With the standard provisioning & jobs done, including social activities with sundowners on Por Dos, we lifted anchor to head to Turtle Bay. The southern end of Whitsunday Island is beginning to be one of my favourite spots.

 

After another beautiful calm night we headed around to Tongue Bay. Although the winds were coming from the North they were very light 5-10kn so we figured there wouldn’t be too many charter boats. We arrived with plenty of moorings available. There was a slight roll but we were happy to settle in for the day & stay overnight.

Whitehaven Beach

Tongue Bay

We jumped in Time Spies and headed over to explore Hill Inlet, the most photographed place in the Whitsundays at the northern end of Whitehaven Beach. We explored it both at high & low tides. High tide being the more picturesque. It was quite busy with many tourist boats coming & going, but as we stayed overnight we were able to enjoy it to ourselves first thing the next morning.

A little excited!



Low & high tides

Low tide
 

As the winds were turning back to the south we decided to head around to Homestead Bay for the night. As we were coming around into Hook Passage our rod took off. Slowing the boat down, Dean was a little unsure of what we’d caught as it was putting up a pretty good fight. It turned out to be a black tip reef shark, we landed it in the dinghy where Dean carefully removed the hook and returned it back to the sea. We later found out landing fish in soft bottom dinghy’s not a good idea. Repair of 3 pin sized holes next on the list. Whoops!

So cute!



Cruise Ship leaving Hamilton Island

Our next stop Blue Pearl Bay, we were able to hop onto the only 10m mooring which was great as we could dive straight off the boat. The diving was great with many bommies to explore, unfortunately visibility was only 3-5m. It’s also a very busy anchorage with many overnight tourist boats playing loud music.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day we headed around to Stonehaven for a couple of relaxing days snorkelling. This anchorage is normally very busy but we were lucky enough to only have another 3 boats with another couple coming in later in the day. The next night all moorings were taken and many boats dropping anchor. I think it pays off to listen to the morning scheds for the charter boats as this can help you to avoid the crowded anchorages.

 

With food & water getting low we had to make plans to head back to Airlie, we decided to spend the night in Nara. Just as we rounded the point again our rod took off. This time we landed another Tuna. We jumped on a mooring at False Nara cleaned, filleted & fed the bat fish before heading into Nara.

 

 

 

 

We met a lovely couple on Good One who praised us for our anchoring etiquette. There is a minority that seem quite happy to anchor right on top of you. We shared some tuna and enjoyed a lovely evening on board Good One.

1st Qtr moon & Jupiter

 

Heading back to Airlie to provision Peter was kind enough to offer use of Good One’s mooring. While we were in Airlie we organised a mooring to put Time Flies on while we went back to Melbourne and also organised booking in to Abell Point Marina for cyclone season.

Lunch

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back out to Nara before heading around to Saba Bay. Saba Bay is a bay on the NE side of Hook Island only comfortable when the wind is NW-SW as the winds were NW for a couple of days it was a perfect place to visit.

Unfortunately the spot we would have liked to have anchored was already taken so we had to anchor in 12m of water. Once we were happy the anchor was holding we went to shore for a laze on the beach. The tide had dropped considerably so there was only one thing to do kickback, enjoy the view & relax. Once the tide started to come in, we jumped in the dinghy & headed back to Time Flies. We came across a large black tip reef shark in less than waist deep water which we were able to capture on the GoPro.

 

 

Saba Bay was glorious, we were laying down admiring the night sky, when we saw a shooting star. These are the moments you wish you could share.

As the bullets were coming down the mountains we decided to only spend one night. We lifted anchor and decided to head to Airlie (APM) to get the boat ready for being closed up while we headed back to Melbourne.

We had a fantastic quick sail back with 15-20kn NE, 1-2m waves. 2 reefs in the main and a half furled head sail we averaged 6.5kn reaching 8kn at times. We were even praised by a local tour operator of a 40+ foot catamaran for our sailing & speed.

Another visiting cruise ship

We organised a swing mooring for 2 weeks @ $50 per week. We gave Time Flies a good clean, washed & dried all the dive gear & cleaned out the fridge. We then popped her on the mooring, packed our bags and flew back to Melbourne. It was sad to leave her but exciting to see our family.