Zinyowa the Chihuahua

Yesterday we came from Stonehaven and then came here, Nara Inlet. We went swimming after finishing off schoolwork then we went ashore on our boogie boards and found a rock with a cave in it and Haydee and I decided to climb into it, but, on the way we found a lot of obstacles, one was even a scorpion about 2cm long.

Today we are going on a walk to see Aboriginal rock art. We're also going to go snorkelling at a reef about 20m from our stern (back of the boat). Tomorrow, we will be going to Airlie Beach, sadly we can't go fishing there, but we can take the tender around where we are now and then do some fishing.

Here is a little poem that I wrote earlier on:

My Future

When I am 20
I will own a boat,
it will be a shark cat,
and I will keep it in a moat.

I will buy a dog,
it will be a chihuahua,
I will care for him
and call him "Zinyowa".

I'll live in a house
with not even a mouse.
It will be very clean,
and when I say clean
that's what I mean!

So that's what is going to happen
when I am 20.

Hook Island and bad dad jokes

Cameron and Haydee on
a big rock at Hook Island

We're currently anchored in Nara Inlet, a beautiful calm inlet on the southern edge of Hook Island (which I told the kids was named after Captain Hook!). We're taking our time to go around Hook and may not even make it all the way round at our current rate of travel, which is quite fine by me. Yesterday was spent lazily dragging a lure from Stonehaven to Nara. We weren't in any hurry which was good because the wind was so flukey that we alternated between leaning over and flapping sails.

Haydee and Cameron relaxing in our bed

Despite the beauty of our surroundings, Shane's attempts at humour are causing we three sane ones to consider mutinying. Or throwing the sod overboard. We've developed a groan-meter which has now been in use so long and so much that rather than responding to Shane's jokes by laughing, groaning or crying, the kids just say a number between 1 and 100 where 1 is a bad joke and 100 is completely dreadful. The really bad ones get more than 100. And there has been a few of those. I think the only reason we haven't left him behind in our wake is because I'd eventually run out of fuel and don't think we could berth this sucker at a fuel wharf by ourselves. Yet. The kids and I are looking forward to our upcoming Sydney trip! Having said that, I'm sure Shane is too...

The kids are back at school this week after a week off last week and our work on fractions (which Haydee is loving and doing very well at!) will continue. As will Shane's efforts to catch the brother of last week's tasty spotted mackerel, and mine to continue reading every book on board. Joy!

The GBR

Haydee snorkelling at Bait Reef

Our Whitsunday fun continues as we continue our grand tour of this lovely (if busy!!) bit of the Queensland coast. We've seen some beautiful places but the highlight this week would have to be a few days we spent on the reef. On Tuesday this week we left Airlie Beach after stocking up on food, fuel and water once again and overnighted on a mooring buoy at the stunning Butterfly Bay on the northern coast of Hook Island. We left bright and early on Wednesday and sailed out to Bait Reef, accompanied part of the way by some of the biggest dolphins we've seen yet (well fed on reef fish I reckon) and a couple of whales playing not too far off. We picked up a mooring buoy at Bait Reef and the kids enjoyed feeding fish from the back of the boat (see the video below) and snorkelling around the "Stepping Stones", a dozen or so tall coral columns with amazing fish life, while I shepherded them in the dinghy.

Thanks to Graham and Meredith on
Stray Cat, who gave us the Silver Spoon
lure we caught this spotted mackeral on

We then moved around to Hardy Reef and managed to find the entrance to the lagoon (we have the lat and long for the waterfall if anyone needs them) and spent the night by ourselves near Reef World. The wind, 10-15 knots when we first arrived at the reef, picked up to 25 knots overnight but the outer reefs absorb almost all swell and waves from the Pacific so it was surprisingly calm. Leaving Hardy Reef through "The Waterfall", an 8m wide gap in the coral (Seasprint is nearly 4m wide), was interesting as we had decent wind trying to push us sideways into the reef and water rushing out of the lagoon with the tide. God bless 50hp, which also safely took us down a deep channel between Hardy and Hook Reefs where swell from the Pacific kicked up 2-3m waves for us. We went back to Bait Reef, which we liked a bit better than Hardy, and spent our second and third night on the reef there with one other boat (hi to Emily and Ryan on Lucey Blue).

We're spending the rest of this week circumnavigating Hook Island and are right now sitting off Black Island after trolling around Hayman Island, snorkelling at Blue Pearl Bay and swimming at Langford Island today. It's a hard life - friends and family who are up this way are very welcome to join us!!

Whitsunday fun

We decided that we would spend this week and a half or so doing a leisurely lap of Whitsunday Island. After leaving Airlie Beach on Friday 9th September, we sailed to Gulnare Inlet as somewhere to spend the night while the wind swung back around from northerly to the typical south-easterlies. The plan for Saturday was to sail to the world famous Whitehaven Beach.

We arrived at Whitehaven on Saturday afternoon; after a small diversion to Hamilton. We dropped off the 5hp to have some work done on it after a gust of wind in Gulnare Inlet flipped the dinghy with the 5hp still on it. The leg was unceremoniously standing straight in the air and the power head was under water. After giving it some first aid and making some phone calls, we headed to Hamilton to drop it off with a marine mechanic. Anyway, we arrived at Whitehaven on Saturday afternoon (sans the 5hp).

Happy Hour on Whitehaven Beach

We spent most of Sunday at the beach. We had a picnic lunch, then went for a walk and had a look at the picnic areas and campsites, but didn’t bother with the walk to Chance Bay. The tourist boats were everywhere bringing the day-tripper hoards from the mainland, and then there were the charter boats that all seemed to be jostling for the imaginary “pole position” at the southern end of the beach. We often felt that someone was invading our personal space; which is dictated by the swing circle we have at anchor, so is it too much to ask to anchor a little further away? We had to make a quick trip back to the boat at about 4:00pm (after the day-trippers had left) to get a picnic happy hour, which we also enjoyed on the beach as the sun sank lower behind us.

I started Monday with a swim to the beach and a run along it for a few km, before swimming back to the boat. September’s PT complete, we had breakfast and then the kids started their school week with some water sports (ski tube and water skiing). While the 5hp may have been out of action, the 15hp was fortunately running well. Haydee had her first crack at water skiing and did really well, and Cameron is now a veteran (his next step is steering and crossing the wake). When they finally finished their school work I took them back to the beach for some more swimming and a spot of beach cricket.

Lookout over Hill Inlet

On Tuesday we moved around to Tongue Bay, where we walked to the lookout overlooking the spectacular Hill Inlet. Wednesday saw us move up to Cateran Bay on Border Island, before our sail today to Cid Harbour on the west side of Whitsunday Island. We will duck down to Hamilton tomorrow and return to Cid Harbour tomorrow night so we can do the walk to Whitsunday Peak on Saturday. Monday will see us back in Airlie Beach for resupply and some repairs, then we will spend a week or more exploring Hook Island.

Crazy Town

Heather and Cameron on Shaw Island

We unfortunately had to return to civilization because we ran out of milk - even the no-name UHT emergency spares. Sad but true.

Before we left Shaw Island, Shane rigged a swing for the kids (and himself, of course) using a halyard, spinnaker pole and water skiing handle. It was quite windy but following the "if you build it, they will come" theory, both kids had lots of goes. Have a look at the video, below.

Haydee looking at coral

From Kennedy Sound, we gave Lindeman Island a miss (too expensive) and continued north, overnighting in "Happy Bay" at the northern end of Long Island where we went ashore and had dinner and a game of ping-pong at the resort before continuing onto Airlie Beach yesterday morning. It was a beautiful sail past Shute Harbour, South Molle and Daydream Islands but insane as we came into Airlie Beach. There was a ridiculous number of boats anchored, arriving or leaving. Some were going way too fast, others going way too slow. It was crazy town but we somehow got through it all (nice work, Shane) and are now berthed in the marina. Yesterday was dedicated to spending way too much money in the Chandlery and today will be groceries, washing and a visit by a rigger who will climb to the top of the mast and have a look at a misbehaving headsail for us.

From here, we'll spend another night at Airlie Beach before a grand tour of the Whitsundays including Whitehaven Beach and an attempt to find Heart Reef - we're all looking forward to the next few days.

The Nicolls of Lindeman Island

The kids doing the "invisible
park bench" skit

We've had a week or so of strange and crazy weather here, bringing our dream run of perfect weather to an end, I think. We had three or four days of fog (in tropical Queensland!?!?) followed by three days of strong, 25-30 knot, winds. We've been making full use of some cruising books we have on board to find comfortable anchorages. Thomas Island, while very beautiful, lulled us into thinking it would be good in strong winds however two saddles in the island seemed to channel the wind straight at us. Overnight, when we weren't being hammered by wind, we were being rocked by swell swinging around the end of the island. We experimented along the edge of the bay we were in but couldn't find a sheltered spot so we decided to try Kennedy Sound in between Shaw and Lindeman Islands, a few miles north of Thomas. I can report that it is very comfortable in 25+ knot winds, with good holding - some kind of grey clay comes up on the anchor; messy, but it holds us well - no swell, and the batfish are really friendly here, there is a whale swimming past us as I type and a rainbow behind me.

Happy hour at Goldsmith Island
(with Haydee pulling insane faces)

Shane and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary last week and worked out that we would have been honeymooning on Lindeman Island this time 14 years ago, probably to the day. I recall a round of golf that was very scenic but went on forever (like all golf) and Shane recalls (temporarily) losing his wedding ring. We're going to visit the resort - dinner could be on the cards but, at the very least, we hope we can pick up some bread and milk.

I think the boat is starting to take offence at all the work we're making her do. Our wheel lock (to stop the rudder turning the wheel when you're anchored or faffing around with a fishing rod) has jammed, and we've had problems charging her batteries this week - we initially thought it was a result of the fog but Shane discovered our (shiny new!) solar regulator, installed under Cameron's bed, had burnt out. (Cam can be a bit too much like a nine-year-old boy sometimes, but I'm attached to him and would like to keep him for a bit longer!) The installer (back in Brisbane) has been good and we should get a new regulator soon. Perhaps most disturbingly of all, however, is that Haydee has taken up pole dancing on the compression post (under the mast in the saloon). I'm so proud!

Thomas Island

Yesterday we came in here from Goldsmith Island. We went to the beach and found some small sculptures and Haydee and I decided to make one each as well. Then we took the dinghy around to the other beach and had a fire there. After that we went back to the boat, had dinner, did times tables for a chocolate and then I went to bed while Mum, Dad and Haydee stayed up and read for a little while.

Yesterday Dad went up to the top of a hill and took this video of the anchorage we’re at now:

Right now we’re at Thomas Island and Dad’s thinking that we get away from the side-ways rocking by taking the dinghy to shore. My favourite thing to do on the beach is to paddle on my boogie-board even though the waves are forcing me to the beach but I’m going along the side of it.

We haven’t got a plan for tomorrow but we are going to stay here.