Sam was the first one awake – at about 6am – he hadn’t slept well for the latter half of the night. The rest of us started to stir soon afterwards. We did our morning routine, did our ‘sched’ at 7.45 and then by about 8.15 we were in the dinghy ready to go onto South Molle Island to do a walk up to a lookout. We got onto the island, found the walking track and headed off. It was a 4km return trip. There were some sections like rainforest and some more open grass areas. There were some nice views along the way, and the view at the top was spectacular. We could look out either NW over the northern islands such as North Molle Island and Daydream Island and towards the mainland. Or we could walk 50m to another part of the lookout and look SE out over Whitsunday Island, Hamilton Island and so on. We had a snack and a drink up the top and then headed back down, which was quicker and easier. As we walked along the jetty back towards our dinghy, we saw some large fish (like angel fish) swimming just below us in the clear water.

We got back to the yacht and pulled up anchor and motored out of the bay, and then set sail to head east towards Whitsunday Island. We planned to go through the strait between Hook Island and Whitsunday Island and sail down to Tongue Bay on the east side of Whitsunday Island. From Tongue Island you can dinghy onto the point and walk up to a lookout which has a great view over the beautiful Whitehaven Beach. Michael, Sam and Lauren did all the sails. I did some steering for quite a while and took us thought he passage. It took about 3 hours to get to Tongue Bay. We arrived about 3pm and following some afternoon tea, we got in the dinghy to go to Tongue Point and do the walk. As we approached the shoreline, we realised it was low tide and there was coral reef for about 50m out from the sand to the waterline. We realised we would have to come back first thing tomorrow morning when it was high tide. So we headed back to the boat and Michael took the kids in to the sandy beach at the bottom of the bay for an explore and a swim. When they got back, he let Lauren and Sam have a bit of a motor around in the dinghy by themselves – Sam particularly loved the dinghy – even more than the yacht I think. Hannah and Beth had a bit more of a swim off the back of the boat. The water wasn’t quite warm enough for Michael and I to want to go in – maybe sometime in the middle of the day we will. 

It was soon time to shower off and have quiet time before dinner – a seafood paella. Michael said I seem to be trying lots of new recipes during our travels – perhaps the adventurous spirit has transferred to my cooking as well. Everyone was fairly tired, so it was off to bed reasonably early.