Farewell, Whitsundays

After an amazing three weeks of sailing & discovering the Whitsunday Islands, it was now time to head south toward Brisbane and out of the cyclone belt of Eastern Australia. The distance to travel is +525 NM, depending on winds and Sea Child's ability or inability to point to course. The first jaunt, from Whitsunday Island to Lindeman Island was beautiful, with a short stop at Hamilton Island to buy two more bags of ice (yes, for the new freezer which is taking too long to make ice itself) and some last minute provisions, had us sailing for about 5 hours or so, on a nice northerly with winds +15 knots. We had read about Lindeman Island, with its "family friendly" version of Club Med, and we looked forward to hiking the trails that were conveniently mapped out in the guide books. Once we arrived at Lindeman, we did notice a rather empty looking resort, with ropes closing off the balcony stairs to the beach and the kayak racks standing empty on the pretty pink sand. The only sign of civilization at this resort was a proudly waving Australian flag, high up its pole. Otherwise, no signs of life at all could be seen through the binoculars. We figured out that this resort was the "Club Med for families", closed since January 2012 and currently owned by a Chinese investor. The island seemed rather quiet, the only sounds heard were of the unique voices of the birds, some singing, some whistling, some honking their strange tunes across our anchorage, which would be returned by others across the bay. We spent all of 15 hours at Lindeman, and after an early breakfast, decided to take advantage of a stronger northerly to continue our sail south.

From Lindeman Island, we headed to Keswick Island, about +30 NM south. We set the spinnaker for a beautiful sail, winds to 20 knots apparent, downwind, sunshine and clear skies. As we neared Keswick, itself another casualty of the GFC (Aussie speak for Global Financial Crisis), the winds accelerated and Sea Child saw speeds in excess of 15 knots. Upon arrival, the takedown was orchestrated in such a way that both of us were on the trampolines, grabbing, pulling, securing the giant sail and stuffing it into the sail locker before the gusty winds could take hold of it. We dropped the main, and in the gusty northerlies, secured our anchorage just offshore this private island. Keswick has a unique airport, where we were able to take a quick walk after two days of sailing, with its runways paralleling the waters edge. A rather short, but clean, asphalt runway had one small Cherokee 140 with covers. A nice plane, and the only evidence of people that we had seen. The airport itself is fringed with job trailers, like those seen on construction sites. The guides had mentioned a jetty for boats on the airport side of Keswick. There were no signs of such a jetty, but the for sale sign was prominently displayed on the southern end of the runway. The winds howled all night long, and early the next morning we bid farewell to Keswick, and headed for Middle Percy, +60 NM to the south.

Again, we had another fabulous day of sailing, the winds going very light as we neared Middle Percy and the A-frame building at West Bay. We had heard about the famous A-frame, and all the boat names that were cleverly displayed around the simple structure. As we wandered around the long, white sand beach leading up to the A-frame, we couldn't help but smile at the two pointers who were playing in the surf nearby. What a dogs paradise, we thought, as the two would chase each other into the water and wrestle in the shallows. Their friendly nature, as we were soon to learn, was gleaned from their relationship as mother & son, dogs born on Percy Island and familiar with the visiting yachties who leave their own marks on the A-frame. Sea Child left a plank as well, with our boat name, hailing port, and date of visit. The kaleidoscope of yachtie memorabilia is truly a sight to behold. Hours can be spent at the A-frame gazing upon dates and names and we were amazed at the creativity of the plaques and surfboards and buoys that each yachtie wrote their own names upon.

We bid farewell to Middle Percy and the friends that we had met along the way. We set sail for Pearl Bay, +50 NM to our SE. The weather forecast showed winds continuing ESE to 25 with showers likely. As we sailed away, we were happy to see that the winds were easterly enough to allow us to point to course, 140 degrees, with winds +18 apparent ESE, seas slight to 1 meter. As we cleared the Percy Islands, however, the winds became strong SE, and our course became 130, maybe, with seas now a very uncomfortable +8'. Steep and close together, one wave after another crashed into the bottom of Sea Child, and the rains came down in earnest. We looked at each other, deciding that this is not the sailing experience we wanted on this day, barely making +4 knots toward a shore north of where we wanted to go. We turned back to Middle Percy, to West Bay, to shelter and safety and a good nights sleep. The sail back took us barely 2 hours, downwind, smooth, main only at +12 knots. And when we turned the corner around the point edging West Bay, we noticed a beautiful ketch with its torn mainsail, and realized that we were in fact the lucky ones. We set our anchor and gave thanks at our good fortune, to be here with about a dozen other boats and listen to the winds howl in the distance.

We expect the weather to turn more favorable in the next few days and we hope to sail to Rosslyn Bay, +200 miles SE.

CURRENT LOCATION:

21 DEGREES 39.946 SOUTH
150 DEGREES 14.434 EAST