Cruising Log—20...Cid Harbour to Butterfly Bay

Next day, Wednesday 20 September, was a gem. The night before, Leanne received a phone message from an ex-colleague, Roger, saying he was travelling in Queensland with his three boys, and where were we? Turns out we were all in Airlie Beach! So we arranged to meet for breakfast, which was great fun.

From the breakfast we dashed to the shops and bought a wedding present for Dave and Karen. It was a knot book, to “help them tie the knot”, as we wrote inside.

Then a dash back to the gardens next to the yacht club for the ceremony. What a setting! Stately eucalypts, tropical flowers, freshly mown grass, and a view over the blue, blue harbour with Warneta and Masala proudly at anchor side by side. Best man was Salvador, a long-term friend of Dave’s, who is a single-hander and also happened to be cruising in the area. Another yachtie couple who’s boat was currently in Mackay had hired a car to come up for the day. Both Dave and Karen had been married before, they are our generation. None of their family came, just us few yachtie friends, some new, some old. But it was just lovely. Standing there holding Leanne’s hand it felt like we were being married again too, reconfirming our vows. Very special.

After twelve days we left Cid Harbour with relief and had a fast sail into Airlie Beach, 15NM at up to 7.7 knots. We had to prepare for Dave and Karen’s wedding, scheduled for 11am next morning.

The anchorage at Airlie is pretty exposed and the wind was still ripping through. We launched the dinghy and headed for the Whitsunday Yacht Club dinghy pontoon where, once ashore, I would be disposing of the never-ending piles of rubbish, and Leanne would be after some much anticipated fresh food.

Well, it was an exciting ride into the wind and heavy chop, with water pouring over the front of the boat and spray lashing over us. When motoring the dinghy I sit in the stern and Leanne sits on the middle bench seat, facing forwards. That way I get to shelter behind her (but don’t let her know that, OK?). By the time we reached the pontoon, Leanne’s front half was totally soaked, water literally pouring off her and running down her legs, while her back half was bone dry. I was a bit wet too. She then headed off to the shopping centre and reported later that she got a lot of very strange looks from all the beautifully dressed and coiffed tourists. Such is the cruising life. We had a good chuckle.

The day after the wedding, Wednesday 21 September, we left Airlie Beach and had a magical 17NM beam reach to Blue Pearl Bay on Hayman Island. On arrival all the moorings were taken so we anchored in 20m of water, quite a challenge. Late in the day one of the yachts left so we upped anchor. It took quite a while and a lot of electric power to pull the 60m of chain and 60lb anchor up from that depth. The wind conditions were very gusty but Leanne handled the boat beautifully, as we picked up our first mooring buoy.

The snorkelling at Blue Pearl Bay on Hayman Island was good. So was that at Manta Ray Bay on Hook Island. But by far the two best spots we found were Butterfly Bay and Luncheon Bay, both on Hook Island.

The section of reef we found to be outstanding at Butterfly Bay was around the tip of the headland that separates the two wings of the butterfly, and on into the east bay. It is not marked as a snorkel spot in the guide book but the coral and the steep cliffs dropping into deep water were simply outstanding. At one stage we suddenly found ourselves in a school of six Double-headed Parrot Fish, each one the same size as Leanne. Exciting, and a bit intimidating, but OK when you remind yourself that these huge fish only eat coral.

But I wouldn’t like to be bitten by one of those beaks…These are by far the largest of the parrot fish family, and are named because of the huge lump on the top of their head. As they swam off, one of them shat in what the bureaucrats have defined as a no-discharge zone. Ignorant fish! Fortunately, it only shat coral dust.