There's a choice to be on the water. There's a choice to be in the water. Then there's no choice at all to be caught in a downpour of water when there's a job to do. When you have to pick up a mooring or drop an anchor the rain doesn't stop for you. Such is life on a yacht. You take the good with the bad, or more aptly, the sunshine with the rain.
Just a wee bit wet setting the anchor
Bailing out the pool dinghy
One of our daughters and our grandson came for one last visit while we're still in the Whitsundays, before we continue further north on our route to Indonesia. It rained before they arrived, continued raining while they were here and rained when they left. There were a rare few times without rain, even a touch of sunshine. The wind, however didn't let up at all.
My previous post, if you're interested, it was windy then and it has just kept right on blowing.
@watusiwoman/watusi-woman-windswept-sailor
Despite the rather dismal weather, a long weekend of fun was the plan. The original plan was revised more than once based on weather conditions but we managed to fit in 3 islands, some bushwalking and, of course, snorkelling. And with our grandson Eli here, I got to have company on my snorkelling endeavours.
We beat our way south in a south easterly wind, tacking back and forth the whole way, to Happy Bay at Long Island. Bit of a rough ride with a heeled over yacht just to keep life interesting for Lydia and Eli. Happy Bay has an abandoned resort that was stunning in it's heyday. Its still an impressive place to visit, with the old jetty, the bushwalks on offer and the rope swing on the beach. Some fishing from the boat added to the activities for the day. No catch was big enough to eat, but the competition was fierce for the biggest little catch of the day. Lydia claimed that title.
Captain Eli
Long Island Resort - abandoned
We have a winner
The next day we sailed to Cairn Beach on Whitsunday Island for some much anticipated snorkelling. There's a wonderful reef here I've mentioned in a previous post so I knew Eli would have plenty to see. It was a miserable afternoon, only good for snorkelling. There's nothing quite like snorkelling in the rain, when the raindrops hit your back like icy needles and the water your swimming in is like a warm bath.
The wind direction changed during the night, which was definitely not in the weather forecast. It swung around to a north easterly which put us right in the firing line for the winds to sweep down the channel at Cairn Beach, hammer us all night and slam the mooring buoy repeatedly against the steel hull. It was like a church bell donging. Alot. The only one who got some sleep was Eli. Aah, the sleep of the innocent.
The next day teased us with little patches of blue sky in between rain squalls, but that was enough encouragement to hit the shore. After the dinghy was bailed out, of course. A job that was perfect for the youngest member of the crew. It took the captain of the boat, though, to help retrieve the bailing bucket that got thrown out with the water. We had a wander on the beach, built a rock and coral tower, got caught in a rainstorm, then Eli and I snorkelled our way back to the boat.
Cairn Beach
Cairn reef
We dropped the mooring and made our way to the third island on the agenda, South Molle Island, Bauer Bay to be exact. Now that was a very fast sail. The wind peaked at 35knots, although I only managed a photo of the gauge at 34 knots. That one knot made all the difference in how many free hands I had. We reached a speed of 8.7 knots with only half a headsail out. Not bad for a leisurely sailing weekend in the Whitsundays.
South Molle Island is the home of another abandoned resort. This one is in a terrible state, severely damaged from Cylone Debbie in 2017 and left to rot. There are a few good bushwalks on this island but we chose a short one to Paddle Bay as the weather was getting increasingly worse. We left Lydia on the boat for some Eli-free time, checked out the resort pool, eyed of a dilapidated beach cabin, took a bush and beach walk, and thanks to a poorly timed throw, topped it off with a thong retrieval mission. Yes, that would be Eli again.
34 knots of wind
South Molle Island jetty
After another uncomfortable night, on anchor this time so no buoy banging at least, we spent the rest of the day in rain as we sailed back to Airlie Beach and on to the airport for Lydia and Eli. It was a lovely but wild, wet and windy visit from the kids and it was definitely an adventure.
Until next time, this is Watusi Woman - drenched to the skin, out. 🌧