Hayman Island

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3.16.2007 Hayman Island, Australia

Today is our lovely granddaughter’s 22^nd birthday. Happy Birthday, Lindsay.

For the past two days we have been at sea going up the channel that separates the Great Barrier Reef from the Australian Coast. This reef is comparatively young, about 500,000 years old whereas the first corral reefs were formed 500 million years ago and those in southern Europe about 230 million years ago. The current structure of the reef is much younger at less than 8,000 years old. The reef extends about 1250 miles from a point near Mackay, Queensland to the Torres Strait, which lies between Australia and New Guinea. The channel we have been sailing in has varied in it’s distance from the main land from 10 to 150 miles. My brother Bob e-mailed me as to how I am so suddenly filled with all this information. I must admit to it being recently learned from the ship’s material describing what we are experiencing and the ship’s lecturers. For example, yesterday the pilot that came aboard , two days ago, to get us through these tricky waters gave us a lecture about the history of the reef and with charts explaining the challenge of safely navigating it.

Hayman Island
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This morning we anchored at the renowned resort of Hayman Island. This island is surrounded by the picturesque waterway of the Whitsunday Passage which was named by Capt. Cook who sailed these waters on Whit Sunday in June 1770. Again I marvel at the seamanship of this great explorer.

Hayman Island, privately owned, is recognized as one of the world’s finest resort destinations, particularly for scuba diving and fishing. We are glad to be here finally ,although we won’t be doing any diving. We had reservations to come here in January of 1988 with our good friends, Denia and Webb St.Clair but had to cancel out when I suddenly accepted an opportunity and challenge to return to our home office in New York City. In retrospect the only regret I have about that move was the missed opportunity for Sallie and me to dive on this beautiful reef. It’s 11 AM and we are about to take the tender in to have a look and lunch. I have been fighting a cold for two days and we are trying stay away from people but it is

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hard after meeting so many nice people aboard.

2 PM

Well, Hayman Island is all we had heard and read. You can tell from my pictures that it truly deserves its reputation. On Jan.17, 1970, Cyclone Ada with it’s 150 mile an hour winds did a lot of damage here. The resort closed for 6 months for restoration but in 1987 the owners spent an additional $300 million and 2002 completed another update. Everything is done in great style and is first class. As expected it isn’t cheap nor are the many shops and restaurants-but I think it is worth it. We rode over in the tender with Judy and Brian Robertson from Santa Barbara, Calif. who are aboard as hosts tot he 47 passengers who booked their trip through a travel agent affiliated with Virtuoso. They are hosting a special party for us next week and we will be guests to special tours and luncheons in five future ports. We can thank our dear friend of and travel agent Joy “Nadine” Cottril of Phoenix for this connection. The Robertsons are a lovely couple and represent Virtuoso well. We are scheduled to sell at 6PM and will meet the West’s for cocktails at ^:30. In the meantime we are glad we finally got here but looking at the beautiful water we are sorry we are no longer diving.