On the third of May we said our final goodbyes to our friends in the marina and bade farewell to Cairns. We were off. Our five month interval on land had come to an end, and it was time for our sailing journey to recommence. We had mixed emotions on leaving; we were both definitely looking forward to getting back out on the water, but we’d made some great friends and loved living in Cairns with so much to see and do. We’d spent the last week saying our goodbyes to our new friends, Matt had final beers with his drinking buddies, and on our last day Sue took us to a Jimmy Buffett Parrothead party before we had a final BBQ dinner at Dave and Judi’s.

Our sincere thanks to all the wonderful people we’ve met here in Cairns, thanks for all the friendship and fun, the support and advice. To our friends at the marina, especially Don, Sue, Guy, Phil, Greg, Terry, Philip, Alan and Darren and Shelley. To all the people at my school, especially Jess, Fraser, Rach, Lesley, Lisa, and Vicki and Dale; to Dee at the gym; and of course to longtime friends Dave and Judi, and Liv and the boys.

While I had enjoyed my job and living a relatively ‘normal’ life on land, I was looking forward to going back to a life with no timetables, and Matt definitely needed to get out of the marina. For the sake of his liver, if nothing else! So it was with an air of quiet excitement and anticipation that we motored out of Yorkeys Knob for the final time and set our sails. It had been howling wind for the past few days and this day turned out to be not too different.

With fairly strong winds of 20-25 knots, we flew out to Norman Reef, averaging a speed of 7 to 8 knots, with the speedo even hitting 9 knots at times. We arrived at the reef in less than four hours and it took three attempts to tie onto the mooring buoy as the wind was so strong. With the messy, wind chopped water, our hopes of exploring this reef were dashed, and we spent the afternoon on the boat in the uncomfortable conditions, before eventually giving up and heading to bed at 7pm.

After a fairly rough and very long night, we were up early to sail over to the Low Isles. It had been a bit of a disappointing start to our trip and we were crossing our fingers for some better conditions. However, the weather gods had a few more challenges for us before they let us off the hook. Cool Change was sailing along nicely when we saw some squalls appear on the radar and the sky darken ominously. We quickly put two reefs into the main, and just in time, as then the squall passed over us, bringing strong wind gusts and a drenching of rain.

There were a few of these, and the reefs went in and out. Thankfully all the squalls were quite short lived. My cotton dress was saturated, and in the strong winds, I felt quite cold. I even had to put a jumper on for the first time in a very long time. Thankfully the weather gods relented and in the early afternoon the winds lightened, the sun came out and the skies were blue. We grabbed a mooring at Low Isles and enjoyed an afternoon relaxing in the calmer conditions.

The following day, light winds, calm seas and glorious sunshine saw us motor sailing up the coast. With the winds only 10-11 knots, we decided on a quick pit stop at Cape Tribulation to try out our new drone. After dropping anchor as close as we dared, Matt prepared the drone, and I headed out to the bow of the boat to release it. Matt was in charge of the controls, which he’d hooked up the chart plotter, and my job was to release the drone and then catch it again, up on the bow. We’d had a few practise runs at a local park in Yorkeys, and also off the boat at the marina, but this was our first real flight. We released it successfully and Matt flew it around the Cape, taking some footage. Unfortunately, there was a lot of cloud in the sky so the light wasn’t quite right, and we couldn’t really make out the surrounding reef very clearly.

Then it was time to land it back on the boat. Feeling sick with nerves, I balanced on the bow, and shouted out directions to Matt as he edged the drone in next to me where I was standing. I stretched out, grabbed the underneath of the drone and quickly flipped it over, stopping the propellers. Phew! I’d done it. Still shaking slightly with nerves, I made my way back down into the cockpit. Matt was jubilant. I just felt relieved. With the wind beginning to pick up, we decided to quit while we were ahead. It had been a successful first flight!

We sailed the rest of the way to East Hope Island, where we met Sandra and Brian from Sealeaf and Peter and Toni from Heatwave. They were also heading to Darwin and then the Kimberley. As it turned out, pretty much every other boat we met on this leg of the trip had the same destination. No boats head south at this time of year.

Over the next two days we had great conditions for our sail out to Lizard Island, with an overnight stop at Cape Bedford. I’d heard a lot about Lizard Island and so was looking forward to spending a few days here exploring. It was probably also the last place where we’d be able to snorkel safely on the coral reef. Four catamarans were already in the bay when we arrived, and a further three boats came in after us, so it was a busy little anchorage.

We spent two days here at Lizard Island, snorkelling over the coral in Mrs Watsons Bay, hiking over to the lagoon and up to Cook’s Lookout. This was the hill that Captain Cook climbed in 1770 to try to find a way out of the maze of coral reefs. He sighted a route through that he called Cooks Passage and was then able to sail the Endeavour out to safety. It was a pretty steep climb but it felt great to be out stretching our muscles.

Unfortunately, it was very cloudy on the day we climbed up so the promised view of Cooks Passage didn’t eventuate for us. We had some nice views back towards the south but we couldn’t really make out the reefs to the north. Still, we enjoyed the walk and the views and we even spotted several lizards. We spent an hour or so at the top after signing the visitor book. Matt’s phone got some reception so we checked some emails and sent some messages.

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On our final night we had a Paella Party in the small campground on the island with Napea, Sens de la Vie and Sealeaf. Everyone donated ingredients and Leonie cooked a huge paella, which was delicious. We also had yummy jugs of sangria and real vanilla slices cooked by Sandra. Yummo!!!

So we had a great first week back on the water. Our next destination is a bit of a milestone. Rounding the very tip of Australia and finally heading west!

The journey itself is my home.

Matsuo Basho

Cairns is brilliantly situated right near the extraordinary Great Barrier Reef, and many islands, reefs and cays are conveniently close and perfect for day or overnight trips. Spending time on the reef was one of our favourite things to do, and we loved to share the experience with friends and family when we could.

Michaelmas Cay, a small coral cay north of Cairns, and the nearby Fitzroy Island became our go-to places to take guests. Michaelmas Cay was a three to four hour trip out and boasted some of the clearest water, most amazing coral and spectacular tropical fish, as well as lots of green sea turtles. It was also a protected breeding ground for an incredible array of different birds. A similar distance in the opposite direction, Fitzroy Island was also home to lots of sea turtles as well as some beautiful coral bommies. At Fitzroy there was also the island with facilities, including the possibility of the ferry back to Cairns. When we took visitors out for overnight trips we usually went to Fitzroy Island first, just in case they were seasick and needed to either stay on land or return via the ferry.

We took Dave and Lesley, and then Jess, Fraser and Rachel for day trips to Michaelmas, my Mum came up from Melbourne and we took her to Fitzroy for a night. Vicki and Dale, who live in Cairns, came out to Fitzroy Island for a night, and when Ange came up to visit we took her on the double overnighter to Fitzroy Island and then Michaelmas, the same trip we took Lucas, Nicole and Karen on when they also came up from Victoria. Here are some of our favourite pics from the various trips. When Frase and Rach came on the boat they brought their drone and took the most amazing footage; it just wowed us and gave us a completely different perspective. So much so, that Matt went out and bought a second hand drone for himself!

Michaelmas Cay

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Fitzroy Island

As well as snorkelling in the bay, we walked around to Nudey Beach with Mum and had a swim there. Lucas did lots of fishing off the back of the boat and he caught quite a few little fish, one of which he filleted and ate for breakfast. We often troll a lure behind the boat, and while we unfortunately had no luck while Lucas was on board, Ange managed to reel in a huge queenfish. Go Ange!

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As well as having the Great Barrier Reef on its doorstep, Cairns also has a huge number of attractions on land. When Lucas, Nicole and Karen were visiting, we took the opportunity to tick off a few touristy destinations. One of those was Kuranda, a little village up in the rainforest. We caught the Skyrail Cableway up and came down on the Scenic Railway. In Kuranda we took a short cruise on the Barron River where we were lucky enough to spot a semi wild cassowary. Matt and I had not managed to see one of the elusive birds on any of our road trips so were excited to finally view one of these incredibly iconic tropical birds.

Nicole, Karen, Lucas and I also drove out to Mossman Gorge and after completing the circuit walk through the rainforest, enjoyed a well earned swim in the very refreshing and cool waters of the beautiful swimming hole. A visit to Cairns wouldn’t be complete without seeing a saltwater crocodile so Lucas, Nicole and I spent a day at Hartley’s and definitely got our crocodile fix!!

Kuranda

Mossman Gorge

Hartley’s Crocodile Adventures

And so that wraps up my series on our life in Cairns. Here’s a couple of pics I just found of our home in Cairns at the Yorkeys Knob Boating Club. Now to go back to the regular programming of our sailing journey…..

A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to to its old dimensions.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

After a frustrating couple of days of trying to get around Cairns using public transport, taxis and our mountain bikes, we knew that we would need to buy a car for our stay. After inspecting several cars in various suburbs of Cairns, we conveniently came across this little gold Astra right in Yorkeys Knob. She was perfect! Although she didn’t look like much, with a contrasting silver front guard and severe sunburn, she was mechanically sound and good to go. We handed over a wad of cash and she was ours. We had such a sense of freedom in having our own vehicle and it opened up all manner of possibilities for us.

One of the things we loved to do was chuck our hiking tent, tarp, stove, a bag of clothes and some food in the boot and head off on a road trip to explore the surrounding areas. We managed four road trips over our months in Cairns and saw some absolutely incredibly beautiful scenery and places. From the millions of photos we took, I’ve selected a few to share with you below (ok, maybe just a tad more than a few!).

Road Trip One – 7th to 10th January 2021

Filled with excitement, our first road trip took us south along the coast. We headed to the tiny town of Crowley Beach to meet up with Phil, a friend of mine from work in Melbourne who was up visiting his Mum, Mary. Mary cooked us a delicious lunch of steak sandwich and homemade apple pie and then Phil and his sister, Sharyn took us for a drive to see the sights of the area. They were incredibly hospitable and we had a lovely afternoon hanging out with them, even if we didn’t get to see the local cassowary! Thanks so much guys!

As it was pouring with rain we decided to get a cabin for the night and pulled off into the Cardwell Van Park. As I was paying for the cabin and chatting to the owner, we discovered that we were both from Melbourne, but not only that, that he and his brother had owned and run the small company that had custom made both Matt and my surfboards. Talk about small world! What a coincidence! He accompanied me back out to the car and said to Matt, ‘So, hear you have an Oke Surfboard?’ Matt was gobsmacked and they had a good chat.

Continuing on south the following day, we drove to Townsville and then turned west, heading inland to Porcupine Gorge, near Hughenden. On arriving at the road out to the gorge we found a road block, however the website we’d been checking for road closures showed the road as being open. Never ones for sticking to unnecessary rules, we drove around the block and found the road completely fine on the other side. It was nearing dark as we arrived and beginning to rain, so we hastily set up our tent.

The following morning we awoke to the magnificent gorge, all the more incredible since we’d arrived in the dark. We hiked down to the bottom and soaked up the awe inspiring feeling of this ancient place.

After coffee and lunch in the small town of Hughenden we drove up the nearby Mt Walker to check out the six separate lookouts giving spectacular 360-degree views over the flat outback landscape. We also spotted a couple of big, gorgeous birds of prey in the trees on the drive back down. Such majestic creatures, we were spellbound for a while watching them.

It was a long, flat drive back through the open landscape but the colour of the sky contrasting with the fluffy, white clouds was mesmerising. We pitched our tent at Big Crystal Creek campground and went for a refreshing swim at Paradise waterhole. That day was our anniversary and we celebrated with a super fancy dinner of pumpkin soup and tinned hot dogs. How classy are we!

The next day we stopped at the very picturesque Little Crystal Creek bridge which was quite crowded with people. We drove up to the teeny town of Paluma, but it was in a white-out so unfortunately we had no views.

On our journey home we saw a sign for Wallaman Falls and turned off. It turned out to quite a long detour, but we committed to it. Wallaman Falls is the highest, permanent, single-drop waterfall in Australia, but when we arrived the top of the waterfall was in a complete white-out. After our long detour out to see it, we were devastated. However, we spoke to some people who had just returned from the hike to the bottom and they assured us the view was great from down there.

Pulling on our hiking boots, we set off on the very steep two kilometre track right down to the very bottom of the waterfall. What a sight! It was incredibly powerful and absolutely pumping, spray billowing out off the bottom. Arriving back at the top, we were both totally saturated with sweat from the long hike in the humid air, and happily exhausted as we agreed that our road trip was finally over and it was time to head back to the boat.

Road Trip Two – 16th to 17th January 2021

Our second road trip was up into the Atherton Tablelands to explore the waterfall circuit. Unfortunately it was cut short when we were called back to the marina to prepare the boat for a cyclone, but we still managed almost two full days of incredible sight-seeing, including nine different waterfalls!

We started out with coffee in Mareeba, then impulsively turned off to follow a sign out to Granite Gorge Nature Park. With no idea what to expect, we were amazed by the huge mass of boulders which we, often fairly precariously, clambered over, under and through. The dinosaur footprints embedded in the rock were something I’ve never seen before.

Next was a quick stop at the spectacular curtain fig tree before we hit the waterfall circuit. Malanda Falls, Millaa Milaa Falls, Zillie Falls and Ellinjaa Falls rounded out our afternoon. All are really beautiful waterfalls. We pitched our tent as dark was falling in Henrietta Campground. From here, we hiked approximately six kilometres the next morning to the lovely Nandroya Falls, passing by Silver Falls on the way. It was a great walk, through a very pretty forest track, but it was full of leeches. I pulled more than twenty leeches off my legs and feet, including many that were hidden right up inside my reef sandals growing nice and fat. Luckily leeches have never bothered me!

We managed to fit in a couple more waterfalls plus lunch at Mungali Dairy before being called back home. Despite the abrupt ending, it had still been an awesome weekend of exploring in the Tablelands.

Road Trip Three – 27th to 28th February 2021

By this time I was working full time, so our trip to Cooktown was just for the weekend, staying overnight in a motel. We left early Saturday morning, travelling on the inland road as the more scenic coastal route past Cape Tribulation wasn’t open yet, and certainly not in our humble little vehicle. With stops at the historic Lions Den Hotel for lunch and the mystical lava covered Black Mountain, we finally arrived in Cooktown.

Our first stop was the Grassy Hill Lookout from where we could see the Endeavour River snaking its way out to sea. Then the very interesting and highly informative James Cook Museum. I didn’t really have much of an understanding of the history of Cooktown but it is a fascinating story. Captain Cook and his crew spent 48 days here, repairing the Endeavour after it had been damaged on the Great Barrier Reef, and he eventually named the river after his ship.

We wandered along the waterfront and the main street of the town. Cooktown is actually quite a quaint, pretty, little town.

Up early on Sunday morning, we set off to hike up Mount Cook. The track was pretty overgrown and it was hot and humid. We soon discovered that the mountain was covered in hundreds of giant golden orb spiders, sitting silently in their webs strung alongside and sometimes directly across the track. We adopted the technique of waving a long stick in front of us as we walked, in the hope that the stick would hit an unseen spider web instead of a part of our body. After a while, Matt was seriously freaked out; I think it’s the only time I’ve heard him squeal.

The views from the second lookout were just incredible and we sat there for a while soaking it all in. Considering how skittish Matt had become, we vetoed climbing up to the very top and continued back down the mountain.

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Road Trip Four – 12th to 14th April 2021

We did our last trip with friends from my school in Cairns, Fraser and Rachel. With us in our little Astra and Fraser and Rach in their van, we drove up to the Daintree and spent three days exploring Cape Tribulation and the Daintree Coast. Armed with the map my friend Vicki had given me, we set about ticking off every sight.

Cape Tribulation and the Daintree National Park is just such an amazing place. We were all absolutely blown away by the beautiful rainforest and the untouched beaches with the coral reef just right there. It is indeed the place where the rainforest meets the reef.

We visited lots of little beaches, lookouts and boardwalks, and had a refreshing dip at the swimming hole in Thompson Creek. We camped one night at Cape Trib Camping Area and the next at Noah Beach Camping Ground. Despite warnings of recent croc sightings and our best efforts to see said crocs, we didn’t manage to spot any. The stars were pretty awesome and we loved just lying on the beach looking up at the night sky.

This little guy visited us at our campsite at Noah Beach.

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We wandered along the boardwalks winding through the rainforest, marvelling at the ancient and majestic trees, and watching the crabs crawl in the mud below and the flying foxes hanging in the trees. Rach said ‘I’m sure there’s something about bats penises, they’re supposed to be huge.’ Lo and behold, later when Matt looked back closely at his photos, we fell about laughing as saw that he had managed to capture some pics of the bats’ members. Indeed, they were pretty big!

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Thanks to Fraser and Rach for a wonderful trip; we’re so glad we got to experience and share such a special place with you both.

Wherever you go, go with all your heart.

Confucius

It has been five months since my last post here. Five months since we first pulled into Yorkeys Knob marina in Cairns and tied up to our new home. Five months of life on land. Apart from a quick trip back home to Melbourne over Christmas, we’ve spent those months living as Cairns locals. We bought a car and I got a job. Back to reality!

Once the school term began, we quickly fell into a routine and a rhythm. Matt would drop me at school, always aiming to leave Yorkeys before 7am to beat the traffic. (If you thought Melbourne trafic was bad, it’s got nothing on the northern beaches of Cairns!) He’d be back anywhere between 3pm and 5pm to pick me up, we’d stop by the shops to get groceries and then home for dinner. Meanwhile, while I was at work, Matt would do jobs around the boat, go mountain biking or drink beer and talk with the retired guys at the marina. Marina life seemed to be to his liking!

I worked full time as a classroom teacher for Term 1 at Cairns State Special School. The staff there are an absolutely fantastic bunch of people; really friendly and supportive and I made a lot of new friends. It was quite an adjustment not just to be back in full time work, but also to be in a different school in a different state. I discovered that students are the same wherever you go, but policies and procedures can be very different! It was interesting to gain an insight into how other schools and systems work, after having taught only at the one school for the last ten years. Some of the differences blew my mind and had me scratching my head, but there were a few positive differences.

The reason we decided to pause our trip and stay in Cairns so long was to wait out the cyclone season. The coastline is much less populated north of Cairns, with fewer safe places in case of cyclones. Being southerners, the thought of a cyclone terrified us, especially in a boat, so we decided to play it safe and remain in Cairns, and also experience our first ‘wet’ season. What we didn’t expect, was that except for a few periods when a low came over, the weather was beautiful and calm, perfect for cruising. Consequently, we were often able to venture out to some nearby reefs and islands for day trips or overnighters. There wasn’t even that much rain, not what we’d expected for a wet season anyway. The locals were saying how it hadn’t been much of a ‘wet’ and then in the last two weeks before we left, it absolutely poured down. And I mean poured down! It pretty much didn’t stop raining for eight days, with 500mL falling in the first three days, and Melbourne’s annual rainfall falling over the eight days. Roads were flooded and bridges were submerged.

In terms of the cyclone season, we got lucky. Super lucky! A La Nina was called with up to eight cyclones forecast as possible over the season. Eight! Naturally we were a little apprehensive, however, after talking to locals, discovered there wasn’t too much to be concerned about, that there would usually be plenty of warning and preparation time. And as it turned out, I think there were only two named cyclones to come close to Cairns this season. In fact, the storm that caused the most damage, mostly in southern Cairns, wasn’t even classified a cyclone.

There was one instance in which we had to strip the boat, tie everything down, and evacuate. We were on a road trip up in the Atherton Tablelands in January when we got a call from Don, commodore of the marina, telling us that a Category 2 cyclone had been called and that we should come straight back to prepare our boat. We drove the two hours home in nervous anticipation and arrived to find the marina bustling with people, all readying their boats. We’d never seen so much activity there. The sky was dark and foreboding and there was a sense of urgency about. We immediately set to work securing the boat, pulling down the dodger and bimini and doubling all the lines. I packed bags with our valuables and electronics plus some clothes and food, while Matt took photos for the insurance company.

We’d previously decided that we wouldn’t stay on the boat in the event of a cyclone, and so had been in touch with my friend Liv, who offered for us to come and stay with them. This turned out to be a wise decision, because at about midnight we would have been forced to evacuate the boat by marina management. Huge thanks to Liv, Matt, Freddy and Ralphie who all moved into one bedroom so that we could have the other room. We spent two days with them, enjoying the novelty of air conditioning and playing laser tag with the boys. Thankfully the cyclone moved offshore and no damage was done to any boats or properties.

Our stopover in Cairns was also a time to do maintenance and repairs on the boat, as well as the additional preparations needed for heading north. This was mainly Matt’s department and he ticked off a pretty long list of jobs. He replaced the fridge seals and replaced the transducer, put new anodes and a new cutlasss bearing on the prop shaft, upgraded the wiring on the freezer, installed a new battery charger for the bow thruster, serviced all the winches, scrubbed and stained all the teak, had the engine serviced, had both sails repaired, replaced the joker valve in the toilet, installed a new main halyard and new headsail sheets, as well as a new block for the main halyard and a new gooseneck for the boom. He also polished the entire outside of the boat and the cockpit. A lot of polishing, but I suspect more drinking than polishing was done!

In March we pulled Cool Change out onto a hard stand and Matt sanded her bottom and then repainted on the anti-foul. A messy messy job! While this was occurring we stayed in a little apartment near the city and enjoyed novelties like Netflix, a proper bathroom and air conditioning. Absolute luxuries to us!!!

We added a boat collar to the tinny and bought oars for it. We bought a number of jerry cans, for carrying extra diesel and unleaded, and Matt did runs to the servo in the car to fill them all up. I emptied, vacuumed and cleaned every single cupboard, scrubbed away mould, vacuum sealed our winter clothes and bedding away, and shopped and shopped for provisions for the next leg of the trip.

But in no way was it all work and no play! We found lots of time to be tourists too. We were fortunate enough to have some friends from Melbourne living up here; Matt’s friend Dave and his wife Judi had moved to Cairns several years ago, and my friend Liv was currently living up here with her two boys while her partner Matt was a FIFO worker. They gave us the low down on places to go, things to see and good restaurants to eat at. It was so lovely to see some familiar and friendly faces and we really enjoyed hanging out with them. We’ll miss you, guys.

Our five months in Cairns was in no way enough time to see all the sights in this incredible area, but we sure gave it a good bash. We did a weekend trip to Cooktown, day trips to Port Douglas, the Daintree and Mossman Gorge, and lots of afternoon excursions seeking out waterholes; Crystal Cascades, Stoney Creek Falls, Josephine Falls, Babinda Boulders. There are heaps of beautiful hikes up here and we managed to do a few of them; Walsh’s pyramid, Mindin Falls, Nandroya Falls, Wallaman Falls, Yellow Arrow and the nearby Earl Hill.

We did a number of road trips, filling our trusty little Astra with our camping equipment. We ventured south via Crowley Beach, Mission Beach, Tully, Cardwell and Townsville and out west to Porcupine Gorge. We headed up into the Atherton tablelands and did the waterfall circuit. We joined Fraser and Rach to explore Cape Tribulation and the Daintree.

Taking friends out to the reef, either for a day trip or overnight, was one of our favourite things to do. Fitzroy Island and Michaelmas Cay became our go-to destinations to take our visitors. Crystal clear water, incredible corals, amazingly coloured tropical fish and green sea turtles. What’s not to love?! Heaven on earth!

We were finally able to have some visitors from Victoria, although the powers that be didn’t make it easy, and we were always on edge with the possibility of ridiculous snap lockdowns and border closures being called. Still, my Mum managed to come up for my birthday, my friend Ange fit in an amazing flying visit and my nephew Lucas, my sister Nicole and her friend Karen came up for a whirlwind week of sightseeing. Unfortunately, Matt’s brother Trev and his wife Kate, had to cancel their planned visit in April. Whilst it was incredibly disappointing, especially for Matt, and we were so looking forward to seeing them, we completely understand why they didn’t come. Australia is one single country and we need to start acting like it. We should never have any obstacles or restrictions to travelling around our own country.

So life was busy in Cairns and the months flew by. Before we knew it, our time here was over. Thanks for everything Cairns, it’s been amazing!!

Here are a few random pics from our months in Cairns. I’ll post another blog with photos and descriptions of our road trips and our adventures out to the reefs.

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We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.

Anonymous

Orpheus Island is only about 125 nautical miles below Cairns, a distance that we could, if we wanted, cover in a single overnight sail. However, there’s quite a few interesting stops along the way, so as long as the weather held, we planned to cruise up the coast aiming for a December 1st arrival into Cairns.

Our first stop, the Hinchinbrook Channel, is not far from Orpheus, and we were up early so that we would be arriving into Lucinda, the town at the southern end of the channel, on high tide. There are some very shallow parts in this approach, and friends of ours had recently touched the bottom here, so we were on alert.

But it was all good. The depth sounder showed plenty of water under the keel as we motored along past the Lucinda Jetty. At 5.76 kilometres long, and one of the longest jetties in the world, the jetty is quite a sight, stretching out into the distance. It is used to transport materials to and from the sugar mill in the little town.

Once Cool Change was safely anchored, we took the tender over to the old molasses wharf, climbing up the rusty ladder to the top. Then it was a matter of finding the footbridge over the sugar conveyor belt and into the town. A tiny little town, we wandered the streets of Lucinda, discovering the caravan park and the Pub. I was hoping there might be a general store so we could get some fresh greens, but it had closed the previous year. There was a lovely beer garden in the Lucinda Point Hotel, with absolutely huge ceiling fans that were calling our name, so we had the $15 lunch special, enjoying the cool breeze.

The following morning we motored the tinny around the point to the town of Dungeness, where we tied up to a pontoon and filled up our diesel and petrol jerry cans. Matt bought some bait and we chatted to locals about fishing and crocodiles. Hinchinbrook is a very popular fishing destination so we were pretty hopeful that we might have a bit of luck here. We were also hoping that this might be where we would see our first wild crocodile. From the safe distance of the yacht, of course!! The locals assured us that there were both plenty of fish and plenty of crocodiles. We were pumped!

It was hot and sunny as we motored into the channel, the wind picking up and the water choppy. The huge mountains on Hinchinbrook Island loomed beside us, impressive and imposing. It was quite a spectacular place.

We spent four nights in the channel, and although it was windy and choppy in the main channel, once we got up into the smaller creeks, it was incredibly calm and still. The creeks were heavily lined with mangroves and I imagined that we would see crocs everywhere. Several times we took the tinny out for an explore through some smaller arms of water, but no matter where we went, we still didn’t spot a crocodile.

We also had no luck with the fishing, not even a single nibble. There didn’t seem to be much wildlife around at all. Except for a bull shark that we spotted in the shallows near some mangroves, the area seemed bereft of life. Oh, except for the ever present midgies. We’d been well and truly warned about these, and had purchased mozzie coils in preparation along with lots of insect repellent.

They were definitely around and with our precautions we didn’t get eaten too badly. That is until on one of our jaunts in the tinny, we saw a crab pot float stuck up in a tree. Matt decided to go and rescue it, so we edged the tender into the thick mud under the mangroves and I stood on croc watch, while Matt tried to untangle the float. And then I started getting eaten!! I was completely swarmed by the little critters, and could feel them biting me, all over.

Slapping them away did nothing and I was soon covered in itchy, itchy bites. We abandoned the float and sped back to the yacht. Madly scratching at all parts of my body, I begged Matt to go faster to get them off me. I was almost crying with the intense irritation on my skin. Back on the boat, we looked at my body with amazement as huge welts emerged pretty much everywhere. I looked like I had chicken pox or the measles. Matt had been bitten too, but not as badly. We took some anti-histamines and covered my welts in calamine lotion. This was to be a procedure repeated several times over the next few days, even a couple of times in the middle of the night.

Hinchinbrook was definitely a strange place; a bit of a conundrum. Although incredibly beautiful and peaceful, there just wasn’t all that much to do. You couldn’t swim as the water was full of bull sharks and crocodiles (supposedly!) and you couldn’t go for a walk as the mangroves came right up to the water and there were no banks to get off on. So, sitting on the boat with a fishing rod and taking in the beauty of the area was about it. But I’m not complaining because that’s still pretty special. The bright stars in the night sky were particularly impressive.

It was also a strange time for us in another way. We’d just spent ten months living and travelling on our boat, cruising along slowly, lingering in places, being in no rush, just enjoying experiencing all that we could in each new place that we found ourselves in.

But in Hinchinbrook, a strange new feeling emerged; a sort of impatience and a restlessness. We both felt it. I think it was a kind of white line fever. You know how at the end of a long hike or bike ride, or even a road trip, you sometimes get that feeling where you just want to finish? Desperately want to be at the end. You’ve enjoyed the journey immensely, but still, there is that drive just to get to the finish line.

Well, it was sort of like that. With our final destination (for the year) coming into sight, we both got a bit antsy and it was hard to be in such a slow state. Strange, huh? I never expected that to happen. Although the Hinchinbrook Channel was an incredibly picturesque place, what with this feeling and the uncomfortableness of all those midgie bites, I wasn’t sad to farewell Hinchinbrook behind and head off.

We sailed all the way to Dunk Island. With the winds gusting anywhere from 12 to 25 knots, we had two reefs in and our speed fluctuated from four to seven knots. We spent three nights here, grabbing a mooring in Brammo Bay when it became available on the first morning. We explored the island, checking out Muggy Muggy Beach but water visibility was too poor for snorkelling. We hiked to the top of Mt Kataloo, a lovely walk through very tropical rainforest, even spotting a couple of little snakes on the track. And best of all, we discovered free hot showers in the campground!!

Not far from Dunk Island was Beaver Reef, and as some very light winds were predicted, we decided to head out for another reef experience. Beaver Reef is a tiny sand island surrounded by fringing reef. With Matt steering and me standing on the bow looking out for bommies, we approached the reef. Closer and closer we edged, but the water was still ten metres deep. I could see bommies in front of us, but it was very hard to figure out exactly how far below the surface they were. I lost my nerve, and we dropped anchor in ten metres, safe from the reef.

We donned our stinger suits and went for a snorkel. It was the best visibility we’d had so far. There were huge schools of fish swimming about with lots of brightly coloured fish, and some that were an electric blue colour. We wore our shark shields, but discovered that only one was working, so made sure to stick close together. For some reason, I felt more vulnerable out here. Perhaps because we were the only boat out there it felt quite remote.

With no wind to speak of, it was hot, hot, hot out there and we sweated up a storm on the boat during the afternoon. The next morning, after another great snorkel we hoisted the tender to prepare to head back to the mainland. Matt took the bung out of the tinny so that it would drain while it was being lifted. Great idea. Except that the bung fell out through the hole. Down to the bottom of the ocean. Oops!

I figured that was the end of the bung, and the tinny for the time being, as without a bung it is effectively useless. But Matt jumped into the water with his mask and flippers and spotted the bung lying on the sand below the boat. Ten metres below! Not a chance, I thought, as he took a deep breath and dived down. I anxiously watched out for sharks, trying to spot him below the water. Then, lo and behold, he emerged triumphant, holding the bung up. What a dive! I was very impressed! And very relieved!

Underwater at Beaver Reef:

We motored to Mourilyan Harbour dragging some lures. The lures got lots of bites and Matt even reeled one fish in, only to have it flip while it was on the duckboard, cutting the line and taking the lure with it. Bugger! Then we looked behind and saw the lure floating on the surface of the ocean. The fish must have spat it out. We turned the yacht around and went back to retrieve the lure. Only minutes later, however, we heard a Ping! and the line went taut, then snapped, taking the newly recovered lure with it. It was definitely gone this time!!

At Mourilyan Harbour we weaved our way through the other boats on anchor or on moorings. It’s a very shallow harbour, although incredibly well protected, and there is just a small area with enough depth for yachts. But we found a spot and settled in to enjoy the super still water, with not even a ripple disturbing the surface.

We spent a day here, and although we decided it was too shallow to risk taking Cool Change up into the Moresby River, we did take the tender up one of the little mangrove lined creeks. Our mission? Yep, you guessed it, to spot a croc. But the creatures remained as elusive as ever and we were unsuccessful once again. I’m sure they were out there, and I’m sure they probably spotted us!

From Mourilyan Harbour we planned just one more stop before we headed into Cairns. Fitzroy Island was only 40 nautical miles north, an easy day sail, however I’d so been enjoying the little half day sails that we’d been doing recently that we decided to break this trip up too. There were several little islands with public moorings along the way, and we chose Russell Island as our stopover destination.

With some good winds, we sailed all the way to Russell Island, and thinking that the anchorage looked ok, we picked up a mooring. Well, didn’t that turn out to be a bad decision! The swell picked up in the afternoon and ran right under us, making the boat rock and roll. It was a super uncomfortable afternoon and evening and we were both in bed by 8.30 pm without bothering to eat dinner. Not much sleep was had, and we emerged blurry eyed at first light to get out of there.

We had a great sail up to Fitzroy Island and flew up in just a couple of hours. As we approached the bay, we watched another yacht drop its mooring, so we swooped in and grabbed it. Perfect timing! Thank you very much! It was much calmer here in Welcome Bay and we stayed for three days, enjoying all that the island has to offer. We hiked the steep track up to the lighthouse and the summit. It was very hot, but the views from the top were great.

There is a Turtle Rehabilitation Centre on the island which runs daily tours, so we booked in, hoping to get a good look at the elusive creatures. It was very interesting and informative and we both learnt a lot. We learnt that the green sea turtle is a herbivore, eating mainly sea grasses. We learnt that male sea turtles never come onto land, and that females only come onto shore to lay their eggs.

We learnt that sea turtles are solitary creatures who can live up to 100 years of age and only reach sexual maturity around 30 years of age. We learnt that you can tell the sex of a turtle by the length of its tail, but not until they are mature. We learnt that due to sea and sand temperatures getting warmer, there are more female than male turtles being born (as sex determination is temperature dependent).

We learnt that most turtles come to the rehabilitation centre due to malnourishment or plastic consumption. We learnt how to identify a sick turtle that has ingested plastic; if it is floating on the surface of the water then it is very very sick, as turtles do not naturally rest on the surface. And we learnt that only a minor number of turtles come to the centre because of injury due to boat propellers.

Unfortunately, we still didn’t get a great look at a turtle, as they had only one on display, a young turtle called Tilly who was quite shy. The guide did assure us however, that in the bay just here, there were plenty of turtles. We resolved to go and find one.

And the next day, we did just that. We swam out from the shore at the north end of Welcome Bay, not far from where Cool Change hung on her mooring. The water visibility was fantastic and we swam around in the warm water taking in the beautiful coral and exotic, colourful fish. Then I looked up to see Matt waving madly at me and pointing down to the water in front of him. Could it be?

With high hopes, and heart pumping, I swam over as fast as I could. There, swimming casually along the bottom, was a beautiful green sea turtle. And he didn’t seem in the slightest bit concerned about our presence. He continued to move through the water, gliding gracefully around. It was incredible!

We swam with him for ages, and at times he was only an arm’s length away. We watched him come to the surface and pop his head up for a quick breath before diving back down. It was absolutely one of the most amazing wildlife encounters I’ve ever had. I felt so incredibly privileged to be there swimming with this turtle.

Heading back to the boat, I was still so pumped! We’d met Leonie and Terry from Sens de la Vie, at the Turtle Rehabilitation Centre, so we called in to tell them about our experience. They’d also swam with a turtle that afternoon and could understand exactly how I felt. We invited them to drinks on the island, which turned in to dinner, which turned in to more drinks back on their boat. Heading home at midnight, we had made some great new friends. They were also planning on heading north and over to the Kimberley next year so we knew we’d catch up with them again.

My friend Liv and her boys, Freddy and Ralphie, who were living in Cairns, caught the ferry out to Fitzroy Island and joined us on the yacht for our last night. The boys had a wonderful time; jumping off the boat, learning how to fish from Captain Matt and going for a hoon in the ‘tin boat’ as they called it. Freddy also came out snorkelling with us and we found another turtle to swim with again. Another magical encounter!

And then they came with us for our final sail into Yorkey’s Knob. Well, it was a motor sail really, as winds were very light. It was quite emotional for both Matt and myself, as we reflected on how far we have come over the past ten and a half months.

Sure, it hasn’t all been smooth sailing (no pun intended!), but I am so proud of both of us, and I know Matt is too. Sailing this far has been an incredible journey and an incredible adventure. We’ve learnt so many new skills, experienced so many different things, and been to so many new places. We’ve definitely had ups and downs, good times and bad times. We’ve had challenges and frustrations and arguments, but we’ve also had triumphs and achievements and magical moments.

While 2020 has been a pretty horrendous year for most people, for us it has been truly special. We have been living our dream. Many people never get to do that, and every day we feel grateful for the opportunities we have. The difficulties everyone else was facing, particularly our family and friends in Victoria, made us appreciate our good fortune even more.

And so, on 1st December, we tied up to our new ‘home,’ a berth at Half Moon Bay Marina, Yorkey’s Knob, Cairns. We had been sailing for ten and a half months. 318 nights. 133 of those nights were spent at anchor, 89 on a public mooring, 34 on a free berth, 57 in a marina and 5 nights were spent at sea on overnight passages. And now we were to spend the next four or five months on land. It was a strange feeling!

As I write this we have been living in Cairns, at the marina, for almost two weeks. It has been a whirlwind of a time. We bought a car. I got a job. We have been doing boat jobs and playing tourist. We have been catching up with old friends and making new ones.

It is very, very hot and very, very humid here. The weather has been getting warmer and warmer over the past few months as we travelled further and further north. I have forgotten the last time I wore a jumper and most nights we don’t even need a sheet covering us. That’s pretty perfect, if you ask me! I love the heat. But the first few days in Cairns shook Matt about a bit. Without the sea breeze out on the ocean, the heat is stifling, especially in the marina. And the humidity means that you are just constantly covered in sweat. It took him a good few days to adjust, but he seems to be acclimatising now.

We are looking forward to our new life on the land for the next few months, to experiencing a ‘wet season’ up here and to exploring as much of Far North Queensland as we can. I’m sure our adventures are only just beginning………

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade wind in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

Mark Twain

Magnetic Island, or Maggie Island, as the locals call her, is about 140 nautical miles north of Airlie Beach. We decided to do the trip over four days, stopping each night at an open roadstead anchorage. We had a range of sailing conditions over the four days, so we went from motor sailing in light winds, to having two reefs in the main with gusts over 25 knots, and then pottering along at four knots with just the headsail out and ten to fifteen knots behind. None of the anchorages (Gloucester Island, Upstart Bay, Cape Bowling Green) were overly comfortable or anything to write home about. I was definitely looking forward to finally arriving at the protection of Magnetic Island!

Just north of Magnetic Island, as we prepared to turn into Horseshoe Bay, the lure we’d been dragging went Zing! We’d been dragging a lure most of the time we were sailing and apart from a couple of undersize mackerel, we’d had no luck. But it looked like that was about to change.

Whatever it was, it was big. And it put up a good fight. When Matt finally brought it to the boat we could see that it was a longtail tuna, beautifully coloured and patterned. Matt killed and gutted it, disposing of the guts back into the ocean, before we headed into the anchorage. It was calm and protected in Horseshoe Bay and we feasted on fresh tuna steaks for dinner.

We spent five nights anchored in Horseshoe Bay and explored the island from there. We wandered through the cute little main street in Horseshoe Bay, hiked over to the neighbouring beaches of Balding Bay and Radical Bay, and swam regularly in the stinger enclosure off the beach. We had at first assumed that it was a shark net, but chatting to the lifeguard on duty, discovered that it was in actual fact a stinger net, mostly for bluebottles, and it had only been installed several days earlier. Stinger season has begun!

On the walk over to Balding Bay, we spotted a koala in a tree, quite low down and he let us get up really close. A wild koala, it was pretty awesome!

We also ventured south along the beach from Horseshoe Bay to find the estuary and lagoon that were supposed to be there. Unfortunately, it was pretty much all dried up, but we did spot some birdlife in the small bit of water remaining.

Birds of the lagoon:

It was very windy throughout our time at Magnetic Island, and after our initial calm night in Horseshoe Bay, the anchorage became very rolly with big waves rolling through the bay. We had a couple of sleepless nights, and even had to get up at 2.30am one night to reset the anchor as it was dragging.

One day we caught the bus down to the other end of the island to Nelly Bay and Picnic Bay. We checked out the marina and shops at Nelly Bay and wandered along the pier and swam in the stinger net at Picnic Bay. The anchorage in Picnic Bay was wonderfully protected and calm, with the boats there hardly moving. Cool Change was definitely in the wrong spot! Unfortunately, by the time we made it back to Horseshoe Bay, it was too close to dark to move our boat. There was also a wind change predicted for the following day, which would mean that Horseshoe Bay would then be better protected, so we sat it out for one more night.

We did move around to the Maggie Island marina for our last two nights on the island. We needed to top up the diesel and also do a big grocery shop. There were two days of very strong winds predicted, so we planned our marina visit to coincide with these. There is nothing like the relief of escaping strong winds and big, lumpy seas and pulling into a marina, tying securely up to a dock and easily jumping off the boat.

We spent two quiet days here; I shopped for groceries and restocked, while Matt did runs of diesel with the jerry cans. We walked into the nearby village of Arcadia for dinner one night. Matt had seen a sign for parma night at the Arcadia Village Hotel, obviously not be missed! It was a nice treat to be eating out and we enjoyed the atmosphere in the pub. We decided to grab a bus back instead of walking. As we were waiting for the bus, it began to rain. A sudden heavy downpour. I felt cold for the first time in ages. The rain absolutely pelted down and I was so thankful we’d decided to take the bus. It would have been a wet, wet walk home. Welcome to the tropics! Better get used to this, I guess.

We’d really enjoyed Maggie Island and it was one of the places where we could see ourselves living one day. Who knows? The wind had been pretty constant while we were here, and there was a bit of respite predicted so it was time to move on to islands further north. We sailed the whole nine hour passage to the Palm Isles. It was a long day, and I felt ill off and on. Still haven’t quite got those sea legs!

The Palm Isles or Palm Island Group is a group of 16 islands, the biggest of which, Greater Palm Island, houses an Aboriginal settlement. Due to covid, visitors were not welcome on the island so the smaller islands of Fantome and Orpheus were our destinations.

Anchoring at Fantome Island took us several attempts as a rocky bottom extended a long way off shore and we caught the anchor in rocks a few times before finding a nice sandy patch. After a good night’s sleep in the calm and flat anchorage, we spent the following day exploring both Fantome Island and the south beach of Orpheus Island.

Only as recently as 1971, Fantome Island was used as a place to house and treat people with leprosy. We discovered the remains of the leper colony; some foundations and piles and piles of rusty junk. I found a huge intact clam shell on the beach here, well, I thought it was huge, until we discovered the giant clam garden at Orpheus Island later!

On our way back to the boat, out in the deeper water, we were going pretty fast, when I saw a big round shape loom up right in front of the tinny. ‘Stop, stop!!’ I managed to shout out to Matt, but too late, and we sped right over the top of a turtle. ‘That was a turtle!’ My heart was pounding as Matt turned the tinny around, and went back to have a look. We couldn’t have hit it, he assured me, we’d have felt something. There was no sign of the turtle, and Matt was right, we’d have definitely felt it if we’d made contact. He must have been just below the surface, as the super clear water can make depths deceiving! Phew!

No wonder turtles take off whenever they see a boat. Any time we had managed to spot a turtle in the water, as soon as it popped it’s head up for a breath and realised that we there, then it was gone. I completely understood why now! We spell danger to them and turtles aren’t stupid!

Motoring around the corner to Orpheus Island, we picked up a mooring in Little Pioneer Bay. This is where the giant clam garden was purported to be and I was pretty keen to check it out. I had found some co-ordinates on another yachtie’s blog (thank you seawindow.wordpress.com!) and we typed them into our chart plotter to get an idea of where the garden started (18°36.407S 146°29.353E).

Pulling on our brand new stinger suits (very sexy full body lycra numbers), we ventured out in the tinny to find the clam garden. Bingo! We sure did find it and a heap of interesting coral and fish too. The water visibility was great, and as the tide was quite low, I was only just on top of the clams and the coral. It was our best snorkelling experience yet. The giant clams were, well, giant!! There were hundreds of these massive clam shells, all different colours and patterns, and we spent ages just exploring. It was really quite incredible, I’d never seen anything like it. I took some video footage and will attempt to make a little movie later, but here are some of the best photos.

We also walked the track up to the top of Orpheus Island for lovely views over Pioneer Bay and the other side of Orpheus Island.

The Palm Isles was a really lovely area, and I would highly recommend stopping in to check out the clam gardens if you’re passing. For us, this was one of the last stops on our journey up the east coast for 2020. We were aiming to be in Cairns on the 1st December, leaving us just over two weeks to get there.

Next blog I’ll take you on our final leg of the trip for 2020, cruising to Cairns via the Hinchinbrook Channel, Dunk Island, Beaver Reef and Fitzroy Island.

Not all those who wander are lost.

J R R Tolkien

Blue Pearl Bay, Hayman Island

After our morning walk up Whitsunday Peak, we left Cid Harbour and sailed north to Hayman Island. Arriving just before sunset, we tied onto one of the public moorings in Blue Pearl Bay and sat back to enjoy the spectacular colours.

The following morning we were the only boat in the anchorage for several hours and we soaked up the solitude in the beautiful bay. Swimming off the back of the boat, we discovered a school of very large and very friendly batfish swimming around the mooring. It was the first time we’d seen these fish and I was amazed at how close they came to us – you could put your hand out and almost touch them. We were to discover these guys hanging around the moorings at several of our next anchorages as well.

We spent the morning swimming and snorkelling around the bay, before heading off in the afternoon to hike across the island to the resort where our friends, Naomi, Bree and Bella were staying. They were on a short holiday there that just happened to match up with our travels perfectly, and they’d invited us to come over and meet them for a drink. It was about a two and a half kilometre walk up and over to the other side of the island, and we had some beautiful views out over the Whitsundays from the top.

The Intercontinental Hayman Island Resort is very, very fancy. Just the kind of place we were used to frequenting! Not! Matt made sure to wear a collared shirt, instead of a t-shirt, and I was in a fairly respectable summer dress, but still, in our hiking boots and reef shoes, we must have looked a bit out of place. Luckily no-one questioned us and we met up with Naomi and the girls. It was just lovely to see them again, all happy and relaxed on holiday.

They took us back for a tour of their apartment, and all I can say is wow, just wow. It was super plush and luxurious. The sort of place you could get very used to. We chatted away, hearing all about their trip, while sharing their bottle of welcome bubbles from the resort, and admiring the view from the balcony out over the Whitsundays. Then we went down to a poolside bar for more chat and cocktails. It was a lovely change of pace for us and a very enjoyable afternoon.

Farewelling the girls just as it began to get dark, we made our way back up and over the mountain. Luckily I had a couple of head torches in my backpack, as before too long we were reliant on their light as we wound our way along the track. We hadn’t seen too many animals on the way over, but on the trip back we spotted all sorts of wildlife. Possums peered down at us from trees, their eyes glowing in the dark, bats swooped overhead, and startled by our torches, rock wallabies careened loudly through the bush. We could also see hundreds of little spiders all over the path, their eyes glittering in the darkness. If you want to spot some wildlife, it looks like night hikes are the way to go.

Bait Reef

Our next destination was one of the outer reefs, Bait Reef, about 18 miles from Hayman Island. Like Fitzroy Reef, there would be no land at Bait Reef, but here we would still be able to make out the outline of Hayman and Hook Islands in the distance, so it didn’t feel quite as remote.

With only light winds, it was a slow sail out and on arriving we counted eight boats already in the reef. Instead of entering with possibly poor visibility, as the sun was quite low in the sky by this time, we picked up the mooring outside the reef at Manta Ray drop off. This proved to be quite challenging and it took us several attempts as the water in this particular area was quite turbulent. Looking around, it appeared that we were in the only rough patch of water for miles. Everywhere else looked lovely and calm. Frustrating!

The following morning we moved inside the reef to find calm and clear water. Several boats were moving on so we picked up a mooring. The following two days were spent swimming, snorkelling, stand up paddle boarding and lazing on the boat. The weather was perfect, sunny and warm with little to no wind. Boats came and went, and at one stage there was only one other boat in there. It was very peaceful.

A school of batfish was to be our constant companions, just as tame and friendly as the fish we’d seen in Blue Pearl Bay. The water was much clearer here so I got some good photos. They have such funny looking faces, with quite serious expressions. Joining these batfish was a huge giant trevally. We jumped in for a closer look and this big guy was just doing laps underneath the boat, round and round. He also let you get pretty close, which was really cool.

Then Matt had the idea to see if he could handfeed the trevally, and so he dangled small bits of bait off the back of the boat. Lo and behold, the trevally swam up and quickly plucked the fish from Matt’s hand. It was pretty funny, and we amused ourselves for a while doing this and trying to get some video footage.

There were several other reefs in the area in that we were quite keen to check out. Hardy Reef is the most well known as it has a pontoon inside it that tourist groups use, and you can even stay overnight on it. However, entering the reef is very tricky and the guide book describes the entrance as a waterfall (gap in the reef with water moving in/out), which sounded altogether quite scary. We decided not to risk it and instead motored out to Hook Reef. After anchoring we jumped in for a snorkel but found the water quite murky and the currents strong, so we decided to abandon this idea and head back towards the Whitsundays, picking up a mooring in Butterfly Bay on Hook Island.

Butterfly Bay, Hook Island

There were lots of moorings available to choose from in this really pretty bay. We spent two nights here and it was technology free time as we both had no phone or internet reception, even when we hoisted the phones up the mast.

I saw lots of big turtles as I paddled the SUP around, and we swam off the boat to try and see some coral, but disappointingly found that the visibility wasn’t great. We wore our shark shields here as the water was deep and dark. I found out later that a juvenile two metre tiger shark had been spotted in the bay, only a few days earlier. I’m glad I didn’t know that at the time!

Border Island

As we motored in to Border Island we could see a tourist boat on a mooring and a heap of people snorkelling at the edge of the bay. Excellent, we thought, that must be where the reef is, and we mentally marked the spot. Later, when the charter boat had left, we took the tinny over to that spot and jumped in. Jackpot! This was the best coral we’d seen in the Whitsundays so far. Water visibility was great and there was heaps of different coral; all types of colours, shapes and sizes. It was really beautiful! There was also lots of interesting fish swimming around and we spent ages checking it all out.

Taking the tender to the beach, we climbed up the short but very well made track to the top of the hill for some lovely views out over both sides of Border Island. When we got back down, another yacht had arrived into the bay and it looked familiar. It was Sue and Lance from Ocean Blue who’d we met at Cid Harbour. We invited them over for sundowners and had a lovely evening hearing about their travels and also about all the cruising up near Cairns. They keep their boat at the marina in Yorkeys Knob, where we were also planning on staying, so we picked their brains on all things about Cairns. It was great to get to know them and we swapped numbers, promising to catch up in Cairns.

Underwater life at Border Island:

Tongue Bay, Whitsunday Island

The very famous Whitehaven Beach was next on our itinerary. The winds were starting to pick up a bit so we decided to pick up a mooring in Tongue Bay which is just on the other side of Tongue Point from Whitehaven Beach. We reasoned that we might have a bit more shelter there as well as being away from the crowds at Whitehaven.

From Tongue Bay there is a short walk to a lookout over Whitehaven Beach and Hill Inlet. The views from there were just incredible. We sat there for ages, as a couple of tourist groups came and went, listening in to the guide’s spiel. It’s always nice to learn something.

Whitehaven Beach is famous for it’s long stretch of pristine white, white sand. The sand is 98.9% pure silica, the purest sand in the world, and is only found at three beaches; Whitehaven and the neighbouring Chalkie’s Beach and Betty’s Beach. The sand was made over millions of years from quartz eroding, and it is the concentration of the silica which gives the sand its unique white colour and a particularly fine powdery grain.

It was low tide when we first arrived, and with the skies a bit grey and cloudy, the colour of the water was more of a green than the famous blue we’d seen in pictures. After taking some photos, we headed down onto Betty’s Beach for a swim. I couldn’t wait to get into that water and feel that soft sand. We flopped about in the warm waters of the shallows, covering our bodies with the sand and exfoliating every inch of skin. It was seriously better than any spa treatment I’d ever had.

Taking our newfound silky smooth skin back to the yacht, we spent the remainder of the afternoon on the boat, watching the tourist boats come and go. Although it wasn’t extremely windy, it began to get pretty rolly on the boat, so I was pretty happy to get off and head back over to the lookout in the late afternoon to check out the views at high tide.

It was a totally different scene to what we’d witnessed that morning. With much of the cloud cover rolling away, the colour of the water was more the vivid aqua that you would expect, and Hill Inlet looked completely different all covered with water. Just a spectacular sight! We could also see that the water was super still, while around the corner, on our mooring, Cool Change was rolling quite a bit. Unfortunately, it was too close to dark to move now, we would have to wait it out til morning.

Walking back, we heard a rustling in the bushes and spotted a goanna moving about amongst the trees. Strangely, he didn’t appear too worried about us and kept on with his business of hunting for food. We watched while he leapt up a very thin, young sapling and then crashed back down, with an insect hanging out of his mouth. Dinner!

Haslewood Island

The moorings at Chalkie’s Beach on Haslewood Island are an alternative to anchoring off the very busy Whitehaven Beach so this is where we headed early the next morning. We explored the beach here, but as the day wore on and the wind picked up, the anchorage became uncomfortable. Motoring around to the other side of the island to seek shelter, we towed a lure and were astonished when the line buzzed and then ran out, only for the line to break, taking the lure with it. Must have been a monster fish! Matt was pretty dirty that he’d lost one of his new lures.

We found Waite Bay to be much calmer and were joined by several other boats seeking shelter for the night. This bay was in a green zone, meaning no fishing allowed, and we watched as schools of fish went crazy, jumping high out of the water, seemingly taunting us.

South Molle Island

Our last stop in the Whitsundays was to be South Molle Island. We towed another lure as we alternated between motoring and sailing to South Molle Island, but once again no luck, and another monster fish got away with another lure. Matt was not a happy boy!

There was a network of walking and mountain bike tracks over the island, so we were looking forward to pulling our bikes out and exploring them. The following day was cloudy and very hot and muggy, and after we’d tackled some steep sections on our mountain bikes we were both sweating profusely. I hadn’t ridden my bike in months and months, and was pretty out of shape. Still, the views from the top of the island were quite stunning and although we were both exhausted when we got back to the boat, we were glad to have made the effort.

Airlie Beach

It wasn’t a long trip from South Molle to Airlie Beach so we had plenty of time, and with Matt still smarting over the loss of his lures, we decided to go the long way around the Molle Islands dragging another lure. Matt was determined to catch a big fish. Just when it seemed as if it was going to be another no fish day, Bang went the lure. It was a big one! A nice big mackerel. He put up quite a fight and it was with some difficulty that we landed him in the boat. We tried a technique we’d recently read about in a novel, pouring some brandy onto his gills to subdue him a bit, and it worked pretty well.

Matt gutted and cleaned the fish and we continued on. We’d been rounding the top of North Molle Island when he caught the mackerel so it wasn’t too far from there to Airlie Beach. When we arrived at the channel leading into the marina, it wasn’t far off low tide and as we proceeded down the channel we watched the depth dropping away, with some alarm. The lady at the marina couldn’t give us any confidence about the depth of the channel so we opted for better safe than sorry and headed back out into the bay to wait for the tide to rise.

We anchored in the bay and spent a few quiet hours just chilling in the sun. Cooking up some of the mackerel for lunch, we feasted on the super fresh fish. It was delicious! We were finally able to head into the marina, and showers and a delicious dinner out at La Marina restaurant rounded off our day.

We spent four nights at the Port of Airlie marina, exploring Airlie Beach. Each morning, I’d get us a coffee from the nearby café, Rufus and Co. and then we’d spend our day wandering around the town and doing any necessary jobs. We swam in the free lagoon run by the council, had happy hour pizzas at Sorrento Restaurant, and shopped at the farmer’s market. On our last night, we treated ourselves to a fancy dinner at La Tabella Trattoria, absolutely delicious and highly recommended.

And so, our time in the Whitsundays had come to an end. With the fridge and freezer full and our diesel and water tanks topped up, it was time to move on again. Magnetic Island was our destination and it would take us four days to get there, stopping each night along the way. I’d heard a lot about Magnetic Island, so was looking forward to finally getting there.

Live in the sunshine, Swim in the sea, Drink the wild air.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The 100 Magic Miles refers to the coastline in northern Queensland between Mackay and Bowen and the islands of the Great Barrier Reef in that area. Officially called the Cumberland Islands, the area is more commonly known as the Whitsundays. And visiting the Whitsundays has been on my bucket list for years and years. And now I was finally going there! And in my own boat! Who ever would’ve thought!

Port Newry

After a quick stop at the fuel dock to fill up with diesel and petrol, we departed Mackay Harbour and set our sails to head north. We sailed pretty much due north with plenty of wind, but there was a lot of wave chop and I felt quite unwell for the first few hours. There was a short rain shower and then thankfully the seas calmed in the afternoon. We then turned and sailed south west to the Newry Islands. The Newry Islands are a group of islands known as Port Newry, just off the mainland, and we had been recommended this anchorage as one that was beautiful and isolated.

There were three other yachts lined up in the anchorage and we tucked in next to them. It was indeed a really, really lovely place and best of all, it was incredibly calm and sheltered. The boat was super still and we had a great sleep that night.

The following day we took the tinny out to explore the area. There are eight islands making up the Newry Island National Park, of which three (Newry, Rabbit and Outer Newry Islands) have walking tracks and facilities for campers. Newry Island was once home to one of the earliest resorts in the greater Whitsunday area, and as we walked around the island we could see remnants of the buildings. The short track across the island was lovely and shaded and took us to a pretty little beach on the west of the island. There was lots of birdlife on the island; kookaburras, several funny old curlews and a sea eagle swooping about.

We also walked across Outer Newry Island, but the beach on the other side was open to the weather and not so appealing. Back we went to Newry Island for a quick dip and then spent the afternoon chilling on the boat. That evening we were invited to sundowners on Leomar by Peter and Helen. Josh from Emma Mei and Peter and his son, Alex from Perseides II were also there. They were all really friendly and it was lovely to hear their stories. All three boats were on their way south for the cyclone season, although Peter and Helen also plan to head across the top of Australia next year, and so we promised to stay in touch.

We could easily have spent more time here in this calm and peaceful anchorage, but I was conscious that there was a weather window coming up that would be perfect for visiting the more exposed islands in the southern Whitsundays area. And so we headed off the next morning, and Helen sent us some photos that she snapped of us leaving the anchorage.

Wildlife at Port Newry; kookaburra, curlew, seagull, turtle, sea eagle.

Brampton Island

We motored the first little bit before raising the sails and sailing the rest of the way to Brampton Island. The seas settled as the day wore on and the day got better and better. It was sunny and warm and the ocean was an incredibly beautiful turquoise colour. The sea was calm and still as we anchored in Maryport Bay, just off Carlisle Island and above Brampton Island. We spent the afternoon just chilling on the boat, drinking it all in and spotting heaps of huge turtles swimming around the boat and popping their heads up to check us out.

The next day was one of those magical perfect weather days; no wind, flat water and sunshine. We took the tender over to Brampton Island and hiked up the track to the lookout, it was a steep walk and hot work, but the dense forest gave us lots of shade. The views from the top were worth it and we spent a while just soaking in the incredible scenery.

That afternoon Chris and Anne from Horizons arrived. Although we’d been keeping in touch via text, we hadn’t seen them since Tippler’s Passage in the Broadwater, almost three months ago. They’d gone ahead of us and we hadn’t caught up, but now they were on their way back down south. It was so lovely to see them again and share tales of our travels. We had drinks on their boat and then they came across to Cool Change just after sunset for dinner, and just a few more drinks!

Goldsmith Island

The following morning, after farewelling Chris and Anne, we continued on, motor sailing to nearby Goldsmith Island. It was another gorgeous day on the water, with a flat, flat ocean, just the way I like it! Goldmith Island was just beautiful, a picturesque anchorage with heavily wooded islands and little beaches dotting the shorelines. I took the SUP out for a paddle on the still water and saw lots of fish, a turtle, a stingray and what I think was a shark, in the shallow waters on the edge of the bay.

There is a tiny privately owned island there (Farrier Island) with a couple of houses on it, and we watched in amazement as a helicopter arrived to drop people off. What a way to commute!

Helicopter that landed on Farrier Island:

Thomas Island

We following day we sailed the short distance to Thomas Island, another anchorage that we had been promised was really beautiful. And it was, a really really pretty place. I took the SUP all over the bay, stopping at several of the little beaches. The shells on these beaches were incredible and I spent a long time wandering up and down the sand, collecting some beautiful shells of all different types.

There were also heaps of turtles in the water here, and on the paddleboard you could get fairly close before they realised you were there and took off. It was magical! I spent quite a long time out on the board and on the beaches, as it was a bit rolly in the anchorage.

This area marks the end of the southern part of the Whitsundays and is the boundary for where the bareboat charter boats are allowed to go. In most anchorages thus far we’d only shared with a few other boats, but heading up into the main part of the Whitsundays, we expected to encounter quite a few more boats. As it turned out, it didn’t seem exceptionally busy and we were always able to get a mooring when we wanted one. I think that was probably due to Covid and border closures.

Shaw Island

From Thomas Island, we sailed around to Shaw Island, where we intended to shelter from some strong winds that were forecast for the next few days. The wind was definitely increasing and with only our headsail up we made good pace. We anchored about halfway up Shaw Island, opposite Lindeman Island. The bay formed by these islands offered a lot of protection and there was no swell, thankfully, so we were relatively comfortable.

Over the next two days we were buffeted by super strong gusts of wind, constantly gusting off and on. The first night we were up about midnight resetting the anchor as we were worried about being pushed too close to shore. Not the most exciting few days, but par for the course and at least we were safe.

Hamilton Island

After two nights out in the elements, it was with quite a bit of relief that we sailed around to Hamilton Island. It was very busy here, with lots of charter boats and bareboat yachts coming and going. Motoring into the marina we were met with a ‘concierge’ to help us with our lines. How fancy, we thought, and then realised that it was probably a very practical measure, as berthing a boat is difficult and many people chartering a yacht wouldn’t have a lot of experience. And we were very grateful for the help, particularly in such strong winds.

It was good to get off the boat and stretch our legs properly. Although I’d been out paddling at some of the islands, Matt hadn’t left the boat since Brampton Island, five days earlier. A hot shower and lunch, then a wander over to Catseye Bay and a swim at the pool filled in our day. The island felt very busy to us, after having been in the relative isolation of the southern islands for the last week, however according to a local yachtie we met, it was very quiet and many shops and restaurants were still not back open. There were golf buggies everywhere, as this is the primary mode of transport around the island.

Cid Harbour, Whitsunday Island

The worst of the strong winds were over, and as the marina at Hamilton Island was very exxy, we headed off the next day. Our destination was the infamous Cid Harbour and we motored the short distance through some strong currents and blustery winds. It was quite protected and very pretty in the harbour and there were heaps of yachts sheltering in there. There were also a lot of very obvious signs warning about sharks. There would be no swimming here!

I don’t know what I expected when I saw Cid Harbour, but it wasn’t this. I guess the term harbour generally conjures up images of infrastructure and buildings but this harbour was more like a really big bay. Very pretty though! From here we landed our tinny on Sawmill Beach on Whitsunday Island and prepared to tackle the hike up to Whitsunday Peak.

It was a steep 2.5 kilometre walk up to the very top of the island. Thankfully, the track was pretty well maintained and the dense rainforest provided lots of shade. And were the views at the top worth it! Stunning! Absolutely breathtaking! We could see miles out over the Whitsundays in all directions; bumpy green islands rising up out of the turquoise and aqua waters.

We spent an hour up at the top, gazing out over the incredible views and soaking in such special scenery. We ran into Marty of the yellow trimaran, who we’d previously met on both the Clarence River and at Fraser Island. We also got chatting to a couple from Cairns, Sue and Lance on Ocean Blue, and it turns out we would bump into them again, later on in the Whitsundays.

After taking about a million photos, we started the trek back down. It took an hour to get up to the top and just under an hour to come back down again.

While we were hanging out on the boat in Cid Harbour we watched a sea eagle swooping around, and Matt took these photos of him in action:

We spent just the one night in Cid Harbour, and after our morning walk up to Whitsunday Peak we were off again. This time headed to Blue Pearl Bay on Hayman Island. We were going to be meeting up with Naomi, Bree and Bella, who were up here on holidays from Mooloolaba. I was really looking forward to seeing them again!

So that was our first week and a half in the Whitsundays. Next blog I’ll tell you about our second week and a half; drinking cocktails on Hayman Island, swimming with a giant trevally out at a reef, exfoliating in the magical white sand near Whitehaven Beach, and finally, finally catching a big fish!!

We don’t remember days, we remember moments.

Cesare Pavese

Well it’s been almost a month since my last post about our adventures in Keppel Bay. Since that time we’ve made our way to Mackay, which I’ll tell you about in this post and from there we spent three weeks cruising in the Whitsundays. There was not much internet or phone reception in the Whitsundays which made working on the blog difficult. Plus, it was hard to justify sitting in the cabin typing on a laptop when we were amongst such incredibly beautiful scenery!

So my apologies for the lack of updates. We are so pleased to finally hear about the lifting of those onerous restrictions that our family and friends in Victoria have been living under. We hope that you are able to get some semblence of normality back again soon. Life in the north of Australia is pretty great so get up here as soon as you can!

This blog picks up as we leave Great Keppel Island and head north to Mackay.

After another rolly night on anchor at Great Keppel Island and not much sleep, we left just after 7 am for our passage north to Port Clinton. Perfect sailing conditions, with fifteen to twenty knots of wind right off our beam, had us flying along at six to eight knots. I think we even hit nine knots at one stage!

Port Clinton

It was low tide when we arrived at the entrance to Port Clinton making for a very bumpy ride through the entrance as the seas and the swell collided, pushing our boat up and down over waves, as well as yawing from side to side. But we pushed through and motored into the southern arm to find a very quiet and peaceful anchorage. We were the only yacht in the area for several hours and we drank in the serenity. It was also dead flat, with not an ounce of swell, we would sleep well that night!!

We spent a day in this beautiful place, relaxing and exploring. Port Clinton is known to be home to many dugongs and I was determined to spot one of these elusive creatures. We took the tinny out and ventured along the creek and up some of the little arms. We spotted one dugong swimming around just under the surface, but unfortunately never got a very good look at him.

We went for a swim but the water was murky and visibility wasn’t great. From the tinny we spotted a huge turtle and a pod of dolphins and Matt jumped in to try to swim with them, but the dolphins didn’t want to play. That evening Matt caught a little gummy shark, but we threw him back. Matt also did some sculpting of his facial hair; I couldn’t look at him without laughing.

That night there was a full moon, and it was a bright orange colour. With absolutely no light pollution around, except for the anchor lights on the three yachts, the night sky was incredible, the stars so bright. Matt took some amazing photos of the full moon setting and the milky way stretching brightly across the sky.

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Pearl Bay

Very light winds the following day saw us motoring the short distance to Pearl Bay. This time we crossed the entrance to Port Clinton at high tide and it was all smooth water, a completely different experience. Pearl Bay had been hailed as one of the prettiest anchorages on the coast, so I was very keen to check it out.

It was indeed a very pretty place, with the surrounding islands and hills covered in dense forest. I took the SUP over to the little beach, had a walk and read my book lying on the sand.

Now, Port Clinton and Pearl Bay are on the mainland but from here we would be heading out to the islands and making our way north by hopping from island to island. The weather forecast was for very light winds and minimal swell for the next week. We figured this would be the perfect opportunity to experience some of the smaller islands, with potentially less sheltered anchorages.

Motoring again, as there was no wind, we found the seas to be silky smooth and it was lovely and warm. We spotted a whale cruising in the distance, a turtle, two sea snakes, and a big pod of dolphins came to play in our bow wave.

This was also where we found a kind of brown scum covering large patches of water. In some places it was green or pink. We weren’t sure what it was and hypothesised that it might be an algal bloom.

Hexham Island

Tiny little Hexham Island was our next stop and we anchored in a north facing bay in calm waters. It’s a very pretty spot and we spent two nights here. We didn’t bother getting the tinny off and just used our SUPs to get around. A short walk up the overgrown track on the hill gave us some beautiful views over the bay and surrounding islands.

There was another yacht already in the anchorage when we arrived, and we went over to say Hi and discovered that it was Paul and Julie on Camelot, who we’d first met briefly back in Bermagui in February. How long ago that seems! They invited us over for sundowners which turned into dinner and we had a lovely evening swapping stories and hearing about each others adventures. Paul had picked us up in his tinny so we didn’t have to paddle the SUPs in the dark; this turned out to be a godsend because I’m not sure how Matt would have made it back to the boat on the SUP without falling in. Maybe I would have had to tow him!

Whale Encounter

After a morning skinny dip (we were the only boat left at Hexham), we headed off to the Percys. And just off South Percy Island we had one of our most memorable whale encounters yet.

Matt spotted a whale lying on the surface several hundred metres in front of our boat. He raced to grab his camera while I slowed the boat down and began to approach, and now we could see that it was a mother and a calf. We expected the mother whale to take off when she registered that we were there. But she didn’t move. We edged closer and closer. Still no movement. She was just lying there on the surface. ‘I think it’s dead’ said Matt. ‘Oh god, what should we do?’ and we began to run through options of who we should call for help.

Our thought process didn’t last very long thankfully, as the mother sank below the surface and swam off, with both of us breathing a sigh of relief. She popped up nearby and we approached again, keeping a good distance. The whales spent a lot of time cruising on the surface and we followed them for about an hour, just soaking up the amazing experience of being so close to these majestic creatures.

They hadn’t breached or done any tail slapping or anything too active so after a while when they seemed to be starting to stay underwater for longer periods, we decided to leave them alone and continue on. ‘Well, that’s them done, I reckon’ said Matt, ‘let’s go’ and he began to turn away and lower his camera. Then, Bang!! Both the mother and calf breached simultaneously. Matt swang back around and managed to capture the end of the breach. Incredible!!

The baby breached a couple more times and then we farewelled the whales and continued on our way, marvelling at what an amazing experience we’d just had.

Middle Percy Island – Whites Bay

There were some persistent light winds from the north so we opted to go into Whites Bay on the south of Middle Percy Island, instead of the more exposed anchorages on South Percy Island that we’d originally planned.

Whites Bay was really pretty and very protected and we relished the chance to paddle our SUPs around the bay on the super still water as well as jumping in for several swims. We wandered along the sandy beach, it was an incredibly soft sand and felt beautiful under our feet.

On our first night there, I was downstairs preparing dinner when I heard Matt yell out. He had a baited fishing rod out the back of the boat and he had hooked something big. As he began to reel it in, he realised that it was not just something big, it was something massive. Something so huge that we wouldn’t be landing it in the boat, but he kept reeling it in as we wanted to see just what sort of a monster it was.

By this time it was dark, and as the mammoth fish came closer to the surface of the water, we could very clearly see a huge shadow outlined in the water. It was a very distinctive shaped shadow. It was a shark! Matt had caught a bull shark. A two metre bull shark. It was pulling and thrashing on the line and I tried to capture a photo of the shadow, but it was complete chaos on our boat and nothing came out. The massive shark got away, tearing the fishing line and escaping. I was relieved but I still would have liked a closer look!

Phew! What an adrenaline rush it was! And what a reminder to wear our shark shields and not to swim at dusk or dawn. It was several days before I ventured back into the water with any confidence.

Middle Percy Island – West Bay

Inspired by the success of another yacht who’d caught a big tuna just east of Middle Percy, we went the long way around to our next anchorage in West Bay on the other side of the island. The ‘long way’ consisted of five hours of trolling both lures and bait, up and down in the passage between Middle Percy Island and North East Island, and then right around North East Island and across to West Bay.

We had no luck at all, and by the time Matt was ready to admit defeat, I was well and truly over it. We motored into West Bay, dropped anchor and then paddled our SUPs to shore.

West Bay on Middle Percy Island is an iconic part of sailing culture and history. Sailors have been stopping here for decades (centuries??) to shelter from the weather. It is the home of the infamous Percy Island Yacht Club. The Percy Island Yacht Club has a clubhouse open to all passing sailors and it is tradition for each visiting boat to leave an item in the A-frame to mark their stay.

The A-frame is bursting at the seams with signs of all types, shapes and sizes. There are some very creative offerings. We ended up leaving a print of one of Matt’s photos of Cool Change and the two of us under the stars.

After exploring the A-frame we paddled our SUPs around and into the lagoon where several catamarans were anchored, well out of the way of the swell of West Bay. We found the cat belonging to a guy called Raf, who we’d met several weeks earlier on a bus in Yeppoon. Raf was very happy to see us and invited us on board his cat for a chat and to show us his latest project; a pizza oven made out of a 44 gallon drum.

That evening we enjoyed a spectacular sunset out over the water and the following day saw us hiking the track around the island, which had some gorgeous views from the peak. It was here that we encountered thousands and thousands of blue and black butterflies, fluttering all over the forest. The trees and the air was thick with them, it was a really amazing spectacle. Matt tried taking some photos, but they haven’t really captured the feeling of being surrounded by all these beautiful butterflies.

That second night the new lessees of the island, Robin and Annie, plus Raf and some of the other ‘locals’ hosted a pot luck dinner in the A-frame. We were invited, as well as the other yachties anchored in West Bay with us. We had a lovely night meeting and chatting with a host of new people. All super friendly, it was definitely an eccentric bunch of characters gathered together that night. And I’m including us in that definition too!

Butterflies, butterflies and more butterflies:

Curlew Island

Curlew Island was our final stop before heading to Mackay on the mainland. The seas had picked up a bit as the afternoon progressed and the anchorage was a bit rolly, so this wasn’t my favourite island.

Mackay

Mackay Marina was our home for a full week as we waited for the perfect weather to head out to the islands of the Whitsundays. We did all those things that you do when in the comfort of a marina; go out for coffee, have dinner at the Pub, do the grocery shopping and the laundry, fill the tanks and clean the boat.

And that’s where I’ll take you to in the next blog; the 100 Magic Miles of the Whitsundays.

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.

Proust

Keppel Bay is a large, fairly shallow bay north of Gladstone and south of Yeppoon. Housing the Keppel Islands, including the very popular Great Keppel Island, it also hosts the Keppel Bay marina at Rosslyn Bay on the mainland. Since the winds were increasing and the seas were picking up, we opted to go into the marina instead of anchoring off Great Keppel Island, as originally planned. The shallow bay was full of turbulent brown water, with waves splashing and chopping up all over the place.

We arrived into Keppel Bay marina at Rosslyn Bay and tied Cool Change up just as the sun was setting into beautiful colours. As always, we high-tailed it to the showers and then set off to find a restaurant for dinner. We’d been almost two weeks out on the water, so I was looking forward to a night off cooking duty. We found a lovely little restaurant, ‘Beaches’ that was pumping for a Monday night.

The following days saw us tackling all those jobs you do when in a marina, like laundry and cleaning. I also defrosted the fridges and freezer while Matt worked on the padding for the edge of the new tender. We booked the courtesy car for our two hour slot and did a gigantic grocery shop. The town of Yeppoon, where all the shops are, was about 7 kilometres from the marina so having the use of a car was a godsend. Still, we ran out of time to get to the booze shop, so the next day we caught a bus back in to Yeppoon and lugged beer, cider and rum back to the boat.

I attended a few yoga classes in Rosslyn Bay and we walked up the very steep, but very short hill to get a great view of the marina. We came across a flock of cockies on our walk and Matt took the very cute photo below.

After three days we’d completed all our jobs, stocked the boat, seen the sights of Rosslyn Bay and Yeppoon, and were contemplating heading back out to the islands. But in sorting out the edges for the tender, Matt had borrowed a drill off a neighbouring yachtie, Drew, and hadn’t said thank you yet. He took a six-pack to Drew to say thanks, and that turned into drinks, and then an invitation to accompany him to the Capricornia Cruising Yacht Club. Matt came and got me and we all jumped in Drew’s tender, picking up his partner Brenny on the way.

Drew and Brenny were great company, and we enjoyed several drinks at the club while chatting to them and swapping boating stories. Returning to the boats, we accepted an invitation to tour Drew’s catamaran which he had designed and built himself. It was a gorgeous vessel, very spacious and modern. We stayed for a bottle of bubbles, and then for dinner, at which point Matt popped back to our boat to grab a bottle of red. This turned into several bottles of red, and then out came the whiskey and even our ‘limecello’ from Bundaberg. Suffice to stay, we stumbled the few steps back to our own boat.

We woke up to a wet, cold and windy day, and since neither of us were feeling especially great after our unexpected big night, we extended our stay at the marina. This turned out to be very fortuitous because the wind increased significantly over the weekend, and we spent a few quiet days chilling on the boat and Zooming with friends and family.

It also meant that we were still in town when our friends Bernard and Arlene arrived in Rosslyn Bay. We’d met Bernard and Arlene in Narooma with Matt’s Uncle Geoff and had been keeping in touch. They had been on a two month road trip in Northern Queensland and were on their way back down to NSW. Happily, our paths now crossed and it was lovely to see them again and hear all about their travels.

We took them on a day sail out to Great Keppel Island. Originally we aimed to grab a mooring off Pumpkin Island, but found that there wouldn’t be enough protection from the winds and swell, so we anchored at Leeke’s Beach off Great Keppel Island instead. We spent the afternoon exploring the estuary there and strolling along the beautiful beach, checking out the interesting rock formations and collecting shells. We also scored an abandoned or lost crab pot that was washed up on the beach. It was in excellent condition so we claimed it and took it back to the boat. It was a lovely day, ending with Bernard and Arlene taking us out to dinner at a Thai restaurant in Yeppoon. Thanks so much again, guys, it was lovely to see you.

The next day we left the Keppel Bay marina for good, heading back out to Great Keppel Island and this time anchoring off Svendsen’s Beach with lots of other yachts. It was a bit rolly so I had a snack for dinner and went to bed early. The swell increased overnight and made for a very uncomfortable night. I didn’t sleep much at all. The following morning the swell had increased alarmingly and the boat was rocking back and forwards quite violently. We decided to move around the corner and found that we were part of a mass exodus of boats, all with the same idea. It was calmer around at Fisherman’s Beach, but I wasn’t in a great mood. And then I spilt my coffee everywhere. Feeling tired, grumpy and unwell, I lost it. I wanted off the boat!

So we took the tinny over to the beach where it was lovely and warm and sunny and not the slightest bit rocky!! A very lazy day was spent lying on the beach napping, chilling and reading. Luckily there was a little café on the beach too, so we had coffee, then lunch and some cold beverages. Life was good again!

There were lots of walking tracks criss crossing the island, and so one day we walked inland to the old homestead and then around to Mount Wyndham for some spectacular views over the south and east coasts of the island. It felt great to be walking, stretching my legs on the steep tracks.

Another day, we took the tender to nearby Monkey Beach for a snorkel. After finding nothing much to see by the rocks near the beach, we followed the lead of the tourist boat already there, and swam over a large patch of coral in the middle of the bay. It was teeming with life and I found the huge clams that snapped shut as you swam over them particularly fascinating.

Great Keppel Island was lovely, but we’d not had the most comfortable nights on anchor. We can now see why this is most definitely ‘cat country.’ Additionally, we were both covered in sandfly bites, with Matt coming up in huge welts. I was more than ready to move on. Thankfully, a weather window was opening up, one that would be perfect for exploring the islands north of Keppel Bay. It was time to head to the 100 Magic Miles.

Without enough sleep, we all become tall two-year-olds.

JoJo Jensen