Whitsunday's to Cairns - Part 2

Mary Smith has agreed to continue the story of their adventure aboard “Amorette” last spring.

Retrieval of the boat at Yorkey’s Knob proved to be hot and exhausting. It included three relaunchings as the yacht just wouldn’t centre itself on the trailer, a lost lynch pin from a bombay door hinge and a disintegrated roller on the winch post, the Smith family finally headed south towards the Whitsunday’s on the second leg of their “northern adventure”.

Launch day at Airlie Beach was hot and still. By this time we had developed quite a system for rigging, reprovisioning and launching.The reprovisioning included a new lure guaranteed to catch fish and not Bob, a gaff and net. Little did we know at the time that Georgia was to be the only one to catch a fish and that was only a small Moses Perch.

We sailed on a close reach out to Cid Harbour for the night, where the said fish was proudly caught. Back on the water and in familiar sailing grounds, we all felt the tension of the past couple of days travelling back down from Cairns begin to slip off into the wake we left behind. The following day we sailed to Hamilton Island to pick up my sister, Helen and her husband Ray, who were to stay with us during the ensuing week and assist us in our first experiment, entitled “How many people can co-habitate on a Magnum for a week and still remain on speaking terms”.

The experiment was a success aided, no doubt, by the best weather we had encountered up to that point. We sailed, anchored and snorkelled at Whitehaven Beach, Hill Inlet, Cateran Bay,(Border Island), Butterfly and Manteray Bays, back to Abel Point Marina and then Hamilton Island to drop them back to the airport.

The Magnum’s ability to float in shallow water, allowed us to spend a lovely day in Hill Inlet. When the tide was out the inlet had the appearance of allowing you to walk it’s length along sand banks. Then all would be under water once more as the tide rushed in. A wonderful spot away from all the day-trippers at Whitehaven, but unfortunately with an over abundance of sand flies.

We loved the snorkelling; the walks up to the top of Border Island, the company and the peace that comes with sailing in an area were there is always somewhere relatively close by to get out of the weather. Compared to our trip to Cairns, the distances in the Whitsunday’s felt negligible. We found ourselves and our guests very relaxed. They were to say later to others, that it was the best holiday they’d ever had.

Leaving our guests to fly home from Hamilton, we sailed down to Thomas Island, on our way passing many of the Hamilton Race week yachts and a grounded Brindabella (if only they had a retractable keel!!). I love the Islands down around Shaw and Thomas. They are so pretty and there are usually a lot less people down there. We woke the next day to sunny clear skies with a twenty knot change predicted. Our intention was to sail to Laguna Quays, a resort on the mainland south of Proserpine.

The wind rapidly whipped up to 23knots with 1.5metre cBob waves. We were sailing along well, about 14 miles from our destination, when a sudden “crack” was heard. We spun around to see a large crack along the front of the rudder box. Down came the main, down went the motor and over the back Bob went to lash the rudder box together as I tried to steer a straight course through the waves and contend with Alice who was by this time hysterical. We gradually worked our way towards North Repulse Isl. were we dropped anchor calmed our nerves and adde d more ropes to the rudder box which was by now exhibiting quite a few more fracture lines. After contacting Amanda Mills in Melbourne (as we didn’t have Peter Sand’s number) re our predicament and our request for a new rudder box, we radioed into Laguna Quays re our situation and headed off again. Four hours later and a few more grey hairs we docked at the resort marina, to be met by the Marine master, John, to inform us that a new rudder box was on its way. Way to go Amanda! Needless to say we knocked over a bottle of champagne that night.

After living on a yacht with two young children for nearly two months, Laguna Quays was a wonderful place to be “stuck in”. At $19 per night (over 7 days) in the marina with full use of resort facilities including, Kid’s Club, Restaurants, pool, water sports tennis and golf, we were all very happy. The golf course has been voted best Resort course in Australia. Although the horrendous cost to hire clubs, shoes, buggy and pay for 12 holes, balls tees etc ($160) was enough to put you off bothering. Oh well, when in Rome! So if you plan a stop at Laguna Quays, pack your own clubs. We intended to stay for a few days and ended up there a week. It was fabulous and set on 3600 acres so just a walk was great.

The Marina staff were great. They created a very friendly and welcoming atmosphere which resulted in most of the yachties congregating at the Marina bar in the evening to share stories and of course, the odd glass or two or three... We also got fresh prawns from a trawler boat that were cheap, enormous and exquisite.

And what of the rudder box? In true Mills style, our new one arrived the day after we tied up at the marina

After riding out a mini cyclone in the marina, (60 knot) we sailed back up through the Whitsunday’s, via Lindeman Isl. Whitsunday Isl. and eventually Blue Pearl Bay, on the northern side of Hayman. Blue Pearl is another great spot for snorkelling, great sunsets and what better place to spend your 16th wedding anniversary.Here we caught up with a number of different families whom we had met during the past two weeks. Some had sailed up from Tasmania in only what could be described as a pirate ship. Another from New Zealand and another from Lake Macquarie area. All having a great adventure.

We spent the last of our three weeks in the Whitsunday’s really enjoying the swimming and snorkelling around Blue Pear, Shoalhaven, Langford reef, Maureen’s Cove and of course the sailing. One of the highlights during this time was swimming and hand feeding a school of 8 Bat fish which are about 2 foot square in size. All was fine until one decided that my big toe looked very much like a piece of bread. That was it, I was out of there!

We sailed back to Airlie Beach after a beautiful sunny, still day to pull the yacht out and head south to Rockhampton. Although we have been to the Whitsunday,s three times now, we still find it to be great cruising grounds. It is a relaxing place to be, with plenty of places to get out of bad weather and relatively small distances between destinations. If you haven’t ever considered this area as a destination with your Magnum I would suggest you do so. We intend to launch at Roslyn bay marina near Yeppon and sail out to the Keppel Islands and up to the Whitsunday Isle’s in the next 2 years. Come on up with us and Neville and Amanda.

Mary Smith