Big hello from Airlie Beach, Port of Airlie Marina.   We got in yesterday after 10 amazing days exploring.

As we are starting to get further north, the tides are getting much larger.  We left Gladstone 8 June though the North Channel which runs between Facing and Curtis Islands at high tide.  Although it was very clearly marked, we left at high tide and had to be quite careful in some places – especially when Lia was driving 😉.

We sailed past Cape Capricorn – officially marking our entry into the Tropics! We anchored for the night in Hammocky Island, which has a beautiful sandy little beach, but not much exploring due to very dense bush.  

9 June was a beautiful day but no wind! We motor sailed to The Keppel’s – a group of 14 islands just off Yeppoon. Due to lack of time, we only had time to stop at the largest - Great Keppel Island or Wop-pa.

Why is no one talking about this island?  It’s absolute paradise!

In the 80’s Great Keppel was a party island, like Australia’s version of Ibiza. It had a very successful marketing campaign centred around the slogan ‘It’s a great place to get wreaked’ with raunchy photos from the island featuring in Cleo’s infamous ‘sealed sections’. At one point it was a Contiki resort island but since the early 2000s has changed hands several times with disputes between locals and developers leaving abandoned resorts and a ruined airstrip, making it fascinating to walk around. GKI has 17 beaches which can be reached by tracks and derelict roads, so we managed to get our steps up each day while spotting the wild goats and peacocks which roam freely around.  

Night one We anchored off Monkey Bay on the southwest coast, where you can snorkel the reef straight of the beach. The coral was stunning colours and there were scores of fish. The next day we moved around to Leeke’s Beach just off the main visitors precinct where the 2 remaining resorts operate.  We spent the afternoon at Hideaway – which has ‘Happy Hours’ from 3 to 6 – enjoying the sun and chatting to other yachties.

On 11 June we woke up to yet another beautiful day, starting some work and planning a snorkel off Shelf Beach in the afternoon.  Oh, how things change. This day is forever etched in our minds as ‘CODE BROWN DAY’.   After our morning coffee and ablutions, we found the head (toilet) blocked.   It’s a hand pump pressure system and blocked toilets are common on yachts so we thought it would be a simple job…oh how wrong we were. It took all day to fix and put back together – the joys of boat life. We did take time out to enjoy a stunning sunset (with a facemask as part of the deep clean up!)

The next day we fully disinfected poor Sundancer and moved to Clam Bay on the east side. We were admiring another boat anchored in the bay and realised it looked exactly like ours! Yes – it was another Savage Oceanic. We spent some time comparing notes and discussing what great taste we have in yachts are before moving back to Leekes beach for the night.

13 June promised great wind and we needed to get some distance to make it to Airlie by 17 June. We got up early for a 3am departure and enjoyed the beautiful sunrise. The southerlies were quite strong, and we had some great sailing downwind with twin genoas.

The last few hours the wind dropped so we motor sailed into Hexham Island in the early afternoon. Again, another beautiful island and gorgeous little anchorage. We were the only boat in the little bay and enjoyed a beautiful walk up one of the hills giving us stunning views of the area. Despite all the warnings on Zulu and other cruising guides telling us it was a very rolly anchorage, we thought we’d be ok due to the sea being like a lake, but once again, we were proved wrong! It was a very rolly, sleepless night despite being bone tired!

The next day we had a late start. No wind at all, so we didn’t even bother with the sails and motored to the Percy’s Isles, anchoring in West Bay of Middle Percy Island. The Percys are south of Makay and are a cruisers paradise, with West Bay being the most popular anchorage in a southerly. This is the home of the Percy Island Yacht Club which is an A-frame building with boats leaving various items of memorabilia since the 70s. We managed to rendezvous with the ‘Little Perle’ crew who stopped for a quick swim before heading north for Airlie Beach. The determined delivery crew finally succeeded in getting a few coconuts from the trees on the beach which were delicious.

Once they left it was time to explore. There are lots of well-marked tracks around the island, and we chose to walk across to the lagoon and took the shortcut up the rather steep goat track to the homestead. The island is absolutly stunning - mangroves, rain forrest and lots of butterfies! 

At the homestead we met Cate who is the leaseholder of Middle Percy and the care takers of the island – Paul, Carla, Narco (their little dog) and Steve. It was a fascinating afternoon learning about the history of the island, how they live off the grid and their plans to build the charitable trust to ensure the heritage of the special island is protected.

We took the easier road back down to West Bay and enjoyed sundowners at the A-frame yacht club with Paul, Carla and Steve. We will definitely be back to volunteer our time helping the preserve this special place.

Alas the next day we woke to a very choppy northerly, so we had to leave glorious West Bay and move around the corner to Whites Bay. We had another big walk around the sand dunes, which were unfortunately littered with plastic debris – us humans really need to do a lot better. At twilight Matt decided to go out for a fish and just as he was about to return managed to nab a delicious coral trout.

16 June we had another early start leaving at 4.30am, with the predicted southerly arriving around 7am. We had between 20-25 knots for most of the day and it was a very quick trip to Scawfell Island, anchoring in beautiful Refuge Bay just before 2pm. Refuge Bay is another beautiful anchorage, very protected from howling southerlies, with reefs right off the beach. We had another beautiful snorkel and enjoyed the delicious coral trout for dinner.

We love our early starts, so again left before dawn for Airlie Beach arriving in the Port of Airlie Marina in the afternoon of 17 June, enjoying the sail through all the islands of the Whitsundays. Matt will be working on Little Perle and Lia will start tour guiding around Australia and NZ. In between we’ll be taking Sundancer out to explore this gorgeous area.