Year 2 –3 May 2025 - Shaw Island- Hazlewood Island
We had bullets of wind (as the Oz’s call gusts) in the night with rainsqualls but we were safely in bed and the anchor held well. It was grey and unsettled when we woke with the wind 5 kts one minute and then 30 kts the next. It will be one of those days. I made some berry smoothies which went down well followed by some cereal.
We decided to get the dinghy down and go and explore. Shaw Island is a bird sanctuary and we had two lovely beaches nearby. John decided to stay on board so Angus, Peter, Paul and I headed ashore to the nearest beach. It got shallow quite some way out from the beach and we motored over the sandy bottom until it got too shallow. We got out and the water was to our knees. We anchored the dinghy and walked ashore on to the beach. It was a lovely clean beach with shells and bits of coral. The back of the beach had trees and bush and we came across the Pandarus Pine which has fruit like a pineapple. We wondered whether it was edible and later discovered it was. We walked to the Southern end of the beach and found a small creek with Mangroves growing and going behind the beach. The sun came out and it was like black and white going to colour and everything looked so different but it did not last long. Angus had a bit of a dip in the water but it was not clear enough to snorkel. We then got in and headed over to the other beach which was larger and had the shallow area of sand. We walked ashore and found similar foliage and mangroves at the edge of the beach. We also saw a number of wading birds wondering and scavenging on the beach. It felt like we should Man Friday any minute!!
We returned to Stormbird and put the dinghy back on the davits. Peter was to navigate us to our next anchorage which was Chalkie’s Beach off Hazlewood Island some 14 nm away. I helped bring up the anchor for a change and then Peter motored out of the bay. Peter’s idea was to go off on a broad reach and then to gybe back. Due to the wind direction this was not possible so we went on a beam to broad reach (with just the Staysail) up the channel between Lindeman Island and Shaw Island. The wind was ranging between 12 kts and 30 kts and we made some progress toward the gap between the two. As we got closer the wind moved and came and went and then we decided to take down the sail and then motored through the gap crabbing somewhat as the tide was quite strong.
Once through the gap we put up the Staysail again and headed toward the south side of Hazlewood Island. We were initially under the lee of Shaw Island but once we got to the top of Shaw Island we began to be exposed to the swell again. This meant that we started to get 2m-3m waves on our starboard beam and the wind was 25-30 kts again. We rolled quite a bit and then we had some big gusts and at one point I saw 34.5 kts on our instruments. A Force 8 is 32 kts. I reefed the Staysail as this was a bit much. We just sailed under staysail and were making 6-7 kts and every now and then we hit 8kts. We only had about 5 nm to travel across this exposed part.
We sailed under control despite the roll and it was manageable and no one felt ill. The passage between Hazlewood and Whitsunday Island is called the Solway Passage and is very rough with a strong wind against a flooding tide. We did not want to get there too early as high water was about 4.30pm. I was looking at the water and we had other options if we had to bail out. We sailed on and it did not look too bad and so when we got close we took down the Staysail and began to motor.
We came into the passage and began to get into the lee of the Island and so the waves calmed down. We motored on along Hazlewood Island and then we began to see Whitehaven Beach which is a huge curved beach on Whitsunday Island to the West. We came round to Chalkie’s Bay which had a catamaran and motorboat in it. There was another lovely sandy beach which we will explore tomorrow. We found a mooring buoy as it is very deep to anchor. We got safely secured and rested and checked we felt comfortable. The wind is still gusting and sending us bullets which push us around.
Chalkie's Beach (also known as Stockyard Beach) is located on the western coast of Haslewood Island in the Whitsunday Islands of Queensland, Australia. It lies across from the more popular Whitehaven Beach on the main Whitsunday Island.
The common name originates from a nickname for local businessman David Hutchen, whose yacht, the Banjo Paterson, frequented the beach as a destination in day cruises. "Chalkie" refers to Hutchen's use of a blackboard for scorekeeping in beer-drinking contests following the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. The alternate name, "Stockyard Beach", comes from the presence of stockyards on the island built to house sheep in the 1920s and 1930s. A fringing coral reef lies offshore, home to a variety of fish and sea turtles—including the green turtle and Hawksbill turtle—which feed on nearby seagrass. The beach is a popular destination for snorkelling which we hope to do tomorrow.
The picture of the day is of us leaving Burning Point with a rainbow.
Need/Opportunity Year Three
In year three I will be going from Thailand to Sri Lanka, India, Maldives and then on to Chagos, Mauritius, Reunion, Cape Town, St Helena, Azores and back to the UK. I am looking for crew from Reunion to Cape Town and from Cape Town to the UK. If of any interest do email me.
The blog will continue as we continue the journey. If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog then do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com