We left Hamilton Island after spending one night there and headed over to Airlie Beach. Airlie Beach was going to be one of our major stops as we were waiting for our new spinnaker and the last part for our old furler to catch up with us. We decide to install the old furler as a staysail furler so need to arrange for a rigger to come and do the work for us as well. There were also some other minor repairs that we needed to organise as well such as getting the VHF radio repaired. The radio had decided to give up the ghost at Lady Musgrave Island when we discovered that we could transmit but not hear what anyone else was saying. It turned out that the speaker was no longer working and a new radio was in order. The marine electronics store in Airlie had none in stock so we decide to leave that purchase until we reached Cairns as we had our hand held VHF we could use instead.

One afternoon when we were heading back to the boat from the yacht club we bumped into Sandra and Dean of Moonraker whom we had lived on the dock at Cammeray Marina with. Drinks were organised for that night in order to catch up on what had been happening with each other over the last few months after we had all left Cammeray. Dean and Sandra were going to be spending a few more weeks in the Whitsundays so we met up with them a few times in various spots.

The rigger was unable to come and look at the boat for a few days so we decided to head over to Whitsunday Island while waiting for him. Our first stop was Whitehaven Beach, which is a magnificent stretch of beautiful white beach on the east side of Whitsunday Island. The wind was going to pick up the next day so we decided to move around to the other side of the island to Cid Harbour/Dugong Inlet to wait out the blow. While we were in Cid Harbour we did the walk up to Whitsunday Peak. It as well worth the time taken to do it but it is a very steep track and it just about killed us. When we arrived back at the start we noticed it said that the recommended time to complete the hike was 4 hours and we had done it in 2. No wonder we were stuffed!

Finally it was time to head back to Airlie to meet up with the rigger. The winds were still quite brisk when we headed back so we took the opportunity to play around with our storm sails a bit. We ended up having to hang around in Airlie for a few days while the rigger completed his work and two nights of that were in the marina. This turned into a hectic couple of days as we got all the provisioning and laundry done as well before the next leg of the journey.

Finally with the new roller furler installed, the new staysail ordered, and the boat restocked it was time to set off again. First we spent a week snorkeling Butterfly Bay, Maureen’s Cove and Stonehaven Anchorage on Hook Island. The snorkelling here was nice but not as good as Lady Musgrave Island. Just as we were about to head north another bit of a blow came through so we spent a couple of days hanging out in Double Bay just north of Airlie while this happened.

Our next major stop was going to be Cairns but we were able to day hop all the way there. The first stop was Greys Bay just north of Bowen. Thankfully the weather was reasonably calm otherwise this would have been quite a rolly anchorage. From there we hopped to Cape Upstart and then Cape Bowling Green and onto Magnetic Island near Townsville. Horseshoe Bay on Magnetic Island is a lovely spot so we stayed there for three nights. From Magnetic we hopped to Herald Island and then Orpheus Island in the Palm Island Group before continuing on to Dunk Island. On the way to Dunk Island we had a whale swim past us and also managed to catch ourselves a 1 meter long Spanish Mackerel. A really yummy fish and it also meant fish was on the menu for a while. We had really been looking forward to getting to Dunk Island but when we arrived we discovered that the damage from cyclone Yasi that had gone through at the beginning of the year was so severe that the island was still closed to the public. As we were unable to do any of the hiking we had planned and another lot of strong winds were being forecast we decided to move onto Mourilyan Harbour to seek shelter from these. Mourilyan Harbour is a bulk sugar loading facility and while it is a good place to shelter from bad weather there is little else there.

The winds finally abated and we set off to Cairns on the final day hop. We had originally planned to anchor for the night just south of Cairns in Mission Bay but because we had made good time and the anchorage looked rather uninviting we decided to continue on to Cairns, which was only 8nm away. We were due for a stock up with fresh food and another pile of laundry to do so we had arranged for a couple of days in the marina. Marlin Marina has the most amazing showers of any marina we have ever stayed in. In fact the Cairns Esplanade development has been very well done. They have built a huge artificial lagoon with bbq’s and facilities and provide entertainment on the weekends, which encourages everyone to come down and use it. Cairns is a small city, which made getting all the chores that needed doing finished very easy. Our staysail caught up with us and we were able to finish installing the tracks, blocks and winch needed to finish the job. We also hired a car for a few days and went to do some sightseeing, although both of us managed to come down with a virus during this time, which spoilt things a bit.

Feeling a bit sick of civilisation we headed over to Green Island for a couple of days to do some snorkeling. While at Green Island we decided that it was a shame to come all the way to the Great Barrier Reef and not go diving so we organised to go on a three day liveaboard dive trip with Prodive. So it was back to Cairns and back into the marina for some frantic packing as we were due to leave the next day with a 6.30am start. Are there really two 6.30’s in a day? The trip was amazing. Both of us had not dived for a number of years and as there were a large number of students on board the starting dives were fairly easy. This made it a great way to get back into it. The visability was about 100ft and the variety of coral and fish was huge. We saw turtles, sharks, morey eels, Maori wrasse, clown fish and a heap of other stuff. We were also very impressed with the staff, accommodation and food aboard the boat and would recommend the trip to others. Of course now we have the dive bug again and there are a couple more liveabord trips we hope to do in the future. Back in Cairns again it was time to get moving once again if we were going to make Lizard Island before it was time to turn around and head home.