Islands Galore

Hamilton Island

Once anchored up we hop into the tinny and decide to head over to Hamilton Island.  It is only a 30-minute ride over, the water a bit rougher when you are in the tinny, but also makes it an exhilarating tinny ride across the passage.  There are a number of huge boats, car ferries and tourist boats motoring around and moored in and out of the marina.

Hamilton Island Marina

Andrew dreaming about his next boat

 We head into the Hamilton Island Marina and wow, we think the rich and famous must live here and are glad we have not motored Mingo in.  Every boat in this marina must be in the millions of dollars.    The Hamilton Yacht race being on last week must have had some of the super yachts in too.  There are some nice looking boats here. Andrew is dreaming again....  Wefind a spot to tie the tinny up and have bought our bags of rubbish to land to throw out… A real good look!!! Time to have a walk around the marina and are pleased to find toilets and showers that are unlocked and free to use.  We know where we will be tomorrow afternoon.    We walk through the marina and have a look at all the yachts, which you can actually rent, and use around the Whitsundays, we go and enquire on doing this and pick up a brochure.

Chris in Buggy on Hamilton

Andrew in buggy on Hamilton

The traffic on Hamilton Island consists of mainly golf buggies, there are hundreds zooming around the island and jeez there are some lead foot people around (all fun).  We decide that we would like to have a look around the island in full, so after a walk and coffee at the bakery we hire a buggy for $60 for half the day and now its our time to be zipping about.  I think we covered every possible road around the island and walked around each hotel to have a nosey around.  There are some very nice ones and all seem open for anyone to use the facilities, including pools. 

Kookaburras on the street signs

We are both very surprised at how many buildings there are on the island, there are a lot of apartments and houses scattered around, all with fantastic views, it really is very built up.  Wonder if this is why the other islands around have failed as Hamilton has everything you need and must be a first call for all tourists, especially as its so close to Whitehaven Beach and has its own airstrip and marina.  As we are motoring around we notice two Kookaburras sitting on the street signs. 

Christie with 2 of the Cockatoo's

We then decide to go and have a beer and some potato wedges at the Tavern.  Suddenly we are inundated with Cockatoos, we must have had at least 7 on our table at one stage.  Christie was on the phone to family and Andrew finding it quite funny feeding the birds that are now not leaving Christie alone as the wedges are sitting in front of her.   Their beaks are very large when they are only inches from your nose.  

Andrew encouraging the Cockatoo's

Back to Mingo late afternoon and Andrew puts his lines out.  Oooh excitement as he gets a big bite and pulls in a lovely large looking mackerel.  It has managed to get a feed of both lines and is tangled up in them.  As Andrew is pulling it in it chomps through the line and whoosh back into the deep blue.  Damn it, that would have been a nice feed.  About 30 minutes later and Andrew is out the back slowly pulling his line in, telling Christie to get the net, ‘this ones a whooper”, he tells Christie.  The line is tight and the rod bent over as he slowly reels this large fish in.  Christie standing with torch lighting up the water and net to the ready, when all of a sudden, this so called mighty fish comes out of the water and is a huge clump of coral.  We had tears in our eyes with so much laughter.

Motoring through Gulnare Inlet

Gulnare Inlet

The next morning we go for a ride through the mangroves and pine trees throughout Gulnare Inlet. It has a very Canadian feel about it in here and goes for miles.  You could get lost pretty easily as there are a lot of turnoffs you can take in the mangroves and loose your way.  Have to be careful also as the tide is going out and we don’t want to get stuck at low tide having to pull the tinny back. 

View from Hamilton Island into the coral reef

So after an hour and a half putting along with the lure out the back and no catch we head back to Mingo and load the tinny with toiletries and washing and head back over to Hamilton Island.  It’s pretty choppy out today and we get soaked from the wash heading over there, nice way to stay cool.

Have a lovely hot shower and spend another couple of hours on the island whilst our washing is in the machines.  Ahh everything all fresh and clean again.

Plum Pudding Island

Heading back to Mingo, we go over and have a look around Dent Island, Henning Island and Plum Pudding Island.   Once again, great snorkeling and diving sights around here.

Back to Mingo in the afternoon and Andrew watched a DVD whilst Christie sat out the back reading.  We are here now until the winds drop a little.

Dark outside now and we hear this motor going right beside us, have a look outside and there is a 50 foot motor yacht that had anchored 10 meters next to us.  He has the whole inlet and he anchors that close!!!!!!!  A few hours later he shouts over and asks us to look at our depth finder as his is broken and as he came in in the dark he didn’t know what depth he was at.  He told us that he was in here 12 years ago and anchored too shallow and the boat ended up being high and dry and it fell to the side and as the water rose again, he lost everything.  You think he would have been better prepared considering he’d been here before and had problems.  Anyway he seemed happy enough when we told him we were in 7 meters of water at high tide.

Turrum Fish

Once again dinnertime and the rods are out the back, all of a sudden one of the lines whizzes and Andrew pulls in a 40cm Turrum fish.  We have a read up about it in “The Australian Fisherman’s companion” that Gay gave Andrew for Christmas in 2004.  The book says that these fish are better to eat the smaller they are and we cant believe it that they can grow to 41kg.  We know what’s for dinner tomorrow night.

Andrew on Henning Island

Chris on Henning Island

We have a really lazy day on Wednesday 29^th August and watch tele until about 1000 hours.    The sun shining and its warm outside, so we motor over in the tinny to Henning Island which is about 500 meters from the north of Hamilton Island and pull the anchor onto the sand.  As we are pulling up there are a young English couple who are using all their strength to push their hired little boat out of the sand – they didn’t realise the tides go out so fast and had pulled the boat up onto the beach as far as they could, except now with the tide out, there was no way they could get it back in the water.  So Andrew and Christie to the rescue and we help them pull and push the boat back into a decent depth ever so grateful and embarrassed they motor out. 

Soft coral on the rocks at Henning

We find a nice little spot on the beach and put our towels, book, snorkeling gear etc. down then go for a walk along this lovely little secluded island.  We clamber through the rocks, picking up shells and looking at and touching the seaweed that is on the rocks but out of the water because of low tide.  This coral is soft and slimy to touch, a bit strange, looks like a heap of cows udders hanging off the rocks.  As we head back around the corner to where we have left our things, we notice suddenly about 8 other people on the beach.  So much for having a quiet secluded beach.  It’s a great little island, with very good snorkeling around the reef and has a nice sandy beach on one side.    

That evening, Andrew cooked his catch in the bbq with some home made chips for dinner and was delish, shame the fish was not a bit bigger though.

Long Island

Up today, being Thursday 30^th August and ready to see some more islands.  So we head out of Gulnare Inlet at a decent tide, so didn’t have to worry about the bommies to much and head north around Henning Island towards Long Island and Happy Bay on Humpy Point where we anchored Mingo and went for a look around the resort.  This one was open for business and seemed to be doing a good trade.  We wouldn’t say the island or the resort were anything flash, but still nice and would make for a great long weekend stop. The resort offered a lot of water sports including kayaking, jet ski, tube riding, paragliding, tennis courts etc. and was in a great snorkeling spot.     We then motored the tinny further around the island and had a look at Palm Bay where there is a resort called Peppers Palm Bay which apparently is a boutique retreat with bungalows nestled in a tiny lagoon at the top of the beach.  It looked great from the water but we where chased away by the caretaker who obviously didn’t think we were good enough to visit the island.  Further down the western side of Long island and there were a lot of nice little inlets.  We were hoping to move Mingo into one later in the day out of the tonight’s winds but all were on reef’s making it not possible to anchor close enough to the beaches for a comfortable night.  On our little excursion around long Island we saw three dolphins swimming around.

Chris in tinny motoring around Whitsunday Islands

Back to Mingo for some lunch and then head off again to The Molle Islands.  Bloody Mingo, doesn’t want to go far again, before huffing and puffing and the motor stops.  We are so fed up with this happening and just don’t understand what it is.  This must have been at least the eighth time since we left Scarborough.  We have changed the fuel filters, topped up and changed the fuel, emptied fuel, bled the fuel pipe and its still happening.  So time to get on the phone to James the mechanic back in Brisbane. James has been a huge help to us over this trip with advice on the motor.   He is now saying that it’s a possibility that Mingo does not like the warmer weather and when we stop at these islands, the heat from the motor is evaporating some of the fuel from the filter, meaning that Mingo is not getting the fuel she needs to keep running.  The problem could be solved by putting in a filter to keep the fuel cooler, but hey we are in the middle of the Whitsundays, so that’s not an option at the moment.  Our best bet until we get to Townsville is to open the cover of the motor and let the warm air out, so that it’s not so hot inside evaporating the fuel - confusing!!!!!  Lets see on our next stop if it happens again or if this does work and we can motor along with no problems. 

South Molle Island

Andrew at South Molle

Day Dream Island

Anyway we manage to get going again after a little while and head to Sandy Bay on South Molle Island.  Into the tinny we get and head along the Western side of the island through Mid and South Molle and into Bauer Bay to have a look at the resort here.  Its open but no people here.  Mainly caters for backpackers on the weekends, so will be packed from Friday night but at the moment is deserted.  We have the resort to ourselves for $5 apparently.   We have a wonder around, nothing to special but good to see.

Andrew being cheeky with the mermaid on Daydream

Andrew and the Mermaids

Christie the real Hula dancer.

Andrew and his new friend

  Then over to Daydream Island.  We anchor the tinny up, and walk onto the western side of the island to a sign saying, no mooring and visitors except paying guests.  Really what can they do except throw us off so we wander around and have a good look around the resort and island.  Daydream Island is not that big but the resort is quite extensive and very nice.  There are marine areas throughout the island under walkways with coral and stingrays, fish and sharks in them, so it really feels as though you are amongst it all.  We walk the whole circuit of the island and find three mermaids that Andrew cant resist being cheeky with – say no more!!!!  Back to Mingo and we are staying anchored at Sandy Bay for the night.  The winds are suppose to be 5-10 knots, so we should be OK here, as it is well protected even though it does get affected by the tides.

Sand between our toes.

Lindeman Island

Old resort on Lindeman

Fish around jetty at Lindeman

 Sunday 26^th August 2012. Up to explore Lindeman Island, we tinnied around to the resort side and tided up on the old jetty.  There were a number of colourful fish swimming below the jetty.   There were signs with no entrance, danger all over the resort, so we walked up the road area to the back of the resort and had a look inside the reception area.  Looks pretty run down considering it has not even been closed a year.  There were doors and windows open, so the place was a mess with dust and dirt inside.  Sure does not look like a 5 star resort.  We then headed back towards Mingo across some great coral underneath us, its not the most colourful coral, but you can see it quite clearly when in the boat. 

Mingo anchored at Seaforth Island

 We had anchored Mingo across from the resort at a little inlet on Seaforth Island, which had a very nice beach.   This island is sometimes referred to as “Royal Seaforth” because of a royal visit in 1954 by Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh.  They only spent an hour on the island to feel the sand between their toes, but because of this visit it has a second namesake.

Pentecost Island

 We motor passed a number  of other little islands, and have a bit of a look on the way.

The two whale tails in the distance

Motoring out of Lindeman and we see in the far distance two whales slapping their tails in and out of the water, making a huge splash each time, great to see.  How close they came again and gave us a huge wave, a wave we were happy to see this time.

Fantastic Whale Tail

We notice now that there are a lot more motor and sail boats around all these islands.  The Hamilton Yacht race was on last week, so we are guessing a lot of the yachts are from that and are just hanging around for the weekend.  There is something about seeing a yacht with sail up in the distance with the backdrop of an island behind it.

Andrew at Phantom Cave.

We head towards the north of Shaw Island where there is a small gap between Shaw and Maher Island.  On Maher Island we notice a little cave in the island, so anchor up here and motor across to investigate.  Unfortunately it is low tide and with the coral below, we cant quite get the tinny to the beach to have a look in the cave so end up motoring around the other side and see its an open cave to the other end of the mountain.  Looks great with the clear sea below it with coral being seen, we find out later that it is called Phantom Cave.

Now time to head over to Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island.  Wow as we turn the corner and see the white sand.  It really is so white, like its just been bleached.  It goes for miles.  There are also a lot of other boats here, at least 50 (Is this peak hour in the Whitsundays?) others 

including a few touristy day tripper boats, which are so crowded and people being carted from boat to beach, then another group.  We notice these tourist boats only stay for a couple of hours.  Not the way we want to be visiting these islands.

Beach view out to ocean at Whitehaven

Calm waters around "Whitehaven"

Whitehaven

Soft sand on our feet

Andrew swimming at Whitehaven

We are very excited to be here, hop in the tinny and although it’s a cloudy day, it’s very warm and the sun is shining between the clouds.  We go for a walk right along the beach and feel that heat beating down on our backs, so head into the water for a bit of a paddle, ooh chilly but nice.  We have a good walk around the island and the love the feeling of the sand so soft like flour between our toes. Whilst walking along we see a number of small tents camping just off the beach all with kayaks nearby.    Back to the boat and Andrew goes for a quick swim with the dolphin pulling him along, we get a few looks from other boats – Jealous maybe? 

Beer O'clock drive around Whitsunday Island

Paddling on Whitehaven

We watch during the afternoon as a lot of the boats head out again and are left with only about 15 in the bay, so it’s quite good not to be so crowded now.    We go for a tinny ride around the island and over to Teague island and Chalkies beach, the water so clear and the coral, some of which is now so colourful beneath us.  We see fish and a turtle swimming below, its great.  We see so many different things each day; it’s like a constant surprise to what will be next.  Chalkies beach is beautiful and only two yachts anchored here.  Its like a mini Whitehaven beach with the sand so white and the water so crystal clear.  We then head back to the Whitehaven beach bay and motor around to be nosey in some other boats, along the way you get a few waves and one particular catamaran we stopped at and had a chat to a couple on their.  Funny the people we have met all seem to be from around Brisbane and this particular couple Shorncliffe – why all so close to home.  Nice to have a chat and we head off on our merry way, back home for dinner.

Feeding the 2 foot fish.

As we are washing the dishes off the duck board out the back (we use salt water as we don’t want to waste our fresh water on dishes).  We notice three large fish that look like huge Angelfish swimming bye.  They are about 2 foot long and are popping their faces up out of the water to get the gravy we are washing from the plates.  Out comes a loaf of bread and for the next 45 minutes we sit on the duck board watching and feeding these three fish.  They are great and very comical when they are sucking on the rope tied to the tinny which they obviously also think is bread.  They were coming up to grab bread pretty much from our hands, they obviously were not scared.  Whitehaven is a green zone area meaning it’s a Marine National park zone so no fishing is allowed.  They do look like a good feed, but we resist since it is illegal.

Monday 27^th August and we wake pretty tired after being up half the night.  Neither of us could sleep, don’t know why but we were up until at least 3am.  Good thing no work tomorrow.  There was a little swell around and the boat was rocking but hardly noticeable although for some reason we have a squeak in the wood work – Who knows!!.

We head out to the duck board and shine the torch down are get a bit of a fright when we see a number of bommmies around us just inches from the bottom of the boat.  We are very very lucky that we have not actually anchored on one.  We must have come into a deep spot amongst the coral.  It was low tied when we first came out in the middle of the night so the bommies were just about in reach.    We stood outside for a while just shining the torch into the ocean and watching a turtle swimming around the boat.

Us at Whitehaven Beach

A motor over for a last walk in the flour soft sand this morning before heading to have a look at a few more islands.  We motored into the southern part of Whitsunday Island to a couple of nice little inlets called Chance Bay.  They were very pretty, and supposedly good snorkeling, but as it is overcast the visibility in the water did not seem good, so we motored in for a quick look then headed out to our next stop.

The weather forecast is saying that winds will be blowing up to 20 knots from tomorrow, so we want somewhere calm to anchor for the next few days.  Andrew has a read through the 100 Magic Miles of Whitsundays book and finds a spot called Gulnare Inlet, which is supposedly good anchorage for when a cyclone hits.  Think we will be more than comfortable in here.

The calm waters between the islands

We motor passed Crayfish Bay, Torres Herald Bay, Turtle Bay, and around Perseverance island.  Hamilton Island is now on our left as we come through The Fitzalan passage.  This passage restricts the flow of the tidal stream, and there can be 4+ knots of current at spring tides, and up to 3 knots in neap tides.  There is also a lot of reef around this area so navigating it has to be done quite precisely, the passage did become quite turbulent and lumpy in areas, but nothing Mingo couldn’t handle.  We motor in to Gulnare Inlet and having to be careful as it is was very shallow at 1.5 meters in parts.  We need .8 meters of water before we hit bottom.  So we are watching our route very carefully.  We can see bommies all around us and the water gets clearer as we motor into the inlet, then all of a sudden gets deeper to a depth of 3.5 meters, so this is where we anchor for the night, as this keeps 2 meters under us at low tide.  There are a few other boats in here also, but they do not look as though anyone is living on them, maybe just anchored here full time instead of paying marina fees.

Gulnare Inlet opposite Hamilton Island