ALLUSIVE SAILING ADVENTURES

The last update we provided was back in September 2021 for Groundswell which saw us reach Great Keppel Island along the Capricorn coast of Queensland. Since that time we kept the bow pointing north and certainly covered some miles. Many people say that the cruising lifestyle is about experiencing high highs and low lows and achievements might be hard earnt but well savoured. As we went north we certainly experienced this and as I peruse through the logbook for this article there are a few things that stand out. After leaving Great Keppel Island we made relatively short hops north typically in 15-25 knot south easterlies. This provided beautiful sailing conditions, generally with a poled out genoa and a main with possibly one reef, something cruising sailors rarely get sailing out of Gulf St Vincent. North of the Keppels the number of island anchorages greatly increased seeing us stop at Hunter Island, named for its previous use of game hunting deer, Curlew Island and then Brampton Island. While we had been seeing migrating humpback whales throughout the journey Brampton Island provided a truly wonderful experience. While at anchor we were awoken by the sounds of the humpback song ringing through our hull. We peaked outside and saw a mother and calf swimming through the anchorage of possibly 10-12 yachts as they slowly passed between the yachts. Brampton Island was also the first place where we saw the impact of a variable global economy and similarly variable weather with dilapidated tourist resorts devastated by the global financial crisis and finished off by various cyclones. This became an all too frequent sight with no less than ten abandoned resorts throughout the region, particularly the Whitsundays. These are truly an eyesore on each beautiful island and more should be done to either restore the resort or to remove the infrastructure and rehabilitate the land to preserve the natural beauty of these places. Passing into Airlie Beach, after a 20 minute fight, we managed to catch a beautiful longtail tuna (Thunnus tonggol). Slowing the boat down from sitting on nine knots and fighting a fish (and dodging whales) had the whole family working together, like any race crew, to make sure this one didn’t get away. These are one of the finest eating tuna in the sea and once we got it on board and bled it we quickly prepared some fresh sashimi. On arriving at Airlie Beach we anchored out the front of the Coral Sea Marina which provided a view of the Airlie Beach Race Week course and settled down to carry out some boat jobs. At times like this the fold up bike became invaluable with many kilometres riding through Airlie Beach, Shute Harbor and towards Proserpine with the cover of the oil cooler in a backpack looking for a plug to replace a corroded tap fitting which broke. Needless to say, the job turned into a ‘typical boat job’ with numerous visits to multiple shops, talking to so called experts pointing me in every direction, only to find the answer at the little nondescript shop at the marina five minutes away. Several days and much swearing later all was good on Allusive again and I am sure I am better for the exercise. We soon met up with fellow CYCSA members Matt and Traci on Vellamo and found many fantastic hikes through the islands of the Whitsundays including South Molle Island and Whitsunday peak at Cid Harbor forcing us to raise more sweat, see some magical flora and fauna and some absolutely spectacular views. From Cid Harbor we were able to sneak a small reprieve from the south easterlies and ventured out to the reef. Bait Reef is a small coral reef which is totally protected from any exploitation, other than tourists. There is only a dozen or so mooring balls and anchoring is prohibited. An early start ensured us snagging a mooring and as soon as we arrived we were greeted by a huge Humpheaded Wrasse at the back of the boat and a Giant Trevally amongst many small Fusiliers and other reef fish. It didn’t take us long to jump in the water and enjoy the reef. Bait Reef was a clear contrast to some of the reefs further south with the shallow coral being quite degraded, lacking colour and overrun with sediment. The deeper areas were in better condition but still not as diverse and colourful as other locations. The true beauty of this reef was the large fish which were noticeably lacking from the other reefs we had dived. We saw large coral trout and blue spot trout, red throat and long nose emperors and enormous giant trevally. These were clearly not threatened by divers with encounters so close that I actually nudged a red throat emperor with the GoPro. The highlight was freediving the large pinnacle ‘stepping stones’ rock formations at the entrance of the reef.

We were diving amongst spectacular fish in crystal clear water with the passing Humpback whale’s song reverberating through your chest. This was definitely an unforgettable experience but unfortunately the relentless south easterlies meant we had to leave. Many more miles north saw us arrive at Magnetic Island. This turned out to be a hidden gem with its beautiful anchorage, abundant natural beauty and interesting historical war remnants to visit. At Magnetic Island there was a fortuitous aggregation of boats with kids. Up until this point we had only sporadic meetings with other sailing families with similar aged kids and here we saw at least 10 to 15 boats with children ranging in age from five through to 17. Julie organised a treasure hunt as an ice breaker for the kids which worked a treat as at the end of this activity the group were playing with each other all day, every day and all we could do was receive check in phone calls every few hours, track them with notifications from credit card spending and rumours from other parents saying they were all at the skate park or at the playground. With so many responsible kids we all knew they were in good hands but still relieved to get the phone call at dark to ask can you bring the dinghy to pick us up. This also introduced us to a whole group of like-minded cruising sailors with the fortitude (or stupidity) to throw their kids onto a small enclosed space and seek adventure by sail. While each boat had their own plans, over a few beers we would all talk about where we have gone, where we want to go and many plans were slightly modified to ensure that some of the boats stayed together. We headed further north stopping at Orpheous Island to see the giant clam garden which honestly was a bit overrated, however it was here that we found ourselves with a weather window. We were all keen for some reef time which was unfortunately not that common due to the relentless south easterly trade winds but this time we had heard of a place that time had forgotten, a place called Zoe Bay and has picturesque waterfalls. It is located on the eastern side of Hinchinbrook Island exposed to the wind and swell making for a notoriously rolly anchorage even in perfect conditions. Many people we talked to said they had cruised this coast for five seasons and never got a window to get there so we had to jump at the chance. We were up early the next day for the short trip from Orpheus giving ourselves enough time to climb to the waterfalls. As we headed into the bay we all were awestruck by the mountains shrouded in clouds, each peak seemingly with their own weather system. It was truly a scene from Jurassic Park. We anchored as close as we could and dinghied to shore. Matt from Vellamo was waiting knee deep in the water to catch us as we came in, totally ignoring the reasonably high possibility of crocodiles. We hiked up a small track, including a makeshift rope, to get over a large boulder to the waterfall and the crystal clear pool. It was a sight to behold. The waterfall was spectacular and we spent quite bit of time cooling off swimming in the pool, sitting with the waterfall running over us and the kids found a rock to jump from. We then hiked further up the mountain to the next series of pools which overlooked the expansive untouched forest, huge mountains still shrouded in cloud, down to the bay where Allusive was safely nestled. We climbed back down the path and after a second swim in the lower pool headed back to the boats for some sundowners where we decided that we would test the anchorage overnight. Further north we found another derelict resort at Dunk Island and a great long walk around the island showed off the different habitats based on wind exposure from rainforest, grassland and finally across the beach back to the anchorage. We kept trucking north and had to find shelter from a nasty blow and the charts suggested safe anchorage through a notch in a cliff within Mourilyan Harbor. Seemingly cut straight from rock we were astounded to see a large cargo ship moored at the sugar refinery inside the narrow gap. The anchorage was shallow with expansive mangroves through countless tributaries. Unfortunately there was nothing much to do there and I was bored enough to try to catch a barramundi amongst the mangroves from the dinghy. This was a great plan until I remembered the story of a cruising sailor taken from a dinghy by a large crocodile while fishing in the Hinchinbrook Channel only six months before which hastened my retreat back to the boat. I will stand by this as the reason that I did not catch a giant barra. Still further north and we reached Cairns and finally had to address the issue of our fridge and freezer dying a slow death and it was time for the last rites. This was not really a surprise as it had given us grief since we bought the boat. It was a very

large eutectic system with one compressor that drove both the fridge and the freezer together. Apparently in their day they were not a bad unit but I had always hated it due to the massive power draw (20 amps @ 24v) and the frequent cycling. By this stage of the trip and the ambient temperature, the unit was running almost constantly and our batteries could not keep up. Even running the generator morning and night we still had to turn the system off overnight to make sure we didn’t kill the batteries. We bit the bullet and delved into our cruising kitty and ordered two new Ozifridge systems but these would take two weeks to be delivered from Melbourne. This presented us with a conundrum, do we sit in a stifling hot marina or head out in the perfect weather for some far north reef action. We bought up some dry stocks and ventured out for a two week tour of Green Island, Vlassof Cay, Michelmas Cay, Flynn Reef, Elford Reef and finally back to Fitzroy Island and then the Cairns Marina. These reefs were breathtaking with abundant and colourful coral, fish and even the occasional coral trout for dinner. Flynn Reef was extremely memorable for a number of reasons and we managed to be there alone and on the only mooring. The water was like an aquarium with brilliantly colourful coral, abundant fish and it was picture postcard perfect. However, this was not the memorable part. The weather was hot and there was little airflow due to the very calm conditions so we all jumped into the water to cool off. Julie started yelling that she had been stung by a jellyfish. We raced back to the boat and tried to work out how serious this was. While there are many different species of jellyfish, the two serious ones are the Box Jellyfish (Chironex fleckeri) and the tiny but deadly Irukanji (Carukia barnesi). In front of my mind was that we were more than five hours from assistance and Julie was in a lot of pain. Even though it was more than a month before stinger season officially started, we concluded that this was probably a Box Jellyfish and we treated it with hot water which slightly eased the pain. Generally Box Jellyfish stings will start to ease after an hour or so and fortunately this was the case with the pain slowly subsiding after a couple of hours. After reaching Cairns again and taking delivery of our fridge and freezer we moored the boat on a pylon in the Cairns River. I then set about deconstructing the old system, including the metres and metres of copper tubing, and installed the new system. This is easier than it sounds due to the seemingly endless trips to Bunnings, Whitworths and other stores that may or may not have the parts I needed on the bike, in the stifling Cairns heat. Fortunately Julie and the boys had found the airconditioned comfort of the Cairns Library to undertake their school work and quickly became locals. This even allowed Julie the opportunity to start her own legal business, check out Julie Height Legal aka ‘the sailing lawyer’. This work took a full two weeks but was interrupted by a trip to the emergency room after my knee blew up like a balloon. It seems that while out on the reefs I had likely picked up a bacterial infection which was making its way into my knee joint assisted by extreme dehydration and constant kneeling while working on the boat. Several rounds of strong antibiotics later my knee was still not 100% but I could finish the fridge and freezer and we could get out of Cairns and start heading south. Our five weeks in and around Cairns saw us meet up with many of our sailing friends as they passed back through Cairns having spent a few weeks continuing north to Lizard Island and the beautiful Ribbon Reefs. We headed straight out to Farquarson Reef to try to relax after a hectic time in Cairns. However, as soon as we navigated through the coral bommies, Julie suggested that there was an issue with the anchor winch with lots of milky oil covering our anchor chain and lots of smoke and a few sparks from the motor and electrical connections. A few swear words later we headed for the nearest location with public moorings. We spent the next few days bouncing between Brook Island and Orpheous Island and ended up in the marina at Nelly Bay on Magnetic Island while we waited for the replacement. Nelly Bay Marina was just what we needed; a good marina (and cheap) that allowed full access to the Peppers resort pool which is the biggest pool I have seen and a couple of rooms for a lounge where the kids could get on with schoolwork. Here we met up with Matt and Traci again who had made this marina their base for a few months. After receiving our new winch we headed back south through the Whitsundays having a lovely few weeks in Nara and Macona Inlets and through the Percy Islands, Lady Musgrave and back to the Keppels. Changing the fridge and freezer from the old 240v system onto 12v meant that our very old AGM batteries were now being used more than they have for many years. Predictably they were not able to keep up so we again delved into the cruising kitty for some lithium batteries. I think this sums up cruising pretty well - lots of good times but lots of hard work keeping the boat going. This year has given us plenty of good times and the quality time with our kids that we have been aiming for. There have also been plenty of trying times as it has cost us a fair bit more money than we predicted but, well, that’s boats! As we move into a COVID normal 2022 we are going to head for Indonesia!

Sam Gaylard

Zoe Bay Waterfall