Friday 18th July - Coral Sea Marina

We didn’t have to leave super early as we were picking our next guests up from Hammo at about 11am.

The usual pre-departure boat jobs:

• empty the rubbish
• fill water tanks
• top up the tender fuel
• get a coffee/hot chocolate

We left the marina just after 8pm. No wind so motoring all the way.
Kristie skippered while I got in some work, stopping for a few whales on the way.

Hamilton Island has a process and plan for all boats coming in. They (the marina) have to come out and escort you to your berth.

But that’s only when it’s your turn!

• Kristie called in on the VHF to let them know we were nearly there.
• We got instructions on which side to put our fenders
• Called back to say we were ready
• You then go into the queue.

After waiting a bit it was our turn… though the guy that came out had to visit a few other boats first to find which one was ‘Lazuli’.
Easy enough for us - straight down the channel and into an empty pen.
We ended up right next to David who we’d met a few days ago out on Bait Reef.

Kristie paid for the 2 hours we’d be there - yes you can just get a short term berth ~$45/hr for us (otherwise it’s $240/night!).

Scott met us and dumped their luggage onboard, and then took the girls for a ride on their golf buggy. Up to the lookout, and then to the bakery :)

Kristie did a trip to the IGA to get some fresh supplies while I made some calls.

With everything done we cast off and motored out of the marina, and back around the northern side of Hammo and heading towards Whitehaven.

We were hoping for a mooring at Chalkies, but they were all taken, so kept motoring around to Tongue Bay.

Picked up a mooring there, then got in the tender to head in and do the lookout walk.
Exhale was also here, so they came along with us.

We were there late in the afternoon, so we had missed the massive crowds that are usually there.

It was high tide, so no swirling sands visible (that’s the money shot everyone is after).

We had packed sip’s ‘n dips for some time on the beach. Kenny, Nic, and Charlee joined us there as well.

The Exhale crew set off before it was dark, but we enjoyed the sunset and took a bit longer to get back.

Saturday 19th

Since the tide was high yesterday evening, I ran a few of the others back into the beach, so they could head back up to the lookout.

I did laps of Tongue Bay running the new outboard in… 1 hour of laps up and back!

Tide was out, so swirling sands were about.

Back on the boat we did breakfast, and then motored down to Whitehaven.

We all enjoyed some time on the beach… kite flying, walks, swimming, playing on the mat, and using the SUP.

Our guests snuck in a walk to the lookout.

Charlee came in on her SUP. The girls enjoyed playing on it.

With lunch done we went to take another look at Chalkies, but still full.

Sails up and off to Border Island. Lots more whales.

We got there too late for any swimming, so straight into Sip’s ‘n dips and then dinner.

Wind came in strong overnight. Kristie got up at 2am to properly secure the swim mat.

Sunday 20th

Not in much of a rush to move. Took the tender into the beach to head up to the lookouts.

The girls gave it a miss (they were still scarred from the memory of the last walk with the mozzies!).
Kristie stayed onboard and filled the tanks while we were out.

Got back to Lazuli, and we all had a snorkel (except Kristina who protested and sat in the tender with her cloths on!)

Plenty to see.

Lunch, then a slow (just the #2 jib only) sail to Butterfly Bay around the top of Hook Island.
We saw at least 7 pods of whales along the way there!

Not many options for moorings, so we didn’t get the pick of them.

Sip’s ‘n dips :)

Good stargazing in a clear by very rolly anchorage!

Monday 21st

As we were all up early, we took the opportunity to head around to Luncheon Bay and grab a mooring while they were still available.

Breakfast, and then all in the tender to head around to Mantaray Bay for swimming.

We had perfect underwater conditions, the best visability we’ve had out of all the trips so far!

We all took turns duck-diving down to try and touch the Mantaray statues.
The first time for the girls they held on to my shoulders and I got them 75% of the way down, then they launched off an swam the rest to touch it themselves.

Emma and I enjoyed a bit more of a snorkel where we were, while the others started to snorkel around the headland back towards Lazuli.
Emma then had another go at getting all the way down by herself and made it.
She came back up so excited and proud of herself!

pointing her finger at me “See I did it! You doubted me and I did it”. Hi-fives. So proud of her.

Emma and I swam back to the tender and picked the rest up on the way back to Lazuli.

Tender up then we motored around to Stonehaven.

Lunch there.

Vanetta dropped by for a quick hello, they were on a mooring just near us.

Lazy afteroon, a bit to windy and cold for most of us to get off the boat.

I got in some work.

Lovely sunsets from here.

Tuesday 22nd

Early worm gets the moorings. We motored over to Black Island to pick up a mooring there.

Kristie and Scott got ready to dive the wall on the eastern side. Over to the middle tender mooring and they dropped in from there.

I did surface watch. Waited on the mooring, then eventually moved down to then northern end and tied on to that tender mooring.

They popped up 5m away and swam over, and back in the tender.

When Scott and Kristie got back from their nudi dive, we unloaded Scott’s gear, and grabbed the girls and their tank as they’d wanted to have another quick dive.
Quick jump off the side of the boat for Scott and Kristina.

The eastern side was too windy/choppy, so we just jumped in close to the island on the protected western side.
The coral and fish life wasn’t as good, but they still had fun.

Kristina swam in to the beach to go off exploring when she was done with diving.

The rest of our group followed Kristina and swam to shore to explore the ‘private island’ (Hayman charge $$$ to take guests to a very private small island - which is not private!).

I ended up having to tow a charter boat tender back to their boat as their outboard wasn’t working.

I needed to head back to Lazuli to jump online for a work meeting.
Kristie dropped me back and them took the tender into the island to explore the beach with the others.

Back onboard to rinse off and have lunch.

Got the dive gear secured and then motored down to Nara Inlet for the night. Had a dolphin visit on the way.

We dropped anchor about 2:30pm just behind Exhale.

Charlee was keen to come and do the walk with us, so she came over on her SUP and then paddled to the beach landing.

Tender in, and we set off to go and do the walk to the Aboriginal rock paintings. Short walk up, brief stops to listen to some recordings and read the signs..

Protected by walkway and fence.

We didn’t stay too long, another group was following us up.

Exhale had invited us all over to their boat for the afternoon, so we loaded up supplies and went over.

Enjoyed a very pleasant afternoon sitting on their front tramp, enjoying the scenery, food, and good conversations.

Left them to get back to dinner on Lazuli.

Wednesday 23rd

School then work while our guests took turns on the SUP.

The girls took our SUP over to the rocks and Scott and Kristie followed in the tender.
They got to explore some caves while I got some work done.

Had lunch and then brought the anchor and mud up - hosed off what we could.
Motored back to Airlie to check into our marina berth.

We took advantage of having some extra hands on deck and stopping at the fuel wharf on the way to our berth.
Topped up diesel and unleaded (we’ve used more with the dive compressor than the outboard!).

Left the fuel wharf after radioing in to get an extra hand to catch lines. Took off, and made our way to the pen.
Well that was the plan, got halfway across and got stuck in the silt/mud. Super low tides. We reversed out and tried to come in from the other side.
However, the ladies in office called and said “Just go to L8 instead”. That’s the end of the arm where the super-yachts sleep.

Easy enough tie up, and it’s close to the marina office.

Kristie did get stopped and questioned if she was in the right place ;)

We got our boat jobs out of the way:

• Kristie took washing up and then their car to go do the Woolies pickup and bottle shop.
• Got the boat topped up with water
• hooked up the shore power.
• offloaded rubbish
• Showers.

With Kristie back, Scott went to BCF to pick up my early birthday pressie, and some rolls for the vacuum sealer from Anaconda.

Off to Hogs Breath for dinner.
Enjoyed the steaks and curley fries!

Stopped for gelati / ice cream on the way back.
It started raining just as we started walking back.

Had a quick stop in the park to wait for it to die off a bit, then kept walking.

A bit of whisky back on board to toast a trip well done.

Our guests had one more sleep on Lazuli before they’d head off in the morning.

You can check out Scott’s write-up of the trip here.

Monday 14th July - Coral Sea Marina

School’s back, and also work.

We got in 3 loads of washing!

Kristie had booked the courtesy car from the marina for 11:30am.
She took the girls with her:

• Post office pickup
• New socks for both girls
• Bunnings for some more sandpaper (I’d used up a bit cleaning the anchor Chris found)
• Woolies pickup

Nauti Kitty turned up in the marina just across from us while the girls were out. I caught lines with Jess who’d come in on their tender.

Also bought a new fuel tank for the tender as the filler for the old one had broken.
I walked the unleaded over to the fuel dock to top up - only needed 15L.

With the girls back it was time to stow all the food, and vacuum seal some of the meat.
We didn’t use the vacuum sealer for the first half of the trip, but it’s getting a lot of use up here now.

Kristie started on fixing/sewing the canvas that needed some patching.

With that done she gave Lazuli a bit of a wash down and filled water.

While we were doing all that, Jess (Nauti Kitty) had taken our girls and Charlee up to the resort pool for a swim.

We’d arranged to have dinner with Exhale and one of their other boat friends (Dolce Vita - Martin and Belinda) at “The Deck”.
The outside /veranda area was needed as both had their dogs along.

Tasty dinner, and then off to the ferris wheel for kids (and Kenny) to have a ride.

Ice cream (Cold Rock) on the way home. Also yum.

With a long motor tomorrow, I cooked sausages and got the boat as ready as I could.
Kristie did a bit more patching of our shade covers.

Tuesday 15th

8am departure for Bait Reef. Kristie on the helm while I worked. Plenty of whales to dodge on the way out.

We were lucky that a boat had just left before we got there, so we could grab a mooring at Bait Reef.
The free one was probably the best, right near the reef!

With conditions good, Kristie and I jumped in for a dive together at the Stepping Stones.
Gear in the tender, tender over to one of the many tender moorings, and down we went.
The Stepping Stones is a lovely dive site. Lots of bommies to swim around and in between.
It’s a green zone here, so there is plenty of fish life.

My dive computer is now playing up.. it was showing me still at 1.4m while at the surface :(

David from the boat next to us paddled over to say hi and talk about the dive. We had a good chat with him.
This is the first time he’d been able to convince the other boat owners to bring their boat up here.

Plenty of pods of whales swimming in close to Bait Reef.

We had glued up a rip in the bimini in the morning, and now it was dry we needed to sew it up before we could attach the infill for the night.
Not a pretty job, but hopefully it’ll hold up.

Sip’s ‘n dips and I spent a bit of time playing Minecraft with Emma.

Kristina had been after a movie night for a while, so we all enjoyed watching Zootopia.

Wednesday 16th

With no internet at Bait Reef, I spent some time working on updating the blog while Kristie did school for the girls.

With only one tank full, Kristie jumped in to do a solo dive on the Stepping Stones, this time more of a drift.

Emma needed to cool down, so she had a quick swim off back.

With the dive done, it was time to get the compressor out and fill the dive tanks.

Explore had turned up and was on the mooring next to us with all their snorkelers in the water.

The girls and Kristie enjoyed a jump off Lazuli, then all in the tender to head over to where everyone else was!

Both Emma and Kristina enjoyed showing off their mermaid tails to everyone else off Explore.

Back for some food, then Kristie and I geared up to go dive the Dropoff.

There’s a big mooring there and with nobody on it we could leave our tender tied up to that.
There was a little current, so we dove in to that to make the swim back easier.
Great dive with lots of different sections to explore. Found our way back to the tender which was a relief!

The diving here is great - would be fun to bring the club dive boat up there for a week (in good weather!).

Long slow motor back to Lazuli.

On the way back with stopped for a quick chat with Tom and Jillian on Wild Kat. Turns out they are just two crew doing a delivery on the cat for the owner and had a month to kill.
Talked about the dive for a bit before Kristina started calling from out boat and wanted to come over and pat their dog!

We grabbed Kristina and she jumped onboard (we were still in wetsuits) for a pat.
Eventually Emma was up front of Lazuli demanding to come over as well, so we went back (leaving Kristina on the cat) to get changed and grab her and some nibbles (sort of impromptu invited ourselves on their boat).

We enjoyed a good chat with them and watching whales the entire time.

Back on Lazuli for dinner.

Thursday 17th

Again, with only one full tank, Kristie jumped in to do another solo dive on the “Cluster of four”.
She was lucky enough to have two whales swim over and back around past her.
Once they were out of the way, she had visits from a Manta ray and a reef shark.

Up on top while doing surface watch, our tender outboard decided to pack it in. Attempted to get it going but no luck.
Had to row to a tender mooring and wait for Kristie to surface. Rowed back to Lazuli.
We had hoped to stay longer, but needed to get the outboard sorted so left to sail back.

As soon as we had Starlink online I made a few phone calls.
I could get a new Yamaha 9.9 4stroke delivered to the marina that afternoon!
Booked a berth back at Coral Sea Marina.

Fast sail back towards Hayman Island, and once behind that the wind dropped a bit and had to motor the rest of the way to Airlie Beach.

With Lazuli tied up, we lowered the tender and rowed to boat ramp to get new motor.

The shop dropped it off, and took the old one.

I had a quick run to chandlery to get hose fitting (the Tohatsu and Yamaha had different fittings naturally).

The marina were having their monthly “Marina Mingle” night - a free drink and nibbles. They had a few lucky door raffle prizes, but we didn’t win any of them!.

We only had a few small slices of pizza for snacks there, so we needed a proper dinner.
Walked to town, and ended up finding one of those street food setups that were doing sourdough pizza.
Possibly the best pizza’s I’ve had.. especially the Nutella & Banana pizza we had for dessert :)
(Emma was not impressed that we didn’t get Cold Rock again!)

Back to Lazuli and bed.

Tomorrow we’re off to go pick up Uncle Scott!

Wednesday 9th July - Coral Sea Marina

Jess and Chris got their gear sorted, then took the tender over to fill up two jerry cans.
As we were on the public pontoon we couldn’t walk to the fuel dock as it’s gated.

We walked up to put the washing in the dryer and then back for more boat prep.

Kristie turned up with all the shopping; I put some of that away but we were planning to motor all the way back to Whitehaven so left as soon as we could.

There was no wind, so a nice easy motor there: another ~25nm back from where we started the day!

It would have been nice to sail across - but the conditions were easy.

Set down anchor just the other side from Bella, and invited Viv and Russ over for sip’s ‘n dips (they hadn’t been on our boat yet).
Russ brought over a spare prop he had onboard - he had recently upgraded to a 4-stroke, but his old outboard was exactly the same as ours.

We enjoyed another good catch up with them, then time to have our own dinner.

Thursday 10th

Breakfast and then straight over to Chalkies. We’d done a count and seen that a few boats had left during the morning.
Grabbed a mooring, and we all got ready for a snorkel.
I dropped Jess and Chris off and went back for the others.

Halfway through the snorkel one of the boats closer in moved off, so Jess and I went back to Lazuli and swapped our mooring to get closer in!

There was a bit of current taking us north, so it was a nice easy drift all the way to the end where the sand starts. saw a couple of turtles along the way.

Back for lunch, then Jess and I went into the beach with the new prop and a few tools.
The longest process of it all was getting the old split-pin back in!

Gave it a bit of a test - all sweet. Thanks heaps Russ! We owe you some drinks.

Chris and Kristie geared up for a dive. We were that close to the reef they could just jump off the back and swim in.

They ended up going north for a bit and had an easy dive.

Time for the compressor to do some work and the fishing lines to go in. Lots of bites on the bait but no catches.

We had planned to have sunset drinks followed by dinner on the beach, so I cooked up dinner and put it in the Billy-boil to keep hot.

Made it in for a lovely sunset, enjoyed our drinks and nibbles.

There were two guys who’d kayaked up from Mackay, and were heading north from Chalkies (where they were camping the night).
They mentioned that the night before the mozzies were ferocious.

As soon as the sun went down they found us. Back to Lazuli for dinner!

We put out the squid light after dinner. What we thought was a school of bait fish turned out to be a school of tiny squid.
They were smaller than our squid lures, which could explain why the lures didn’t work.
The girls tried to catch some in the fishing net, but the squid were small enough to swim through the bottom.

After dinner we could hear that Pete was out fishing (and catching) out in the middle between Whitehaven and where we were, in about 80m of water.
Everyone here went to bed and I went out on our tender by myself to have a go. Got a reasonable bite, but didn’t land anything. Came back as it started to drizzle.

Friday 11th

Woke up at 4am with the wind howling 20-25kts, gusting to 30!
Up on deck in the dark to do a bit of a tidy up and make sure everything was tied down that needed to be.
Back to bed for a few more hours of sleep.
Bit of a change from yesterday that was zero wind.

Breakfast then prepping to sail to Border Island (we had thoughts of diving/snorkeling there as well).

With just the small headsail up we were sitting on 7knts or so, but comfortable.
(there weren’t many other boats with sails up!)

Got around to Cateran Bay (Border Island) and there was a free mooring or two, but the wind was coming across the island in bullets.
All the boats on moorings were dancing about wildly.

We turned around and put the headsail back up and headed for the top of Hook Island.

Another hour and we were behind the island, sailing along at 8kts in the flat water and 25kts!

The first few bays were full (and too rolly for us anyway!) so kept on to Butterfly Bay.
Headed downwind to furl the sail (easy when there are 4 adults on board).

Grabbed one of the moorings that was in close and nice and protected!

Jess whipped up some delicious lunch wraps - eggs and bacon.

It wasn’t long before we had a random dad and son turn up on their tender, asking if we were a charter boat.
They’d lost electronics on their charter boat and were told to go find another boat and use their radio and internet.
The came onboard (I had to jump down into their tender as he’d left it in gear!) and used our internet to download Navionics and then use our VHF to call in to the charter company.

Jess enjoyed a quick nap (she didn’t get much sleep with the wind last night) while Kristie & Chris enjoyed the entertainment of watching charter boats arrive and try to hook a mooring.

Was too windy for us to enjoy a dive or snorkel.

Sip’s ‘n dips instead!

Saturday 12th

Breakfast then dropped mooring to head over towards Mantaray Bay.

One cat near us had left not long before us to do the same.

They had gone all the way to Mantaray Bay before turning around as that one mooring was taken.

We saw that and made for the last free mooring in Luncheon Bay… we got the mooring then saw them come in and have to head all the way back to Maureen’s :)
(you gotta bring your mooring A-game up here!)

In the tender and over to Mantaray bay to hook up on to the tender moorings and go for a swim with all the fish there.
We love it there, and Jess and Chris both enjoyed swimming with the GT’s and Maori Wrasse (George!).
While Kristina and Emma enjoyed throwing bread at their heads to attract the fish.

Back to Lazuli for lunch, then motored around to Stonehaven for the night.

We grabbed the mooring that was closed to the reef - tricky to get onto as there’s not enough space to swing out and head into the wind.
I missed the first attempt, did a loop around then got it the 2nd time.

We put the mat in the water and then all geared up for a snorkel.

Jess and Chris joined in for a good family jump.

The girls wanted the mat out… quick play on that before snorkeling.
Kristina stayed on the mat, and Kristie went for a SUP.

Chris found a big 30lb Mooloolaba Pick on the bottom. He dragged that up and I got it in the tender and cleaned it up later on.

Jess got some Minecraft lessons from the girls. Apparently she’s a quick learner. The girls were super excited to be able to show her their training world.

Chris and I got the fishing rods out. Managed to pull in small fish only :(

I expected more from Chris however:

Sunday 13th

Quick breakfast then motored over to grab a mooring on Blacks Island.

Even though it was still 20knts, there was reasonable protection from the wind and chop.
Kristina sat in the boat in her cloths (she doesn’t like snorkeling there) but the rest of us enjoyed a really long swim.
This is still our favourite snorkeling spot in the Whitsundays.

Emma had lots of fun diving down (to keep warm) and looking at the fish.

Long snorkel. Viz not as good as previous trips but still lots to see.

Early lunch, then got ready for a sail back to Airlie.

We still had 20knt SE, so #2 reef and stay sail out only.

Chris sailed it all the way back, enjoying how well Lazuli sails.

Back in the marina we went first to the fuel dock to fill up (only 60L or so).
Jess walked over to our marina berth to catch lines, along with the marina’s dock hand (she caught our lines two weeks ago).

As Jess and Chris weren’t in a rush to set off, we enjoyed some cheese and whiskey (cider for Kristie) before doing any jobs!

You just about need a license to drive the marina trolley!

Kristie set off to check in, collect the post and gas bottle that we had left behind to get filled while Jess and Chris packed.
We all met up to top to wait for their lift, and get an ice cream.

We said our goodbyes and hugs all round.

It was fantastic to have Jess and Chris up (it was a big effort for them to come up from Tassie) on the boat.
Being both sailors it made our time on the water very easy! The girls also loved spending time with them.

They’d only been out on Lazuli once before at Scarborough, and we hadn’t had much wind then.
They got some great sailing weather as well as snorkeling conditions!

Showers, then dinner on board.