Whitsunday Islands are a slice of blue heaven
Nature has just two colours to work with in this corner of Queensland, and it nails it.
Pop psychology has it that the colour blue instils feelings of peace, calmness and serenity. Strong blues are said to stimulate clear thought, while lighter shades lower the pulse rate. For any disbelievers, I’d recommend taking a squiz at Whitehaven Beach in the Whitsunday Islands. Your doubts will drop about the same time as your jaw at the bliss before you.
The sand here, on the ocean side of Whitsunday Island, has been rated among the whitest in Australia, but just add water and this sparkling silica creates a swirling smorgasbord of blues: azure, teal, ice blue, plus indigo in its darker corners. Nature has just two colours to work with, and it nails it.
Whitehaven has materialised after a short trek over the sandhills from Tongue Bay, where we’ve been deposited from the 74ft ketch Lady Enid on a full-day cruise out of Airlie Beach. As the path winds down to a lookout, the scrub opens up and the vista opens wide. A glistening Coral Sea lies on the left, and a swath of blue-white marbling decorates Hill Inlet on the right, book-ending Whitehaven’s 7km strip of dazzling sand.
Soon we’re down among it, wallowing in the warm shallows while being mindful of the occasional ray or small lemon shark. And there’s none of that ouchy prancing usually performed on summer beaches because, at 98 per cent silica, Whitehaven’s sand doesn’t hold heat.
Lady Enid is a most elegant way to visit a handful of the Whitsundays’ 74 islands. Our skipper is Nick, a young German who’d never sailed until he backpacked his way here six years ago. Our course out of Airlie Beach is across Funnel Bay, a name that informs its effect on the wind. “It’s dangerous and tricky,” says Nick. “Even if they say there’s no wind, there is still a gust here, maybe 25 to 30 knots.”
Today there are no such issues, not that Lady Enid couldn’t handle them, for this 60-year-old veteran has done five Sydney-Hobarts among many open-water races. Under a faultless sky, the passenger complement, which is kept well below the yacht’s capacity of 36, lounges on comfy pads on the spotless wooden deck.
The Whitehaven wonderland frolic is over by late morning, and back on board we lunch on charcuterie and salad served by German deckhand Larissa. Nick cuts the engine, allowing first mate Shaun (from Malta) to raise the mizzen and mainsail so the breeze can do the work for a while. A turtle surfs off our bow and there’s a mustardy-yellow film on the water: coral spore. The Great Barrier Reef is re-creating itself.
Being Queensland and summer, stinger suits are required for a snorkel in a cove in the lee of Hook Island. Turtles that the crew suggests may lurk here don’t materialise but the corals and undersea grasses are a joy to behold.
James Cook, who sailed into these islands on the day his church celebrated the festival of Whitsun (June 3, 1770), praised them for being “green and pleasant” but he evidently didn’t sight Whitehaven. Nor did Endeavour’s crew taste this sea’s bountiful harvest. Cook’s journal recorded many instances of them trailing the “sean”, a large fishing net, “without success”.
Fortunately, modern fisherfolk have worked it out, and as Nick sets Lady Enid’s homeward course into the setting sun I rearrange the deck cushions, lie back and think of dinner.
That is taken in Northerlies, a pavilion-style beachfront restaurant north of Airlie Beach, and most of the fare is from Queensland waters. There are juicy tiger prawns, bugs, kokoda (a Fijian raw fish dish), plus calamari so succulent because the chef’s openly secret tenderiser is kiwifruit.
In the know
Lady Enid cruises are for adults only and include lunch, morning and afternoon tea and use of stinger suits and snorkelling equipment. Private charters available.
Jeremy Bourke was a guest of Tourism and Events Queensland.
