Over the last week, we have seen some truly beautiful places while being blessed with perfect weather and great sailing conditions – a golden run in more ways than one. From Cid Harbour we did the relatively short hop to Double Bay which we had simply selected as a convenient stop over. However, it turned out to be a beautiful bay surrounded by hills heavily covered with trees.

We arrived just in time for lunch and later that day I was contemplating a swim which I never got around to- and just as well since late in the afternoon Phil caught a shark. Even though it was a small one, mummy might have been out there in the bay.

There were a couple of other boats in there, one of which had done the Indonesian rally some years ago and subsequently returned there for another period. We had a great chat with him, soaking up his Indonesian experience.

The next day saw another short sail, this time through Gloucester Passage and overnight on a mooring buoy just at the western end of the passage.  Another very pretty spot which we shared with our Dutch friends on Fruit de Mer.

We went into the resort there for sundowners and enjoyed a couple of hours chatting. We moved on the next morning and on our way to Upstart Bay we took a slightly more protected route between the mainland and a couple of small islands, rather than sail on the outside of them. What a great decision that turned out to be- this was one of the loveliest sails we have had so far. The scenery was just gorgeous- the Great Dividing Range on one side, and a couple of green islands with sandy beaches on the other side, all to the tune of some gentle classical music that had been recommend by my brother as good sailing music.

We had an early start the next day for the longish sail to Magnetic Island, where we were planning on spending a couple of days. After the last few days of good winds, we were faced with an afternoon of light winds, so rather than motor the rest of the way (Yuk- noisy, and engine makes the cabin a bit hot) we dug out the spinnaker (lightweight sail and much larger than the normal headsail) and got that up. This gave us 5-6 knots of boat speed for most of the afternoon. We were finally anchored in Horseshoe Bay, Magnetic Island at 6.30pm. It was dark by this time, so when we woke the next morning we got our first sight of this gorgeous bay with a sandy beach all around and clumps of palm trees dotted along it.

We spent a fabulous two days on Magnetic Island which in our view is a real gem and beats the other much more touristy islands in the Whitsundays. Magnetic has lush green tropical landscape, beautiful sandy bays and a very relaxed atmosphere. Like many of the islands, it is national park, but unlike some of the islands, the walks on Magnetic are well maintained. It also has some interesting history associated with World War II when it was an American base. One of the walks takes you to the old fort and hence to some fabulous views.

It also happened to be my birthday while we were there and what a gorgeous location to celebrate. After the fort walk, we took the long way back to Horseshoe Bay, visiting a couple of other bays to eventually arrive back on the beach after which we promptly found the ice cream shop. That evening saw us enjoying cocktails in a Latin Bar overlooking the bay before dinghying back to the boat for dinner.

After Magnetic Island, we moved on to Orpheus Island with a bit of an impromptu detour to Palm Island. We decided that it could be interesting to visit Palm Island and the Aboriginal settlement that had featured so often in the news, so I phoned the Palm Island Council to seek permission to go ashore which was duly received. At this stage, we were sailing in company with Jenny and John on Another Dimension who we had met while at Magnetic Island. After settling our boats at anchor, we went ashore and spent an interesting few hours chatting to the locals and learning some of the history of the place. The next day was a very short pleasant sail to Orpheus Island, where we enjoyed some snorkelling, more walking, and a visit to the James Cook University Research Station. Here we also met Richard and Marilyn on Charon, who are also doing the Indonesian rally. The closer we get to Cairns the more we are starting to run into others who doing the rally. We have a list of the entered boats so we keep an eye out for them- we have now met about 10 of the listed 50 boats- in person, on the radio, or via facebook.

Our next goal was to get to Dunk Island and rather than go directly there, we went via the Hinchinbrook Channel- formed between the island of the same name and the mainland coast between Lucinda and Cardwell. Again, this was very scenic and worth the detour although it did require a fair degree of the dreaded motoring.

We spent the night anchored just inside the northern end of the channel, and made the short hop to Dunk the next day. This is a very pretty little island. Similar to Brampton, the resort was devastated by Cyclone Yassi some years ago and remains closed. However, there is a day visit area and camping ground which is open again including a coffee shop and bar, and a very nice area with tables, chairs and lounges under the coconut trees overlooking the bay. The walking tracks have been re-opened and we enjoyed the walk to Mugga Mugga beach – along the beach and through a rainforest along a track around the edge of one of the points on the island. It was a welcome change to go for a relatively flat walk.

Unfortunately, the good weather is about to end for a while- there is about 5 days where the forecast is 70-80% chance of rain with some heavy falls predicted, all up the coast to Cairns, along with a bit of wind. So our current plan is to run for cover to Innisfail tomorrow and spend some time there before making the final hop to Cairns where we will spend a few weeks preparing for the rally. We will meet up with our Melbourne friends Claude and Lana who are up here, and also have a visit from our good friend Leonie to which we very much look forward.