Meike and Stefan's visit.

After all our very mixed weather, the wind has now gone round to the north and the sun is shining. We are forecast to have northerlies for the next few days so, having been joined by friends Mieke and Stefan, we planned to sail down to some of the more southerly islands. The first day they did not arrive until mid afternoon and, in almost no wind, we motored across to Cid Harbour where we arrived after dark. The next three weeks up here are the busiest of the year. It is Queensland followed by NSW school holidays. Next day there was also no wind but we motored south under slightly cloudy skies to the south side of Thomas Island. There are two anchorages marked here. In one there were about half a dozen boats while there were none in the other. We had the second anchorage to ourselves. We swam and enjoyed the quiet, peaceful beauty. We had breeze on and off the next day and continued our way south. We must have been sailing on whale highway - we kept seeing whales in every direction. None was very close but they were all over the place. It is coming towards the end of the season. Most of the whales have had their calves and have already headed south back to the Antarctic waters for the summer.  We spent the night in Western Bay on the west side of Brampton Island. There was only one other boat in the large bay. The tides are larger here - about a 4m range - and there is a wide fringing reef that dries at low water. Mieke and Stefan rowed ashore at high water and then snorkelled round. The coral is not spectacular but they found many fish. In the morning we motored round to the anchorage on the northern side of the island. There was a resort here but it closed down six years ago. It is in a very beautiful spot and it's a shame that the buildings are so neglected. There is a caretaker who is paid $4000 a month. His job is purely to keep people off the resort premises, not to do any maintenance. He tells us that there are plans to build an expensive eco resort for about 20 guests but nothing has happened yet. We had only planned to stay here for the morning while walking some of the trails on Brampton. However it was so lovely and there was no wind that we decided to stay the night. Stefan caught us a large Trevally for dinner. Some of the reef fish contain ciguatera so one is warned not to eat anything over 4kg in weight nor to have a second meal off any fish. This was quite a large fish with plenty for two meals but we played it safe and had one delicious meal and the rest has been used as bait. Finally next day we had some wind. After the usual morning swim we tore ourselves away from this lovely anchorage and set off north again in a predominantly easterly breeze of 10-12 knots. It was a glorious sail. We sailed up between Linne and Goldsmith islands then anchored at Roylan Bay on Goldsmith for lunch.  We made damper and swam while it cooked in the solar oven. After lunch we sailed on to Shaw Island. Stefan caught a number of fish but we put them back as none was very large. We sailed north next day in a good wind. We sailed through the Solway passage and anchored off Whitehaven beach for a swim and lunch. Then on to Tongue for the night. To our surprise there were not that many boats in there or we would have gone on to Apostle Bay. The tide was high at about 8am next day so we made an early start and with no breakfast rowed ashore to do the Hill Inlet walk. It was as beautiful as ever and we enjoyed walking along the cool, white sand. After this we went back south again. We looked at stopping at one of the bay's on the south side of Whitsunday island. There were quite a few boats anchored in all of them so, after sticking our nose in, we decided to keep heading south. We anchored in Plantation bay on the south side of Lindeman Island for the night. With the northerlies continuing, the next day we sailed over the north end of Shaw Island and looked at the bays on the east side of Shaw, none of which we had been into before. The first, Queen Margrethe Bay, we thought would be the least likely to be occupied but surprisingly there were quite a few boats there. The second, Roberta Bay, only had a couple but the third was empty so we had the Bay to ourselves all night. In the morning we headed north starting with very little wind but gradually strengthening to 12 knots. We skirted the top of Haslewood Island and investigated Chalkies beach for a lunch stop. However we preferred Windy Bay where we anchored, swam and ate lunch. Then on to Frittata Bay for the night. This is on the west side of Whitsunday Island. If you go through the Hook channel from the East and then turn left it's just down that western side. It's not listed in the book as an anchorage but we used it a couple of weeks ago and found it to be well sheltered. We named it Frittata Bay as we had just eaten frittata for dinner! We had a good spinnaker run that afternoon until it got a bit tangled as we gybed it so we had dropped it without it being furled. It was too windy to do anything about it that evening so we left it until morning when there was no wind. It took but a few minutes to hoist and refurl it then we went straight off to Cateran Bay for some snorkelling. We picked up our usual buoy but very soon quite a few more yachts and motor boats joined us. We had a lovely morning there swimming and snorkelling, before heading  back to Frittata for another night. Next day we circumnavigated Hook stopping at Butterfly Bay for lunch and a snorkel. It was a lovely day with good sailing and warm sunshine. We spent the night in Macona before heading back to Airlie Beach next day. In the evening we feasted on coral trout which happened to be the fish of the day at a local restaurant kindly hosted by Stefan and Meike who left us next day. 

The passage between Brampton and Carlisle Islands.

Stefan and his delicious trevally. 

Sunrise at Hill Inlet. 

Snorkelling at Butterfly Bay.