hinchinbrook island

I’m writing this blog post while anchored in Seventh Creek on Hinchinbrook Island and I’m listening to the pouring rain outside. It’s our fifth day here which is a long time to spend in the mangroves.

It’s not all bad though. We had a fantastic evening last night on Getaway, with a seafood feast of freshly caught mud crabs and fish, topped off with local tiger prawns from an anchored trawler.  Magnifico!!

I think I’ve written about Hinchinbrook Island many times during our sailing journey. Well, here we are again.  The reasons …  it is a such unique place, so unlike the rest of our east coast sailing … and the weather!

We seek out blue water reefs, we snorkel in clear waters, we swim on white sandy beaches, we eat out at outdoor cafes and restaurants, we enjoy sundowners ashore and we enjoy tropical anchorages.  We can’t quite do all of these special things on Hinchinbrook Island, yet it’s still a favourite of ours because it offers something completely different. So we never sail past.  We love spending time around this island, discovering new places and revisiting the familiar ones.

It’s crocodile territory here! So no swimming or snorkeling on white sandy beaches and no cappuccinos.  However … there are some beautiful sandy beaches on the ocean side of Hinchinbrook, including a freshwater tropical waterfall which we swam in, we did get ashore for walks and sundowners, we did enjoy amazing sunsets and we did enjoy some beautiful meals, on each other’s boats.

One of the things I do love about the Hinchinbrook area is the endless photo opportunities it presents. In past seasons I’ve enjoyed photographing the wild craggy peaks of the Hinchinbrook mountains from the channel creeks, but on this visit we bypassed the channel and managed to visit the ocean side of the island and the infamous Zoe Bay (for that waterfall swim) and I had the bonus of an aerial perspective of the endless mangrove creeks creating a maze of winding waterways, with my drone.

We left Orpheus Island with Waterfront, Getaway and Skedaddle knowing we had an ordinary 10-day forecast ahead.  Wind and rain.  With only one calm day in sight we snatched the opportunity to visit Zoe Bay. The ocean side of Hinchinbrook Island is wild and untouched, yet it is also as alluring as the calm waters of the channel, but only in calm weather.

Zoe Bay is a wide open bay. It has a long sandy beach with a creek both at the northern and southern ends.  It really offers little protection as an overnight anchorage. We tried an overnighter there once, never again! Too much swell even in calm conditions. Our last visit to Zoe was in 2016 I think, and prior to that, 1987 in our trailer-sailer. So we were excited!

The southern creek of Zoe Bay has a walking track up to a freshwater waterfall and swimming hole where it’s quite safe to swim without worrying about the saltwater crocs!  Such a stunning place.  Very picturesque with it’s clear water cascading down the rockface in to a deep pebbly swimming hole, which friendly jungle perch reside in. It was even ‘busy’ at the waterfall with several boats seeing the same weather window.  Gotta take those opportunities!

We then sailed on to Cape Richards for the night, the northern most tip of the island.  With the winds blowing from a favourable direction the following day, we snuck around to the pretty Cape Richards small sandy beach and anchored in calm water for the afternoon.  It was a beautiful day with the beach’s palm trees completing the scene and we had the bay all to ourselves.

We enjoyed some stunning sunsets too at Cape Richards … red sky at night, a sailor’s delight!

However, the weather was changing.  The 10-day bad weather forecast was looming.  Strong wind and rain for several days was forecast.  So, where to go?

Destination … Seventh Creek, Missionary Bay.

Seventh Creek is one of many mangrove creeks in Missionary Bay, at the base of the Hinchinbrook mountain range on the northern side of the island. When you drop anchor, the moody Hinchinbrook craggy peaks are towering above. It’s like visiting Jurassic Park or maybe even Harry Potter is going to emerge from the misty craggy peaks playing quidditch on his broomstick.

Hikers are dropped here at the end of Seventh Creek, to a pontoon that takes them to Ramsay Bay which is the start of the 3-day Thorsborne Walking Trail. We had visited this creek last year in similar weather circumstances (funny enough, with the same boats), so we knew it would be calm and protected, and we’d have each other for company, along with the walk we could do to Ramsay Bay (between showers). Otherwise, we were going to be boat bound.

It really was an easy six days. With no phone reception and apart from our two walks, the guys crabbed, we did jobs around the boat (there’s always jobs), we read, we watched a few movies, we cooked and we read and we watched movies and we did jobs and … yes, we were ready to leave on day 7!  And we had a great time with great friends!

We had two memorable meals while in Seventh Creek. One on The Bossa, a roast with the bizarre theme of ‘weddings’.  Yes we all had to wear white, while Neville performed as the ‘wedding singer’ with his tunes greeting the guests as they arrived.  The rain sent us inside but it didn’t dampen the frivolities. All a lot of fun!

The second meal was on Getaway where we enjoyed a seafood extravaganza.  Veronica did an amazing job in the galley with the freshly caught mud crabs (chilli crabs) and her Singapore noodles, Brenda panko fried estuary cod, and we provided the local tiger prawns from a neighbouring trawler.

Having discovered a broken part in our water maker before we entered Seventh Creek,  we were quite happy with the idea of rain. Neville worked out a way of collecting the rain water to top up our tanks until we could replace the broken water maker part.

I’m now finishing this post while listening to rain outside … again.  Our ‘water maker’ is at it again.

We have circumnavigated Hinchinbrook Island and we are now anchored in the channel, not far from Lucinda. Yes, it is raining again and the bugs, mosquitos and sandflies finally found us last night, it’s drizzly, foggy and wet and I can’t even see the craggy Hinchinbrook mountains, but, we’ve still enjoyed our time around Hinchinbrook yet again.

We have now officially turned south.