Following our week of sitting still in Airlie Beach we decided it was time for a change in scenery. We were forecast to have a few days of northerlies and since we had sailed quickly through the islands south of the Whitsunday’s we decided it was the perfect time to revisit them. So with this in mind we once more prepared the boat for sea, bought supplies and filled up the water tanks ready for an adventure. When we finally left we set the full main, staysail, jib and flying jib hoping with all that sail we would fly along. However for most of the day we barely had 10kts of wind and couldn’t make Allagai go faster then 2kts as the tide was against us. So that day were forced to do more motoring then we would have liked, intermittently turning the engine on and off as the wind picked up and then dropped off again. Although we had an awesome day of sunshine with not a cloud in the sky and even spotted whales twice. Both times the whales were less the half a mile from the boat lazily swimming on the surface while throwing water spouts into the air. That evening we dropped anchor just on sunset 33nm from Airlie in an unnamed bay on the southern side of Thomas Island. Unfortunately the anchorage was packed so we were stuck of the very outskirts of the bay which meant we had to deal with a slight roll as the swell wrapped around the headland.
With the slight roll on board Allagai we decided not to hang around longer then necessary so first thing the following morning we decided to continue our sail south, destination unknown. That day we had decided to only go as far as the wind would take us so that we could avoid using the engine as much as possible. So it was just as the sun was rising over Thomas Island that we weighed anchor and then once more set full sail, even the gaff topsail was out. However the wind was still quite fickle and every time we thought it had died and were finding a spot to anchor it would freshen just enough give us hope and make us attempt to push on to the next island. It was about mid afternoon when the wind finally did die out completely which caused the current to start affecting our direction more then we liked. Not wanting to get swept by the tide around the upcoming island we decided to start the engine to motor the last couple of miles and ended up dropping anchor in Swordfish Bay off Brampton Island.
We spent the next six nights anchored in various places around Brampton Island moving spots as the wind changed and enjoying a couple of walks a shore. Our first trip ashore we went for a short stroll along the beach in front of the old abandoned resort off Swordfish Bay. This was yet another resort which had seen much better days having been completely neglected and left to rot, with buildings fulling down and plastic debris strewn about the beach. However our second walk was much more pleasant as it was to the top of Brampton Peak, 211m high and along a trail 7km long.
The walk to the peak started on a track which was very overgrown and left me wanting to turn back at times for fear of snakes in the tall grass. However we pushed on and were well rewarded for our efforts as once we got past the initial overgrown section, which involved trampling over short weeds and pushing through scrub taller then me, the track was quite pleasant. Also since the peak was quite short and the track so long it barely felt as if we were walking uphill which made the walk quite easy.
Along the way we even had a close encounter with one of the islands local inhabitants, a large goanna which had been sitting on the path and was quite startled when we approached. Thankfully the goanna moved off the path and once settled was quite happy for us to walk past and didn’t run at us, instead it scurried into the bushes when we walked away. Following our goanna encounter we next ended up walking through a field of butterfly’s, there was so many flying about us that I feared inhaling one as the air was so thick with them.
Between pushing through tall undergrowth and our animal and insect encounters we had quite an interesting walk. But the view at the top made the effort well worth it as we were rewarded with a lovely view over the channel between Brampton Island and Carlisle Island. After admiring the view for a little while we turned around and headed back to Allagai, stopping at a second lookout which we had missed on the way up. The view from this second lookout was just as stunning and offered an amazing view over the western side of the island with Mackay on the mainland visible in the distance. Following this little detour our walk back to Allagai was quite nice and uneventful, with more butterfly’s flying all around, birds singing in the trees above and little skinks scurrying across nearby rocks.
The following day we spent most of our time relaxing aboard Allagai, awaiting the arrival of some friends sailing up from Tasmania. It was late afternoon that day when they finally arrived which meant we spent that evening and much of the next day catching up with everyone. However mid catch-up everyone decided to weigh anchor and move bays as that day the forecast suggested the winds would change from a southerly direction to a northerly direction. So one after the other we all weighed anchor and moved to the western side of the island, dropping anchor in Western Bay, which offered very nice northerly protection and was also out of the residual south easterly swell. Although there was little to do in this bay which had a huge drying zone that made reaching the small sandy beach difficult.
The following day the northerly wind continued however it was a good deal stronger and slightly more westerly. This made our beautiful calm anchorage from the day before turn choppy and uncomfortable. So once again we decided to weigh anchor and continue further around the island, re-anchoring on the islands southern edge in Dingy Bay. When we arrived we anchored out fairly deep but were keen to explore the amazing white sandy beach in front of us. So it was no sooner that the anchor was in the water that we had launched the dingy and were heading ashore. It was during this trip ashore that we were amazed by the clarity of the water and the flat sandy bottom and were given an idea. We had known for some time now that we needed to change the anodes on the hull as all but one was gone but had been looking for a shallow, clear water anchorage to do the change. It had seemed that our wish had finally been granted as this bay seemed like the perfect spot. But already being most of the way ashore we decided that before racing back to Allagai to move her in closer we would enjoy a quick walk along the lovely beach in front of us first.
Returning from our walk ashore we wasted no time in preparing Allagai for her shallow anchorage. When we finally anchored her we were only in 1.5m of water, 20m off the beach and had two bow anchors and a stern anchor laid out to stop her bouncing around in the gentle breeze. When we anchored the tide was still on the rise which gave us a little over three hours to do what we needed to do, which involved removing the old anodes and then bolting on the new ones. However to our surprise this barely took us an hour but while swimming under Allagai we had noticed that her hull was quite filthy with marine growth and may have been the reason for our recent slow speeds. So this led to the hull getting some much need love as Hugo spent and entire hour scrubbing the hull, removing barnacles, algae and long tendrils of slime. Once he was done the hull looked a good deal cleaner and hopefully on our next sail Allagai would be a lot faster. Once we were finished with our jobs under the hull we moved Allagai back out to deeper waters spending that night anchored in the bay. This was set to be our last night anchored off Brampton Island as the following day we were due for a south westerly change which we were keen to use to island hop our way north again.
