Dugong Inlet, Whitsunday Island

We slept ok for our first night – it was a little hot down below but the seas were calm so we didn't rock too much.  The sun rises around 5a.m so we were up pretty early.  After eating some breakfast (muesli and yoghurt) we planned our itinerary for the day.  The charter company has a roll-call at 8am and 2pm every day to see what your plans are for the day and where you will be spending the night.

Approaching Dugong Inlet

We decided  to head Sawmill Bay in Cid Harbour and it was an easy and pleasant sail.  It was about 13 miles from Stonehaven so it took about 3.5 hours in the light winds.  When we got to Sawmill Bay, the winds had shifted a bit so we decided to anchor in Dugong Inlet which was right across the bay.

Anchoring in Dugong Inlet was a little sketchy because the cruising notes said that you had to be very careful of the shallow reef and all the “bommies” (uncharted reef structures that ranged from boulder- to car-sized.)  We took our time navigating the inlet and finally picked a spot to drop anchor.

The anchorage was beautiful and very peaceful but about 30 minutes after anchoring a rainstorm blew through for about a half an hour.

Here comes the rain!

And here comes the sun again!

 When it stopped raining we took the dinghy over to Sawmill Beach and found the trail head to Whitsunday Peak which we plan to hike up tomorrow.  When we went back to the boat we drove around the inlet looking for the bommies but water visibility was very poor and we didn't see any.  We definitely would not have been able to see them from the boat!

Beautiful Dugong Inlet, but where are the dugongs?

It was time to eat when we were done exploring the inlet so we cooked up a simple dinner of spinach, tofu and rice.  During dinner, a second storm moved in and pelted us with wind, rain, thunder and lightening.  Oddly, the anchorage never got very choppy even with the wind and we were safe and dry in our saloon area.

Before our shower... haha, no after pics though ;-)

We were still hot and sweaty from the day of sailing and exploring so we decided to take an impromptu shower au natural on the deck in the rain.  We stripped down and danced around on the deck lathering up.  The wind and rain made it a little chilly and Bernard's fingers lacked his normal dexterity.  As AM was passing the small bar of hotel soap to him, it squirted out of his hands and he watched it tumble over board in slow motion into the water.  He fully expected the bar to float so he ran to the stern and was about to jump in the water when AM emphatically warned him not to jump in the water because of all the jellyfish!  Being butt-naked he had no protection from them at all.  We watched the bar of soap slowly disappear into the water and hoped the local dugong (kind of like manatees) did not think it was some sort of treat.

Storm rolling in.

It stopped raining after an hour and we finally finished our dinner.  We cleaned up, secured the boat and settled in for the night watching the the lightening show on the horizon.  The lightening continued most of the night but the inlet was calm when we went to sleep