Grassy Island, Gloucester Passage and Hideaway Bay

Grassy Island – while the winds were very light we took advantage of a calm anchorage on the north side of Grassy, then in the morning we greeted to a pod of whales breaching and playing just off Little Grassy Island.  

The day got even better when we turned into George Bay and another whale was just cruising up and down beside us.  We stopped the engines and just watched in awe.  By the time we anchored for lunch two more whales had come into the bay and we had good views of them too.  Just after the neighbouring boat left, a pod of whales came right up to us, then circled the boat.  The two adults and a youngster seemed to be checking us out.

Sailing downwind on the genoa through the Gloucester Passage another whale just casually cruised by, so we waved.  The passage is narrow but has channel markers to guide you and we managed to clear it in one tack, passing close to Passage Islet, aka “Shag Islet” the home of Shag Islet Cruising Yacht Club.   

At first we thought Bona Bay looked interesting to anchor, with only a stranded trawler sitting high and dry up on the beach, then two working trawlers came along so we opted to go back to Hideaway Bay.  Gloucester Resort provides free moorings and there is a Bar-Bistro looking over the beach which serves the best salt and pepper calamari.  Up the beach is Monte’s Reef Resort, which also has a great al fresco bar-bistro.

With no reasonable wind forecast we decided to try sailing around Gloucester Island at a very leisurely pace.  No sooner were we out of the passage than a Mayday call came over the radio – a jetski had overturned ne Middle Island, 5 nm off.  We were able to contact the guy in the water and Catlypso, who was heading to Bowne, also responded.  At 6 knots we were half an hour away, but a fishing boat was passing so we flagged them down and asked for their help.  They were able to reach the guy and get him on board, then right the jetski to tow it back to Monte’s Resort.   Emergency over, we thanked the fishermen and set sails again, at a blistering 2 knots!

Around the top of Gloucester we saw whales again, then dolphins, but a different species, not sure which.  A zephyr of wind allowed us to tack, but then the “iron sail” had to be deployed as we were becalmed.  A pod of whales near the island began tail-slapping so we moved closer, but they were still a few miles away.  Whales always put a smile on your dial!

The SICYC Masquerade Ball

Oh what a night!  

Ken and Rhonda thanked all the SICYC sponsors and supporters with an appropriate Shag Trophy.  

Fabulous finger food that never ran out, with bubbly and accompanied by a guitarist singing cool tunes.  

The masks were very creative:  one mask with the SICYC logo was made on a 3D printer.  The die-hards went on to a night club, while us oldies went home for a good night’s sleep.

Woodwark Bay

Titch and Bev [Ever Rest] invited us to join them and Olaf and Annie [Kathamaria] at Woodwark Bay.  What a beautiful spot!  

With fringing coral reef, plenty of fish and a beach walk up to the saddle overlooking Airlie Beach, we all enjoyed the break from all the radio chat of the charter yachts.  

The resident cheeky seagull greeted us on arrival by landing on our bow seat and calling instructions on how to catch a fish.  Well, that’s what he seemed to say, as he was very quick to check out our bait.  

A pair of brahminy kites enjoyed an undersized stripey who didn’t swim away fast enough, so everyone had a good feed.

Walks at Cid Harbour:

The pleasant walk to Dugong Beach, through the cool rainforest, was a good warm up for the big walk up to Whitsunday Peak, which was 4 hours of steps, phew!, with awesome views at the top. On one side was Whitehaven Beach and on the other Hamilton Island and Shute Harbour viewed over Gulnare Inlet, a popular anchorage.

Birds along the way included white-eared monarch, Lewin’s honeyeater, yellow-spotted honeyeater, silvereyes, brown cuckoo dove, orange-footed scrubfowl, brush turkey, pheasant coucal, grey goshawk, the ever present sea eagles, brahminy kites and osprey.  Those raptors make fishing look easy.

Sailing into Airlie Beach we saw another mother and calf humpback, about 200 metres from our boat.  Then dolphins led us into the harbour.  Just magic!! 

Whales in the Whitsundays

After 3 aborted whale watching trips over the last 20 years, we finally gave up and bought our own boat so we could see some whales. We have had two close encounters with a mother and calf, and a more distant one with whales breaching.

Grassy Island – while the winds were very light we took advantage of a calm anchorage on the north side of Grassy, then in the morning we greeted to a pod of whales breaching and playing just off Little Grassy Island.  

The day got even better when we turned into George Bay and another whale was just cruising up and down beside us.  We stopped the engines and just watched in awe.  By the time we anchored for lunch two more whales had come into the bay and we had good views of them too.

A visit to Langford Island and Bird Island allowed us to walk the full length of the sandbar at low tide.  One lucky family flew in on their helicopter, landed on the beach and snorkelled around the shallows.  Must have been someone famous.

Another mob flew in by water plane, were picked up by dinghy to go diving on the reef.  The pilot had to hang out at the mooring to look after the plane; not that anyone would pinch it.

Sailing back from Blue Pearl Bay we saw a mother and calf humpback whales, just awesome!  

Sailed out to Border Island to try to find more whales and one leapt right out of the water near Deloraine Isand, some distance from us, but still amazing.

By the time we sailed to Airlie Beach the wind was so light we were down to 3 knots – kick back and relax time.  The anchorage near VMR was very calm, despite all the fishing boats and dinghys coming and going.  To add an extra challenge, trucks were unloading jetty sections which a barge was ferrying around to the marina a few hundred metres away.  Cyclone repairs are in full swing all around here and they’ve done well to minimise the impact on tourists.

The dinghy does a runner... while Skipper Pete was installing the new toilet (Yay!!) we had a phone call from another yachtie asking if we had lost our tender.  What???  It should be astern where we tied it!  Alas, all that was left was the painter, so the kind gentleman came over to collect Peter to retrieve the errant tender, which had broken the loop on the painter. 

Airlie to Nara Inlet on Hook Island was an easy sail and the anchorage where our sister ship “Kathamaria” was suited us.  We decided to leave the walk until better weather, next visit and allow Peter’s foot to heal.  The Whitsunday islands and anchorages are close together but very busy with charter boats.  Like popular campgrounds, you need to get in by lunch to get a good spot.

Around the next corner is Stonehaven, where we rode out some wild southerly winds for a few days, cleaning and pottering around the boat.  As the weather improved, but still gusty winds, we sailed with double reefed main and jib up to Blue Pearl Bay on Hayman Island.  

Just off the sand and coral we saw Proserpine rock-wallabies, which have been introduced by Qld DEH for conservation.  They are very cute, have black paws, a mostly black tail with a white tip.