The Search For Coral

22/08/2019 Macona Inlet, Whitsunday Island, Qld, Australia

We left Airlie Beach today for the Whitsunday Islands. Yeah! It started off a little shaky though. We wanted to fill up with fuel before we left. There are 2 options for this. Option 1 is to go to town with your jerry cans and slog back and forth to the boat filling the tanks with one jerry can after another. This is usually the cheapest option, but obviously the most time consuming/difficult/tiring/painful/tightarsey/etc. Today I used option 2, which is positively luxurious in comparison. You take your boat to a servo. That's right, there are fuel stations all along the coast just waiting to take your hard earned money. You see, they know there are only 2 options too and they know how hard option 1 is, so they can charge whatever the hell they want. Anyway, we took option 2. But it is not as easy as you think. It's not like you just drive on up like you do with your car, you have to earn it, especially in a cross wind. The wind was blowing maybe 15-18kts straight across the fuel dock. Imagine driving your car into a servo whos driveway kept moving to the left. That was us, but of course we made it in the end.

After using an entire months budget up on filling the new fuel tanks we set sail for Hook Island again. This was where we went with Mum & Dad the other day though we were going to try Macona Inlet this time. Irie was doing the same so we set off together for a bit of a race. It's always more fun to sail with someone else, especially when you are going faster than them. MOOoooHOOoooHaaahhaaha. Seriously, I don't know whether it was the point of sail or what, but we were flying! And we had a reef in the main as well. When we arrived we were gobsmacked by the beauty of the place again. Unfortunately the water wasn't as nice as Nara Inlet. I jumped in to have a look at the anchor, but the water was so dirty I couldn't see more than 1 metre in front of my face.

When Irie arrived the kids SUP'ed over to their boat for a play while Vanja and I kicked back with a sundowner. Darren and Mel came back to ours for dinner while the kids watched a movie to end a rather perfect day.

23/8 Nara inlet, Whitsunday Island, Qld, Australia

Woke up this morning to another beautiful day in the Whitsundays. Perfect clear skies with just a hint of wind from where we are anchored. While the kids did their schoolwork this morning I tackled the last part of getting the new fuel tanks online - priming. I'm a bit nervous about turning them on with all that air in the line and I don't fancy having to learn how to bleed them both at the same time. So I devised a plan which involves a manual oil pump, a couple of pieces of random hose, a bicycle tire pump valve, an 8mm hose tail connector and a bit of blu-tac. This is of course because the fittings which came with the oil pump don't quite fit the fuel hose diameter. I cobbled it all together and voila, the fuel line is primed. After a bit of cleanup I switched on the starboard tank ready to be used next time we go for a spin.

A pretty funny thing happened after I finished that job. You see the fuel lines run underneath our toilet floor so I had remove it temporarily to get to them. And to remove them I have to remove the urine tank of our composting toilet, so I took it off and put it outside. Well after I finished everything and cleaned up, I forgot about the urine tank. Do you see where this is going? Yep, the following patron of the toilet got a very rude shock when they went to do their business. Without a urine tank, you are basically just weeing straight down onto your legs and into the bottom of the boat. I thought that was pretty funny, until I realised that I would be the one cleaning up.

After we all finished our work we went for a dinghy ride over to the nearby deserted beach for a bit of a play. Vanja took her yoga gear, Lara brought her book and Jake and I took the frisbee. It was a really nice morning. Jake and I climbed over the rocks onto the next beach and found some really cool rock structures. They looked like hairy mushrooms chiseled out of the sandstone cliffs by some mad artist. When we got back the wind had picked up a bit and made the anchorage a little bumpy. When I got out of the dinghy to tie it up it must have hit a wave just at the right time to give me a bump in the backside as I was bending over to pick up a rope which caused me to roll right over the handrail and into the water, fully clothed. Oh well, lucky the clothes dry quickly out here in this sun and wind. Lara and Jake came out wondering what all the splashing was about. They went straight back in to tell Vanja, who had a good laugh.

After lunch we decided to sail around to Nara Inlet to join Irie who went earlier in the day. They said it would be better protected from the wind and now that there was plenty of that we decided to join them. When we arrived Lara and Jake immediately jumped onto the SUP and paddled over to them while Vanja and I played some cards with a sundowner in hand. We later watched a movie with Jake while Lara stayed over on Irie for dinner.

When Darren dropped Lara back later in the night I couldn't help but notice the bioluminescence in the water. It was stunning! I threw the bucket down into the water which caused a volcano of green light to spew into the air. I brought the water onboard and Jake splashed it around marvelling at the bright sparks. It really is an incredible sight.

24/8 Nari's Beach, Whitsunday Island, Qld, Australia

Today we sailed to Nari's Beach in Cid Harbour with Irie. The race was on again, but this time it required a bit of skill as we were sailing up wind into a 10-15kt breeze. As you are probably well aware there are no sailing skills onboard Toc. We generally just do what looks and feels right and if the boat doesn't behave as we thought it would we throw the engine on and power through it. There is technique there, just not sailing technique. Needless to say Irie flogged us. We tacked (turned into the wind) twice as many times as they did which really slowed us down and we constantly stalled the sails trying to sail too close to the wind. Oh well, lessons were learnt which is always a good thing.

When we got to Nari's Beach we could see it had crystal clear emerald blue/green water covering a clearly colourful healthy reef. Unfortunately we also saw at least 5 signs all over the place saying "No swimming - Sharks patrol this area". I don't normally take much notice of shark fear mongering, but given that this is the site of several attacks last year including one on a young kid and a fatality I was willing to take heed of the signs. So instead of playing with the sharks we went to shore to see what was there. We did a bit of beachcombing with Harriet and Mel from Irie and took some nice photos then headed back to the boat when the midges started feeding on us.

When we got back Vanja cooked a nice dinner while I went to work fixing the leak in the bathroom tap. It wasn't a big deal, just the rubber washers around the base of the tap weren't the right size when I put it on. So I just had to remove them and use something else. I hope it works as it's been a pain to sponge out the bilge every other week.

25/08/2019 Butterfly Bay, Whitsunday Islands, Qld, Australia

I woke up this morning and made myself some coffee then went and sat in the warm morning sun on the helm seat to take in the view. This is my usual morning ritual which is a very nice way to begin the day. On this day however, I look over into the magnificent view to find probably every sailors worst nightmare - a reef coming slowly towards them that was much further the night before. This can only mean one of three things; your anchor has dragged, the reef has moved or you're confused. Given our anchor alarm didn't go off and the screen doesn't show us moving very far I don't think our anchor dragged. Reefs don't normally move themselves, so I guess I was just confused. That is understandable since I hadn't had my coffee at that point. Still, it was pretty scary seeing it that close.

Went for another sail today to Butterfly Bay which is on the North Eastern side of Hook Island. The book promises good snorkelling there so we have our hopes up, even though it was published over 10 years ago. Irie smashed us again. This was a straight downwind sail in 15kts of wind. You would think that sailboats go nice and easily downwind, but you would be wrong. You actually have to gybe back and forth downwind to get the fastest out of the boat. For people like us who don't really enjoy sailing this is just annoying. Halfway there we got sick of it and just turned on the engines. We thought this would get us there faster. It didn't. Irie caught up with us and they were sailing the whole way.

When we got to Butterfly Bay we picked up one of the free moorings and immediately got ready to jump in the water. We swung by Irie to see if Harriet wanted to come with us which she did. We sped off to where the book says to go only to find the wind was howling down the valley creating snorkel choking waves. We moved to another area which looked nice and turquoise from above and jumped in. It was devastating. Nothing but muddy dead coral everywhere. We did see a stingray which got my bloody pumping, but not much else.

Back at the boat we got cleaned up and went over to Irie for a couple of drinks while the kids played board games. Apart from the snorkelling it was a really nice day.

26/08/2019 Luncheon Bay, Whitsunday Islands, Qld, Australia

We untied the boat early this morning to head further around Hook Island in search of coral. Manta Ray Bay is meant to be the best of the best on the island so we headed in that direction. All the moorings were taken so we ended up in Luncheon Bay instead. No matter, as it's only a couple of minutes in the dinghy. We picked up Harriet on the way and headed over only to find the place absolutely teeming with tourists. I guess that means it'll be good, I thought to myself. We tied up onto an empty dinghy mooring and jumped in with the rest of the crowd. Once again the coral was all dead, but thanks to the tourist boat who's guide was merrily throwing handfuls of fish food into the water we had the pleasure of an amazing fish show. There were all kinds of fish in all kinds of colours. The kids were amazed, and a little scared, but they stayed calm which was great. I went for a dive down at one point and found myself face to face with a giant cod. It must have been almost as long as me!

We went back to the boat to thaw out and have some lunch before Jake was keen to go again. The wind had picked up so I didn't really want to dinghy all the way over to Manta Ray Bay again so we went just out the front of the boat where I could see a bommie sticking up. I wasn't expecting to see much given our luck so far, but I was wrong. Jake and I jumped in to find the best coral we've seen so far. Lots of colourful hard and soft coral with a few fish calling the place home. It was great. Jake absolutely loved it too.

After having a quick shower we headed over to Irie again for sundowners. This is probably going to be our last night with them as they are heading back to Airlie Beach tomorrow to restock before coming back out to the islands. And we have to get North.