The Whitsunday Coast - 26 October - 20 November

Hitting Townsville and the coast again was a welcome change from the dry, dusty and drought affected inland.  We caught up with the Steele family in Townsville and again at Airlie Beach which was great.

From Airlie Beach we bareboat (that means you sail it yourself) chartered a 32 foot Catalina yacht.  It was the smallest yacht we could get to accommodate us.  I was a little nervous considering my lack of experience and that based on previous form my crew would spend more time delivering burley than hoisting sails!
My concerns were unwarranted and the weather fine so we had a tremendous time sailing and snorkelling around the reefs and islands

Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island is reputed to have the whitest silica sand in the world.  It is certainly an awesome sight.  
I the middle of our week on the yacht we spent a day and a night at Hamilton Island Marina to restock and explore the island and its resort.

After Hamilton we headed north for some snorkelling at Hayman Island and Turtle Bay.  All too soon our week came to an end.  It was much more fun than we had anticipated and the first mate was only crook for the first day or so.

After leaving Airlie Beach we followed the coast down to Yeppoon where we camped for a few days and visited Byfield National Park.

By coincidence my brother Phil had a conference on in Yeppoon at the same time we were there!

Seventeen Seventy has a lovely campsite adjacent to the mouth of Round Hill Creek.

At Mon Repos we visited the Turtle Centre which opens at 7pm and closes at 2am for viewing nesting loggerhead turtles.  It was an amazing experience to be so close to a nesting turtle.  A mature female will generally nest 3-5 times a season laying approximately 130 eggs each clutch.  About one in a thousand eggs will produce a hatchling that manages to reach maturity.