Sailing the Whitsundays with Portland Roads Dec 19featured

Why sailing Whitsundays should be on your bucket list?

• The Whitsundays are the ancient home to 7 indigenous tribes – “Australia’s First People” that were preserving this land and waters for over 60,000 years
• The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park covers a staggering 348,000 Square Kilometres
• The Great Barrier Reef is one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World
• The Marine Park is UNESCO World Heritage Listed
• The Marine Park contains the World’s Largest Coral Reef Eco System
• It includes some 3000 Coral Reefs, some 600 Continental Islands, (of which 74 islands can be accessed from Airlie Beach), some  300 Coral Cays and about 150 Inshore Mangrove Islands ( source: Portland Roads)

This is our second time chartering a catamaran from Portland Roads. You can read about our experience on Lucy in Dec 17 here.

How to get to there and where to stay? 

We flew to Prosepine Airport and took a transfer bus to Coral Sea Marina (formally known as Abell Point Marina), which takes about 30 min.  This time around we did not have any accomodation at all and stayed on the boat the entire trip. We booked a Board Early and Late Finish option, which allowed us to board at 5:00 pm on the first day and leave at 9am on the last day. We had dinner and breakfast on the boat at the Marina and with access to the Ocean Club it was a perfect set up. Ocean Club provides showers and barbeque facilities.

Alternatively, you can stay at Mantra Club Croc , which is what we did the fist time.

Coral Sea Marina

Portland Roads – The Luxury Sailing Catamaran

Portland Roads is a premium Lagoon 420 Sailing Catamaran with 3 Cabins (Double) and 1 Bunk Room (twin) and can accommodate 8 people comfortably. The charter is a bare boat, meaning that Portland Roads provide you with a boat and you provide everything else.

Although you can get catering arranged for you, twice now, we have purchased all the food at the Whitsunday Shopping Centre and found it very convenient.

Other than the cabins, the set up is very similar to Lucy. There is an outdoor barbecue which we used all the time and a gas stove inside. All the bed linen, cooking necessities, safety gear and communication equipment is provided on the boat. There are multiple fridges, freezers, and a giant esky.  When we were there it was averaging 32-35 degrees, it is hot from 5am onwards. Make sure you bring plenty of ice and drinks!

There is 1100 liters of fresh water onboard, which sounds like a lot, but in reality your showers will be very very short. Aircon works of the generator so at night use the in-room fans and open the windows.

The Order of Things when Sailing Shute Harbour 

Although it is great to have a general idea about which islands you would like to visit,  where and how you will actually be going will depend on the wind, waves and tides. Every morning at 8:30am on a SKED with your trip briefer you will discuss the forecast and the plan for the day.

Although the briefer will tell you what you need to know, I would learn some basic naviation skils and study the map and the tides table before the call. For example, we always wanted to sail to Whitehaven Beach but crossing the Solway Passage when the water is flooding South and the winds blowing over 20 knots from South East is a hair-raising experience.

When you are bored in the evenings read 100 Magic Miles book cover to cover. It will tell you everything you need to know:

• where you can and can’t fish, which fish you can keep
• where you can get a mooring and where you can only anchor
• best snorkeling locations and where you can’t swim

Whatever you do by 3:30 pm you should be pretty much at your overnight location ready for your afternoon SKED.

Sample 7 Day  Sailing Itinerary 

Day 1 – Board 5pm, overnight on the boat at the Marina

Day 2 – Morning briefing and training, sail to Sandy Bay at South Molle Island, depending on what time you finish and the wind it might be too late to travel anywhere else

Day 3 – Sail to Black Island for snorkelling and overnight at Stonehaven Anchorage at Hook Island Island

Day 4 – visit Ngaro cultural site at Nara Inlet, hike to a cave with Aboriginal drawings, then sail to Cateran Bay at Border Island, snorkell off the boat if you can, there are no reef close to the beach

Day 5 – sail to Whitehaven beach for some swimming and beach walk, watch the sea planes land, then overnight at Haselwood Island, snorkell at low tide at the southern end. This is a popular location and might be very busy with boats coming in and out.

Day 6 – full day of travel through Solway Passage, this might not be possible and all will depend on the weather. Stop at Turtle Bay and Sid Harbour, but both places are full of sharks, no swimming whatsoever, proceed to Stonehaven Anchorage at Hook Island Island, the sunset is the best ever!

Day 7 – if the tide is low, go for some more snorkelling at Black Island or try to get a mooring at Langford, sail back to Coral Sea Marina after lunch and overnight at the Marina.  Crossing of the Whitsundays passage might take a couple of hours and can be very choppy, be prepared!

Mooring and Anchoring 

See my notes on Lucy for the novice sailor. Picking up moorings is still my least favourite activity. The ropes are heavy and slippery and I always managed to get a bruise or two.

However, it is much peferred that you do try to get a mooring simply becasue they have been strategically placed by the Marine Park at safe distances from each other with allowance for boats swinging and also using anchors can cause damage to the reef. In fact, you will not be able to anchor around some islands at all, so learn to love moorings! Make sure it is right for your boat size.

Whats there to do?  

Snorkelling 

My prefernce is always to take a tender to the shore and snorkel from the beach. Unfortunatly that would not be possible in some places as the reef is too far and you will find that people that are coming in tour groups are mostly snorkelling off the boat. You will need to be a confident swimmer to do that and probably would not like doing so with kids. So we prefered to snorkel at either Black Island or Haselwood Island. Corals and bright tropical fish that you will encounter are amazing, bring a Go Pro!

Visit Whitehaven Beach

It is a 7 km stretch along Whitsunday Island known for its white sands. It is very busy with boats, seaplanes & helicopters constantly coming and going but it is beautifull regardless and worth a stop over.

Hiking and Aboriginal History 

9,000 years ago The Whitsundays Islands were part of the mainland and Ngaro people, the traditional owners of the land, lived and hunt there. Then, as the glaciers melted, and the Coral Sea rose over the coastal plain,  only mountain-tops and ridges were left exposed as the rocky Whitsunday islands that we see today.

Visit Whitsundays Island National Park at Nara Inlet at Hood Island and walk up to a cave with aboriginal art. It is an iconic and culturally significant site. Touch the etched handprint asking permission of the ancestors to enter. Some motifs painted in natural ochres are fading but still clearly identifiable. Take some time off, sit on the bench up on the treck and listen to some pre-recorded stories.

Enjoy the views

Nara Inlet – Whitsundays

Haslewood Island

Sunset watching

What to bring

Reef shoes, stinger suits and some snorkelling gear. You can hire all of that at Aqua Dive at the Corel Sea Marina before the trip. Also hire your fishing rods and get plenty of bait.

Other essentials are Kwells for sea sickness, tons of suncream and bugs spray. There can be massive sand flys at Whitehaven!

The Sharks Situation 

They are there, everywhere. You can do some obvious smart things like not swimming off the boat in the dark, not making too much noise and fuss in the water, snorkelling in groups and in day light, but it is an open ocean. Some areas known for sharks inhabiting and they are clearly marked like Sid Harbour, for example, others might not be. At Haselwood Island mooring we saw two good 3 meter sharks circuling our boat at night in a fish eating frenzy. Watching those massive grey shadows quietly appearing in the dark is nerve wrecking.

And then at Turtle Bay we decided to go for a swim and took a dinghy to shore. Hubby took one step into the water knee deep and a meter reef shark swam right in front of his feet. After that my “afraid of nothing” 6.3ft hubby never entered the water without a paddle, ready.