Fabulous Whitsundays
Friday 22nd May - Whitsundays
Julia: Four days ago was the day we all have been looking forward to! We were off to Hamilton Island to catch a yacht that will sail us around the Whitsunday Islands. We started our journey from Port Douglas, travelling back to Cairns to More...
Friday 22nd May - Whitsundays
Julia: Four days ago was the day we all have been looking forward to! We were off to Hamilton Island to catch a yacht that will sail us around the Whitsunday Islands. We started our journey from Port Douglas, travelling back to Cairns to catch our flight to Hamilton Island. The plane that we flew on vibrated so much that by the time we arrived I was feeling a little air sick which is unusual for me.
When we arrived at Hamilton airport we were collected by a large golf buggy and shuttled around to the harbour where there were many gorgeous boats moored. I was busily trying to work out which one we would be on and I fixed my eyes on a rather large and luxurious motor boat. That was not the one though and when we arrived at our yacht it didn’t seem so large as I thought it would be. We were met by Pete our captain and Ange our cook come crew and went on board. I must say it was a lovely sail boat and her name was Bliss. This yacht was smart with lots of white and chrome and very well looked after. We were shown around and shown our cabins which at first seemed shockingly small. There are 3 guest cabins with en-suite bathrooms and 1 cabin for the crew. Ange had one of the guest cabins whilst Pete had the other cabin.
We settled ourselves in and then we set off out to sea. It was all very exciting, yet I was very apprehensive about how rough it may be and wondered if Jamilah and I were going to feel sea sick soon. There was a small swell and a little wind and Pete raised the sails so we could sail out to sea with just the wind. I did give Jamilah a travel pill to make sure she was going to be OK. I soon found out that I was OK if I stayed out on deck in the fresh air. When I went inside I felt a little queasy so stayed outside. We sailed for about an hour and had lunch served to us while we were sailing. We anchored up in a bay called Blue Pearl Bay. Here we had a snorkel and once again I was cautious as I didn’t know what could be in these waters. However, it was fantastic, it was just beautiful corals and pretty coloured fish, perfect for me and Jamilah! The sun was trying to shine but there was quite a bit of cloud around today so it made it feel a little cooler than we had hoped.
Our first night sleeping on a yacht went very well and I soon got used to being in such a small area and being rocked. I did wake on many occasions for no reason at all, but managed to go back to sleep until around 6.45 am and then going out on deck to take in our wonderful surroundings.
Over the next few days we moved around various islands and bays, Dumbell Island, Esc Island, Whitehaven Beach, Manta Ray Bay and Hook passage (Jules did some water skiing here!) where we moored up and where we were able to do as much or as little snorkelling as we wanted. Pete always chose a brilliant spot and Ange fed us with really delicious foods, not too much and not too little. We were supplied with lovely latte coffees too and had copious amounts of wine!
We visited corals and nice snorkelling areas for the first few days and then on the final day we moored off the most amazing white sand beech. This beech was called Whitehaven and it had the whitest and finest silica sand in the world. It was so fine that it squeaked when we walked on it! On this beech we walked up a hill to a look out that looked out over the bay and sea. It was stunning! - turquoise waters, white sand and lovely green hills on islands; to me it was one of those paradise settings. There were many sting rays in the crystal clear waters here and so we didn’t get to do much swimming as Jamilah was a little frightened of the sting rays. (I was too, but didn’t admit it!)
At the front of the boat was a small area where I sometimes parked myself and just lay in the sun looking at the beauty around us and enjoying the quiet.
On our last morning when I went up on deck I noticed something keeping popping out of the water and realised that there were turtles all around us coming up for air. This was the best day weather wise, the sun was really strong and hot and the sky completely clear of clouds. I had at last settled into this way of life and really didn’t want to leave, especially now the sun was really shining making everything look like a paradise setting. The water was as still and flat just like a swimming pool, nothing like an ocean. The great barrier reef protects and shelters the waters here which makes it an ideal place to sail. The swells are minimal and soon drop back to nothing.
Sadly, we had to say good bye this morning,( Friday 22nd). I wished we could have had another week on board, we had so much fun and enjoyed Pete and Ange’s company very much. We had another delicious lunch before our departure and our flight to Sydney. The flight took a couple of hours and to our disappointment it was raining when we arrived in Sydney., Our apartment/room over looks Sydney harbour and has a brilliant view so that cheered us up from the dreary weather.
***** Julian: The last day of our 5 day cruise around the Whitsunday islands at the lower end of the Great Barrier Reef. We arrived at Hamilton Island after a flight from Cairns early on the 18th and transferred directly to the marina there and our chartered yacht Bliss, a 60ft, 8 berth yacht - sleek shaped, fitted with innumerable accessories and comforts and crewed by Peter, who has skippered yachts for years around the word, and Ange, who is taking her skippers licence, and is crew and cook for our journey.
We flew into Hamilton Island from Cairns early on the morning of Monday 18th, after having been driven down from Port Douglas. A short transfer to Hamilton Marina saw us boarding Bliss about 10 am. We set sail about midday, initially motoring out of the marina and then going under full sail, whilst we had lunch and then continued Northwards for about 4.5 hours to the top of Hook Island and Blue Pearl Bay, where we all went snorkelling. The waters are very clear, except for the clouds of plankton which can reduce visibility - lovely corals and lots of fish and very calm waters made for excellent snorkelling. About the only downside are some minute jellyfish which give small stings which last for a second, but no more - Jamilah wore a stinger suit (a light one piece fabric) that stopped these, and for dives on the the later days so did Julia and I.
Dinner was excellent on the first evening and each evening thereafter - sitting at the back of the boat with wine, calm skies (except for a storm one night in the mid distance) and the lovely southern night sky - a very idyllic experience.
An interesting boat that we passed en route to Blue Pearl Bay was the Solway Lass. This was an old German top sail schooner that was taken by the British as a war prize in WW1. In WW2 it was used as a Q-ship, i.e. a ship disguised as a merchant vessel, but which had guns and depth charges on board so it could deceive and then hopefully sink German U-boats. The boat has a very shallow keel (but very heavy as it is lead lined) so the thought was that enemy torpedoes would pass harmlessly under her and apparently this was the case on several occasions. Nonetheless she was successfully torpedoed once and was sunk twice by mines - each time luckily in shallow waters so she could be re-floated. Quite a history for a boat which is now being used for guest tours of the Whitsundays.
On the morning of Day 2, I met up with a small diving boat and had a 45 minute dive along the wall at Blue Pearl Bay, whilst Julia and Jamilah snorkelled from the beach. After lunch, we set off to Butterfly Bay where I went snorkelling on two occasions. On the second outing we went to a point at the edge of the bay with Jamilah in the tender to try and feed the fish with some prawn shells, but no luck - too much food in these waters for them to care about extra being thrown in.
Day 3 say us all having a snorkel in Butterfly Bay, before setting of to Manta Ray bay where we had a snorkel and then lunch before setting of to Dumbell Island for another snorkel location. At Manta Ray bay there were large Bat Fish around the boat and also a large Trevalley swimming around - amazing how much time I spent in the water just watching these. There was also a huge Humpheaded Maori Wrass that is nick-named Wally, that came right up to Jamilah and myself and which likes having the hump on the back of his head stroked. All the snorkelling so far was excellent with lots of coral varieties and many fish; however, Dumbell Island was the best I think - the fish here did not swim off when I dived down to them, but just carried on doing whatever they were doing and large schools of fish just followed us around too. I was particularly fascinated by the Parrot Fish and the way they eat the algae off the corals - usually when trying to photo these colourful fish they swim off, but here I could get quite close and I managed to get some nice photos (no video as my underwater packed up yesterday unfortunately).
Day 4 and first stop in the morning was at Scrub Hen, in Hook Passage, where I went water skiing behind Bliss’ tender. It took me four goes before I got up successfully (the tender doesn’t have a prop, but is air powered and so doesn’t have quite the normal pull - results in a slightly different technique to get up - have to get up early and time it right - well that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!), but then I had a couple of nice tows around the passage. We then went to Esk where we stopped for lunch before taking the tender across the channel to the amazing Whitehaven beach. Amazing not because it is very picturesque, which it is, but because the sand is 99.8% pure silica - so pure it was used for the lens of the Hubble Space Telescope. The sand is very fine and almost powdery in texture - it squeaks as you walk on it. The sea by the beach slopes very gently away and is very shallow for quite a distance - a good place for Sting Rays and there were plenty about; however, no matter how hard I tried to creep up on one for a good photo they always darted away before I got close enough. We went for a walk up the hill behind Whitehaven beach - a lovely view. En route we saw a whole heap of blue crabs moving like a small army - low tide being the cause. These crabs burrow into the sand and in so doing roll the sand up into small balls which they eject out of their holes - this creates whole areas of small balls which would look very odd if you did not know the cause. Before going back to Bliss, Peter took us in the tender up a channel by the beach which runs inland for quite a way with Mangroves on either side - very pretty. We moored up at the South end of Whitehaven beach for the night.
On the morning of our final day, Julia was on deck and noticed that there were lots of turtles around us - they kept coming up for air and poking their necks out of the water - quite a sight. After a leisurely breakfast (bacon and eggs today - excellent) we motored and sailed back down to Hamilton Island. We had plenty of time there so went for a look around the Marina shops before having lunch on-board and then going off to the airport for our flight to Sydney.
A very special five days, excellent snorkelling, lovely and peaceful sailing, good company and very relaxing. The only issue is that Julia enjoyed it so much I am in danger of having to buy a yacht! I’ll just have to plead ignorance of how to sail (not too hard).Back
