Year 2 –6 May 2025 -Border Island (Cateran Bay) to Sawmill Bay (Whitsunday Island)

We had a relatively calm night although it did rain but there were not many bullets. We had breakfast and it started to rain again and that driving rain you see in the wind in vertical sections but moving sideways. We hoped this would not last long and in a break got the dinghy down and we got into our snorkelling gear. The rain came back again and we waited for about 10 minutes. I then decided we should just go. We were after all in our swimming gear and were going to get wet anyway!

We motored over to the yacht next door who we had seen snorkelling yesterday and they said it was good along the nearby shore. We had seen the Solway Lass the day before take their guests to the other side. We went near the beach and anchored the dinghy and we all got out and swam or snorkelled. By this time the rain had stopped and the sun came out. We did not see a lot of coral but there were quite a lot of different fish and quite colourful fish. We enjoyed this for some time and then we went to the main beach and anchored the dinghy. We walked around and there was a sign on the beach and some steps leading up the hill. We followed and as we rose we walked between shrubs some of whom had a lovely perfume smell like jasmin. There were reeds which had clearly grown about 6-8 feet and had now finished flowering and were now like dead trees. The path continued up and eventually we got to the top and could see the other side of the Island and beyond toward other islands. This side was exposed to the wind and there were white horses and we had a lovely view of the Island’s coastline and the waves crashing on to its rocks.

We came across a board which explained a few things including that it was Edward Bedwell who had named the Island after the Border region in Scotland during his journey on the survey ship Llewellyn in 1879. The Ngaro people used to live here many thousands of year ago. Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) wrote “But the sea-caves rung, and the wild wings sung”. There were lovely views up here with Cateran Bay on one side and the other side looking toward Tongue Bay where we had come from. We were on the saddle of the Island with peaks each side. The picture of the day is the view looking back across the beach in Cateran Bay with Stormbird in the background. We could see from here the dark patches of the bay indicating rock and or coral. We walked around for a while enjoying stretching our legs. We then returned to the beach and some swam again and Paul swam over to the other side of the bay. We got in the dinghy and went to pick him up. There was lovely coral on that side.

We returned to Stormbird and had a hot chocolate to warm us up with a bit of rum in it – delicious. We then prepared Stormbird for departure and put the dinghy on the davits. We slipped the mooring and headed out of Cateran Bay and headed toward the Hook Passage which is between Whitsunday Island and Hook Island and due to its narrowness can be quite affected by tide. We again just put up the Staysail and we were not in a rush and still managed 5-6kts. Paul and John put out the fishing lines during the day but we did not catch anything.

The sail across took about 55 minutes and we could see white horses in the passage. When we got close and the wind died we took down the sail and motored toward the passage. We were about High Water so the water should have been slack but we went through a 50 meter section of water which was boiling like a cauldron and we had a depth of 45 m! It reminded me a bit of a pass in the Tuamotus. Once through there were some mooring buoys on the east side of Whitsunday Island but it was very exposed to the wind and swell and we decided to move on. This meant going toward a cardinal as there was a huge body of water South of it which was very shallow.

We motored round this and then headed for Sawmill Bay which is also on the East of Whitsunday Island but we could not sail as this was straight into the wind. We continued and after about 45 minutes came to the bay which was in front of a 400m hill. We managed to find a good anchoring spot in about 6 meters of water and settled. Worryingly there were markers warning of sharks in this area and advising us not to swim!.

We had a late lunch and then rested and read and I did some admin. The wind calmed down as the afternoon went on and by 5.00pm it was beginning to get dark so we sat on the rear deck and watched the world go by. There were a number of boats here and dinghies moving around. We had salmon pesto with rice and courgettes for supper which was good washed down with a Tasmanian Wine called Devils Corner which was very good.

We will go ashore and explore here. Apparently there is a walk up the hill which may be good. We have a couple more days before the wind gets quite string again.

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