We're in the Whitsundays

We have a star in our midst! Noah at the ripe old age of 5 months had made his first appearance on national television with a full screen picture on the Today Show where the male presenter Carl said “What a beautiful baby”. No wonder he gets paid the big bucks with intuition like that. Lana emailed a photo in just the day before and someone with great taste at the other end chose it for the morning photo.
Now back to our travels. From Brampton we arrived at Shaw Island, opposite Lindeman Island, where we sheltered from some strong winds for a couple of days in a beautifully protected anchorage. Shaw is a national park which offered great fishing, black lip oysters shucked off the rocks, exciting beachcombing on the 'weather' side and constant company around the boat from the local turtles. Passing Hamilton on the way to Dent Island, we arrived on the north eastern tip of Dent where Ro’s Grandmother’s cousin Leenie and her husband Bill first established a Coral Art business after World War II. Ro last visited this place at the age of 12, but sadly Leenie and Bill have both passed on and the leasehold sold and business has closed down. We thank the caretakers, John and Liz for allowing Ro to revisit a fond childhood memory. From Dent we journeyed across the passage to South Mole which is still glowing after 52 years since Ro’s parents spent their honeymoon there. After leaving South Mole through the confidence diminishing 'Unsafe Passage', we anchored on a milky sea for the night off Daydream Island in Sun-lovers Cove.
From Daydream we anchored for a couple of nights in Funnel Bay on the mainland before heading to Airlie Beach to restock supplies, refuel, fill water tanks, fix a minor electrical problem, and more importantly ditch Noah’s nappies.
With the gap in the fish count increasing in Lana’s favour (40-31), Ro hopped in the kayak after anchoring in Airlie Beach in a desperate search for help returning from the tackle shop with some fancy plastic lures! Let’s see how they go!
Not to be outdone on pulling stuff out of the sea, Ro found a tool box of stainless steel fittings followed be a sunken 25ft yacht both probably resultant of the latest cyclone. 5 deck winches and one anchor later – Ro is winning the salvage count although Lana reminds him that you can’t eat winches!
Now entering our 3rd week in the Whitsundays we spent this morning with our friends Phil and Pat from Aqua Vista at the local markets here in Airlie Beach and are now heading out for 10 days to further explore Hook, Hayman and Whitsunday Islands as well as other lesser known but beautiful islands, reefs and bays.