Today was a bit of a challenging day on the water. The winds and swell had come up overnight. We all woke quite early again. We planned to go over to Tongue Point and do the walk up to the lookout and then sail around the point and over to Whitehaven Beach for a swim.

We were in the dinghy and heading over to the point by around 8.00. There were already about 3 other dinghies on the shore and another large one followed soon after us. We had noticed there was a large tourist boat anchored in the bay after we had arrived. And this time of the morning was obviously the best time for doing this walk – and all the visitors were making the most of it. It was a shortish walk – only about 15mins to the lookout. And once again, a spectacular view out over the NE side of Whitsunday Island. You could actually do a walk down onto the southern most tip of Whitehaven Beach, which many of the tourists were doing, but we decided to go back to the yacht and commence our sail around. The dinghy trip was over pretty choppy waters and so was a lot bumpier than the previous day’s trip – a few of us ended up quite wet, so needed a change of clothes when we got back to the yacht.

We pulled up anchor and headed out around Tongue Point and along beside Whitehaven Beach. The swell was such that we were getting rolled around quite a lot. The wind direction was such that Whitehaven beach was exposed to a lot of wind and swell that day. Michael felt that trying to anchor and dinghy in to the beach would not be pleasant today, so we decided to go to a more protected area up around Hook Island, and come to Whitehaven another time. So we tacked a couple of times to turn around and head back the way we had come. It was a work out for Michael, Lauren and Sam. The sail back up the east side of Whitsunday Island was a bit hair-raising at times. The swell was such that the dinghy behind us was sometimes sitting at the height of the cockpit while on the crest of a wave. I was down below with the 2 younger girls for a while, but started to feel a bit seasick. I lay down on a bed with my eyes closed, but then they needed me up above for a while. I was needed to steer, with Lauren and Sam manning a rope on either side of the cockpit, so that Michael could go up front and try to release the headsail which had got stuck as they were trying to furl it in. I’d set the girls up to watch a movie on their iPads down below. I stayed up top after I’d finished helping out, as it was more likely to help relieve my seasickness than going back down below. Lauren grabbed my jacket for me and checked on the girls every now and then – thankfully they didn’t seem to be having any problem with seasickness. After about 15mins, I started to feel much better. Hannah and Beth eventually joined us all up in the cockpit for the last half hour or so of sailing before we reached our destination, which was Nara Inlet on Hook Island. We got to a fairly sheltered spot by about 12.30 and anchored there. We all heaved a sigh of relief to be out of the swell, and then we had some lunch. Bethany was saying she was too tired to eat, so she was sent to lie down – she promptly fell asleep, which she obviously needed. We decided we all could do with an afternoon rest, or at least quiet time, so that’s what happened. I must have slept for a couple of hours because it was after 3.00 when Michael finally woke me. No-one else had slept, but they’d watched movies and rested. 

We had some afternoon tea, and then Michael took the kids for a dinghy ride over to the beach we were anchored near. There was some coral reef near the edge which they explored for a bit (with their reef shoes on). I stayed on the boat and typed up some blog. When they got back to the boat, the kids had a bit more of a swim off the back of the boat, before having quick showers and into warm clothes. Then Hannah and Beth did some pages in their journal while Lauren and Sam did some blogging and checking emails. We were having a BBQ for dinner that night, so Michael started up the BarB on the back of the boat. I got the rest of dinner ready and then sat up the back watching the boats in the dusk for a while. We had dinner, cleaned up, read books and then everyone (except me) was in bed by 8pm and asleep soon after. Because I’d napped, I stayed up a bit longer dong some blogging and reading, but not too late.

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.

We packed up from the caravan park by 10am and went in to Airlie Beach. We were supposed to be at the Whitsunday Rent-a-Yachts place by 12 noon to start to load our gear on the boat and then have the 2hr briefing before heading out on our own. To fill in the time before 12noon we went to the beachside markets at Airlie Beach (which are only on a Sat, so it was good timing on this occasion). We also needed to find some sunglasses for Bethany, as we only found out just before leaving Canberra that hers were broken. We found some, and also bought some sunglass straps for everyone,  to hold sunglasses in place when leaning over the edges of boats.

At 11.30 we headed back to the van and drove to Shute Harbour, found the Rent-a-Yacht place and pulled up in their carpark. After checking in, we started loading the gear onto trolleys (which looked more like wheelbarrows) to wheel down the jetty to where our boat was waiting for us. There was lots of gear to load on – especially food – our family seems to go through lots of food in 5 days, and we didn’t want to have to come in to shore for food, unless absolutely necessary. I ended up having to load things up a bit faster than I wanted to – there seemed to be a bit of pressure to start the briefing by a certain time – I hoped that I had everything we needed packed, as I didn’t get to go through all the cupboards as thoroughly as I would have liked. Then there was trying to pack it all in its various places on the boat. I had leave that task halfway through so the ‘guide’ could start the briefing – he wanted to get through everything so we could be leaving Shute Harbour by 3.30. 

Michael, Lauren, Sam and I all sat in on the briefing which was done around the dining table of the boat. Hannah and Beth watched a movie on the iPad. The guy who did the briefing was named Ian and was British, and a very nice guy. The briefing started with showing us how to interpret the maps of the islands and the symbols and how to use the ‘100 Magic Miles’ book. This book gave detailed information about each of the areas of the islands and water depth, reefs and rocks to watch out for, the number of public moorings at each area, the etiquette around using moorings, and so on. It gave information on the best regions for snorkelling and where fishing is and isn’t allowed. He ran through tide tables and how this might affect when we go somewhere and how to think through tide times when we take the dinghy to shore to do a walk or something (if we go at high tide and go walking and come back at lower tide, we might have to pull the dinghy a long way back out to the waterline).  He went through how to do the twice daily ‘schedules’  at 7.45am and 3.45pm – we listen in the the 2way radio and when they call our boat (called ‘Out of the Blue’) we needed to speak to them to let them know where we were anchored that night and so on. We are allowed to miss 2 schedules in a row (we may be out in the dinghy a bit longer or something) but if we miss anymore than 2, they have to send someone looking for us (at our expense). He discussed capacity of fuel and water (plenty of fuel, but we had to be sparing with our water). Then he did a walk through the boat. We were shown how to operate the toilets and how we had to switch the valve over to the holding tank at night once we were anchored (so effluent doesn’t go into the water in the areas where most people swim). It can be switched back once we are sailing at sea. There was the water pump for the showers. Ian ran through all the switches on the switch board and when each one might be needed. We learnt where all the fire extinguishers were, and the flares and EWIS system. Then we went up into the cockpit area – there were storage areas which had the life jackets, emergency drinking water etc. we learnt how to start the motor, and the gears for the throttle etc. We learnt about the instruments at the helm – the depth sonar, the speedometer etc. We ran through how to start the motor on the dinghy and work the lines etc. Then it was time to be underway, so we could learn about the sails out at sea. Ian hooked up a 2nd dinghy and then stayed on board while we motored out of Shute Harbour. He ran through with us how to hoist the sails, use the winches etc, and then ran us through some tacks and jibes. Michael, Lauren and Sam did all of those, while I was watching the 2 younger girls (who always have their life jackets on when up on deck). That was the only part I really missed listening to properly, but figured those 3 ‘sailors’ could be in charge of those duties anyway. Ian was happy we knew what we were doing, so hoped in the 2nd dinghy and waved us off as he headed back to the harbour. We were on our own then in the wide blue sea!

We had discussed with Ian just sailing to a bay in South Molle Island for the first night – that was only half an hour sail away. We got there OK and dropped anchor. Sam was keen to try out the dinghy, so Michael took the kids in the dinghy over to the island for a quick look around while I started on dinner. The kids also had a quick swim off the back of the boat while we were anchored. There is a fresh water shower head on deck at the back of the boat, which has hot and cold water, so they used this to rinse off before getting changed (saves on water). We sat below to have dinner, and then sat up on deck to have dessert while watching the stars. Then it was bed time routine for younger ones, blog writing or reading etc for older ones. And being rocked off to sleep for everyone.

We awoke to a clear day on the coast. Sam was awake fairly early and wanted to see how far away the beach was – it turned out it was only 50m walk from our caravan. He came back and gave us a description of the bay. Some ducks had come waddling along to just outside the caravan, so Hannah and Bethany went out side to see them. They asked if they could feed them some bread – I said no (thinking of the ducks’ digestive system), and then an older man from one of the caravans asked them, as they were standing outside, if they would like some bread to give the ducks – of well – let them enjoy it then:).

Once Hannah and Beth had breakfasted, dressed etc, I went with them and Sam to have a look at the beach (Lauren tends to wake up later, so she was still breakfasting at this point). Suddenly memories of my childhood came flooding back – the palm trees on the fringe of the beach, the muddied sand, the flat calm water, the colours of the sand and water – it all spoke of north Qld beaches. The 3 children had running races on the beach for a while and we went and felt the water – I said they could swim a bit later, after I’d done a few jobs at the caravan and was free to watch them. Lauren joined us then and they did a few more games like hopscotch etc on the sand. Then they saw some palm fronds higher up near the fringe of the beach and some bamboo sticks. They decided they would start to make a ‘fort’ (like they’ve done at home on our bush property). I watched them start it off and then left Lauren and Sam in charge, with instructions that no-one was to go near the water itself without asking Mum or Dad first. Then I went the 50m back to the van. 

Michael had had a sleep-in, but was up by now. We decided we needed at least the morning to get a few jobs done. We had quite a bit of washing to do, we needed to clean out the van floor and also a couple of the storage cupboards near the wheel arches had had some water come in ( we will try to get the edges siliconed up somewhere). Also Michael wanted to fix the bike tyres that needed fixing. We plugged away at all these jobs, checking on the children every now and then. They were thoroughly entrenched in their project of building a hut (rather than a fort, it had been decided it was a ‘hut’ ) and Hannah and Beth were pretending to be aborigine children who were going off hunting and gathering (I had been reading some Australian history to them all in the car the previous day). They had the big stick which was the pretend spear and they were killing kangaroo to roast in the fire back at the hut. Lauren and Sam had found some logs for the seats and made a pit for the fire. They had found some coconuts and were in the process of trying to get into one. They were being quite inventive in their attempts. It was lovely seeing them all playing and enjoying themselves together in that way. A couple of hours passed and then we called them back for morning tea. Michael had gone down at one stage and helped them finally get into the coconut and try the milk. The taste also brought back memories for me. By the middle of the day, the tide had gone a long way out, and it was mudflats for about 100m out to the waters edge. The kids asked if they could walk out there together, so I said yes, and then to come back for lunch. Well they came back quicker than I expected, with stories of the hundreds of crabs that had been out there. And Hannah and Bethany kept saying how loudly Lauren had screamed. Hannah was sad that she hadn’t been able to have a swim yet, and now it was too late because the tide had gone out. I hadn’t realised the tide went out that far. I said hopefully she could have one when the tide came back in later.

We then had lunch and got the 2 younger ones to have a rest on beds for half an hour, listening to audio stories. Then they rode their bikes around for a little while. It was only a fairly small caravan park, and we were the only family with children there – I think all the rest were either permanent residents or grey nomads – many of them had gone out for the day so it was fairly quiet at the van park – so there was no problem with the girls riding their bikes around for a bit.

Then they were keen to go back to the beach and continue their game. It felt good for me to be able to get all the washing done, dried and put away, and the van cleaned and reordered. I also managed to catch up on some blogging and posting of blogs I had written but hadn’t been able to post due to lack of 3G coverage at the time of writing. Michael pottered and was able to watch a movie and have a rest after all the driving of the last few days.

About 4.30, Michael and I found the kids on the beach and we all went for a walk along the beach for about 45mins. We collected some nice looking shells as we walked. On the way back, the younger girls started to walk in the water. Michael and I decided it would be bath time soon anyway, so they might as well have their ‘swim’ in their clothes (which had started getting wet anyway) and I would take them for a shower once back at the van park.  They enjoyed a splash for about 15mins and then we headed off to the showers, while Michael and the others did dinner. We all agreed it had been a great day, and were a bit sad to be on the move again tomorrow. Wouldn’t it be lovely if we could have a whole year to travel around Australia and we could take even more time? Of well, we are thankful for having the time we have anyway.

We packed up as quickly as we could – it was too wet for the kids to go out and ride bikes or anything. Then we backtracked towards Springsure and Emerald. Just after leaving Rolleston, we had to go through water across the road – another indication of just how much water was flowing in the rivers and creeks around here at present. When we got to Emerald, we stopped at a shopping centre to pick up some groceries and some new bike tyres (2 of the bikes needed some maintenance). We also posted some birthday cards for Nana while we were there (whose birthday is this Sunday). We then drove a bit further along to Morton Park in Emerald where there is a giant copy of Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ painting. We got a photo standing under it. This is a sunflower growing region – we had seen the crops of them alongside the road as we drove.

After Emerald, we headed north towards Clermont. This was a big mining town, with the huge Blair Athol mine just nearby. We had hoped to do a tour of the mine, but they only ran on a Tues and Fri (we were driving through on a Wed). Still we got to see quite a bit of the large machines in the industrial areas of the small towns we drove through. And we might be able to do a mine tour over in WA. We did have a short stop at Clermont and saw the monument to the 1916 flood which occurred there, killing 65 people – the worst disaster in Australia at the time. The monument was a tree with a line marking how high the water rose – 4.3m. A tree was chosen for the monument because so many people survived by climbing trees.

We then turned NE and headed along the Peak Downs Hwy towards Mackay. We drove past some cotton growing areas, and past the Peak Downs Mountain Range, which had some very unusually shaped boulders. We passed through some small towns called Coppabella, Nebo, Epsom and Eton. As we were driving, I was trying to work out where we were staying that night. Even though it meant driving a bit longer again that day, we wanted to get close to Mackay so we could stay somewhere for 2 nights at least. We had hoped to stay at Cape Hillsborough NP campground, but it was full. There   were a couple of other campgrounds in that area, but there was no power and generators were not allowed. We wanted to stay somewhere nice and close to water to have a rest day. We tried a place at Lake Kinchant, but they didn’t answer. Then we tried a place at Armstrong Beach, near Sarina, just south of Mackay. We got their last powered site. So we drove from Eton to Sarina, and didn’t have to go in to Mackay. Then Armstrong Beach was 10mins from Sarina towards the coast. We arrived about 6.30pm. The first thing we noticed when we got out of the car was how much warmer it was – being a little bit extra north and closer to the coast. We didn’t need a jumper, even at that time of night. The friendly managers helped us reverse into our spot. We had a spag bol dinner from the frozen dinner stash and got ready for bed. We got to say hello to Kermie the green frog, who sits on the wall just outside the ladies toilet every night.