Our time in the Whitsundays is over. As the cyclone season arrives, we need to start heading south and homewards.

Don’t get me wrong, we’ve thoroughly enjoyed our 6 month getaway on board Stars End 2, but despite our initial intention to head much further north up the Qld coast, its actually felt like we’ve spent much of our time since we left home in June, escaping from constant strong fronts, so when a brief lull in the weather came, we felt we wanted to explore the Whitsunday islands rather than head north and possibly struggle to return.

Our times in the Whitsundays

 

We’ve had our favourite ‘escape’ anchorages either in Woodwark or Double Bay on the mainland, or Nara Inlet or Cid Harbour in the islands. Truth be told, its been rather good to have some enforced relaxation whilst the winds raged.

 

 

 

Frank, like most skippers, always has a myriad of boat jobs or maintenance to keep him busy, whilst I have thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to re find my art mojo that I had lost for a number of years. I brought a small variety of pens, paints and art pads with me and have almost filled a visual diary with an eclectic mix of artwork.

 

 

 

Once the fronts’ winds eased, a pattern emerged where we would head across to the north of Hook island, pick up one of the many public moorings in the protected bays at Stonehaven, and then use the lighter easterly, sou easterly winds as the front dissipated, to zigzag down Hook and Whitsunday Island to Tongue Bay, which is right next to the stunning clear waters and bright, white silica sand of Whitehaven beach. We planned this route so that by the time we reached Whitehaven, the winds would be at their most minimal.

 

We have not been the only boaties to be surprised at how cold the water temperature has been, right up until October, so a ‘s’walk’ -( our version of a brisk walk in chest deep water which is great exercise) or a quick dip was about all we could manage before we needed to warm up in the sun.

Sometimes we went across to Haslewood island opposite Whitehaven beach, where there was a good reef for snorkelling at Chalkies (good luck scoring a mooring buoy with the high demand from charter and bareboats), or anchoring in nearby Windy bay.

 

Once the winds started to pick up again, as they invariably did, we often sailed around the bottom of Whitsunday island, up through the passage past Hamilton Island and around to Sawmill Bay in Cid Harbour, or Mays Bay to get a bit more protection.

 

Invariably, we’d need to head back to Airlie Beach at some point. We’d top up supplies, occasionally fuel, but the biggest reason was to dump rubbish. Over many years of extensive cruising, Frank and I have become adept at reducing our rubbish intake- organic waste from cooking goes overboard, plastic gets compressed and squashed into plastic containers, cardboard and paper is cut up small and bagged. Not forgetting cans- most especially Franks beer cans and bottles!

Generally, after 3 weeks on the move, we would usually have 2 or 3 plastic shopping bags of rubbish to dispose of on land. Particularly when we were cruising through SE Asia for many years, the heat can make the alternative very smelly, and after an incident when larvae starting crawling from the bags on deck and rained down through the open hatch onto our bed, we are very cautious!!! We have been known to find a deserted beach and make a contained fire to burn all we can, and take back everything that remains in the embers, like cans and silver foil. Let me tell you, disposable nappies take forever to burn, as we discovered many years ago, when Paul and Jenny visited us in Fiji back in 2016 . Perhaps that explains why we saw a sad amount of disposable nappies floating around the water throughout our travels.

Memorable highlights

Paul and Jenny came to visit us again, in September, but this time, with Max and Mika who are now aged 10 and 6.  They drove up to Airlie with their 4.2m tinny which became a great mode of fast transport for us all to enjoy a whole different kind of fun. Mega fishing, exploring mangroves and inlets, towing kids on boards or nipping to and from the mother ship (‘Stars End’) to beaches, we had a great 10 days together.

 

 

 

Michael and Stacey also flew up to Airlie Beach for a few days too, but this was more of a social gathering, with several members of Stacey’s family up here in their motor home and caravan. We hit the bars and restaurants of Airlie and had a rollicking good time with the group.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another significant meeting I have to mention is that we connected with Lala, who is now the owner of Stars End 1, the 30ft Roberts yacht, Frank built and launched back in 1979.

We were amazed when her previous lovely owners, Jesse & Bonnie, whom we’ve stayed in contact with, sent us a msg that they had seen a tik tok post and recognised Stars End 1.

Of course, we chased this up only to be astounded to see that Lala, with her son, is living on board the boat, now called Monkey Island, at Airlie Beach. We messaged and rang Lala, and were thrilled to meet up with her on the boat a few days later.

What an amazing stroke of luck as we had lost touch with where the old boat had ended up. She is a little tired now, to be expected at almost 50 years old, but dearly loved by Lala and it was so emotional and nostalgic to see the yacht we had owned and loved for 30+ years ourselves. We will definitely be staying in touch.

Whilst sailing around the Whitsundays, it wasn’t hard to spot another Freedom design schooner rig like Stars End 2. It took several weeks of seeing the distinctive red hull and 2 tall white masts passing in the distance before lo and behold, they pulled into Tongue Bay late one afternoon and obviously were as intrigued about our boat as we were with theirs.

Needless to say, Natasha and Ed have fast become friends. They remind Frank and I of young versions of ourselves, just starting out on their sailing journey with their newly purchased beautiful Freedom 40 ‘Tarali’, whilst we are now in the twilight years of our sailing. It has been very special to share our stories and hear their hopes and dreams for their sailing adventures. We look forward to catching up with them again when they sail down to Brisbane during the cyclone season.

After almost 21/2 months up here in the Whitsundays, Frank and I feel that we’ve become very familiar with this area. We have managed to navigate about 5 circuits of the islands and love that in the Whitsundays there are islands to shelter a boat in all kinds of winds and weather.

 

Over the last few months I have posted quite a few instagram videos of our adventures that I hope friends and family have enjoyed watching, so I didn’t want to repeat everything in this blog.

 

This is more an overview of our time here. We’ve had some great adventures, created new memories, forged some lasting friendships, and had a fantastic finale just last week by taking advantage of weather to go to the Outer Reef.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

However, we have finally seen the start of northerly winds so now it’s time to point Stars End 2’s bow to the south and head for home.

Pointing the bow south

At long last, the northerlies have arrived, giving us the green light to point Stars End 2’s bow south and begin our journey home.

We’ve been working our way down through the islands for almost a week now, hopping from one anchorage to the next. It sounds idyllic, and it is — mostly. The catch is that the southern side of an island doesn’t always offer a particularly comfortable place to spend the night. We’ve had a few rock-and-roll sessions that left us more than ready to up anchor at first light and find somewhere a little less lively.

We’ve made good progress, with some long days that begin around dawn and end at our next anchorage. And we’re certainly not alone. It seems half the cruising fleet has been waiting for the same change in wind, with sometimes a dozen yachts heading out together in the morning. Some are bigger and faster than us, and others take different routes, but we keep bumping into familiar boats along the way. It’s rather like a travelling community, temporarily united by the weather gods.

Tea, anyone?

Just when we thought we had everything under control, Stars End 2 decided to add a little excitement to the trip.

On the passage from Port Clinton to Great Keppel Island, we ran our water maker to replenish our fresh water. Frank checked the output and discovered it was registering over 1,000 parts per million of salt, compared with our usual 200–250. Not good.

Then came the realisation that our tanks were pretty much full of salt water.

Suddenly, the mystery of our increasingly disappointing cups of tea was solved. We hadn’t been imagining things after all!

After a brief moment of shock, we did what we generally do when cruising throws a spanner in the works: we talked it through and worked out a plan. After all, Stars End 1 never had a water maker, and plenty of other boats manage without one. It would mean being more careful with our water, but it wasn’t the end of the world. We’ve sailed too far and dealt with too many unexpected challenges to let a salty cup of tea defeat us.

We headed into Rosslyn Bay Marina for the night, emptied and rinsed our tanks, and filled them with lovely fresh water. Frank checked the water maker’s membrane, but it appears to have failed following a high-pressure problem. That repair will have to wait until we get home.

So we’re back on our way south, with fresh water in the tanks and a new appreciation for every litre. Showers, washing up and all the other everyday luxuries are now subject to a little more scrutiny. We may have to become very creative with our water usage — though I draw the line at making tea with seawater again!

The Narrows: where timing is everything

Our next challenge is The Narrows, a 40-kilometre tidal waterway between the mainland near Gladstone and Curtis Island.

This passage has a fascinating history. Back in the late 1800s, cattle and horses were driven across Ramsay Crossing between the cattle station on Curtis Island and the mainland. Today, the enormous tidal range still transforms the waterway, exposing vast expanses of mudflats and sandbars at low tide. Some of these rise as much as 3 metres above the surrounding water, making careful timing and navigation essential.

It’s one of Queensland’s trickier coastal passages, which is reassuring in a way. We’d hate to think we were simply cruising along without anything to keep us on our toes!

With a change in the wind forecast in a couple of days, we’ll be looking for sheltered spots along the way while we wait for the northerlies to return.

After six months away, home is beckoning, although we’re not quite ready to swap our ever-changing views for a familiar front yard just yet. We have a couple more weeks of cruising ahead of us, weather permitting, and we intend to enjoy them.

For now, we’ll keep moving south when the weather allows, find a comfortable spot to drop the anchor each night, and make every drop of fresh water count.

And if our tea tastes particularly good over the next few days, you’ll know why!

 

If you’d like to follow our sailing adventures in pictures and videos, come and join me on Instagram at @Nikkiloolah. (https://www.instagram.com/nikkiloolah/.) https://www.instagram.com/nikkiloolah/