David and I departed Lizard Island for a 54-hour sail up to Horn Island, where we were going to make our last stop in Australia before clearing out and heading to Indonesia. Many friends made other stops along the way, but when they did stop, it was usually just to sleep or ended up being…
Lizard Island is a national park off the coast of eastern Austalia – about 160 miles north of Cairns. It’s small and remote, with only two options to overnight. It’s visited by the rich and famous at the Lizard Island Resort, but also, by Queenslander boaters and yachties passing through. Sailing Cairns to Lizard Island…
After two nights sailing from Hook Island in the Whitsundays, we arrived in Cairns, where we attended the first meeting of the Wonderful Sail 2 Indonesia Rally. Why Did We Join the Rally? We’ve never done a paid rally before (the Pacific Puddle Jump is free). This will be our first time to really cruise…
We made two stops on Hook Island. The first was Stonehaven Bay on the west side, and the second was West Butterfly Bay on the north side. During our stay on Hook Island, the tradewinds were blowing pretty strong, 20 knots or so, and the nearby landscape funnels these winds around. It was worse in…
Airlie Beach (pronounced Air-lee) is the coastal town that serves as the jump-off point for the Whitsundays. It’s the budget town to Hamilton Island’s luxury, and it’s targeted more for backpackers. Marina & Anchorage The Whitsundays have dozens of charter boats available through GlobeSailor for sailing vacations, and most of them are based in Airlie…
The Whitsunday Islands are mostly empty, with a few resorts here and there, with the exception of it’s main hub: Hamilton Island. Hamilton Island is owned by the Oatley family (as in Bob Oatley) and is leased by the Australian government. It’s mostly a holiday spot, with only 1,200 residents living on the island, but…
As our time traveling up the coast of Australia is coming to a close, we’re limited in how much time we can spend along the way. But for 6 nights, we enjoyed two completely different bays on Whitsunday Island. About the Whitsundays The Whitsundays are a group of 74 islands in the Great Barrier Reef,…
Departing Fraser Island we had strong southeasterly winds. We left Fraser around 8 am aiming for the Keppels. We played with the sails a little bit throughout the day, but by nighttime, we’d taken down our mainsail and just powered along with our genoa. The winds were that strong! Keppel Bay Marina We made it…