Anniversary at Alain's

We celebrated our second wedding anniversary at Airlie Beach. The challenge was finding a great place to have dinner in backpacker city but we did! A wonderful little restaurant called Alain's by the beach about 30 minutes walk from the Marina. An unassuming French restaurant you'd almost miss if you were walking by.

Oooo which entree do I eat first

Chef and his dessert specialities

Alain's specialises in a 6 course menu cooked with loving care by Alain himself. The restaurant only seats around 25 people so dining there is a very personal experience. Alain's background includes being a pastry chef and his brioche at the beginning of the meal was to die for. The whole restaurant is full of personally collected items from the wine decanters to the 1920's Citroen in the dining room (which doubles as a  wedding car). Good food and great fun - we left at around midnight. Highly recommended if you're ever in the area.

The Citroen

Alain and Scott

Bunkered down in Pancake Creek

Since last Thursday or Friday (I forget), we've been in Pancake Creek, hiding from the 25-30kt southerlies and 3m seas. There are about 15 boats taking protection in here just now following wind warnings from the bureau.

Where's Pancake Creek, I hear you say? It's 30 miles ESE of Gladstone and 60 miles north of Bundaberg  under the lee of Bustard Head-Clews Point headland.

There is an inner and an outer anchorage. The outer one is easy to access, not as protected and seems alarmingly close to a breaking shoal in low tide. The inner one, where we are now, has to be accessed (by deep keelers like us) at higher tides, but is more protected. Both are subject to strong tidal streaming which can get a bit strange in high winds especially when you are pointing on the tide but sailing on the wind from behind on the anchor chain! Exposed sand banks are only 20-30m away on either side at low tide.

Samaya and near by sandbanks (low tide)

Oh, to help us feel secure at night, I set up an anchor alarm in case we drifted, only to sleep through it when it went off at 3am! As it turned out, we weren't drifting but we had moved around quite a bit. Fine tuning in anchor alarm setting required.

All in all it's a pretty place to be and we're trying not to climb the walls - reading, baking, blogging, net surfing, eating, napping and doing $2 puzzles from the Yeppoon Op shop. Haven't been to shore yet as we're reluctant to leave the boat in these strong winds and tides. Looks like we'll be here until Friday or Saturday before heading to Fraser Island and the Great Sandy Straits.

Sand sailing cart?

Cape Capricorn

A good day today for a number of reasons....
- we didn't leave at the crack to dawn (yippee)
- we left the marina calmly and under control (almost looked like we knew what we were doing)
- the weather was gorgeous
- the sea was calm
- we had bottled nosed dolphins riding the bow (albeit briefly)
- and we only travelled for 4 hours instead of the usually 8!

So we were well and truly anchored for lunch and had time to enjoy the anchorage at Cape Capricorn. Cape Capricorn is on the Tropic of Capricorn, so when we leave here tomorrow we leave the Tropics :(
There is a lighthouse on the Cape which is now unmanned and the old lighthouse keeper houses are now rented out for holidays. It's a lovely spot with amazing sand drifts on the hills.

View from the Cape Capricorn anchorage

Heading south

Since my last post we're now several nautical miles south of Airlie Beach. We officially left the Whitsundays at Scawfell Island early last week. After Airlie Beach we headed to the Thomas Island, Scawfell Island, Percy Isles (anchoring at Blunt Bay - fantastic spot and the only anchorage we've had to ourselves), Pearl Bay (a couple of beautiful days there) and now Yeppoon (Keppel Bay Marina).

Pearl Bay

Safely reverse parked by yours truly in Keppel Bay Marina

One of the Yeppoon locals in their car

As we're heading into the wind, the early parts of the day have been tough with wind against tide so we're trying to make each leg a manageable distance. Right now, we expect to be back home in early August.

It's been surprising cold - isn't this suppose to be Queensland?? Doonas at night and thermals while we're underway. What the....

Cid Harbour

It's the largest anchorages in the Whitsundays, only a few nautical miles north of Hamilton Island and one of the closest anchorages across Whitsunday Passage from Airlie Beach.  Coupled with fact that it's secure and very pretty it's no wonder that it's a popular overnight anchorage for many yachts, including ourselves.

Cid Harbour was used by the Australian and allied navies as an anchorage during World War II. It has 2 beaches, Sawmill and Dugong plus two great bush walks. One to Dugong inlet and the other one to Whitsunday Peak, 2.5km straight up but well worth the effort. And yes, there are Dugongs here which is a big treat to see.

Woodwark Bay

We're anchored in Woodwark Bay, 7nm north of Airlie Beach and I think you may have to get us out of here with a shoehorn. For such short distance from Abel Point Marina, there's hardly anyone here, mostly longer term cruisers rather than speedy bare boat charterers. And it's peaceful and lovely.

We have local dolphins cruising around the boat and even 50m off the dingy when we went ashore yesterday. Tried our luck fishing (not for dolphins)...no luck...yet...

At the end of the bay, there are some houses which apparently use to be a set for a series called "Tales of the South Seas"  in the 1996/97 but which has now been turned into luxury accommodation. It can be yours for $4400 a night for a couple.

We think we'll move tomorrow...maybe....

Hill Inlet and Whitehaven Beach

Possibly the most famous location in the Whitsundays and for good reason - it's spectacular! We anchored in nearby Tongue Bay thinking it would be a quiet anchorage before heading to the beach the following day. Not so, I think every backpacker dive/sightseeing boat was anchored there when we arrived and then when the day trippers left, the overnight backpacker dive boats arrived and they were huge.

Having said that it was a nice anchorage and a convenient place to stop to head to the look out or to the beach. I really think the  view to Hill Inlet is hard to beat.

Scott even had to perform a "rescue" from one of the backpacker tenders had a motor failure. But it was so windy and with only 3.3hp on our outboard trying to tow a bigger heavy tender, they couldn't get too far and other help was called for.