Off to Hook Island

Sunday 12^th July 2015

Airlie Beach was behind us by 9.30am, as we sailed out in a light SE breeze towards Stonehaven. The wind never got above 10 knots and was almost dead behind us, resulting in a gybing pattern in the general direction to keep the boat moving .

The crew is looking pretty relaxed 

As we were getting closer to Langford Island the wind dropped out completely and we motored the rest of the way, deciding to pick up a mooring off Langford Island and stay there for lunch.  The only mooring available was a commercial mooring , which was a bit away from the reef. The temperature today is pretty cool, so there was not a lot of enthusiastic snorkelers.

Langford Island

Instead of going to Stonehaven, we set out to go around the western side of Hayman Island, and eventually ended up making the decision to go to Butterfly Bay at the top of Hook Island for the night. Not surprisingly all of the moorings were taken, and it is not a great place to anchor, so we ventured a bit further on, and found a mooring at Maureen’s Cove. It is a very scenic, deep little bay with apparently very good dive sites.

West Coast of Hayman

On the beach at Maureens Cove we can see a camp site and a collection of yellow kayaks. I would be almost sure they are the group of university students we saw at Cid Harbour not long ago.

Roast chicken on the Cobb was on the dinner menu, and it was very nice. The usual great Whitsunday Sunset.

The anchorage started to get a bit bumpy as the tide changed and started rising, resulting in a pretty uncomfortable night, with only some respite after  the tide changed. Later a stiff South Easter came up to bump us around a bit more.

Not the most comfortable introduction to sailing in the Whitsundays for Shelley and Denis. We will try to do better tomorrow, although it looks like we are in for a windy one.