Nara Inlet
Ariel in Nara Inlet
It's a hard life - but someone has to do it!
April and Teresa hiking to Charge Bay from Whitehaven Beach
Whitehaven Beach
The water is a little chilly
This isn't how it looks Hamilton Island Chappel
Hamilton Island
After some pretty ordinary days, weather wise, we made our way back to Airlie Beach to make the boat ready for our first visitors for this trip. Of course I was very excited because our visitors were daughter and partner (April and Michael). Shopping for supplies – you have to have goodies onboard for kids no matter what age they are! Fill the boat with water so that non boating people have all the water they need, make up both forward cabins because we don’t know which they intend to use. With Ariel ready we just wait. John will stay with the boat and as we have our car here I’ll drive out to the airport to pick them up, which is about 40 minutes from Airlie.
Our first night went well; I had prepared dinner early in the day so after settling in we retired to the beer garden (aft deck) for pre dinner drinks. The anchorage in Airlie can get a little rolly and it did on this night, both April and Michael had taken sea sick tablets so no problems there although the next morning April said she didn’t sleep because of the rolling. “She compared it to a roller coaster “.
We up anchored after breakfast and off we went across the Whitsunday passage to Nara Inlet which was just wonderful. This anchorage is probably the calmest in the Whitsundays – not a ripple in the water. The water there is most inviting, it’s blue and clear a little chilly but alas you can’t swim. Nara is said to be a breeding ground for hammer head sharks, I didn’t see any but who is going to take the chance? We did the walk to an aboriginal cave which is very short but all uphill. Took all of 15 minutes and we then spent the day lazing around the boat eating and reading. A great BBQ dinner and a game of scrabble before bed (John thrashed us).
After a good night sleep for everyone we left Nara Inlet and motored around to Whitehaven Beach. This was a very short trip so we arrived there before lunch. It was decided that we would make up some sandwiches and have a picnic ashore. John stayed with the boat so the 3 of us went ashore for a few hours, sunned our bodies, had our lunch and a couple of swims while watching the tourist boats come and go. The anchorage here can be a little rolly as well but once the charter boats had finished for the day it was good. After dinner a challenge to a game of yahtzee – April won on the night. The next morning April, Michael and I went off to hike across to Charge Bay which is supposed to be 2.5 hour return trip but we did it in less than 2 hours finishing back at Whitehaven for a swim. We had taken a walkie talkie so that we could call John once we were ready to come back to the boat but it’s batteries had gone flat so we couldn’t call him. After a while I decided that I wasn’t going to stay on the beach and wait for him to look over ( I could still be there if I waited for that) so I swam out to Ariel which was probably too far and the water too cold, but I made it and live to tell a new story.
From Whitehaven Beach we moved on to Hamilton Island to act like tourists. We had organised a marina berth so are guaranteed a good night sleep. We hired a golf buggy and went sightseeing around the island which is very beautiful but is really for the rich and famous. Michael took us out for dinner so I didn’t have to cook which is always good. Here’s a tip if you are going to Hamilton Island. Make dinner bookings early if you can as it is very busy and you may have to wait a long time to eat. After eating far too much it was back to Ariel for a re-match of yahtzee this time John won the night.
As the weather was supposed to get a little windy we left Hamilton early in the morning to get across Whitsunday passage before it got rough. As it turned out the weather did hold off and the crossing was good and to April’s delight we saw a few whales jumping about. She had not seen them before. We arrived back in Airlie Beach and had some time for relaxing in the sun and reading before lunch. I took the kids for a walk through down town Airlie then jumped into the car for a trip to the Able point marina and Shute harbour before going back to the boat for showers and packing for their return trip back to Brisbane. Where does the time go. 4 days had just whizzed by and I look forward to October and their next visit. Next time in Port Douglas I hope.