Whitsundays to Yeppoon

We celebrated the Second Mate's birthday at Whitehaven Beach. Happy birthday Second Mate, we can't believe you are ready to start high school.

 

Second Mate in action - a fine sailor and indispensable crew member

 

Whitehaven anchorage

Special K had to return to the coalface in Melbourne, so next day we bid sad farewell to her at the Hamilton Island fuel wharf and took on a payload of pies, Corona and diesel. We headed out down the Dent Passage. The weather was still with us; so too was the Bear. Life on the sea was agreeing with him and he had decided he could stick it out to Yeppoon, well aware that it would be many long days before he would be able to next update his twitter feed. We were heading past the Bear's old stamping grounds, where he had spent formative years outwitting the crocodiles of Alligator Creek.

 

We dropped anchor at Keswick Island on the 12th November. As darkness fell on this particularly calm evening, an observant Third Mate noticed the water around us foaming and fluorescing. We shone a torch in to discover the coral was spawning as Dr Lyle had foretold, right on schedule 3-5 days after the November full moon. All sorts of weird and wonderful creatures swam up into the torch beam, feeding off the coral spawn: the strangest ones were multitudes of long stripy orange and black worms.

 
Next day was an early start for the very long motor to West Bay, Middle Percy.

Whiling away the hours on a long passage.

We arrived just on sunset. The bay was full of migratory cruising yachts headed south for the summer, with more arriving throughout the night. We were feeling pretty happy with the miles under our belt, so the next day was declared an R&R day By Order of the Captain.  




R&R at Middle Percy

We all went for a swim off the beautiful West Bay beach, then the crew and Captain busied themselves husking coconuts while the Bear and First Mate went for a wander up to the old homestead. We were welcomed with the famous Middle Percy hospitality - freshly squeezed cold home grown lime juice after a very hot steep climb up the hill.

Homestead - Middle Percy
 

 

After lunch we headed a couple of miles around the southern side of the island in search of a less swell prone anchorage. Despite the calm weather, West Bay had been as rolly as ever. We found a great little bay next to the big sand dunes, and had fun climbing up them and sliding down as the sun set. 

 
We headed to Port Clinton, staying overnight before setting our course to Yeppoon. This was to be the final port of call before farewelling The Tropics.


Life without twitter - Middle Percy