Let's look at life through a different lens, just for a second.
A life on the water.
The sea breeze.
A kaleidoscope of colors where you lose track of time.
Welcome aboard, down under, in Great Barrier Reef territory. On this episode we're sailing
our floating home Tucana to the most beautiful beach in the whole wide world.
And what a day to be right here
Right now.
On this stunning winter's day the sails are up. We are sailing to Whitehaven Beach. So if
you're new to this channel and you like this video make sure you hit that subscribe button
to join us for all our adventures across the east coast of Australia. It's taken
John and I, us two newbies, two months to get here from Melbourne and we're about to lay our hands
on the whitest sand you'll find on earth. We're first going to anchor just metres off the beach
accompanied by our new friend Henry.
What a pro. Are you in the nuddie (nude) today?
No I might get frizzled up.
It's a good day to be in the nuddie.
He's sailing solo. And later in this episode he's going to take us on board his
Simpson Woodwind 30. Its shallow draft will allow us to get right into the lagoon.
Weather conditions at the moment? Sunny with some wind and it's south eastly
but this is the first time in about two weeks it's been under 15 20 knots. There's some real shallow
waters through the middle here so we're just going to tack our way up. To be completely
honest we've hardly had to tack much at all since purchasing Tucana as we've always been
on the same tack over long distances, so this is really good practice.
Here it goes, tacking...
Wait for us to go through and watch your head and...
Go
Hey Henry. Kristina, one thing at a time.
How are we going over there? Let the line out.
It is.
Just focus on getting the sail done first. It's out. It's not loose. I can't pull it tight.
How ya guys going?
Sorry, we were just taking! Haha
How are you guys going? Are you using the donk or just the wind?
Just the wind, no donk.
I had a wicked heading before, but now it's all out of whack.
All right we've just left the hatch open in the bathroom,
big no no. It's a big no-no because the sheets can get caught on them.
There was so much going on and then I forgot we had the drone to contend to.
This was the first time I had to catch it while we were under sail and the battery was running low.
What's it doing?
Only using the wind, we're traveling at a smooth steady and four knot snails pace. Oh mate this is a
pretty nice sailing hey, we're not in a rush man so all good.
Just getting ready to put the anchor out
and it is magic.
Whitehaven is one of those bucket list destinations.
It's sand is like powder and it doesn't retain the heat.
I have literally been dreaming of this place since our adventure began, so to actually be here is like a dream.
The boys have organized lunch plans. We're making a taiwanese tea beverage. Henry has never
tried bubble tea before. So we have two different styles here. While Henry is in charge of the sangers.
Wow.
This was a bittersweet trip for Henry because he was parting ways with his second love, his boat.
Which is called wait for it Jacana. How's that? Tucana and Jacana sailing together.
You were a gun on there, you were just like... are you allowed to have a beer while you're sailing? Yeah.
He's just at the front having a beer. What's the craziest thing you've ever done Henry? 55 knots
upwind around Cape Melville and then couldn't make it around so besting sailing in about seven
knots, that sucked. Blew out oh we didn't blow out the main. Yeah maybe let's not say that
There's a new main on it now. In the morning he wants to take some photos of it beached
so we're scoping out the perfect spot. I mean we had seven kilometers to choose from.
What's it say this is living Garry. But we don't know where the saying is from, but it's definitely
Australian. Turns out it was an ad. We just had the names mixed up. This is Barry.
His weekend treat for the kids is a documentary on rainforests. That ain't living Barry. This is living.
A question we always seem to be getting asked a lot lately is...
What are our plans? And do we want to go offshore and sail the world?
Of course we do. What was the sunrise like this morning? You wake me up
Pretty spectacular. Was it? It was. Over coming episodes we're going to share with you,
where we're going next, our plans and new goals.
I got annihilated by midgies. Woke up in the middle of the night and had to crank a heap of
insect repellent on my leg and have an antihistamine.
But before we venture further afield i'm gonna have to harden up a bit first. Like get real tough.
Question: Do they have midges in the med? Just asking for a friend.
Henry ended up beaching Jucana on the southern end of Whitehaven. We got some snaps and now
we're going to join him on his boat. I'm going to take the yacht and anchor up in the inlet I reckon.
Sweet. It'll be the first time John and I ever step foot on a catamaran but before we leave I have to
tell you... the sand is made up of 98.9 silica. It is over everything right now like, it is super fine.
The silica sand is so fine you can even polish your jewellery with it making it shine like new.
We are about to leave Whitehaven beach. John pulled up the anchor today all by himself.
Like a big boy, all on my own. The anchor alarms going off. Oh can you turn that off?
Yeah, watch your head, that boom's free. Okay I just cleaned up the kitchen, the galley.
We're taking off these are our brand new line bags which we absolutely love. It just makes
the entire cockpit area. John just use cable ties for the time being but yeah we really love them.
Nice spinnaker. Nothing in it though. The telltales aren't even moving? Nah.
So this is our plan: we're following Henry to the north and end of Whitehaven towards Hill Inlet. We'll anchor up, jump
on Jucana and make our way into the lagoon. And to mark the occasion I'm making scones on the way.
And so it was time. You alright Kristina? Yep.
Quick. How am i going to jump on? Quick. How do I jump on? Can i give you this? And the scones.
Okay ready? Yeah go. Wow. See you Tucana.
You see Tucana's draft is 2.2 meters but Jucana's is just 0.3 of a meter.
You even have the lever there for your accelerator. Yeah wow. Yeah it's pretty handy. What do you call
someone who can also use their hands and their feet. Like ambidextrous is obviously if you can use
Monkey.
The sun is so hot it today.
This is so spectacular. Oh my gosh.
You know it just goes to show you don't need a massive boat to explore and have fun.
With her daggers and rudders up Jucana breezed her way into the lagoon
and she was still able to be steered because the motor pivots and it's connected to the helm.
No more droning, just soak it all up. If you could see what I can see.
Wow this is like bucket list stuff. Yeah there's not many people in the world who would ever do this.
This is un... sorry excuse my french this is unbelievable.
They say every time you visit the lagoon looks different because the natural formation of the
island forces tides in and out of Hill Inlet so it creates these iconic swelling layers of sand
that are forever moving.
Nice. Give it a little bit more a bit more. Yeah. It was such a breeze to beach.
And that's when Henry found what looked to be a cane in the water,
and we spotted a heap of stingrays too.
Fun, until we almost stepped on one.
Where? There. Go into shore. Where? Walk into shore. Okay.
Oh there's one here too. You're about to step on one.
These moments are priceless. Make sure you get a scone while you're there. So it's no wonder, as
soon as Henry listed his boat for sale, it got snapped up in three days, sight unseen.
Show us your cane?
From the lagoon, if you look up you can see the lookout and that's where we're going next.
Thanks for having us Henry, ah pleasure! Together we're going to whip around to Tongue Bay. There
are a heap of free moorings there, so we can have peace of mind our boats will be safe
as we tender to shore.
And this is what I mean looking at life through a different lens.
Thinking about our footprint, slowing down, taking time to meet new friends. While we
might not appreciate these things right now, does it not feel like you've just woken up from a dream?
So good. In years to come no doubt we'll look back and wonder where did the time go?
Where off.
So we are leaving Tongue Bay.
Well that was a really rolly sleep last night. John and I probably got a few hours. So if you're
planning on staying here, be in for a rolly evening, potentially. It was that rolly that
items were moving around in the boat all night. But we're about to put some sails up
Pretty much into wind right now.
Yeah it all looks really good.
Oh and I have a fishing update for you guys. As we were leaving Tounge bay we noticed a heap of garfish hanging around so we threw in a line.
As bait we were just using some flour and water. and yeah that seemed to do the trick really well.
I'll just check that thing because, I oh sorry, sorry watch the hooks in your hair.
Are you serious? I think we caught 10 in the end, so we'll be having a really beautiful lunch today.
The thing we have to remember is, we've shown you the best of the Whitsundays on an incredible day.
Like it doesn't get much better than this, but on a bad day though during cyclone season for example,
it can get pretty hectic here. Back in 2017 Cyclone Debbie wreaked havoc. I was nearby in Bowen
reporting on the devastation. This is the largest pre-deployment of the Australian defence force
in advance of a natural disaster in our history. And years on, today, if you dig a little deeper,
and look under the surface the reef is still scarred.
But it's on the road to recovery and next week we're going coral monitoring so we're
swapping Tucana for a tall ship today. So make sure you join us on Providence next week and
last month we had one million views but a lot of you aren't subscribed so make sure
you hit that sub button and thank you to our Patrons for your support it was
also awesome to start a discord chat with you guys this week.