Hamilton Island Wedding Cruise + 3
Sat 21 Mar 2009
Returning from a world trip for some can herald a return to an unfavoured job or perhaps a small unit in the worst park of town. Lucky for me, the Whitsundays is paradise on earth and my 40 foot cat the perfect platform to live amongst it.
There was a little drama though, a little rain and a lot of wind. A cordless drill apparently stolen from inside the boat while is lay at mooring (they were thoughtful enough to take the spare battery and charger too), a lot of mould and “closed up” smells.
This was soon being addressed with the assistance of my first CS guest of the season, Mylene who had come for the drive from Brisbane. A bio-medical engineer, I suggested to friends that they watch their step our she would re-knit their DNA, and as such turn them into a 6 legged frog or the like. Modern witchery perhaps.
Shortly after Charles, partner in ChannelWhitsunday.com and wedding video bloke turned up. Nearly destitute, his phone account was suspended, he had left his house keys in Sydney, his car battery was flat and the vehicle de-registered. Despite being inside 24 hours to a wedding shoot on Hamilton Island, he was only a little flapped.
Saturday came and Mylene was deployed to assist the wedding shoot, while myself and a couple of other CS’ers from France accompanied on the trip to Hamilton Island. It was still a little wet and windy, but we made it to Hamo in the expected time. Dot.com had no problems with the sail and the wind dispatched the majority of the smells. The mould was another matter.
Hamo was as I left it. The marina precinct gradually being encroached by the new sailing club, but otherwise the bakery, ice creamery, grocery store and Trader Pete’s were the same. We also ventured to the night club late in the evening. It was in full swing with the a back to school party for the staff. Interestingly, Boheme’s has a policy of checking everyone’s ID. To make we know that we are being watched I guess, Charles had forgot his, thus for this night he was not going to be watched.
The following days, involved sailing inside the island group. I showed the ladies the walk from Sawmill beach to Dugong Beach, Cid Harbour where we came across a Gould’s Goanna, who quickly scampered to a tree. (See associated shot, turned on its side).
We also did the long sail to Stonehaven for the night, where you can watch the rich people at Hayman Island resort from afar, the lights of the resort dotting the distant horizon after a brilliant sunset.
The following day we headed around to Luncheon Bay, where Chuckie took the lass’ for a snorkel, returning with a new mask for the collection. Interestingly we pick up lost gear about 3 or 4 times a year. Chuck reported seeing a black tip reef shark. These timid little fellows are most often seen in the evening, the pint sized biters look for dinner in the shallows.
With barely a minute to spare ( joke ), we made our way back to Stonehaven for an even more brilliant sunset before returning to Airlie the following morning. Just in time for a couple of meetings.
Welcome (back) to the Whitsundays. Wonderful.
