The Whitsundays

Tuesday 6th September

We didn't get up too early this morning, and after breakfast, sails were hoisted and we ran without engine to Whitehaven Beach. The weather had been very wet during the night, and it continued equally bad in the early morning. Paul was steering the boat, so I went up on deck, but quickly became drenched by the rain squalls, in spite of wearing a raincoat supplied by the boat crew.

Fortunately, the weather cleared up a lot and we were delighted that it had improved enough for us to visit Whitehaven Beach, which is on the eastern side of Whitsunday Island. We climbed down the side of the boat and into the dinghy, and the outboard motor then failed to start. We drifted about the bay for a bit, then a passing dinghy owner took us in tow back to the boat and we climbed back on, while the boat crew fixed the outboard motor. Then we got back into the dinghy and went to the beach. The beach is unbelievably beautiful, a huge half moon of fine white sand, backed by dense green forest, and the water is very clear and the most beautiful turquoise blue.

There were very few people there, and it was very quiet and peaceful. It was warm but not unbearably hot so it was very pleasant in the water, and there was a huge shoal of quite large fish which came into the shallows but seemed worried by the feet and legs and swam quickly back into deeper waters. As the morning passed, more boats arrived and the beach became a little more crowded, but it is so big we were never very close to other people.

At midday, the dinghy came back to fetch us for lunch, and after lunch we sailed off to a good spot for snorkelling. The islands are of different sizes, mainly high and rocky, and thickly forested.

The snorkelling did not look easy, as one had to climb down a ladder from the boat and swim quite a distance, wearing a stinger suit in case of any jellyfish. Only 4 people decided to give it a go, and Paul, who was one of the four, never even made it to the reef owing to be unable to see the reef without his glasses, being unable to hear any shouted instructions, and finding it difficult to swim in the stinger suit and impossible to manage the mask and snorkel. So he eventually gave up and the dinghy went to fetch him back to the boat. Once Paul was in the dinghy, the outboard motor stopped working again and the dinghy had to be paddled back to the boat. Reports from the snorkelling were mixed. Two people found it disappointing, one thought it was marvellous, saying he saw a lot of fish, some of them quite big. Anyway, I don't think it was a disaster that we didn't have a go at it, we may try again at the Great Barrier Reef.

It was quite a long sail back to the marina, again steered by Paul, where we will spend the night, leaving the boat after breakfast to get back on the road for Mission Beach. One delightful feature of the Marina is wonderful hot showers, much better than the 30 seconds we are allowed in the tiny space on the boat.