Mackay to Hamilton Island (10th June)

Barry and Ros arrived as per plan on Friday afternoon and settled into the boat before heading up to the Mackay Yacht Club for drinks with the crews from Speranza and Dilligaf.  We hired a car for Saturday afternoon and headed into the new Caneland which is absolutely huge for a spot of shopping and boat provisioning. 

Beach Walk at Scawfell Island

Sunday we headed out and had a beautiful sail out to Refuge Bay on Scawfell Island which is a lovely anchorage so much so that we figure it is worth spending a couple of nights. We were very excited that the new GPS receiver is working a treat!. On Monday we headed in for a shore party and had a great walk along the beach with a couple of Oyster Catches.  In the afternoon we all headed in for a snorkel and managed to find some nice soft corals and even a turtle who didn't seem too impressed by the company

Brampton Island Look Out

Tuesday and we are off to Brampton Island which is one of the most popular anchorages in this area.  We arrived and around lunch time and headed into shore after a quick bite and met up with Chris the caretaker of the resort, which shut down around 5 years ago, He was also here when we visited on our east coast trip in 2011.  We walked up to the lookout in the afternoon and were rewarded with some wonderful views of the South Whitsunday islands and had a refreshing dip off the back of the boat upon our return - the water temp is still around 25C so it is rather pleasant.

View of the Southern Whitsunday Islands



Around the Island Circuit - Brampton Island

Wednesday and we tackling the 'Around the Island Circuit' on Brampton which is a gentle 8km lap of the island.  It is a fantastic walk as the scenery and vegetation is continually changing.  We have also decided that this definitely wins the top spot as Butterfly Island as there are literally thousands of them.










On Thursday we departed from Brampton bound for Goldsmith Island which is all of 15NM away.  The really nice thing about the Whitsunday Islands is how close the islands and anchorages are so generally you have the pick down before morning tea.   We spent the day at Goldsmith and as the winds are starting to build a little we head up to Shaw Island on Friday as this it is re-known as one of the best trade wind anchorages in the area.  No surprises but we have quite a bit of company in the anchorage. 

Brampton Island Resort

We have always wanted to do some of the walking tracks on Lindeman Island so we head over to Gap Bay which is at the north end of Lindeman Island on Saturday morning and head off for the walk over to the resort which is on the south east corner.  The walking track doesn't seem to have had much use lately and it is very much a bush bash although it does appear that someone has been through here recently!  Like many other islands resorts Lindeman Island closed around 12 months ago however, we believe it has been bought by a Chinese consortium so hopefully it may open again one day soon.   After our trek it is back to the comfort of the anchorage at Shaw Island for the night before heading into Hamilton Island on Sunday for a few days of R&R in resort world as the forecast is looking pretty crap for a few days.

Hamilton Island is looking as good as ever so it is not too hard to spend a few days here even if the weather is a bit ordinary.  We met up with Rex, a friend of Barry and Ros that now works up here at Qualia Resort, for drinks and dinner at the Tavern.  It is pretty busy on the island as it is both the long weekend plus there is apparently a trucking convention in town and as the weather is a bit ordinary there are plenty of people kind of wandering around looking for things to keep them amused.

The weather on Monday (9th June) is no better in fact it is really wet so it is kind of a leisurely day on board apart from the occasional walk around the shops or a lap of the island on the courtesy bus.  We were lucky enough to catch up with Alan and Michelle that were also on the Louisiades Rally in 2011.  They now have a rather large power cat berthed up here as their holiday home so it  was great to have some time for a chat and also a tour of their new boat.  We also found out that they were the walkers that had been at Lindeman Island before us - how bizarre!

It is now Tuesday the 10th June and Barry and Ros are cleaning and packing up their bags for their flight out at 12.30 today.  We are now starting to think that Barry may be a rain god as it is still raining and we also had similar conditions when he was aboard when we were trying to get back home in 2012.  It is looking like we will be here until Thursday when the forecast is starting to look good again when we can head out for a lap of the Whitsunday Islands.