Over Night on Smooth Water

It's Aug 8th now and we have been motoring for three days and haven't turned the boat's stabilizers on once! The water is that smooth. One whole week of fabulous weather

 

Currently we are on a 60 hour nonstop passage that is taking us from the Percy's right into the Broadwater by Jacob's Well.  We are taking advantage of our last two full days of forecasted good weather. Our route is past Gladstone and Keppel Island, Bundaberg, around the outside of Fraser Island and the Great Sandy Strait, past Mooloolaba and Brisbane, through Moreton Bay and into the Broadwater, which will have us only a short distance from Sanctuary Cove. Initially we were going to overnight at Keppel Island, then overnight at Lady Musgrave Island, enter into the Great Sandy Strait Marina and hang for a day, then over to the Kingfisher Resort on Fraser Island, do the 4x4 thing on the island again, make our way down the Great Sandy Strait to Tin Can Inlet and wait for the high tide at the Wide Bay Bar, overnight at Noosa Heads, spend a couple of days at Moreton Island before entering the Broadwater back to Sanctuary Cove. But our fine weather is going to run out at the time we would want to cross the Wide Bay Bar, potentially holding us captive for more days than we could afford to spend. Decisions, decisions; boating is an ever changing lifestyle - no plan is ever written in stone (water?).

Glen is in the cockpit fishing. Or maybe I should say, changing lures every 1/2 hour to see if one will work! I have steak out for dinner, I'm not counting on fish.

Traveling South from Whitsunday

Our first day of travel got us to Scawfell Island around 2:30pm. Pulling up to the lee side of an island with a sandy beach is not a Canadian West Coaster's idea of "gunk holeing" (terminology used to describe hopping from anchorage to anchorage on the west coast - I don't know where the saying comes from, but this is what it means), but it is a brilliant day with no wind and smooth water so other than being exposed on three sides we can't tell the difference. In short, it is a story book place to be. We drop down the rubber dingy and scoot in to shore for a walk on the beach. The island is a National Park and nobody lives here. There are three sailing boats in the anchorage, but nobody on shore, so the beach is ours to explore. We enjoyed ourselves a bit too long though. The tide was ebbing (going out) so not only did we have to drag the dingy down the beach to float it, we also had to drag it about 1/2 a mile (exaggeration - just seemed like it) along the ocean floor, now high and dry, to reach the water. Who needs a gym! Nobody is whining though, because this is a "perfect day". Our reward is the viewing of a splendid sun set from our own back yard. I'm telling you, it just doesn't get any better.

 

It doesn't get any better unless,….. your next day of travel (like ours) brings you to Middle Percy Island after "another" stunning day of bright sun, calm blue ocean and whales performing like they know you are watching. We stopped at Middle Percy on our way north, so even though we were anchored up by 1:00 pm, today we decide to stay on the boat and just soak the "best of Australia" up (I think maybe we are remembering all of our hard work from yesterday too!) A group of humpbacks cruises right up to the anchorage and we have front row seats. We've seen turtles today too. It is a rule now, I can't start dinner until I've watched the sunset. It would be ungrateful and wasteful not to appreciate God's finest works.

 

From My Galley Window

From My Galley Window

(A perfect "after sunset" in the Whitsundays, Australia)

 

Water, shimmering navy blue satin, shot with streaks of dark silver grey. Distant mountains, gun metal grey and closer dotted islands, velvet black, in stark relief. The remnants of the sunset, deepening red gold at the horizon, diluting into a wispy baby blue background ribboned with candy floss pink clouds, culminating in the highest heavens to darkest navy blue. Here and there the bright pin point of an evening light; black silhouettes of sailing ships now resting peacefully at anchor. With each passing minute another layer of night is added until my window becomes black and my vision is held within.

 

Perfect Conditions in Whitsundays

Hamilton Island Marina in the Whitsundays is a good place to pass some windy days. We spent July 31 and Aug 1 nights there, gave the boat a well deserved bath.  We got together with Oso Blanco both evenings as we will be parting ways when we leave the marina. It is possible that we may never be together again on our boats. One night was a mud crab night, a great treat here. We bought some fresh and cooked them ourselves. What a feast! They are very much like our red rock crabs from the west coast, a very hard stony shell with most of the meat in the claws.

 

After all of the crappy weather we have had, now we are experiencing Australia's finest. We've been out of Hamilton Island marina for three days now anchored securely at Stonehaven on Hook Island in the Whitsunday Group. With such favorable conditions, putting the whaler into the water was a piece of cake. We've been re-diving our previous sites here. Each time we go under, we find something new and wonderful. On top of our new finds, we can clearly hear the humpbacks calling, they must be close. Diving is an amazing hobby. The visibility is still not so great, though sunlight overhead helps a lot. The currents have fooled us a couple of times, being stronger than we anticipated underwater, but we just adjust our dive to suit. At 68 to 70 degrees in the water, it is cold and we need every bit of sunshine to warm us up between dives. This is the end of our diving in Australia now and we are greedy to see (and hear) as much as we can.

 

Our anchor winch gave us a bit of concern when we were letting the anchor down. It just quit letting the chain out. Hummmm, wonder if we'll get it back up???? With a bright sunny afternoon at our backs, Glen and I dismantled the winch (mostly Glen, I just pass the tools) to find that the "cones", which are supposed to be free moving, were completely void of grease and stuck together. With grease everywhere, we finished the project, happy to find that there were no left over parts and started everything up to give it a test run. Yeah!! She works!

 

Today, under another sunshiny sky, we are continuing our way south. It is so hard to leave a beautiful area when you have beautiful conditions, but we are still 500 miles from Sanctuary Cove and need to be there by the end of August. It is also good to travel in beautiful conditions, no wind, no waves, no mess, no stress!