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 whisky (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.

Friday 4th July - Coral Sea Marina

With Lazuli ready and Craig and Tal onboard, it was time to head off. It was easy to drop lines with a few extra hands.

With a good 15-20kts SE it was a quick and fun sail across to Stonehaven. Craig took us all the way across.

We grabbed a mooring just as the sun was going down.

Tal kicked me out of the kitchen and whipped up a delicious salad to go with our steaks.

Saturday 5th

Coffee time, then over to Blacks for breakfast.

Fantastic snorkel along the eastern wall.

Motored around to Maureen’s to grab a mooring there. We were aiming for Mantaray Bay, but that and Luncheon were full.

Another delicious lunch - thanks Tal.

Nauti Kitty was in Butterfly Bay. We’d offered (via message) to take the boys around to the fish but got no reply.

Slow tender ride around to Mantaray Bay. Fun feeding the fish and watching the massive GT’s cruising around, and George the massive Maori Wrasse.

I dropped Kristie and Craig back on Lazuli, then took both girls around to see the boys.
They had been keen to go, I just didn’t get the reply in time. They got their wetsuits on and I headed back with the 4 kids.
(I went via Lazuli to let Kristie know - and suggested they move Lazuli around to grab one of the free moorings next to Nauti Kitty.)

The kids had fun feeding the fish. We had the whole place to ourselves when we got there.

Slow ride back to our boats.

Sunday 6th

Up for breakfast, and getting ready to sail down to Border Island. With the SE winds it meant tacking all the way.
Slow trip down with #2 reef and small jib.

We eventually made it to Border Island, but no free moorings. We motored past the other boats to see what they were doing.
One was leaving soon, so we dropped anchor and waited for them.

Lunch while we were waiting.

As the other boat was taking off, Craig zoomed over in our tender just to make sure we’d get it.

With Lazuli safely on the mooring, we all got in the tender and went into the beach. Off for a quick walk.

We stopped quickly at the start to put on shoes, but got slaughtered by mozzies. Once out of the track and into the wind we were safe.

Quick walk up to the saddle for some photos, and then onto the end of the walk to the lookout.

We then walked along the track to the lookout on the other side. Not a big walk.

Back to Lazuli, and Kristie and Craig geared up for dive. I surface watched while they swam around the eastern side of the bay.

Sips ‘n dips. Dinner. Whales.

Yep, whales swimming between the boats anchored out and us. There were at least 4 that came through at about 8:30pm, then maybe the same ones came back an hour later.
It looked/sounded like one of the cats anchored behind us would have got wet from the whale spout it came up that close!

Monday 7th

Another fine breakfast from Tal. Kristina suggested that she should enter a cooking competition.

Kristie and the two girls went for a quick scuba dive at Border Island, just in close and shallow.
Lots of fish and coral. They take it in turns, the other one usually in the tender or snorkeling along with me.

Emma had a good dive, and then snorkeled with me while Kristina was diving.

Back to the boat for Kristie to fill the tanks and then lunch.
Tal disappeared for a SUP around the bay.

We packed everything away to motor down to Tongue Bay. Craig and I got in a bit of work while the ladies were in charge up top.

Timing was good, we rocked straight up and got a mooring!

I had a bit more work to do, so Craig was going to take Tal for a tour of the other boats in the bay with us.
He came back a few minutes later saying the tender outboard wasn’t working well. I jumped in to have a look.
Went for a quick drive and as soon as I tried putting a bit of throttle on it just revved and didn’t go anywhere :(
Got back to Lazuli and had a quick google and look at the prop - we could spin the prop without the shaft moving :(

I tried making a few phone calls to see if anyone in Airlie would be able to help.
(one guy eventually returned my call - but he doesn’t work on small outboards)

We set off into the beach to do the walk to the lookout and back down to Hill Inlet. Way less people here than our last stop!

Good views again from the top.

While up there we could hear Pete and Jess from Nauti Kitty chatting on the VHF (we always take our handheld on beach/tender excursions).
They were anchored just down the beach from Hill Inlet and Pete was out fishing.
We radioed to say Hi and let them know we’d be down on the beach if they wanted the boys to join us?
Arje had a busted toe but was still keen to come in.

The girls and I walked off down while Kristie, Craig and Tal took some more photos at the lookout.

Down at the beach we laid out our beach mats and got drinks and nibbles sorted.
The kids enjoyed exploring on the beach, flying kites, and a big round of group Frisbee with adults as well!

The log got a good climb this time as well.

Sniffy’s toe was starting to give him grief, so he sat on the mat with Kristie.

We realised it was getting pretty late and would be dark by the time we got back. We had head torches for the walk.
I ended up having to give Argie a lift (shoulders/piggyback ride) the entire way back across the sand and up/over the hill.

It was fully dark by the time we got back to the beach. Pete called on the radio and flashed a torch at us to let us know where they were.
I dropped the two boys off on their boat, then Kristie and our girls back at Lazuli (leaving Craig and Tal on the beach for the 2nd trip).

We had offered Jess some strapping tape for the damaged toe, so we’d bring that back.
Picked up the others from the beach and went back to Lazuli to grab our full first aid kit (and some extras Tal had).

Tal made her first on-water callout as a nurse!

Pete had one of his Uncles and Aunts on board. They offered a beer as soon as we were onboard - won’t so no to that.
Tal patched up the toe. Turns out one of the cockpit lockers was open, and had fallen closed on his toe. Ouch.
I think Sniffy appreciated having a medical professional attend his wound.

“Payment” for the call-out turned out to be a large glass of red wine for Tal (I got another beer).

Tal and I eventually left to head back to Lazuli. Craig had cooked sausages for the girls.
Time for our own late dinner!
I managed to spill another glass of red wine on the table and couch cushions.

Tuesday 8th

Breakfast.

Motored around to Whitehaven beach. We picked a spot with not too many boats around.
We didn’t have the anchor down long when we heard a call on the VHF - turns out Viv and Russ from Bella had just arrived.

Got ready for a swim at the beach. Tender down, swim mat on. Craig and Tal enjoyed a jump off the boat and then a swim in to the beach.

I had a fun swim on the mat with Emma, while the others walked down the beach. After a bit Emma and I walked down.
Kristie and Kristina were enjoying a swim just where Bella was anchored.

Russ was in the process of lowing their tender. We watched thinking they’d then come in, but they sat down for a drink :)
I swam out to say hi to them both. Got onboard and Russ offered a G&T. Thanks!

The others all then swam out and Russ made G&T’s all round (coke for the girls!).

Russ dropped us all back into the beach (his nice new 4stroke outboard sounds lovely!).

Pete suggested arvo drinks and nibbiles on their boat with us along with Viv and Russ.

We both moved our boats further down towards where Bella was anchored, just a little more protection from the swell.

We ended up there just after 4pm:

• Jess & Pete and the two boys
• Pete’s Uncle and Aunt
• Kristie & I and the two girls
• Craig & Tal
• Viv & Russ

Lots to eat and drink, lots of laughs.

Viv and Russ went back to their boat for dinner.

I went back to Lazuli to grab our dinner and we ended up eating our dinner back on NK.

Emma was a bit tired and took herself to bed on NK.

Was about 9:30 or so when we all jumped into our tenders and went into the beach for a bit of fun.
NK had their light-up Poi, we had glow sticks, a speaker, also some more drinks.

I dropped Kristie and Emma back to Lazuli as Emma was spent.

Bit more fun on the beach (kids playing tag).

Back to the boat late (10pm ish).. I might have had a bit of a stumble getting back on and woke Kristie up!

Great night.

Wednesday 9th

Hangover.

Earlyish start as we were dropping Craig and Tal off and picking up our next guests.

There was no wind at all, so motoring all the way ~25nm.

I got it a fair bit of work on the trip back while Craig was in charge up top.

Got in to Coral Sea Marina no issues, but the public pontoon was full. We did a drive-by and one of the boats was just finishing up and would be off shortly.

We did a few circles while waiting and getting fenders and lines ready.

Easy dock with all the extra help.

As soon as we were on, Kristie walked off start a load of washing, visit the bottle shop and the Woolies pickup (walk there - Uber/taxi back).

Craig and Tal packed up their gear and helped with the boat jobs:

• Cleaning
• Filling up the water.

Wasn’t long before my sister Jess and her partner Chris turned up.

Said our goodbyes to Craig and Tal.

We really enjoyed having both of them on board. Great company.
Tal’s meals were exceptional, and Craig knows boats and always knew what was needed next and just did it!