Cruising the Whitsundays... Day 3...

For the sake of time, I'm going to eventually have to start combining days - much to my regret. We just did and saw so much it is hard to work it down to just a few snippets for you to enjoy. Oh well...

Travel day 3 - "Reddish-Brown"

We left Butterfly Bay early and backtracked just a bit to do some snorkeling along the top end of Hook Island. We were told these were the best spots and the lived up to the reputation! Our first stop was at Manta Ray Bay where we had the best snorkeling of the entire trip. Beautiful fish and coral, calm water, bright sunshine and not a single other human until we were ready to move on. Fantastic! I'm not going to inundate you with snorkeling photos (though I could) - I'm working on a snorkeling slideshow I'll add to the next post. But I have to include shots of us feeding the 3 large bat fish that swam up to our boat looking for a handout. We gave them each a couple of pieces of bread - they even ate some straight from Jon's hand!

Clarice took a video on her camera, but the camera is dying and videos won't play well.

Instead of moving the whole boat, we took the dinghy to the next bay over - Luncheon Bay - for a hike along its "beach" made entirely of broken bits of coral. Glad we brought the shoes as the book suggested. We're slowly moving along when Clarice says, "Look! Turtle!" Now after red pandas my favorite animals are sea turtles (of any variety) so I was a bit skeptical. I said, "Probably just a big fish..." and no sooner were the words out of my mouth than the turtle popped his little head out of the blue waters. But we didn't bring the camera! No matter, in a very "Steve Irwin" moment I had my mask on and was overboard almost before Clarice could say, "Do you want to get out?" This little guys was perfectly happy just lazily moving on his merry way, but I got 4-5 minutes to swim alongside him since I made sure to keep my arms tucked in and leave him a bit of space. Awesome!

Some fun trees. Check out the roots on the one on the right!

After we made it back to the boat we were pretty tired and decided to head around Hook Island and try to have a bit of a rest at low tide on Langford Island. Langford is a bit of rock with a long shallow sandy area the appears, as if by magic, at low tide. The Hayman Island Resort (across the water on Hayman Island - natch) ferries its highfalutin guests over there for a bit of sand and sun. Russ, our charter operator, told us that Langford was the best place to go if we wanted to see sea turtles, but we were tired of the swimming and just lounged around on the beach enjoying the peacefulness of the setting. As late afternoon approached, we ducked across the little bay over to Stonehaven Anchorage for the night. Excellent choice with one of the prettiest sunsets I've ever seen.

Approaching and sitting on Langford Island

Left - James Bond likes the Whitsundays! Right - a "See Lake City" moment

Don't you wish you were here?

Sunset at Stonehaven.

We were having a GREAT time... and then Wednesday the winds came...

Everything is ORANGE!! (And not just IN Orange...)

Ok, I'll have to speed up the updates or I'll be updating until next July even though we go back to the States in December.

But TODAY deserves a special post. EVERYTHING IS ORANGE!!! Well, it was this morning. There was a giant dust storm in the west that moved through Sydney in the early morning hours. I had to take Clarice to work and traffic was extra horrible since the storm forced ferries to stop running, planes from taking off, people from driving rapidly, people from walking to work...

I took a few shots of the Orange and then went back to sleep. Well I tried. The dust is STILL hanging in the air (it is now almost 5:30 pm) and it is very difficult to breathe - even indoors.

I want to emphasize, NONE OF THESE PHOTOS WERE ALTERED IN ANY WAY!!

Our street walking the block to the beach...

Little side circle...

Aren't Stop Signs supposed to be RED???

Walking down to the beach. The "white" is foaming waves.

Looking down along the beach

Needless to say it was a VERY strange morning. About 10:00 am a big wind system swept in making it even worse for a while before eventually blowing the storm out to sea. The wind has died down and everything is pretty much normal, but I still have crap stuck in my throat that no amount of pop/soda/Sprite can seem to remove!

Cruising the Whitsundays - Day 2...

Monday started out like every day of the trip - early. After our 7:45 radio check-in, we put on our hiking shoes and loaded the dingy for a trip over to a small hike. The hike led to the top of Hill Inlet lookout and gave us one of the most breath-taking views we have every seen. Pictures do nothing to demonstrate the beauty of the inlet.

Lovely shot of Jon driving the dingy...

We tried to beat this group up, but got stuck behind them listening to their guide

Clarice does her "stand by the sign" thing

Hill Inlet - Whitehaven Beach is to the left

We went back and picked up the boat, then motored back around the point to park across from Betty's Beach, a shifting-sand area across the inlet from Whitehaven. Composed of the same fine, white sand, Betty's is another great place to enjoy the sun. There were a couple of day groups there, but the place is so big that you can find plenty of space to feel "alone in paradise".

Even with people, there's plenty of room!

Clarice on Betty's Beach (no idea who Betty was)

Cool sand patterns made by the wind and waves

Tracking the elusive "Seagull"

One of our favorite self-portraits

It was hard to leave, but we needed to make tracks if we wanted to get to that night's planned anchorage. We left Whitehaven and Betty's heading north planning on turning East around the top of Hook Island where the inlets were said to have some of the best snorkeling of the entire island chain.

Clarice driving the boat

After we rounded the point, light was slowly fading so we motored in the direction of Butterfly Bay, a nice safe anchorage from the forecast light S-SW winds. At first there were no moorings so we were trying to anchor just outside the marked protected reef area when I glimpsed movement out of the corner of my eye. Whales! Two whales, probably Southern Right Whales or Humpback Whales (the 2 most common in the region) were heading back the way we had just come. I popped on my telephoto lens and was able to get some pics. Not too bad considering the zoom, the rocking of the boat, the moving camera and the moving whales!

Thar' she (or he) blows!

They went right in front of this lucky boat. Law requires 300 meters separation, but if they come up to you all you can do is shut down the motor and wait until the go on their merry way. (500 meters if there is a calf present)

By the time the whales were out of sight, a boat had left one of the moorings in Butterfly Bay so we grabbed it quick. Much easier than anchoring! To protect the delicate reef systems, the Wildlife Service has placed permanent mooring bouys in several of the more popular places. Everywhere else you have to anchor outside a line of white bouys marking a "no parking" zone.

We did a quick snorkel in Butterfly Bay as the sun was setting. Not the best light, but there were some colorful fish. After a bit, Clarice got my attention and said, "I'm going back. I haven't seen one fish." I thought, "They're everywhere! How can you miss them?!?!" Turned out she go the bum mask and it was fogging really badly. We brought all 3 masks from then on so we never got stuck with the fogger.

Cruising the Whitsundays - Day 1...

Our "Big" vacation this year, one Clarice has been looking forward to since we arrived in Australia, was spending a week among the Whitsunday Islands and visiting Whitehaven Beach. We waited until August so that we could really enjoy the warm weather holiday during the Aussie winter.

I have no idea why Clarice insists on taking these "We're Off!" photos...

We left Sydney early on Saturday and flew to Hamilton Island - the main tourist island of the Whitsunday group. Almost all of the Whitsunday Islands have been made into nature preserves with people only really allowed on the beaches. There are a few places to tent camp on the islands, but you have to book ahead and schedule your visit. The waterways are also very much regulated to protect the ocean/reef environments. In 1978, a retired couple started charging people a nominal fee and giving tours of the islands on the boat. Now, 30 years later, bareboat chartering is big business along with the reef/island tours run by the resorts and private companies from the mainland. Add in the private boats and the place was not "crowded" per se, but there were always other boats nearby.

After arriving, Russ, the main person from whom we were renting out bareboat, picked us up from the airport and shuttled us out to the boat on the tender since the marina was full.

Our first view of our home for the next week!

After walking us through how to run and maintain the boat (he was pretty comfortable when we knew "port" and "starboard" and explained we were "boat people") he sat us down and walked us through 100 Magic Miles, a guidebook that talks all about the islands, the habitats, the anchorages and generally how to have a fun and safe time in the Whitsundays. Now in its 7th edition, this book is the "bible" of the area and we could not have had such a wonderful time without it. We had ordered our own copy, but it was not going to arrive before we left so we almost cancelled it. I decided it might be a nice souvenir, and now we're really glad we kept it!

We paid a small fee (less than a hotel room) for this one extra night on the boat, so once Russ was ready to leave, we took the tender back into the Hamilton Island Marina, dropped Russ off, and then hit some stores to gather provisions for the trip. Kind of dull, but I would later regret not buying more gummy bears...

Finally - Day 1! We both slept pretty well the first night even though the bed is small and the boat rocked in the light waves of the night. By 8:00 AM we were up and ready to go - not a normal time for me, but we were excited to get started. The first place we were going to stop was the purpose for the whole trip... Whitehaven Beach.

Our Path of Travel - Day 1

We untied from the mooring, started the motors and got underway. First lesson of traveling on the ocean - mind the tides! We knew this, and were readily prepared to take it into account when anchoring, but the tides are always moving and shifting, controlling how fast you can travel across the open water. Since our hired bareboat was governed at 10 knots, we were never going to set speed records so paying careful attention to the tides was something we were going to have to learn. Long story short, our first trip was ride into the path the tides. It worked out well though since we were in no hurry, had plenty of time to get comfortable on the boat and we got to watch the scenery, other boats and lookout for whales (none...).

Some of the resort homes on Hamilton Island

What kind of fish do you catch with a dinghy?

As we turned north and sailed through Solway Passage, we caught our first glimpses of Clarice's year-long infatuation...

Southern End of Whitehaven as we came through Solway Passage

The best spot to anchor is on the southern end of the 6 km long beach. We found a nice wide spot, dropped the anchor, packed up the tender and headed to the beach! Let me tell you, it is no wonder Whitehaven is ranked in the top 10 most beautiful beaches of the world! The beach is huge and the only way to get there is by boat so it is not crowded at all. Lot of room to swim, play, sunbathe, etc.

Clarice had it in her head that she wanted to walk the entire beach, so after a nice relaxing lunch and a dip we started walking. Barefoot. My delicate little feet would be mad at me for days. We knew it was 6 km, but it didn't look that far! We made it generally all the way stopping to take pictures along the way.

The beginning of the hike...

Did I say the only way to get to the beach was boat???

I may have forgotten a few other ways...

I TOLD YOU TO WATCH THE TIDES!

Sand worm - they like the fine, soft sand of Whitehaven

View back down the beach from the dunes at the Northern end. And we had to walk back...

I think Clarice was happy to be there...

Neither of us really wanted to leave, but after spending most of the day at Whitehaven, we had plans for a snorkel across the water at Chalkie's Beach before heading to our first anchorage. Chalkie's was only a short distance away, but it took delicate navigation to get close to the beach through a man-made break in the coral. Then we hopped into wetsuits and dove right in. While Clarice likes snorkeling, it is really more my thing. I bought a waterproof pouch for Clarice camera so I could take underwater photos and it worked great!

Wrasse (100 Magic Miles even has a fish ID section!)

A kind of Butterfly Fish

Bridled Parrotfish - photo does not come close to the colors when the sun is shining bright

Lots of little guys including a Yellow Tang on the left

Clarice snorkelling...

About 3:30 we needed to be heading to our first overnight anchorage. With the winds normally coming out of the S-SW (and that was the forecast) we headed just north of Whitehaven to Tongue Bay, from which we had already planned the next day's adventures!

Sailboats at sunset

Entering Tongue Bay - our first overnight anchorage

Keep a lookout for our continuing Whitsundays Adventures!