The Whitsundays Once Again

Cam's 3,000th fish

Magnetic Island and Townsville were great, Maggie in particular. We made it ashore for beers at sunset once again and the kids took their already excellent water skiing skills to the next level by practicing steering and jumping the boat's wake. They were both amazing and have the water skiing bug big time.

Moogie 'helminating' at 3.30am

After our fairly horrible time in Bowen on the way up, Shane came up with a cunning plan to by-pass it on the way back down - a 120nm or 215km trek from Townsville, past Bowen, to the northern Whitsundays. We left Townsville at 2pm last Sunday after a bludgey morning of bacon, eggs and swimming and, after sailing all afternoon and all night, dropped our anchor at Gloucester Island at 8.30am the next morning. It was a long long night that included an electrical storm, decent seas at an angle to our course that made sleeping difficult for everyone except Cam, and up-and-down winds that had us raising and lowering sails more often than you'd like at night. But we made it and Shane and I were both super-impressed with the kids who each pulled a night shift on the helm - Cam got 3.00 to 3.30am and H got 3.30 to 4.00am. I was up on deck with them, although not particularly conscious after being awake for 24 hours, but they were both fantastic and remarkably happy to be there. Cam kept thinking I was there to answer interesting questions about coal loaders, big ships and other random-ness. H was accompanied by Moogie, her toy sheep, who she attached to the helm in order to let her steer (or helminate as we have taken to calling it). I should also point out that Shane left me upstairs on the helm during the storm while he sat downstairs nice and dry texting like Gossip Girl, God bless him!

Upside-down H. She can't not touch!

After resting up at Gloucester Island, we headed east back out to Bait Reef once again. Bait Reef has become a favourite and we had it almost to ourselves again. Half a dozen Giant Trevally, some massive Wrasse, turtles and a manta ray kept Shane and the kids company as they snorkelled the Stepping Stones and Manta Ray Drop-off.

We're now back in the Whitsundays and I have to admit that I've remembered why it isn't my favourite sailing destination. The wind gusts and lulls are insane, the bare boats (sadly, we're here during school holidays again) are scary and the commercial operators are rude. We've also had to modify our initial plans to re-visit Border Island and Whitehaven as strong south-easterlies have been forecast for the next few days. We'll seek secure anchorages as we head back towards Mackay via the Smith group and St Bees and Keswick Islands, which I'm really keen to see in nice weather as we had low cloud last time we were there. We expect we'll be somewhere around Keppel Bay - Lady Musgrave Island for Christmas and we're still on track to be back home around mid-January.