Wednesday 19th July 2017
The water is glassy this morning when we
woke after a very still night and subsequent good nights sleep. A lot of boats
spent the night here and the dinghies are on the move towards the shore as soon
as the sun is up. The beach is hardly visible as it is high tide.
Looking North toward Hill Inlet at sunrise
We were not in a hurry, happy just to sit
on the boat and enjoy the surroundings, eventually motoring in at just after
10am. By now there had been more arrivals by air and sea, including the large
tourist boats. The tide is now running out so no worries about securing our
dinghy.
The conditions are perfect for a beach
walk, and we set out to walk North toward Hill Inlet. The firm white sand of
Whitehaven is very easy to walk on, and it seems at least one of the tourist
boats has favoured this end of the beach today, rather than all trying to crowd
in at the Southern end.
Along the way we saw a couple of small
helicopters who had flown their customers in to sit on the beach under an
umbrella for a while.
Finally we ended up at hill inlet, not
really setting out to walk this far, but it is such a perfect day we just kept
going. There is a lonely catamaran, inside the inlet, stranded in a deep hole
until the high tide returns and the entrance fills back up with water, allowing
them a shallow but navigable passage (for a catamaran) out.
A few boats are anchored off the inlet and
crew have come ashore for a swim or a walk up to the lookout on the Northern
side. You can see the full length of Whitehaven beach from here, all the way
down to Solway Pass.
Solway Pass in the centre of the photo in the distance
Mica is anchored in the distance with the other boats at the Southern end of Whitehaven
The walk home made us realize just how far
we had walked, and we were well and truly ready for a swim when we eventually
got back to the dinghy. By the time we were back on board Mica, it was 12.50pm.
Most of the vegetation along the beach looks like this, trees broken off at the top , uprooted and strewn along what must have been the high water line
Low tide is at 1.30pm, and the water
flowing through Solway Pass should be relatively slack, so we decide to weigh
anchor and head back around the bottom of Whitsunday Island to Cid Harbour for
the night. Another strong Southerly change is due through at 1 am and we don’t
want to be anywhere on the eastern side of the islands when it hits.
We have been in touch with Mark and Janet
on Koonya, who are currently at Hamilton Island getting supplies etc. They are
coming around to Cid Harbour tomorrow to finally catch up. We haven’t seen them
since they left Sydney 2 weeks before us, as they have spent a fair amount of
time back home looking after Janet’s mother.
It took 2.5 hours to get to Cid Harbour,
and even at slack tide conditions, Solway Pass still has a lot gong on. We hit
9.6 knots getting tossed around in the eddies as we went through the narrowest
section.
Cid Harbour is surprisingly rolly, even
though there is little wind at this point. It seems to be the incoming tidal
flow combined with the Northerly swell that is causing it. It does settle down
when the tide starts running out, but returned again with the incoming tide.
Cid Harbour is already very busy when we arrived
The Southerly change hit at about 3am and
it looks like it will drop back to 15-20 knots early afternoon.
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