We spent a couple of days in Cid Harbour which is a safe anchorage and fairly protected.
The sun is finally out but the wind still persists. Saturday the wind was about 25 – 30 knots. Thursday I went for a hike to the peak of Whitsunday Island. The sign says 2 hours each way and all uphill but it only took me 45 minutes. The view from the top is spectacular; it was getting late so I needed to jog down (32minutes).
John wanted to do the hike to the Peak so I took him to the top on Friday and he did very well for someone who does not walk on a daily basis. Saturday we did a shorter walk to Dugong Bay which is only about 20 minutes each way. We have met up with some of our cruising friends here in Cid Harbour from two sailing catamarans Triple Zero(John and Mariet ) and Swanie ( Michael and Swanie).
Michael arranged a reunion dinner on board Ariel on Saturday night so with the ladies organised to bring a course each we enjoyed a fabulous night of good food, great conversation and lots of laughs. The best part of cruising is the people you meet, not the places. We have met some very interesting people. Only cruising would you be dining with people you hardy know and at the table have a physicist, a marketing specialist, a very wealthy pastry chef come engineer of pastry making machinery and his wife a business woman, and us. We are all going our different ways on Sunday but will catch up again I hope.
Sunday morning and we left Cid Harbour at 9am for a 3 hour trip up the Gloucester Passage to Monty’s Resort and The Eco Resort on our way to Bowen. The trip actually took 5 hours because John went in and out of the Bays on the way. After anchoring up we went ashore to check out the resorts and have a bit of a walk, talked to the staff and had a beer of the deck overlooking the beach. We will only stay the night and head to Bowen in the morning where we will go into the marina for a couple of days.
Whitsunday National Park
Dugong Bay
The view from the Peak of Whitsunday Island