Diving the Great Barrier Reef

Finally, we got a break in the weather and Oso Blanco and us scooted 40 miles north of Cairns to the Agincourt Reef. We anchored behind Crispin Reef. Our whaler is too heavy to unload in the still persistent swell, so Glen and I lowered our rubber dingy and headed over to help Eric get his whaler down - it is a lighter version. It was still a bit of a rodeo, but we managed without breaking anything. Both big boats have their "flopper stoppers" out, we look like fishing trawlers at work, just sitting at anchor, but it does minimize the roll of the waves. This is the big times for diving and we can hardly wait for tomorrow to come.

 

First thing in the morning we all head out for our first splash of the day. Eric's whaler does not have a chart plotter on it and there is no showing land for us to reference our position, but we have a hand held GPS and so armed we head out into the great blue ocean. On route, I discover that I don't know how to operate the handheld (figures!) and we make a big 2 mile loop in no less than 130 feet of water - Where are the reefs and bommies when you want them?  Undaunted we return to the reef encircling the big boats because we can see the waves breaking on it (thus we know where it is) and we dive there; big disappointment!  It just "had" to be a "wrong" place to dive.  We head back to our respective big boats, grab a bite to eat, swap tanks, learn how to operate the handheld GPS and head out again. Woo Hoo! The GPS directed us to the dive spot we wanted and there was even a tiny buoy there to tie up too.  The dive was well worth the effort. Maybe not as full of life as our Fiji dives, but many new things to see and that's what counts. There were 5 giant squid hovering over coral heads, trying their best to blend with what ever color was closest to them.

 

In all we had two days of diving before we had to head back to Cairns because of impending bad weather. The weather forecasters were off by 1/2 a day and we bashed and crashed our way back to port. Probably the worst conditions we have been in since leaving Canada. But it was only a 5 hour run and other than being super salty, Mystery Ship handled it beautifully.

Daintree Forest

O.K. So we have some down time!

 

Imagine the soft hush of a sleeping rain forest. Your foot falls are cushioned by damp leaves and the humidity clings to everything as heavily as actual rain. It is cool and refreshing, alive and breathing; pulsing with life, seen and unseen.

 

Daintree Rainforest Reserve is a World Heritage site and rightly so. It would be truly criminal to cut this living organism down in the name of commerce and development. When one is stuck with time on their hands in Cairns, this is the place to go. There aren't a lot of accommodations to choose from and we are lucky to pick the Daintree Heritage Resort as it is tucked deep into the forest backing onto the Cooper Creek. We stayed for three nights, hiking creek beds and forest tracks and literally soaking up the forest. It rains - LOTS - but it is warm and you just don't mind it at all. If a person needed a peaceful retreat with no cell service or internet, this would be it; total relaxation and communing with nature. Cassowary - giant flightless birds - make this forest their home and though we weren't fortunate enough to see one, we did see convincing evidence that there is at least one bird left in the forest and Eric and Anne reported an actual sighting when they did their tour up here.

 

Our drive back from Daintree winds through a bit of the table lands. Mareeba and Karunda are towns of note on this highway. Austalia has a coffee plantation industry, albeit very small and we spend an afternoon touring a coffee plantation and learning how to make coffee. It is actually more complex than I would have imagined. Of course we came away with several bags of premium coffee for our morning brew.

 

Now we are back on the boat and waiting for the wind to calm and the swell to abate. There are only so many things to clean and polish on the boat.

 

Dunk Island to Cairns

Dunk Island used to be a very popular resort destination until last year when the island took the brunt of a cyclone. The resort was trashed. There is a lovely sand spit that exposes at low tide and is barely visible at high tide. We get anchored up by mid day so we let the rubber dingy down and speed off to see what we can see. The spit is still an attraction with day boaters and since it was a lovely day, there were several families enjoying the sun and sand. The destructive forces of the cyclone are eerily evident in the hulks of the still standing apartments. Don't mess with Mother Nature. The evening is still and beautiful, the anchorage is perfect in these good conditions, but would not be so great if the wind and water were up. We are only a day away from Cairns right now and when we get there tomorrow, this lovely weather will be gone.

 

On our way into Cairns marina the next day, we wave to Oso Blanco as they head out of harbour to anchor with guests at Fitzroy Island. We wish them luck as the winds are up and the sea state is following - meaning coming up too. We are happy to be safe and comfortable at dock. The boat needs a bath and we need some shore time.

 

Downtown Cairns is an easy "walk about" (local term) with multitudes of restaurants to choose from and brand name shopping. It is quite a destination because of the Great Barrier Reef. There are also some pristine rainforest parks in the region that draw people from all over the globe. We are chomping at the bit for some diving, but the weather is not "playing ball". Oso Blanco comes back to harbour - early - it is too lumpy for comfort out there and the reef is totally unprotected. WE all wait!

 

Another Day in the Life

O.K. so now it is June 23 and after another really long and tiring stint in the air, we have arrived back at Hamilton Island. The General Store has complied all of the groceries that I ordered by email earlier in the week, so we pack our goodies away and head out, final destination…. Cairns, but of course we will have points in between. Our first day of travel sees us 80 miles north at Cape Upstart to anchor for the night. It is a nice calm night and no swell. We are definitely ready for sleep when darkness falls. Oh wait, it is only 6:00pm, guess we should have some dinner first and then turn in. It is probably the fact that it is the wee small hours at home that has us dragging so. I have also managed to catch (why I'd want to do that…) a terrible cold so am not feeling very swift. Glen will tell you that this is my usual state! The next day's travels have us pulling into the marina at Magnetic Island, just across from Townville on the main land. This is a really nice laid back holiday settlement. Glen and I spend a couple of days hiking to explore the place, because if we rent a vehicle (which we do anyway) it only takes a few hours to drive it. We get to see some wildlife, kangaroo, rock wallabies and koala, as well as lots and lots of birds. There is some WW II relics in the hills - gun stations and communication tower which provide good exploration. Again, we must judge a place by it's food and we had a delightful dinner at the local French restaurant Les Paradise, so this place "rates".  The weather has been rather cool and rainy since our arrival, rather like what we left back in Canada. It took us 4 days before we broke out our shorts. It is running around 23 degrees during the day and in the high teens at night.

 

Another day in a boater's life! We've had a beautifully quiet night anchored in the middle no-where of Missionary Bay at the north end of Hinchinbrook Island. It is sooooo shallow that we are about 1/2 mile off shore in 15 feet of water. The morning breaks bright and sunny and after a hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs, we do our one chore of fixing the dishwasher. The silly thing always seems to quit after a month of doing nothing - I guess it gets lazy! It is an easy fix (thankfully) open this, open that, push this button and then that button. Poof! It works again. We've only got a short trip planned today, 18 miles to Dunk Island. Glen goes to start the main engine and…….nothing! Not even a click! It is at times like this that having a "motor head" as the Captain (Glen) is a very good thing. A short time later the engine roars to life, something about "hot wiring"? The starting solenoid (sp?) is gone. Our mechanical knowledge is so great now, hot wiring, pounding things with a hammer, pushing buttons, our prospects are limitless!

Whitsunday Group and Hamilton Island

Wow, I can't believe how far behind I am in recording all of the wonderful things we've been doing here in Australia. May 2 until now June 30, is almost too long ago for my air conditioned brain to recall events. Lucky for me, 5 weeks of that time was spent at home in Calgary.

 

The Whitsunday area is a nice boating destination directly across from Airlie Beach on the mainland, with many small islands, resorts, beaches, diving, anchorages and so forth. It must be said though that there are few anchorages that protect well from the persistent south easterly winds that seemed to blow a constant 20 knots for the first 5 days that we were there. Stronger winds means bigger swells and the swell at anchor is the killer. Cid Harbor is a good safe place as well as Stone haven Bay, these became our outside bases.

Finally we got into the water again for some diving and although the visibility wasn't great, the underwater life is definitely wonderful and diverse. This is a popular tourist destination, so the local dive operators feed the fishes in order to give their clients lots to see……But…then these fishes expect that "everybody" should feed them. One very large giant trevally (type of fish) decided that my hand was food and grabbed a large chunk out of it! Besides hurting like crazy, now I am bleeding profusely…."Shark!" enters my mind. So, here I am, diving, one hand clasping tightly over the other to prevent bleeding and trying to carry on enjoying my dive (we had just entered the water). I'm here to tell the tale, so obviously survived.

 

When Oso Blanco rejoined us on anchor, we all decided that with a calm window of weather for the next few days, we would head out to the outer reef, some 25 miles from the Whitsunday Group. We anchored behind Line Reef across from Hook Reef, which we could find because of our chart plotters, but that was not visible to the eye until the lowest of low tide. To somebody looking at us, you would think that we were anchored in the middle of the ocean. It made me recall the question that so many people asked us when we first left North America to cross the Pacific to the Marquesas, "What do you do at night? Anchor?" The only response to that was "No, it is several thousand feet deep." But if we had anchored, how we looked at Line Reef, was how it would have been. Did that make sense? O.K. so we are here to dive…The "Real" Great Barrier Reef. I have to admit, we were a bit disappointed, poor vis being the biggest problem, big current and too much commercialism - there is a tourist barge (Pontoon) permanently moored here that sees 100's of tourist a day, they arrive on large power cats (boats). Glen and I did find some beautiful bommies (coral boulders) with lots of life to see, so all was not lost.

 

The main resort island of the Whitsunday Group is Hamilton Island. It is a big commercial project owned by Mr. Robert Oatley (or so the brochures claim). Mr. Oatley's granddaughter qualified for the Australian Dressage team for the London Olympics 2012. (Just a side note) There are restaurants, shops, hotels, holiday rentals and a marina here, all very, very nice. We are docking here for the next 5 weeks so that we can go home. It is nice to go out for dinner again and the restaurants are all pretty good quality, with Bommies being absolutely "note worthy".  We take a day to explore the island and go through the process of renting a golf cart for a day to tour the island, 8:00 am to 5:00pm, Will we have enough time???? By 11:30 am, we have driven every street on the island and have turned our cart back in. I guess we should have walked it; we would have at least spent the day doing it. We found it pretty funny. Hamilton Island has an airport and we fly from here to Sydney, spend the night and then fly back to Canada.

 

 

Moving On

The Percy Islands are very, very nice, they have the most beautiful swimming beaches in all of the south Pacific. Too bad we can't stay longer, but the weather is going to blow and there really isn't much protection in the Percy anchorages. Besides, Eric and Anne are on a deadline, they have to be to Hamilton Island for Apr 30 to meet some friends who are flying in.

 

Another day, another short trip, this time further up the coast to Mackay (pronounced "McI"). Both boats are tied up at the dock by 3:30, we've checked in and rented a car for the next few days. Anne and I have to rush out to get groceries as everything is closed tomorrow for their Anzac Day celebration - like our Remembrance Day. Dinner out is always a good way to end a stint on anchor and the food at the Thai restaurant at the marina was delicious.

 

In all, we spend 5 nights at dock in MacKay and the winds "do" blow, so it is good to be in port. Boat work and exploring inland fill our time. One of our inland days, Glen and I drove to the Eungella National Park and did a 14 km hike through a very lovely sub-tropical forest. We came across a young park ranger who was cutting overgrowth from the path and he filled us in on some of the things we could see. His parting remarks were "Watch out for the leaches, they'll eat you alive."  Up until that exact moment, we hadn't encountered any, there after, we had to stop regularly and check ourselves over as they truly were out to get us.

 

Platypus (es,i) live in this area, but we traveled to the viewing area two days in a row and didn't see them, so we are unconvinced that they still exist.

 

 

Middle Percy Island

Next stop...... Middle Percy Island, only and hour north of South Percy Island. Another brilliant afternoon is in progress as the two Nordhavns set their anchors in West Bay. We swing out our flopper stopper just in case it is needed. Immediately, two rubber dingys are racing toward the shore, another tantalizing expanse of golden sand, this time with palm trees swaying.  The swell is breaking on the beach, so it is a trick to get landed without filling the dingy with water or taking a bath ourselves. This island is inhabited as well as being a National Park. There is an "A" framed shelter on the beach that is full of yachting "we were here" items, like flags, t-shirts, placards and basically whatever passing boats can print their names on, dating back to the 1950's, draped from the walls and rafters. Oso Blanco installs one of their t-shirts in the melee. We (Glen and I) are ghosts, traveling a "mystery path", we leave "no trace"!

 

 Our evening rendezvous is graced with the most dazzling sunset.

 

Day two at Middle Percy is discovery day, actually a super exercise day too. We start with a hike (3.5 km) up to the homestead (where the people live) and are greeted firstly by a flock of Mother goats with brand new babies (kids) - I mean Brand New! Kate, the lady of the house invites us all in for coffee and treats us to a new variety of fruits that she grows on the island. Custard apples, fruit salad fruit, passion fruit, all are exotic, unique and very tastey. She fills us in on the history of the island and we pepper her with queries. Ernst, one of fellows who also lives on the island, takes us all on a truck tour to see some of the vantage points of the island and the "airstrip".  We are delighted to see some wild kangaroos and wild goats (left by early mariners as meat supply for ship wrecked sailors) and we stop at a wild lemon bush to pick a bag full of ripe lemons (yum). Guess what? All of the butterflies are congregating on these islands. They are Blue dragon butterflies and driving through the forest with thousands of them everywhere makes you feel like you are in "Avator" or some such movie. We finish the adventure off by hiking back down the hill on the short track (1.5 km) to the beach for a splash in the water.  Because Kate is stuck out here for months on her own while her husband works on the mainland, I asked if there was anything that we might have on board that she would like. At first she said "No", then she cocked her head and said "Do you have any chocolate?"  Lucky her, I carry a great stack of chocolate bars, so we dingy'ed one back in to shore for her and left it safely in the "honesty box".

 

Dinner and a movie on our own tonight was just what we needed to re-build our strength.