We sailed north out of Cateran Bay, a beautiful U-shaped indent on the northern side of Border Island, at about 10am. Our aim was to sail north to round Pinnacle Point and anchor for the night in Butterfly Bay on the northern tip of Hook Island. It was a lovely sunny day with the wind from the south east at about 10 knots. As we were in the company of a friend sailing solo in his 21 foot trailer sailer, I had only hoisted the main on our 28 foot trailer sailer as we did not want to leave him behind. As we drew further and further away from the Bay, my wife, Maureen, observed that the following sea was getting much bigger and it was soon quite apparent that the wind was steadily increasing and the sky was becoming overcast. I put the washboards in the companion way.
Maureen, had been out of hospital only a short time following an operation and we had taken a friend along with us to help with handling the yacht . We had anchored in Cateran Bay the previous morning after a short sail from our previous nights anchorage at Tongue Bay on the eastern side of Whitsunday Island , which together with Hook Island to its north, forms the eastern seaward boundary of the Whitsunday Passage that lies between these islands and the tropical coast of Northern Queensland , Australia. Border Island is a small island about 1.5 miles wide and long that lies about 3 miles to sea from the eastern side of Whitsunday Island and about 25 miles due east of Airlie beach on the mainland where we had launched our yacht about a week earlier. We had had a magical day snorkeling over the coral reefs that fringe the bases of the steep sides of Cateran Bay and later climbed Mosstrooper Peak which at a height of 747metres is the highest point on the Island and commands a panoramic view of the surrounding islands. We had spent a pleasant evening in the company of our solo friend and an undisturbed night in this sheltered anchorage and after a late breakfast this morning with a favourable weather forecast of south-easterly winds of 15 knots we looked forward to a pleasant down hill sail to Butterfly Bay some 9 miles away.
Now after only half an hour of sailing the wind had increased to about 35 knots and we were surfing down 3 metre waves. Unfortunately, since we were not expecting such conditions, we were towing an 8 foot plywood pram dinghy on a painter about 15 metres long. Standing in the cockpit I regularly looked over my shoulder as we careered down each wave and glimpsed the dinghy perched above us on the top of the wave; as we hit each trough and the wave overtook us, the dinghy came screaming down the wave overtaking us until it ran out of painter and then as we overtook it and began to surf down the face of the next wave the dinghy would climb back up the wave behind us ready to repeat the process. I was worried, perhaps unrealistically, that the dinghy was going to join us in the cockpit during one of these manoeuvres. There was white water everywhere by now as the waves were breaking on their crests. I looked around for our solo friend and was able to occasionally glimpse the top third of his mast between the swells now some 500 metres astern. Maureen had become very quiet and now sat in the cockpit with her eyes fixed on the floor; she later told me that at that point she had sworn to herself that if we got out of this situation alive she would never go sailing again! We had the jagged lee shore of Hook Island some two miles to port and Pinnacle Point, our immediate objective at the northern tip of Hook Island, was still a few miles away. Rather than run down with the sea and wind dead astern we were trying to slightly quarter the waves but as they got bigger we came close to broaching so I took two reefs in the main not an easy task to perform in such conditions although I was glad that I had rigged the boat with all lines back to the cockpit. Under the double reefed main the boat handled much better and I began to relax somewhat and tried to assure Maureen that we had passed the worst now and that the boat was feeling quite comfortable. I was still concerned about our friend on his own under full main and headsail in a much smaller vessel. My relaxation was short lived as a glance at the chart revealed Double Rock about half a mile off Pinnacle Point as drying to 9 feet and we were heading in a direction that would take us very close to the obstacle!! I had visions of surfing down a wave only to find the jagged face of Double Rock exposed in the trough!! To try and avoid the dreaded rock we gradually worked our way further to seaward as we surfed down each wave although this was very difficult as we could easily roll the yacht if we broadsided one of these seas.
After what must have been about an hour and a half of surfing down the waves we eventually rounded Pinnacle Point ; we saw no sign of Double Rock. The seas eased considerably as we headed west around the Point. Shortly afterwards we entered Butterfly Bay. The latter is a deep bay facing due north on the northern tip of Hook Island. Like many such bays in the Whitsunday's it is somewhat like a fiord with steep vegetation-clothed cliffs reaching down to the water where fringing coral reefs extend for some metres out from the base of the cliffs into the Bay. We anchored in about 15 metres of water in the middle of the Bay making sure that our swinging circle avoided the fringing reefs around the edge of the Bay and taking care to avoid the vicinity of the several coral bommies that arise from the sea floor.
Our solo companion joined us soon afterwards and we marvelled at how he had managed to handle the conditions. Being on his own he had been unable to leave the tiller and therefore was unable to reef down although he had put on his life jacket and had been prepared to abandon ship if she had been swamped.
We thought our ordeal was over but we had not bargained on the katabatic winds that blew from the south over the top of the 1500 metre high Hook Island behind the Bay and accelerated down the steep sides of the cliffs before sweeping across the Bay at speeds of up to 50 knots. We spent the afternoon resting and by night fall there were some 15 other yachts in the anchorage giving only the minimum of swinging room between us. By this time we had grown accustomed to the behaviour of the wind. You could hear the wind gusts accelerating down the slopes of the Bay and as the wind hit the yacht it shuddered before taking off violently on the end of its anchor rope and swinging usually through a full 360°. My friend and I decided to take turns at anchor watch for the duration of the night but he fell asleep almost immediately after dinner and snored for the remainder of the night whilst I spent the night watching anchor lights whizzing around the Bay as we swung wildly in the bullets.
By the afternoon of the following day the wind had abated sufficiently for us to depart the anchorage and head to a more secure location . Fortunately Maureen soon forgot about her sworn commitment to never go sailing again and we have enjoyed many more years of sailing since including several other trips to the Whitsunday Islands.
Our trailer sailer, named Velella, was an RL 28 designed by Robb Legg Yachts in Queensland , Australia. The hull and deck were manufactured at the Robb Legg factory whilst my wife and I fitted her out at home in Brisbane, Queensland. The yacht is a fractional rigged sloop with a swing keel. LOA 8.54m; LWL7.2m; Beam 2.41m; Draft 40-145cm; Displacement 1360kg; Ballast 544kg; Sail area 23m²; Berths 6.
Our solo sailing companion was sailing Antina, a Clipper 21, Australian designed and built. The yacht is a fractional rigged sloop with a swing keel. LOA 6.4m; Beam 2.2m; Draft 22-132cm; Displacement 612kg; Ballast 217kg; Sail area 17m²; Berths 4.
The Whitsunday Islands lie just off the eastern coast of tropical Queensland in Australia between the latitudes of about 21° S near Mackay and 20° S near Bowen sandwiched between mainland Australia and the Great Barrier Reef. Many of the islands were inhabited by Australian aborigines for many thousands of years before noon on 3 June 1770 (Whit Sunday) when Lieutenant James Cook sailed into a passage between these lofty islands and the mainland on his Majesty's Ship Endeavour on his voyage of discovery and named the passage Whitsundays Passage. The islands represent the peaks of drowned mountains that became cut off from mainland Australia about 10 000 years ago when the continental shelf became flooded by the earth's melting ice.
The Whitsundays make an ideal cruising ground especially between the months of September to November when on average 85% of the time you can expect winds of no more than about 15 knots. The cruise described above was undertaken in the month of July. The Islands are definitely places to avoid between the months of December to April when the Queensland coast is prone to cyclones (equivalent to the hurricanes and typhoons of the northern hemisphere). Over 100 islands make up the Whitsundays and many of these tall islands are deeply embayed with secure fjord-like anchorages offering protection (apart from the katabatic winds mentioned above ) from the severe winds from any direction. All of the islands are fringed with spectacular coral reefs.