wednesday, January 23
An early breakfast on deck and then motoring off to visit Whitehaven Beach. The sky is grey and there are storm clouds but we push on. No Internet access on the boat so no weather reports...or storm warnings. Mid morning we drop anchor
Whitehaven Beach
Calm before the storm at Tongue Bay and take the Zodiac into shore for a short hike over to Whitehaven Beach. We've been issued stinger suits for swimming since this is the time of year that there are vicious jellyfish in the water and we've been told we definitely don't want to be stung by them. The suits are like lightweight wet suits...so attractive! Whitehaven Beach is a pristine silica sand beach, stretching along the edge of Whitsunday Island, with clear, shallow aquamarine waters stretching far out. The sand is so white and soft it almost looks and feels like powder. By now the sky is beginning to look more than grey and cloudy and we feel drops coming down. However, as a captain said upon embarking last night, "Remember, sailing is a water sport" and so we gamely set out. It's about 85 degrees out, the water temperature feeling about the same, and so we figure how bad could it be??!! A short hike to an overlook and then down to, the beach, all of us determined to have the full Whitehaven Beach experience. Even with the rainy conditions, the sea still glistens aqua, and you can walk way out in the shallows
all along the beach. So you get wet from below and above and just enjoy the tropical experience. We passed on the stinger suits since it didn't feel much like a swimming day. There are sting rays gliding through the water, and small translucent schools of fishes darting about. On the hike to the lookout point our ears are assaulted with the sounds of the male cicadas raucous mating calls, made by rubbing their legs together. There must be hundreds of them since at times you couldn't hear above the sound. Our Swedish shipmates gamely plunge in the water, as do the Aussie kids. There are lots of teens and 20 somethings on the beach, on group trips at the end of their summer vacations - I love watching the mating rituals of the young, the nubile tanned girls with the pierced belly buttons and skimpy bikinis intently checking out the shaggy blond haired guys with surfer trunks, who are pretending not to notice - some rituals are universal. I can't imagine what it will be like on board their boat tonight... We gamely stay on the beach but the rain is getting stronger and so we head back to
Crossing Whitsunday Passage
This photo doesn't begin to do justice to the weather outside the ferry. the boat and a sumptuous lunch. The galley is tiny but Dave, the cook, works miracles in the space. With full tummies we decide its nap time, as we motor up north to find good snorkeling. It's still raining but doesn't seem too rough. About 4 p.m. we here a knock on our cabin door, all hands on deck, captain's announcement. We scurry aboveboard to get the news that we are heading back to port as all ships are being called in due to gale force winds, with up to 60 knots predicted. The captain tells us we can try to anchor in a nearby cove but if we don't make it we'll be stuck in an open, unprotected channel for the night and so he's made the decision, for our safety, to go back to Abel Point Marina and anchor for the night, which decision all of us landlubbers heartily support. So now's the time to start drinking - nothing like a little bit of terror, time on your hands, and rain drumming on the canvas roof of the main deck, to induce a mighty thirst. It's an honor bar - just make a tick mark next to whatever
Catseye Beach
The calm after the storm you want - so we grab a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, and get to know our new polyglot BFF. The Swedish couple share pictures of their road trip starting in Mexico, and their courtship. He's a widower and sailed on the Solway Lass to get over his loss about two years ago and now he's bringing his new love here. The Aussie math and science teacher proceeds to give us more than we ever wanted to know about genus, species and all else about cicadas, as well as an editorial about why the US was destined to fail in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that the way to solve the economic crisis is to build suburban houses - don't ask me why. The Swiss fellow engages us in a fascinating conversation about Swiss banking secrecy, and the Australian social worker regales us with stories of the outback, including surviving as a vegetarian when all there is to eat is lamb and beef...and beer. The cute Italian honeymooners apologize for their (almost perfect) English and we assure them they speak English a whole lot better than we speak Italian. By now the party is in full swing, with impromptu poker on the
Catseye Beach, Hamilton Island
Buttering up with the coconut oil deck, and good old American rock and roll blaring from the speakers. It's eerily calm out, with hardly a breeze, and intermittent downpours. Dave the cook outdoes himself for dinner and we toddle off to bed with full tummies and buzzing heads. Makes it an interesting climb into the Mt. Everest of sleeping accommodations. Unfortunately the party continues unabated above so it's a sleepless night...apparently we've all taken the "Morituri te salutamus" bit to heart. Nonetheless we're glad to be in port and the boat, securely moored, rocks gently through the night.
Thursday, January 24
Good morning, Cyclone Oswald! We all tentatively creep back on deck in the morning - the instant coffee just doesn't make it - and settle in to hear our fate. It's grey, raining hard, and you can see the waves tossing the small boat moored outside the harbor up and down. Captain Ron appears and lets us know that the cruise is cancelled as gale force winds and huge ocean swells are predicted for the next 48 hours, as Oswald, now downgraded to a tropical typhoon, makes its way south on the Queensland coast. Typhoon or cyclone, it's blowing up something fierce out there. Both Steve and I had read Bruce Knecht's "The Proving Ground"' about the frightening 1998 Sydney to Hobart oceangoing sailing race, in which many yachts were lost, and four sailors died, in a tropical storm with high winds and waves and so we had a clear and terrifying picture of what it would have been like out there. We have the option of staying onboard, moored at the dock, for the next night (no thank you very much), or disembarking with a very generous 75% refund. It doesn't take us long to pack our two shopping bags of stuff (who knew it was a good thing to be a bag lady), the only casualty being that we didn't get to memorialize the world's tiniest bathroom, or my ascent to the heavenly sleeping accommodations, on film since all we wanted to do was scram.
Once on land, and a long negotiation with the boat office about how best to refund the money, we decided to head back to Hamilton Island where we had planned to stay Friday night anyway. Good sense prevailed and we cancelled the air taxi in favor of the ferry, but were frustrated since we missed the 10:30 ferry - little did we know how lucky we had been with the delay. Waiting around the ferry dock, we were surprised to see our shipmates from LA appear, since they had been on the 10:30 ferry, racing to catch a plane to Sydney. Well, the 10:30 ferry had indeed left Airlie Beach in rough seas, and about 15 minutes out, started taking on water and had to return to dock. Jason and Laura, our LA compatriots, said it was one of the scariest 15 minutes ever. The ferry company cancelled rest of the boats out of Airlie Beach and bussed everyone over to Shute Harbor, a more protected harbor closer to Hamilton Island. By now it's coming down in torrents - I now know what the definitive tropical downpour is like - and the waves are kicking up in the harbor. The catamaran ferry certainly looks strong and seaworthy and in typical Aussie style, as we board the crew reassures us with "No worries, just a few bumps." We bang our way through the increasing swells, the waves breaking up past the windows, and our hearts in our throats. There's a bar on board and a nice shot of rum would have helped but there's no way I'm getting up and trying to walk to the bar right now. Finally we pull into nice, protected Hamilton marina, to be greeted with the information that all flights have been cancelled. A flight from Brisbane has been trying to land for the past half hour and has just pulled up from its third attempt at landing and limped back to Brisbane - glad I wasn't on that plane.
We're so glad to be on solid land and back in real beds with hot showers - we're such softies! Our room at the Reef View Hotel has a lovely terrace with a breathtaking view out to the Coral Sea, which magnificence can't be dimmed even with white capped water and a stormy sky. The simple pleasure of a real mattress and sheets without sand in them can't be overestimated. We celebrate at the bar with our new LA friends, a lovely newlywed couple, and swap stories of favorite travels.
Friday, January 25
It's a warm, very breezy day, and the clouds scud over the horizon. The sun has been peeking in and out all morning and I'm happily ensconced on our terrace writing away. We knew we would need down days on this long trip and this one, although unexpected, is gratefully appreciated. The news reports of Cyclone Oswald report on devastation in northern Queensland, with flooding, road washouts and some loss of life. We got off easy... or as they say here NO WORRIES! Now off to the beach for the afternoon and then on to our next adventure - driving on the other side of the road to Port Douglas.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.218s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 11; qc: 49; dbt: 0.1141s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Marty
non-member comment
This is Australian for adventure!
What a fabulous trip. From lodgings, to incredible blue waters, to fascinating travel partners. BTW -- is see you got Matthew McCoughany to pose with you in your beach photos -- I'd know those six-pack abs anywhere!