Snorkeling On the Great Barrier Reef

Here comes our ride to the Great Barrier Reef

Although Dennis had signed us up for scuba diving lessons and we both were certified before leaving on this adventure, I prefer snorkeling. I really don't like going deep and can see enough from the surface. I did a dive in Bora Bora two years ago, but not since then. Of course, you can't come to the Great Barrier Reef and not going exploring in the water.

Several of the WARC yachts sailed out to Bait Reef where the scuba boats take divers. A number of WARC boats carry their own scuba gear. We chose the easy way: berth the boat in the marina and take a day tour out to the reef. It turned out to be a lovely day trip complete with breakfast, lunch and snacks and included wetsuits and snorkeling gear. No hassles with anchoring, permits, etc.

The trip out to the reef took two hours on a huge catamaran. On the way out and back we saw numerous whales. These are some of their birthing grounds. One mother was comfortable enough to allow her baby to swim between her and the tour boat. This was quite unusual.

Every year the whales migrate up from Antarctica to the South Pacific Islands and the Coral Sea to give mate and return the following year to give birth and teach their calves survival skills. In the fall, they will swim all the way back to the Antarctica and stay until the next season when they repeat the cycle. The ocean is full of these amazing and entertaining creatures. They do not show in the photos as they are too far away for my underwater camera.

Once we got to a place called Reef World, which is a large floating pontoon at the edge of the Great Barrier Reef just east of Hamilton Island, the fun began. First, we boarded a submersible viewing vessel that took us along the wall of the reef. A marine naturalist explained the reef system and identified coral and sea life passing by us. Since we were at low tide, we were viewing the lower part of the reef where we would not go just snorkeling.

One of the few passages through the reef.

After a nice buffet lunch on the catamaran, we went to the platform and donned our snorkeling attire. The wetsuit helped keep us warm so we could stay in the water much longer. We swam along the reef for over an hour and then worked our way back to the platform.

Much to my surprise, when I first jumped in from the platform, I found myself surrounded by beautiful blue fish. I am fascinated by the various blues in nature. Other than the sky and the oceans there is not a lot of blue in nature. Swimming along with a camera and trying to focus on fast moving fish while keeping yourself off the reef itself was challenging with the current. So most photos are a lucky break when it turns out well.  

Unfortunately we were not close enough to take this shot!

Reef World at Hardy Reef

The view from Google Earth

On the way back to Hamilton Island Marina, we saw many more whales. Since the vessel was not a registered whale watching vessel, we had to slow down and let the whales have the right of way, so to speak. There are rules about approaching whales for your safety and theirs.

The Hamilton Island Yacht Club looks like a manta ray.

All in all, it was a great day and worth the price.

More of the Whitsunday Islands

Since Dennis and I had planned a snorkeling trip to the Great Barrier Reef outer reef, we started working our way to Hamilton Island Marina. We were planning the tour date around the weather as it had been very windy and grey for a few days. We wanted less wind and more sun for a better snorkeling experience.

Along the way from Blue Pearl Bay on Hayman Island, we spent a night at Nara Inlet on Hook Island where we had a peaceful calm night of sleep and a trip ashore to see the ancient Aboriginal rock paintings.

Australia has done a nice job of preserving area of ancient Aboriginal culture and traditions. The negative is, of course, that they have declared Aboriginal land as National Parks and Marine Preserves and moved the indigenous people further interior. Many of these groups were fishing cultures and had their villages along the protected bays.

The Aboriginal people seem to like to stay away from the towns and have their villages well back from roads. There is limited access to their land. If we want to go ashore in any of the areas designated as native land, we must have an invitation from the village chief or elder before you set foot on it. Some villages are more friendly than others, so we have heard surely as a warning not to go ashore. So no stopping along the shore in these designated areas.

Trillium at anchor in Nara Inlet, Hook Island,

Whitsunday Islands of Australia

Sheila is always up to a challenge!

In search of whales in the area, we sailed down and around CID Island and up into Sawmill Bay on the west side of Whitsunday Island, where we went ashore for a walk. Sailors were carrying buckets of water from a fresh water stream. After exploring the beach, we had a very calm anchorage for a peaceful night of sleep. (They are always so peaceful as you roll with the waves or tide.)

More "steps" to climb to see the ancient

cave paintings.

Interesting tree bark onshore at Nara Inlet

This was interesting: This boat gave us AU Census forms

to complete even though we told them we were not AU

citizens. They wanted to count everyone in the country, but

we didn't have an address, etc. to complete it. Weird!

Shell Seeker?

The following morning, we headed through the Fitzalan Passage and down the Dent Passage to Hamilton Island Marina.

Hamilton Island is one of the only developed islands in the Whitsunday group. Some islands have a resort or two, but Hamilton has an airport and a lot of resort property. I think it is the one purchased and developed by the Oates family, owners of racing yacht Wild Oates XI, a winery and a whole lot of other things. It is a nice development with golf carts as the main mode of transportation and a free bus that makes a continuous loop.

Entering Hamilton Island Marina

The "other" Heather: Chemist not sailor

(until tomorrow!)

The little village has shops, banks, a general store (pricey) many restaurants and a pharmacy where our friend Heather Sutton is the pharmacist. She owns and races S/Y La Quilta. We met Heather when she was crewing in WARC 2014. I surprised her at the pharmacy, which Aussies call chemist. It was good to see her again as it had been a year since we were all helping out in Vanuatu.

Actually, I caught her at the right time because she was heading to the mainland for two weeks of racing in the Arlie Beach Race Week and the Hamilton Island Race Week. Her friend Trudy was going to be racing on another boat and was already on the mainland. On our way out of the Whitsundays heading north to Darwin, we saw both boats racing. Fun!

Wonderful Asian Fusion spare ribs! Yummy!

Exploring in the Whitsunday Islands

Like New Zealand's Bay of Islands, the Whitsunday Islands are Queensland's premier cruising grounds. Unlike the Caribbean Virgin Islands, there are no restaurants or shopping on most of these islands. A local cruiser was kind enough to give our group an impromptu presentation on where to go and anchoring the Whitsundays. It was very helpful.

We had a friend sleep over - under the boat at Tongue

Point anchorage: a huge Grouper!

Actually, we chose a counterclockwise route because we wanted Sheila to see Whitehaven Beach. This time we visited Hill Inlet from the Tongue Bay side. The path joined the path to the viewing platform. Again it was breathtaking. There is so much beauty in nature and we miss so much rushing through our daily routines.

The sand and water pattern is different every tide.

From Tongue Point, we sailed north to Manta Ray Bay. Our lovely weather made a turn and kick up 30-35 knot winds. This turned out okay since we were sailing with it from behind the beam.

If we had been going on the route as described, we would have been bow crashing into it. As we rounded the corner of Hook Island, we could see all of the moorings in Manta Ray and Luncheon Bays were taken so we when on to Butterfly Bay to find one.

Dennis and Sheila went snorkeling, but there were jelly fish so it was a short trip. On land, they made a discovery described as "magical." So the next day I went ashore to see this magical thing. And it was!

It was hard to photograph the mass of butterflies in flight.

The forest was filled with thousands of butterflies. They were fluttering everywhere. And whenever you made a sound, they all took flight again and again. We just stood and watched for a long time.

Capturing them as a phot or video was challenging. This also explains the butterflies we had seen flying near other islands further south within the Great Barrier Reef.

Our next stop was at Blue Pearl Bay on Hayman Island. Back at Butterfly Bay, Dennis and Sheila decided we would tow the dinghy; I expressed my concern, but it fell on deaf ears. I had just had that unsettling feeling. While trying to snag a mooring buoy in Blue Pearl Bay, we managed to flip the dinghy and lost our oars and anchor. These were the oars we had struggled to find on our way to St. Lucia in 2013. Now the search is on again.


Sheila (who is a professional dive master) donned Dennis' diving gear and went down in search of the items. The water was dark and murky so she couldn't see much, but she found the floor of the bay covered with lost item like flip flops, snorkel equipment, junk and even a few boat hooks. She surfaced with a paddle, but could see our oars. After cleaning it up, it became ours. Since we were occupied with the mooring buoy, we weren't sure where the dinghy actually flipped. Mission Not Accomplished.

Then Dennis and Sheila went snorkeling in Blue Pearl Bay, which was much better than Butterfly Bay - and no jellyfish. Enjoy Dennis' photos:

We Are Back with The World ARC

Mackay Marina

Once we got back to Mackay, we would be rejoining the World ARC for the second half of the world. Our original plan had been to drop out for a year to visit New Zealand. Mission Accomplished! When realize how much there is to do and see in Australia, we decided to spend a year there so that delayed our plan to rejoin. Since there isn't anywhere in the second half that we want to spend a year exploring, we are heading back to our starting point in St. Lucia. This means we will have sailed legs with World ARC 2014, 2015 and 2016. The big WARC celebration is in Rodney Bay in April 2017.

There is a reason the Aussies have "tinnies" instead of

inflatable dinghies: salt water crocodile!

Weather here in Australia seems to come in five day patterns. Just as we arrived in Mackay a rainy - really rainy - front moved in and stalled. That meant we sat on the hard in the wild wind and rain for four days before we could splash.

This caused a slight change of plans, but we provisioned, ran errands, had service done, etc. Mother Nature always rules!  British friends on S/Y Brizo from WARC 2014 (and Atlantic Cup 2011) were able to leave the marina a few days ahead of us, but we would catch up to them in the Whitsundays.

Once it finally cleared and we got the boat into the water, we headed north within the Great Barrier Reef to the Whitsunday Islands. We had the luxury of a beautiful high pressure system that brought perfect cruising weather. Since we were exhausted from traveling and the non-stop events at home, we dropped the hook at beautiful Whitehaven Beach and hung out for five days! We needed a rest! And the bursitis in the hip limits walks on the beach or hiking. This was perfect. Sun, no wind, no swells, no waves, gentle breeze! And the scenery was breathtaking. A chance to stop "doing" and just "be!" 

The Brizo crew

Pat and Stuart on Brizo had flown over this area and told us about the view from the lookout at Hill Inlet. So we took a long dinghy ride to Tongue Point at low tide to climb the hill. The view was breathtaking. And worth every painful step!

Approaching Hill Inlet at low tide was interesting.

What a spectacular view!  
It took your breath away!

This beach changes size and shape with every changing tide!

A view of low tide from the air. Stunning!

I think a third of Australia is designated as National Parks.

Looking south from Tongue Point to take in the beach view.

Fossicking wallabies.

Once rested, it was time to head back to Mackay to join the WARC fleet arriving from Vanuatu. Brizo was moving north and will rejoin in Darwin. We will be meeting up with several WARC 2014 boats along the way and meeting new boats. The fleet is scheduled to depart Mackay on August 2.

Back in Mackay, WARC activities fired up with Welcome Drinks and a trip to Cape Hillsborough at 0500 (5 AM) to see the wallabies fossicking in the tide for their breakfast. Apparently they come out of the bush early in the morning just before sunrise to play in the water, eat and actually drink the salt water. They are not afraid of people and will come a sit right in front of you. I imagine they see these human observers fairly often as it is one of the local tours. Even though it was an early start, the sunrise over the Cape made it worthwhile!

We had a new crew member joining us. Sheila is a German gal taking a break from work and is completing the last leg of her circumnavigation on S/V Trillium. She is a scuba instructor and very athletic so she will add some energy to this crew! She is the same age as our kids so it will be fun. And Dennis can get help with his German grammar.