Hinchinbrook = Serenity

Hinchinbrook waterfall and swimming hole
(Shane and the kids are at the base of the waterfall)

From Orpheus Island we moved on to Hinchinbrook Island, stopping in at Zoe Bay on the eastern side before zipping around the corner to enter the southern end of the Hinchinbrook Channel near Lucinda. Zoe Bay was recommended to us as a good lunchtime stop in calm weather and the guide books noted a swimming hole. We went ashore and, after a 15-minute bush walk, found a stunning waterfall and swimming hole where we spent a fantastic 2 hours swimming and basking. The Northern Territory seems to pride itself on its swimming holes; this one gives them a run for their money!

Hinchinbrook Island is remarkably rugged; the tops of the hills have had clouds sitting on them the whole time we've been here. As a result, the channel itself is protected from weather and the few days and nights we've spent anchored here so far have been beautifully calm. We've seen lots of small fishing boats zipping around off in the distance but you'd have to work hard to get within cooee of other people. As a result, my overall impression of Hinchinbrook is peaceful serenity - lovely!

Action Cam!

From Scraggy Point where we were anchored last night, we're ducking across the channel into Cardwell on the high tide today for bread, milk and water then onto Missionary Bay on the northern side of Hinchinbrook to investigate some of the creeks that run into the bay. We're expecting mozzies but are well-prepared having bug-proofed the boat with some flyscreen in a custom built frame Shane made and mosquito netting for hatches that I'm prototyping.

We're also getting ready for a small girl's 11th birthday in a few days! Shane and I suspect she's half expecting Hagrid to appear on a flying motorcycle and take her off to Hogwarts...

The Drama Continues....

Cooling off warm toes
in Upstart Bay

The weather since we were in Bowen took longer to clear than we would have hoped meaning we didn't make it back out to the reef unfortunately. When I last blogged, I said we'd take two or three days to head from Cape Upstart to Townsville, which was good in theory. We in fact did the 79 nautical miles - or 142km! - in one 13-hour stint. We made the almost never-ending trek across Upstart Bay and found, on rounding Cape Bowling Green at 4.00pm, that Bowling Green Bay was abysmal as a protected anchorage in strong south-easterlies so we made a communal decision to continue on to Cape Cleveland. Shane enjoys night sailing, which is fortunate as it was dark before we reached Cape Cleveland, 11nm from Townsville. Given we were so close to Townsville, we kept going and finished the long trip a little before 10.30pm after setting sail 13 hours earlier. I was overjoyed when Shane selected an anchorage that would see us in just 1.7m of water, with our 1.7m draught but, as usual, we were completely fine (and we made sure we were clear by the next low tide which was 20cm lower and may not have seen us fare so well).

Enjoying Reef HQ

We spent two nights in Townsville's Breakwater Marina, which was quite a good place to stay, taking care of the usual essentials before heading north to Magnetic Island where we had two lovely nights in Horseshoe Bay. Shane booted us all out of bed early this morning in an attempt to get us underway before 9am. The flaw in the "get up early and go" plan was Haydee's excellent eyesight. She spotted something odd floating about half a mile away from us. We went to investigate and found a tinny, half full of water, with no one in or around it. Shane hopped in, put a bung in it and bailed the water out before hauling up its anchor and, in turn, a fishing rod and bimini. We towed it back to Horseshoe Bay and handed it over to the Water Police who told us that they had found the owner safe and sound but that he and two mates had been capsized while out fishing. The police returned the boat to it's owner on Magnetic Island but I've decided that it is futile to get out of bed before 8am and will avoid doing it ever again.

On the way to Orpheus Island

Aside from a slightly delayed start and a lack of wind, we had a good day today, motor-sailing from Magnetic Island to the beautiful Orpheus Island where we've picked up a public mooring buoy in a beautiful bay on the western side. Our next stop is Hinchinbrook Island via the channel, a part of the trip I've been looking forward to.

Finally, can I mention that we have now caught 4 sharks and 2 more maybe-possibly-sharks (including the big one in Shute Harbour, Greg!) that we haven't landed. I haven't let the kids go swimming for ages but, strangely, they don't seem to want to.

Bad Bowen Ju-ju

Washing up

Bowen was good for protection from the rather insane weather that has been hitting various parts of the Queensland coast recently but, unfortunately, that was really about the best bit of Bowen. We hunkered down on a marina berth for three nights after two nights on a pile mooring. There isn't a lot within walking distance of the marina so after groceries and some purchases to allow us (i.e. Shane) to install 12V fans in each cabin in preparation for the warmer weather we're heading towards, we spent a lot of time on the boat.

The culmination of the bad Bowen ju-ju was probably our efforts to re-fuel prior to leaving the marina yesterday. We cast off without problems and went round to one of the two seafood companies in the marina that sell fuel to the public. Shane had spoken with them and they said to just pull up and re-fuel. Unfortunately when we got there trawlers were on all their jetties so we couldn't pull in. We needed to re-fuel so we called the other company who confirmed they could re-fuel us so we pulled in there instead. Our fuel filler cap is on the stern of the boat so I stupidly convinced Shane to reverse in. The wind was still blowing ridiculously hard and we ended up with our bow being pushed to one side of the pen, blowing us onto one of the trawlers as we drove out to try again. There was some scraping and general unpleasantness but the only damage was to two of our stanchions and, of course, our pride. There were a few swear words emanating from Shane as we sailed out of Bowen and, even if there had been a cyclone warning, I don't think I could have convinced him to stay in Bowen any longer and I suspect we won't be pulling in there on the way back down.

A new boat speed record

A strong wind warning was current as we left Bowen meaning our 43nm cruise to Cape Upstart, that based on our planning speed of 5 knots would take 8.5 hours, took just a little over 6 hours. And we set a new boat speed record of 10.3 knots. There were some decent waves coming through in sets, particularly as we cruised along the northern side of Cape Upstart where we had, I think, the biggest waves we've seen so far, and a wind gust of 37 knots at one point. I wasn't overwhelmed but the kids thought it was pretty cool and Shane thought it was 'awesome'. We spent today tucked up in Upstart Bay doing schoolwork including a rare appearance by the Science Master who did lots of cool experiments on surface tension of water.

The weather isn't due to clear until the end of the weekend so we have changed our plan to head north and visit the reef again and will now head north-west to Townsville in two legs over the next two, maybe three, days.

Finally, I would like to once again thank Oatsey for his fantastic hospitality while we were in town. You're awesome. So is Toby (aka Porridge).

Goodbye Whitsundays, Hello Bowen

Cam enjoying the view
of Edgecumbe Bay

We have a few cruising guides on board that we refer to often to find out about places to visit (or not), how and when to get there (approaches and tides), where to anchor and what to do on shore. Generally, we've found them to be 10 years out of date but still useful. After we got into Bowen Harbour yesterday, I had to go back and look again at what the cruising guides said about Bowen. One of them, Cruising the Coral Coast by Alan Lucas, says Bowen offers "...a return to sanity and economies after the excesses of the Whitsunday-Airlie Beach area...well-recommended to those needing security surrounded by low-key, but more than adequate, facilities." In 100 Magic Miles, David Colfelt says "Bowen has an atmosphere of an unhurried and unspoilt northern Queensland town."

'Excessive' is a good word for the Whitsundays - we saw more mega-yachts at Whitehaven than at the Gold Coast last year, I reckon - but I don't know that 'low-key' and 'adequate' are accurate for Bowen. It has been invariably easy to find the information we need, including who to contact, for the marinas we've visited so far. Bowen not so. Strangely, Queensland Transport run the harbour and seem to administer the pile berths and a marina pool that was dredged at least 10 years ago for a marina development that never happened; the yacht club administers a dozen or so berths on a jetty on one side of the harbour and a seafood company administers another dozen or so on the other side. After an internet search and three or four phone calls we were eventually given a mobile number, listed in the cruising guides as emergency only, and were directed to a pile mooring. We couldn't get a marina berth for Sunday and Monday because the yacht club were holding a regatta and were full. We passed the regatta - three boats!! - on their way out as we were on our way in. After mooring to piles (for the first time ever), we visited the yacht club and had a drink. There were half a dozen blokes in there who, rather than making us feel welcome as I would have expected in an "unhurried and unspoilt northern Queensland town" made me feel like I had three heads. I say all this knowing that we have just been spoiled by the excesses of the Whitsundays and that we haven't been into the town proper yet but I really hope my impression of Bowen improves because so far I am really underwhelmed.

On a pile mooring in Bowen Harbour

I mentioned mooring on piles for the first time ever. Berthing is always fun with two short-ish crew members. Generally, we like to reverse into a pen as it means our 240V power lead is likely to reach the power pole and that I can get off the boat onto the jetty and be ready to take a bow line before the bow is in the pen. If we nose in, the bow is almost fully into the pen before I can get off and get up there. A kid, normally Cam, throws me the bow line to tie off as Shane reverses the engine to stop the boat's movement. Shane then hops off and secures the stern with a line Haydee throws to him. I take a brake line onto the jetty with me to brake the boat if needed but generally I don't use it as it tends to swing the boat the wrong way. Strong wind always makes berthing fun. I've been left on the jetty once or twice in the past because we've had to abort, go out and try again.

Mooring to piles for the first time yesterday was almost as fun as berthing. In theory, you attach long lines to your bow and stern, the helmsman sidles up to the stern pile and a crewman puts a line around it, you nudge forward to the bow pile and put your bowline around it, then you adjust both lines so your boat is centred between the piles. Like berthing, I think the hard part is the throttle control which, fortunately, is Shane's job. We were put on a mooring that had lines tied to both piles already meaning we didn't have to get too close to the piles, we just used a boat pole to pick them up. The wind was blowing us around a bit and we had to drop the stern line at one stage and try again as our bow blew too far off the bow pile, but we then got both lines on and secure and the boat now sticks out like a sore thumb in amongst the fishing trawlers and, of course, the racing fleet.

Another shark!

We landed this one tonight, and let it go again. It was just a baby (about 80cm) compared to the one at Shute Harbour, but at least we got some footage. Enjoy the commentary ...

The new addition to the family ...

Ruby Cooper

It would be remiss of me not to mention that there has been another member added to the wider clan. My sister, Kirrilly and her husband, Brad had their first child the other day. Ruby Cooper was born on 9th October at 9:58pm, 48cm long and weighing 2.8kg (6lb 2oz). Brad came through it all just fine. The kids are very excited and are looking forward to meeting their new cousin at some stage in the future. Oh, Kiz and Ruby are both fine as well! CONGRATULATIONS.

Shane and the Shark

Mental arithmetic in pyjamas

We're currently on a bit of a fishing odyssey, it would seem, having left the protected marine park zones of the Whitsundays. It all started last Sunday in Shute Harbour when we think Shane hooked a shark. Either that, or he hooked something big and a shark started chasing it. He had a pilchard in the water on a deep sea rod and the brake clicked gently a few times. He got the rod out of the rod holder and upset whatever was nibbling the pilchard, making it swim away from the boat quite quickly. Shane and I both happened to be looking in the right spot when a 1.8m or so shark jumped sideways fully out of the water, showing us its belly. Shane was sitting on the back deck to reel whatever it was in and asked me to get knife and gaff ready. The gaff is a horribly sharp hook on what suddenly seemed a very, very short pole; I really wasn't keen to have a shark on the boat with us. After a few minutes of rather active fighting, whatever was hooked managed to break the line and, I hope, got away and is safely back home in a lovely underwater cave with its babies, and now knows not to bite hooks anymore. Or so it goes in Heather-world... Shane has recounted everything, with much more blokey detail, in his ship's log entry of 11th October.

In Bona Bay

In the 30nm we've covered since leaving Shute Harbour, we've dragged a lure almost the whole way, made two lunch-time fishing stops and fished morning and evening. We haven't landed much but Cam in particular is having fun and learning lots. Amongst all the fishing that's been going on recently, we managed a lunchtime stop-over at Monte's Reef Resort, a small beach resort on the mainland with a pretty good bar and restaurant and are now messing around Gloucester Island, east of Bowen. Last night's overnight anchorage, Bona Bay on the western side of Gloucester, is apparently a popular day-trip destination out of Bowen and I can see why. It has a beautiful beach, camping facilities and is well protected from northerly winds and swell - meaning the kids were able to get the dinghy on the plane really easily!

Goodbye Whitsundays!

Shane and the kids in
Daydream Island's pool

We've managed to fit a lot in since our last posts from Hook Island. We visited a site, part of the Ngaro Cultural Trail that winds over a number of Whitsunday islands, with 2,000-year-old aboriginal rock art on Hook Island. It was well-presented and worth a visit (although had it been as long as the trek up to Whitsunday Peak, I may not have been as impressed). We then moved around to Daydream Island, picked up one of their mooring buoys and spent time ashore swimming, watched "Rango" at their outdoor cinema (what a strange, strange movie!), kayaking (for Shane and Cam) and generally people-watching. The kids in particular enjoyed Daydream and I'd recommend it as a stop-over to other cruisers. Everything feels very relaxed, there is lots to do and see, and it isn't expensive to pick up a buoy.

The kids doing knot-tying practice

We continued our circumnavigation of Hook Island, spending time at the very beautiful and popular Blue Pearl Bay and Cid Harbour and the less popular but still gorgeous Macona Inlet before berthing at Hamilton Island, where Haydee was adopted by two girls on KBG. After overnighting there, the kids and I left Shane on Hamilton for 3 days (the poor boy) and flew to Sydney for my cousin's wedding (congratulations Nikki and Steve! enjoy the Cook Islands!), returning yesterday to a spic and span boat with freshly painted engine mounts, clean and waterproofed dodger and bimini, and lots of other maintenance jobs done. We left Hamilton shortly after the kids and I got back and moved across to Shute Harbour where we're now moored 30m away from a sunken boat that we're told has been like that for 2 years (!) as the owner, we assume, wrangles with an insurance company. All you can see is the top metre or so of its mast. Unbelievable.

Whitsunday Trip Map

If you have a close-up look at our trip map you'll see lots of crazy blue spaghetti between Hamilton Island, Airlie Beach and Hook Island marking our travels around the Whitsunday islands. I think it's safe to say we've done the Whitsundays, at least until we're on the way back down again. It's been fantastic - it is a stunning part of the world and we've been lucky to spend so much time here - but it is time to move on again. Bowen, Townsville and Hinchinbrook are the next major destinations as we approach the half-way mark on our trip. I'm not sure Shane is going to be easy to lure away from here as I think he still wants to catch his spotted mackerel's brother, but my theory that all the bareboaters here over the school holidays caught all the Whitsunday fish may hold sway yet!