Nara Inlet

Got a Cracker Mate?

Thursday, June 7, 2012 - Hook Island

During the evening, the wind rose from zero to 20 knots in Stonehaven Bay on Hook Island.  We cast off the mooring around 11:00 a.m. and headed toward Nara Inlet.  As we came out from the protected side of the bay, my freshly cleaned pilothouse windows were showered with a constant splash of sea spray.  There were white caps on the water.

We had about a 2 hour journey to our next destination up a well protected finger into Nara Inlet.

Keep Red on the Port Side

I followed Russ's course up to the anchor point, and we dropped our anchor in 27 feet of water.  Shortly after lunch, the charter boat Mischief sailed in and anchored in front of us further up the inlet.  One of the advantages of multihulls is to anchor in waters more shallow than our 2 meter draft allows.  We had seen  Mischief the night before at Stonehaven Bay and heard them on the radio with the charter company earlier in the day bemoaning that they were nearly out of water.  Apparently the tanks had not been properly filled when they got the boat.

Russ and I lowered the dinghy for a little excursion on shore.  The bay was quite calm and it was turning into a lovely afternoon.  Our guide book indicated that the Ngara people lived in this area for 9,000 years, and there was a cultural site close to where we anchored the boat.  We wanted to check it out.  On our trip to shore, we stopped at Mischief to see how they were doing and to see if they needed any water.  We have plenty.

There were two couples on board, Frank and Joanne, and Doug and Lorraine from Melbourne.  They were escaping from the nasty weather south to the Whitsundays.  They indicated they had enough water with no showers until they get to Hamilton Island for a fill up.  We were invited on board and enjoyed a nice chat and chilled glass of white wine before continuing on to the cultural site.

The tide was dropping, so we just tied the painter to a rock before heading up the trail about 170 meters to the Ngara cave and cultural site.   Once a fertile valley 9,000 years ago, Nara Inlet is now a bay (only 20-50 ft).   As the sea level rose inundating  the valleys and converting the mountains to  islands, the Ngara people relied more on fishing than on agriculture.  Eventually, they vacated the area with the advent of European settlements.

Late in the afternoon, we had two unexpected visitors to our boat....two giant cockatoos.  They were looking for a few crackers, but we didn't feed them.

As a no thank you, they just made a horrible screeching caw and pooped on our boat.

Ready?!

Aim!

Fire! 

 We spent a quiet evening on the boat listening to an audio book, Dragonfly in  Amber.

Friday, June 8, 2012 - Whitsunday Island - Back to Cid Harbor

Low tide was at 8:00 a.m. this morning.  To take advantages of the flood current, we weighed anchor at 9:00 a.m.  There are white caps on the water as we head back to Cid Harbor on Whitsunday.  On Saturday we will head to Hamilton Marina.   A film of clouds is blowing up from the south and the forecast is for increasing winds and scattered showers tomorrow.  We decide that we will go ahead and make a berth reservation at Hamilton Island Marina for Saturday evening.  Garyn and Jessica's plane from New Zealand will arrive around 2:00 p.m. tomorrow afternoon and it is a five minute walk to the marina.

We are excited about their arrival.  That's it for now.  I want to get this posted before we lose Internet.  Will try to post some photos later.

All is Well with the 2 Sail R's on SV Worrall Wind.