Author: richwest3

Posted October 2, 2024
about about September 26, 2022

We planned to get a slip in the town of Airlie Beach, but our expanded insurance coverage would take another day to activate, giving us one more night to fill.

Where to go? The logical next stop was one of the islands paralleling the Queensland coast: Long Island, the Molle Islands, or Daydream Island. Though officially part of the Whitsundays, these islands also form Molle Islands National Park.

The coastal islands are definitely set apart from the other Whitsunday islands. Their long and narrow shapes, lower hills, drier vegetation, and proximity to the mainland–averaging 1 to 2 miles offshore but merely ¼ mile away at the closest point–give them a unique look and feel.

The anchorages on the west side of these islands face the mainland, offering a tranquil view of calm seas framed by palm trees and hilly landscapes. Though the westside beaches are coarse with coral rubble, that tropical wonderland view is something special.

Given the view and their proximity to the mainland, it’s no surprise these islands were once home to the area’s key resorts. In their heyday, the resorts on South Molle Island, Long Island, and Daydream Island were very popular. But like many island resorts off the Queensland coast, two of the three now sit abandoned and decaying.

I’ll cover the abandoned island resorts of Queensland in a future post, but their typical pattern is one of financial struggle followed by cyclone destruction, which literally delivers the fatal blow. Of the many damaged resorts along the entire Queensland coast, only three have been revived, including the one on Daydream Island in Molle Islands National Park.

Today, our choice was between South Molle Island and Long Island, only 3 miles apart.

The anchorage at Long Island, named Happy Bay, was home to the remains of the closed-down Long Island Resort. The anchorage looked pretty, and from what I heard, the old hotel had a caretaker and was only mildly spooky. But this spot would be out of our way.

South Molle Island also boasted an attractive anchorage, Sandy Bay. This island was also home to a defunct resort, but it was located in another area, well away from the anchorage. This meant no creepy, haunted-house buildings to contend with. Sandy Bay also lay directly on our route to Arlie Beach. With that, we chose South Molle Island as our next stop.

It was a pleasant day for our 2-hour motorsail trip to the destination, with sunny skies and a light breeze. Our route took us between South Molle Island and Long Island, giving us great views of both islands.

I briefly second-guessed the decision not to stop at Long Island, but I let it go as we approached the west side of South Molle Island. Below, a couple of photos of our approach to South Molle Island.

Things got interesting when our helpful current met a counter-current, stirring up whirlpools and turbulent water all around us. Thankfully, Sandy Bay appeared to be outside this zone of chaotic water. We didn’t mind motoring through it, but it’s not something we’d want to anchor in. Below, a video:

At first Sandy Bay seemed like a great anchorage, boasting an attractive beach backed by high grassy hills. But while there were only a couple of boats there, the presence of private mooring balls meant there was far less space than there’d initially appeared to be, and the anchoring zone between the reefy shore and the swift current was not so roomy. We could have eked out a spot if we were desperate, but Rich already had his eye on another anchorage near the north end of the island. Below, a photo gallery of lovely, but not-so-roomy, Sandy Bay.

And a large sea turtle that was hanging out in the area . . .

As we headed north we checked out another area, Camp Bay. At first glance it looked like a potential anchorage, but a closer look revealed the bay was quite reefy. Still, it was pretty from a distance. Below, a photo of Camp Bay.

Soon, we arrived at the spot Rich found. There wasn’t much of a beach or any striking visual features, but it was calm and quite pleasant. The low hills here were thickly forested, and the rocky shore was dotted with mangroves. Soon, it became apparent this spot had one standout feature: birds. We heard a cacophony of bird calls, including kookaburras and cockatoos, especially around sunset. As the daytime calls faded, the night birds took over.

We also had views of Mid-Molle Island (which is connected to South Molle by an isthmus and not truly a separate island) as well as hilly, green North Molle Island, still a wilderness. Then there was the renovated resort on Daydream Island, less than a mile away, which I was very interested in seeing. I’d initially considered taking our dinghy over to see if they were cruiser-friendly, but after a look through the binoculars, it didn’t seem worth the effort. Below, a photo of Daydream Island Resort.

We stayed put, enjoying the golden evening light from the cockpit, followed by yet another beautiful Queensland sunset, serenaded by countless birds.

The next day, we’d be heading into a whirlwind of a busy, heavily-touristed town; so it was nice to have this last peaceful, nature-filled evening. –Cyndi

 

Posted September 18, 2024
about September 25, 2022

Today we had a couple of anchorages to check out. The first was  nearby, on Cid Island just outside of the harbor. It wasn’t our first choice, but if it seemed enticing enough, that was where we’d stop.

Below, a map showing the general area.

We left Cid Harbour, motoring out through the north channel. This gave us a look at the harbor’s north side, followed by a stunning view of Hook Island’s mountainous silhouette, a place we planned to visit in the future.

Today, however, we were heading in a different direction, and our first potential anchorage was just around the corner on Cid island (photo below).

As we passed Cid Island, we could see a few boats anchored off the beach in an area known as Homestead Bay. Though it looked nice enough, we didn’t feel enticed to stop.

Instead, we decided to go a bit further, to a pretty little island we’d passed the previous day, Henning Island.

There are a few anchorages around the Whitsunday Islands that have installed moorings, both to protect the coral and enable boats to stay reasonably close to shore. Henning Island is one of those places.

Unfortunately, being on a mooring in an area with strong currents, like the Whitsunday Islands, has a serious drawback. When the current is pulling the boat away from the mooring, all is well. But when it goes slack or switches unfavorably, the boat can end up next to the mooring float and banging against it. It’s hard to overstate just how unpleasant it is to listen to the consistent banging of a mooring ball against the hull. This noise steals both sleep, and sanity.

We’ve had this problem before, and sometimes it’s possible to actually pick up the float and put it on deck, or hang it from the bow so it’s out of the water. However, these particular moorings had clear signage warning that shortening the mooring line was prohibited and could result in a fine for the boat owner. To further discourage this practice, these floats had been made to be particularly heavy, too heavy to lift onto the boat.

Despite this, we decided to give the mooring a try for a few hours. Once we were tied up, we had a lovely view of Henning Island’s beach and native bush vegetation.

(Below, photos of our approach to Henning Island, our mooring float, and our view of Henning Island from the mooring.)

But soon, the inevitable banging noise began, and our reaction was, “No, just no.” After a bad experience with a similar mooring situation in New Zealand, we have lost all tolerance for that obnoxious noise. We dropped the mooring and headed back over to Whitsunday Island.

Rich had been intrigued by an area known as the Gulnare Inlet, a deep and narrow harbor cutting into the island. We took a look and it was beautiful, with mountains lining both sides of the inlet. It was an impressive sight, but much of the inlet was too shallow for our boat.

Instead, we decided to anchor at a spot near the inlet’s entrance. It turned out to be a lovely place to spend the rest of the day. We also had a surprisingly close-up view of Hamilton Island just to the south.

(Below is a photo gallery of the anchorage including our view of Hamilton Island in the bottom right photo.)

Later, we enjoyed a lovely sunset, followed by the sight of a dusky sky filled with flying foxes (fruit bats) heading out for their nocturnal activities. As darkness settled in, the bright lights of Hamilton Island came into view.

Earlier today, this area felt remote and wild, but tonight the city lights were a reminder that civilization wasn’t far away. –Cyndi

August 12, 2024

So, we haven’t been very good at posting current events in our lives, so here’s a little attempt to rectify that situation.

Here We Are

We’re in a town called Labuan Bajo. It’s the gateway city to Komodo Island and its famous dragons.

The Good

Snorkeling at Komodo Island was amazing. Click for a larger version of this picture. The Colors were stunning. There was as much fish life and diversity as we’ve seen anywhere and the hard coral was great.

And while not as pretty as the fish, these guys are cute in their own way.

You’ll be seeing a lot more pictures of these guys in the near future. They put on quite a show for us.

The Bad

No, these guys weren’t bad. They’re helping us out of a bad situation though. Our refrigeration quit working two days ago now. Fortunately, it happened when we didn’t have too much in the freezer. But the horror: Cyndi’s been driven to drinking warm beer!

They took away one part yesterday and found a leak. Tonight, after the hard work of reinstalling the evaporator in our refrigerator, they found another leak. To track down and fix this one, we have to pull all the tubing from our compressor to the refrigerator. This won’t be any fun, but I ran the tubing to install it once, I can do it again.

There are lots of things on Legacy that need attention after 16 months of cruising Indonesia where supplies for repairs are limited. We’ll do what we can when we can. In the mean time, we’re still loving this amazing country!

-Rich

Update: August 14, 2024

These are the happy faces of two who fixed a refrigerator and two who now have a fixed refrigerator.

Posted July 19, 2024
about September 25, 2022

Sawmill Bay turned out to be quite a beautiful place to wake up. The peaks and valleys of the hills, along with many of the area’s pine trees, were accentuated by the sun’s first light. In the cool morning air, it was very easy to forget that we were in the tropics and not on an alpine lake! Below, a couple of photo panoramas . . .

and a photo gallery . . .

It would be easy to linger here, but with some time to kill, we figured we should check out some anchorages nearby.

Cid Island, just outside the harbor, had a west-facing anchorage. We had also passed a pretty little island, Henning Island, as we motored up this way, and Rich had been intrigued by an area called the Gulnare Inlet. Below is a map showing these places.

We decided to go take a look at these options and see what called to us. –Cyndi

Posted July 16, 2024
about September 24, 2022

 
Cid Harbour is a deep inlet on the west side of Whitsunday Island. Its wide opening is partly covered by the large, forested Cid Island, with channels above and below allowing for easy access into the harbor. Cid Island provides a lot of protection for the harbor, making it an all-weather anchorage.

As we motored through the channel below Cid Island, a dramatic view of the harbor unfolded before us. “Oh my,” were the words that came to mind as I quickly forgot my disappointment about skipping Hamilton Island.

Here, Whitsunday Island’s mountainous interior was on full display, with dramatically shaped peaks backing layers of hills, lushly forested with pine and rainforest trees, all sitting above the rich blue and green hues of the water.

Below, Cid Island and the entry into Cid Harbour.

And some video we took while entering the harbor.

At first, this area reminded me so much of a similar place in New Zealand, Great Barrier Island. However, the air here was warm and tropical, punctuated by the screeching of cockatoos and the warbling of kookaburras, and there were sea turtles in the water! I, for one, was pretty enthralled!

Below, some photos of Cid Harbour from inside the harbor.

We had picked out an anchorage, but I noted two small areas, Joe’s Beach and Nari’s Beach, as we passed. They didn’t seem tempting; so we continued on to our anchorage, Sawmill Bay.

Sawmill Bay is fairly long, with anchorages at each end (although the whole area is actually one long anchorage). One end has a beach, noted by one guidebook as “the best beach in the harbor,” so naturally most of the boats had congregated there. We chose the other end of the anchorage, where a narrow finger of land forms a natural breakwater to tuck behind. With only two other boats there, we had plenty of room.

What a lovely place, hilly and green with water that lit up bright royal blue in the sun. However, it was ‘look but don’t touch’ for the water as this is where shark attacks have taken place (something I’m going to discuss in more detail soon). Below, some photos of Sawmill Bay.

At this point, we had the option to take a walk onshore or even hike up to the top of a nearby peak, but we succumbed to the temptation to open some wine and watch a movie before pondering our next steps.

So, I don’t have photos of any Cid Harbour hikes or dinghy rides, nor did I think to take any photos of whatever we were watching on TV (kidding). If I could go back in time and put up side-by-side photos of the movie versus a walk, I’d probably feel bad that we chose the former over the latter. But it had been yet another trying day, and we were mentally and physically tired. So, considering what best fit our moods, the wine and TV were a good choice.–Cyndi