Airlie Beach and Whitsunday Island 7th - 24th June 2026
It has been a while since I have written a blog because not a lot of interesting things have happened. The weather has been fairly average, with us finding ourselves hiding from strong SE winds and gusty showers. So much for "Paradise"! We started out anchored at Airlie outside the Coral Coast Marina where there is adequate protection from the winds, but it can get a good old roll up on Olivia as the winds turn more east. At least we had a good opportunity to purchase fresh stores, do the laundry, research marinas at Airlie and Hamilton Island ready for Karin and Paul and kids visit and catch up with friends. We discovered Greg and Alana anchored further in the bay. They are a Townsville couple that we befriended in the Breakwater Marina and we all adjourned to the Fat Frog cafe nearby for coffee and cake. Very nice too!
After a week at Airlie we found that the weather was going to become even windier so we decided to leave Airlie and go to Cid Harbour, a natural harbour on the west side of Whitsunday Island. On the way Peter talked me into trying Bauer Bay on South Molle Island for a night or two. Very nice island, beautiful walks, scenic - but dreadful in strong winds. The southerly howls around Spion Kop and The Horn, two steep hills to our south east, that have the ability to send strong bullets of wind hurtling through the anchorage. The trouble with that is these two hills seem to be able to save up the wind so everything stands calm and quiet until all of a sudden the wind spills over and comes hurtling down the slopes. It whacks into the anchorage sending boats to the end of anchor warps pulling, stretching, creaking and juddering, then when you think that you will find yourself in the next bay it all stops and you have still, silence!! The trouble is it is all about to repeat the performance..... again and again.... all night long! Oh, and throw in a bit of rolling as by now the sea has built and a rolly slop is coming around the point. I had a 'hissy fit' and we headed for Cid Harbour early the next morning.
View south from South Molle Island
Cid was a good choice for the weather. It is calm and quiet even though the wind is still strong at times. We enjoy watching the other boats and there was about 25-30 anchored there most nights. Many are bare boat charters that are rented by people with varying degrees of yachting ability and it is interesting to watch the anchoring antics of novices. Try anchoring with a sail up in the strong winds. Hmmm! Or you can watch a beautiful yacht begin to disappear out of the bay as those aboard don't realise you need much more warp out than just enough to let the anchor hit the bottom, especially in strong winds.
There are two lovely walks from Cid Harbour. A short 1km walk to Dugong Bay camp site and a longer much more challenging walk up to the summit of Whitsunday Peak, 437m of steep track and many steps. We walked to Dugong each day in order to get in touch with the outside world via internet connection. It is sporadic at best in Cid Harbour without Starlink. Peter trecked up Whitsunday Peak twice, but not me this time. My dodgy knees could not manage that now.
Dugong Bay
We met up with Greg and Alana and a couple they had on board again in Cid. We invited them to Olivia for drinks and nibbles one evening and had a very funny evening being entertained by Greg and his stories about his cholo-rectal surgery. Could there be anything more funny than this?? We didn't think so then. By the way if you want to hear a very funny song look up the 'Cholo- Rectal Surgeons Song' on line. If laughing does you good, we did lots of it that night.
One day at Dugong Beach we met a group of people who had kayaked from Mackay and were on their way to Bowen. We had a good chat with a couple of them and they had had some big seas up to 3m on their way. They thought they would not make Bowen as time was running out and the weather was causing problems. Another day a barge turned up and unloaded a bunch of young teenage school kids and teachers who were on a canoeing camp. They all seemed to be having a lot of fun.
Check out the little sails
After five days in Cid, the wind eased and we made our way back to South Molle Island for one calm night and walked two of the loveliest walks in the Whitsundays. The cyclone ravaged resort has still not been cleaned up and lies in ruins along the northern shore. Such a pity. It was a really nice resort.
We are now back at Airlie Beach and we have booked ourselves into the Coral Coast Marina for two nights when Karin and Paul and kids get here and also two nights at Hamilton Island Marina. They are here for nine nights and the first one will be in a resort. We have organised to be four nights in marinas and four nights anchored out. It should be fun even though Elliot has a moon boot on his foot having just recently broken two bones there horsing about in the lounge at home!!
We have decided to stay anchored outside the Coral Coast Marina at Airlie for the next few days as the wind is forecast to be strong again. We found a spot closer in this time, so it is not so far to dinghy ashore in the choppy conditions. We can walk, visit the cafe, and laze about. Just what we are here for.
Saw this at the shopping centre car park.
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