Protected by the Great Barrier Reef lies one of the world's most extraordinary charter destinations. Underway in the Whitsunday Islands archipelago off the north-east coast of Australia.
In the beginning was a photo. Like an Australian answer to the Wadden Sea: this beach, these colours, these sandbanks, this longing! I wanted to go there. To see and die, as they say. Better still: see and sail. Live, in colour and 3D. The Whitsunday Islands are among the best sailing grounds in the world. For Australians, the archipelago - just behind the Great Barrier Reef and thus protected from the Pacific swells - is the most popular sailing destination in the world. the Sailing area par excellence. A maritime mecca off the coast of Queensland.
Sailing mecca down under - the Whitsunday Islands
In this country, the tropical islands are unknown to most sailors or are not an option when choosing the next cruise. This is primarily due to the enormous distance. It is almost impossible to get there from Germany in less than 30 hours by plane. You have to want to do it. Especially if you're not quite sure whether the area is worth it. In other words, do the Whitsunday Islands have anything to offer that you wouldn't find elsewhere? Apart from things that you can easily do without. For example, sea wasps and seasonally occurring, highly poisonous cube jellyfish. Or sharks, whose contact with humans can even be fatal. For many, this list is enough to cross the area off their list of personal dream destinations. Wrongly? We wanted to find out.
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The starting point for a trip to the archipelago is the small town of Airlie Beach in Queensland. It is very popular with backpackers. The first thing you notice are the many excursion boats. And the huge outdoor pool right next to the sea. Within throwing distance of the beach. As I said, there are reasons for this, as it's not as safe to jump into the sea here as it is elsewhere, Luke tells us.
Dos and don'ts when sailing on the Whitsunday Islands
Luke is a professional letter carrier. His four-hour briefing - that's right: four hours! - is mandatory and starts at 8.30am on the first day of the charter. On the Whitsunday Islands, the briefer is a certified profession in its own right and is responsible for teaching charter guests the rules of the Marine Park and World Heritage Site. It is less about technical questions about the yacht - the classic briefing follows afterwards - and more about a comprehensive understanding of the dos and don'ts in the Whitsundays. Nature conservation is a top priority in Australia in general, but especially near the Great Barrier Reef.
Part one of the briefing contains general rules and sailing restrictions in the area: for example, which of the numerous murings laid out and marked in different colours are intended for which size of boat. You also learn that you should not sail after 4 pm, but should moor at one of the murings. Excuse me? Different countries, different sailing, or what? As a European, I'm confused. The area may be tropical, but it doesn't get dark that early. What's the point? You somehow feel patronised and slightly offended in your sovereignty as a skipper.
Rules, red pencil and curfew
Luke's answer is as simple as it is baffling. He says: "Sorry, but ..." The charter company wants to prevent late-night strays between the reefs. Apparently, they have had experience with inexperienced skippers. Which is hardly surprising when you learn in the next sentence that anyone can go sailing in the Whitsundays. A sailing or boat licence is not required. The desire is more important than the ability. In such a case, you can - and should! - at least book the crash course that the base offers to inexperienced crews.
Of course, that explains a lot. Not just the early closing time when sailing. But also the thick red Sharpie in the nautical charts on board that Luke goes through with us. Lots of handwritten notes and exclamation marks: passages that should not or must not be sailed due to strong currents. Reefs that should be avoided at all costs and bays that should not be sailed in at all. In other words: a sailor sees red here. As if they were dealing with the most challenging and dangerous area on earth. And a tidal area at that. Even the most experienced skipper is left somewhat unsettled by the abundance of warnings. Whether rightly so remains to be seen.
The Whitsunday Islands are a sailing paradise but not a swimming paradise
Cast off and off you go! From theory to practice. We leave the mainland and set course for the archipelago. After so many red lines, the view of a blue horizon and green islands feels twice as good. And once on the water, everything feels the same as always. Very familiar. Just a little sunnier and more turquoise than usual. The breeze is steady, the boat sails decently. And there are no sharks to be seen. But that's deceptive!
Our first mooring is just ahead on Hook Island. A short beat for a sailor, but a safe anchorage for the first night. A deeply indented bay like a tropical fjord. Well protected in all conditions. The sharks probably know that too. The Nara Inlet is known as their breeding ground and nursery. Swimming is not recommended. Especially not at dusk. We were explicitly warned: only recently there were two incidents. One of them was minor, the other fatal. Jumping from the bathing platform should be avoided at all costs. All splashing around first arouses the curiosity, then the appetite of the sharks. Having barely anchored, the bathing platform goes down anyway - force of habit. With a view of the water and the warning in your ear, you don't even want to put your feet in. A completely new experience. And to be honest, not the best when everything else is screaming for a swim.
Backpacker mecca Whitehaven Beach
The next day, the best conditions. Sunshine galore. And a possible destination in every direction. We set sail. We glide out of the deep bay in shallow water with a moderate breeze. As soon as we reach the Whitsunday Passage, we see excursion boats of all kinds - with and without masts. Many an old racer looks like a refugee ship, given the number of backpackers on board. Most of the boats head for Whitehaven Beach, the multi-award-winning beach that we wisely avoid on a Sunday. We sail for the sake of sailing.
Without a destination, in no hurry. Sometimes to leeward, sometimes to windward of the completely unspoilt islands, apart from the main island. There are plenty of bays and anchorages. And there is always a lee shore if it gets too windy or wavy. The islands themselves are a wild mix of landscapes, like a tropical answer to Scandinavia. With subtropical vegetation, beaches like in the Caribbean and a tidal range of up to four metres. With a corresponding current.
Not to be underestimated: The Whitsunday Islands are a tidal area
In narrow passages it can be a tight five knots. This can be easily recognised by the red marker on the charts. You should take this into account when navigating. And - according to the charter company - never tack under sail. I have no idea how binding this is. All I know is that as a responsible skipper, you would like to decide for yourself when you can sail where and how. And not be put in the same boat as complete beginners or non-sailors. Especially as most passages around slack or low water are not a problem. High water moves southwards, low water northwards. If possible, passages should be travelled with the current in order to maintain control.
In general, the first impression in moderate conditions: If you already have experience with tidal waters, the area is easier to sail than all the instructions and footnotes in the nautical charts suggest. For example, white, pyramid-shaped buoys are placed everywhere in the popular bays to protect the corals from sailing yachts - and vice versa.
Muring rules and assisted sailing
Murings are always available at the most popular anchorages. They vary in size with coloured markings for the different ship sizes. You can stay there for two hours during the day. If you arrive shortly before "close of sailing", you can stay overnight free of charge. In fact, we only drop anchor once. And we don't make a single harbour manoeuvre. Even on the last day, someone from the base comes on board before the marina and acts as pilot. The skipper becomes an extra. Another novelty. With half the wind and a good speed, we set course for Hayman Island, the northernmost point of the area. The bow cuts through the bright blue. Sailing as if on rails, with no waves to disturb the yacht's stable lateral position. It's almost a shame that we always reach our destination quite quickly.
Hayman Island resembles a tropical postcard with its high cliffs, lush vegetation, soft white sand and turquoise-coloured water. Blue Pearl Bay is a perfect match. There are tonnes of coral fragments on the beach. Unfortunately. The devastation and remnants of a hurricane that hit the bay particularly hard. Nevertheless, inspired by the excursion boats around us, we dare to go snorkelling for the first time. Not without first donning the so-called stinger suit, a wetsuit that protects us from the jellyfish, which are said to be less common between the islands than on the mainland coast. Jellyfish season is between October and May. And there are two species with which contact can be extremely fatal or even fatal.
However, as an encounter out here cannot be completely ruled out, there are litres of vinegar in the on-board pharmacy. This is to rinse an area of skin hit by the nettles of the jellyfish. However, the vinegar does not help against the sharks. As a skipper, you realise that the crew's desire for swimming activities is severely dampened. So far the biggest downer on our trip Down Under.
Shore leave instead of a dive
Instead, we concentrate on island hopping. Our next stop is Butterfly Bay, if only because of the name. A twin bay in the middle of a fantastic landscape. There is also a snorkelling stop here. However, we decide in favour of a walk on the beach. We slalom around the coral heads in the dinghy and have to keep an eye on the tide. So that we don't get stuck on the beach for longer than we'd like. However beautiful it may be. Unfortunately, there is no signposted bushwalk here. And logically, making your way through the national park with a machete is out of the question.
On day three, we set course for the highlight of the islands - Whitehaven Beach. Eight kilometres long, praised a million times over. A beach of superlatives. Not least because the sand has a quartz content of almost 99 per cent. With an obviously high proportion of parrotfish faeces, it is considered one of the whitest and most beautiful beaches in the world and is also safe to sail off. Even more visually spectacular, however, is the Hill Inlet. This is an inlet that winds its way inland behind the beach.
Paradise on earth
My personal pilgrimage destination. Unfortunately, it is not navigable for a keel yacht even at high tide. We arrive in good time at low tide and grab a mooring in the neighbouring Tongue Bay. You can take the dinghy ashore and approach the inlet from land. A path leads to a viewing platform that is more reminiscent of a lodge of the gods: the view is simply stunning. The Hill Inlet is a total work of art, a sandbank painting so to speak. Stingrays and small blacktip reef sharks swim in the shallow waters of the lagoon. And in the middle of this splendour - enviably anchored behind the sandbanks - is a catamaran. You won't find many more beautiful places in this universe. What else is there to come? We sail blissfully on. Nothing more is possible. Or is it?
The next day, we set course for the southern archipelago. The number of boats decreases rapidly, the solitude increases. Suddenly the water changes colour, as if we were cruising through glacial milk, a watercolour painting in various shades of turquoise. It deserves a closer look. We drop anchor in the next best bay and let the drone fly. The higher it climbs, the greater the aha effect. I've never seen anything like it, let alone photographed it: a gigantic swirl of water, carved into the sea by the current. What I see on the display literally looks back at me - like a divine eye. A magical moment. The image created here says more than a thousand words. What's more, it alone answers the question posed at the beginning: the long journey to the other end of the world is worth it!
Precinct information
The precinct
The Whitsunday Islands archipelago consists of 74 islands off the coast of the state of Queensland in north-east Australia. The average distance to the coast is around 10 nautical miles, the longest extension of the archipelago is 20 nautical miles.
The Whitsunday Islands lie protected between the mainland and the Great Barrier Reef. The largest island is Whitsunday. It was named after Captain James Cook, who passed it on Whitsunday in 1770 with his ship "Endeavour". Due to its easy accessibility, the archipelago is a popular excursion destination and one of the busiest boating areas in the south-west Pacific. The climate is subtropical all year round, and in the winter season (from June to August) the average temperature is a pleasant
23 degrees Celsius.
Charter and boat
We were travelling with an Oceanis 48 from QYC - Dream Yacht Charter in April at the end of the low season. The boat has since been taken out of the fleet. There are currently three monohull models still available: a Catalina 350, a Dufour 412 GL and a Sun Odyssey 44i. Most crews here are travelling with catamarans per se. QYC currently offers 19 two-hulled boats ranging from 36 to 50 feet in length. These also include pure motor catamarans.
A charter week on the Sun Odyssey 44i, including obligatory additional services, costs from around 2,700 euros in the low season and up to around 4,800 euros in the high season. Bookable at dreamyachtcharter.com
Literature and nautical charts
The standard work with all the detailed information about the area is "100 Magic Miles of the Great Barrier Reef" (Imray), available at 100magicmiles.com (95 euros incl. postage). The map sheets AUS 824 and AUS 825 (Admiralty) cover the area at a scale of 1:150,000 (57.90 euros), available from, among others hansenautic.de
