Tongue Bay

60^th AUS Trip Blog 12

 You’re expecting me to say that the wind has abated, right? Wrong. Gale in the morning. But it is expected to abate by mid-afternoon. We get permission to try for Whitehaven Beach if we wait until the afternoon.

We decide to head over to Langford Island for the morning. Langford is a tiny dot of a couple acres. Attached to it is a mile long sandbar which is exposed at low tide. Langford is a favorite shelling and picnic spot.

 Langford Island

After we pick up a mooring (we are three for three on first attempts to snag a mooring),

we dinghy ashore. At high tide the sandbar is completely submerged, but at low tide it is completely exposed. We are at half tide, with the tide on the rise. The middle part of the sandbar is about two feet underwater, while the ends are high and dry. We decide to “walk on water” from one side to the other. It may sound silly, but it was really quite fun. As we returned, the tide was already a foot higher. Another hour and we would have had to swim for it. This is life on the cutting edge for 60 year olds.

Dave disappears into the bush for his daily necessity, Andrew reads a book on the beach, Kank goes for a hike and I decide to snorkel and check out the coral reef.  Margaret is on the boat having her quiet time.  To each, his or her own.

 Just as we are splitting up, a helicopter arrives and deposits a couple on the beach right next to us. A picnic hamper, beach chairs and snorkeling equipment are unloaded. We are extras in the lifestyles of the rich and famous.

 

We reconvene on the boat for Morning Tea. We then set out for Whitehaven Beach, via Hook Passage, which runs between Hook Island and Whitsunday.

 

Strong wind on way to Hook passage

 

Due to strong currents and flukey winds, we decide to motor through the passage.  We plan to set sail when we get to the east side of Whitsunday. Wrong. As we emerge from the passage, we hit huge swells and gale force headwinds. Obviously the wind god did not get the memo about abating after noon.

 Feeling like I am auditioning for Perfect Storm 2, we battle onwards under motor into wind and wave. Crashes come from below. Things break. But nobody goes below. We all know that going below in these conditions means seasickness. To pass the time, we speculate about how much motoring we can do before our diesel runs out. We note that there are no other boats out on this side of the passage. We skip Afternoon Tea.

 As we crawl downwind, we decide to abandon plans for Whitehaven Beach and duck into Tongue Bay, about ¾ of the way to our destination. We arrive at Tongue Bay and find, unsurprisingly, that it is full. Everyone on this side of the island is hunkered down. We end up anchoring in the mouth of the harbor, with our stern almost in the channel. I know that we are in for another wild night.

 Anxious to abandon ship, if temporarily, we all pile into the dinghy to explore Tongue Bay. The chart shows that there is a track over the point to Betty’s Beach, a pristine white sand beach. We are rewarded with some of the most beautiful sights we have yet seen.

The wind and waves have eroded the dunes and Betty’s beach has a stunning grove of trees that are held up in the air

solely by their roots! Tidal flats are shimmering coppery in the sunset, while post-storm clouds scud through the sky. It is magical.

 

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Kank is preparing fresh fish, with side vegetables and salad. Yes, FRESH fish. Kank has requested that we fish for our supper, so she has not bought any fish for this meal. She is delusional; none of us are fishermen. In fact, we do not even try. The best we come up with is to consider kayaking to the other boats and offering to buy fish from them.

Luckily, I had bought some tins of tuna fish, thinking it would be a good lunch dish. It is amazing how fresh tinned tuna tastes if you just close your eyes and imagine.