Cruising on Mica: Happy Bay, via South Molle

Friday 21^st July 2017

It is time to move on from Cid Harbour and with a forecast of 10-15knot SE winds we decide to go to South Molle Island and see what the anchoring conditions in Bauer Bay are like. If it is not too rolly we may stay there and do one of the bushwalks there.

As we are pulling up our anchor the switch keeps failing intermittently and it takes a lot of starting and stopping to finally get the anchor on board. By the time it is on board the up button on the switch is not working at all.

Koonya is already under way, and put up their code zero enjoying a brisk reach across the Whitsunday Passage. We are towing our dinghy in what turned out to be much lumpier water than expected and I spent most of the trip in the anchor locker, checking all of the wiring.

Koonya powering across Whitsunday Passage with just the Code Zero up

In a little under an hour we are at Bauer Bay, and there is a very uncomfortable Easterly swell rolling into the bay, and bullets up around 20 knots coming from the land. We are not stopping here, and after a quick consultation with mark on Koonya, we headed for Happy Bay on Long Island, which should be more protected. To get into flatter water we went through Unsafe Passage and then motored South down the Molle Passage.

Approaching the passage between south Molle and Long Island, my mobile phone rang and it was Brian and Petra on Bella, who were heading North and were on the other side of the passage between the islands and could see us on AIS. They are heading for Airlie in the next few days, s there is a chance we will see them on Sunday.

The anchor went down at Happy Bay in much better conditions than South Molle, and all I need to do now is work out how to get it back up when we want to leave. After confirming the switch is the problem, I reversed the wiring so I can use the down button (which at this stage still works) to raise the anchor when we leave.

The tide is going out and the extensive fringing reef around Happy Bay is all exposed. Low tide isn’t till 2.50 pm, so we waited till about 3.30pm before going ashore, and even then there was a lot of wading through muddy sand to get the dinghies onto terra firma, high enough up the beach to allow for the incoming tide whilst we had a look around.

At low tide the reef is very exposed

The tide goes out a long way. Our dinghies are well up the beach but you wouldn't think so looking at this photo

Like most of the other resorts around here , Long island Resort is closed and occupied only b a caretaker. We had a bit of a chat with him, and whilst we are not allowed to walk through the resort or use the jetty, he told us that there were some good walks on the island starting from the road that runs at the back of the resort. It is too late today to do any major exploration, but we will go ashore tomorrow at high tide and go for a walk, probably to Palm Bay.

Looks like there are a few walks to choose from

Cyclone damage is apparent along the shoreline, but the buildings are still in pretty good condition. The resort is up for sale, and has been for a while.