This morning we woke up to beautiful, sunny, calm, and warm, weather in the Whitsundays! It’s been cold, rainy, windy, and basically depressing here for weeks. Many of our cruising buddies who came here three weeks ago were extremely disappointed by the conditions. Unfortunately, many of them decided to leave last week to begin making way for Darwin. I’m sorry that they have missed the opportunity to see this place at its best. We are having a wonderful time now!
We started out in Cid Harbour on Friday, and then Saturday we moved to Butterfly Bay off Hook Island. We did some snorkeling, but the water was still silty with low visibility. Today, we got up and it was so beautiful outside we were all cheering! We did an early morning kayak trip and the water had cleared really well already (20-25 visibility). We moved to Manta Bay – a popular location for reef and fish – and had a wonderful time snorkeling. There was a large variety of fish and they were plentiful! There was a 2 hour limit on the mooring, so we had to leave.
The Great Barrier Reef beckoned us. There is no wind or swell today – and the same is forecasted for tomorrow. So, we left to motor 16 miles to Bait Reef. We’re about half way there now and we have a tenuous Internet connection. We’ll report back within a couple of days, and we hope to have some great pictures to share.
The family that has joined is us having a great time. They all got to snorkel and had a great time. Tahina is a happy boat right now!
UPDATE Here are some photos from the first few days – including our visit to Bait Reef:
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