The last update we provided was back in September 2021 for Groundswell which saw us reach Great Keppel Island along the Capricorn coast of Queensland. Since that time we kept the bow pointing north and certainly covered some miles. Many people say that the cruising lifestyle is about experiencing high highs and low lows and achievements might be hard earnt but well savoured. As we went north we certainly experienced this and as I peruse through the logbook for this article there are a few things that stand out. After leaving Great Keppel Island we made relatively short hops north typically in 15-25 knot south easterlies. This provided beautiful sailing conditions, generally with a poled out genoa and a main with possibly one reef, something cruising sailors rarely get sailing out of Gulf St Vincent. North of the Keppels the number of island anchorages greatly increased seeing us stop at Hunter Island, named for its previous use of game hunting deer, Curlew Island and then Brampton Island. While we had been seeing migrating humpback whales throughout the journey Brampton Island provided a truly wonderful experience. While at anchor we were awoken by the sounds of the humpback song ringing through our hull. We peaked outside and saw a mother and calf swimming through the anchorage of possibly 10-12 yachts as they slowly passed between the yachts. Brampton Island was also the first place where we saw the impact of a variable global economy and similarly variable weather with dilapidated tourist resorts devastated by the global financial crisis and finished off by various cyclones. This became an all too frequent sight with no less than ten abandoned resorts throughout the region, particularly the Whitsundays. These are truly an eyesore on each beautiful island and more should be done to either restore the resort or to remove the infrastructure and rehabilitate the land to preserve the natural beauty of these places. Passing into Airlie Beach, after a 20 minute fight, we managed to catch a beautiful longtail tuna (Thunnus tonggol). Slowing the boat down from sitting on nine knots and fighting a fish (and dodging whales) had the whole family working together, like any race crew, to make sure this one didn’t get away. These are one of the finest eating tuna in the sea and once we got it on board and bled it we quickly prepared some fresh sashimi.
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On arriving at Airlie Beach we anchored out the front of the Coral Sea Marina which provided a view of the Airlie Beach Race Week course and settled down to carry out some boat jobs. At times like this the fold up bike became invaluable with many kilometres riding through Airlie Beach, Shute Harbor and towards Proserpine with the cover of the oil cooler in a backpack looking for a plug to replace a corroded tap fitting which broke. Needless to say, the job turned into a ‘typical boat job’ with numerous visits to multiple shops, talking to so called experts pointing me in every direction, only to find the answer at the little nondescript shop at the marina five minutes away. Several days and much swearing later all was good on Allusive again and I am sure I am better for the exercise. We soon met up with fellow CYCSA members Matt and Traci on Vellamo and found many fantastic hikes through the islands of the Whitsundays including South Molle Island and Whitsunday peak at Cid Harbor forcing us to raise more sweat, see some magical flora and fauna and some absolutely spectacular views. From Cid Harbor we were able to sneak a small reprieve from the south easterlies and ventured out to the reef. Bait Reef is a small coral reef which is totally protected from any exploitation, other than tourists. There is only a dozen or so mooring balls and anchoring is prohibited. An early start ensured us snagging a mooring and as soon as we arrived we were greeted by a huge Humpheaded Wrasse at the back of the boat and a Giant Trevally amongst many small Fusiliers and other reef fish. It didn’t take us long to jump in the water and enjoy the reef. Bait Reef was a clear contrast to some of the reefs further south with the shallow coral being quite degraded, lacking colour and overrun with sediment. The deeper areas were in better condition but still not as diverse and colourful as other locations. The true beauty of this reef was the large fish which were noticeably lacking from the other reefs we had dived. We saw large coral trout and blue spot trout, red throat and long nose emperors and enormous giant trevally. These were clearly not threatened by divers with encounters so close that I actually nudged a red throat emperor with the GoPro. The highlight was freediving the large pinnacle ‘stepping stones’ rock formations at the entrance of the reef.
