Whitsundays

Thursday 28th August

Like all good plans, the last one to head to Hamilton non-stop from Upstart Bay didn't quite work out. We travelled about 75 miles again, from 0600 to 1800, ie. all the daylight hours, and then stayed on anchor in Bauer Bay, which is in the northern end of South Molle Island. That left about 10 miles this morning.

We passed by so many really beautiful islands, all within sight, or earshot, of each other. Each one seems to be more beautiful than the last. We could stay here for a long, long time! Up anchors at a leisurely 1030 this morning and across the Whitsunday Sound to Hamilton Island. We pulled into the marina and filled up the diesel - $2.15/litre! We also topped up the water tanks as well. As we were saying goodbye to Peterand Mary we asked for a berth for an hour, as the racers were out. No problem, but strictly 1 hour only, and that will be $14 please! A mooring buoy for the night is $70. Anchorage is free!

Amongst the boats we saw were Cracklin Rosie from Malahide YC, Wild Oats, Yendys and many other very well known boats. Cracklin Rosie is no longer Irish owned and had been lifted onto the hard. The keel had hit something very hard, very quickly. There were gouges in the keel, a crack where the bulb joins the fin and the rear of the keel to hull area is cracked. A lot of damage. Whilst we were in the marina entrance, a whale was seen behind us, about a kilometre away in the channel leading to the south. First one we had seen since approaching the Galapagos Islands.

We said our goodbyes sadly and sailed off on our own to Shaw Island for the night. This is the first sailing with just the 2 of us on board for 13 months and 11,000 odd miles. It feels strange.
Shaw Island was reached by passing beside Sidney Island (note the spelling), which has a striking resemblance to a flying saucer, and then bypassing the Spitfire Rock and the Venus Shoal. Tomorrow we avoid Platypus Rock on the way. Nice names.

Tomorrow, Friday we plan to head off around 0800 to Mackay and leave BlueFlyer there till the end of September when there should be the start of more northerly winds. We will give her a damn good clean up before we leave to go to Melbourne, probably by train - it's only 2700 miles.