Thank you for helping keep our boat afloat. See the 👍 button, please consider pressing it as you would be helping us out more than you know. Would you like to see more of Sailing with the James’s? Become a virtual crew member by becoming a patreon and get more of Sailing with the James's. You can check out what it’s all about here 👇come and join the fun. www.patreon.com/Sailingwiththejamess We hope to see you again next week ❤
I remember Dunk Island in the 80's, it was THE resort to go to. The joke was always, I'm going to Dunk, lay on the beach and wait for a falling coconut to wake me up for my next cocktail. It's a shame so many of the small resorts are gone now, South Molle was another great one. Which is where the figurehead race was thought up in 1976 by a bunch of drunken yachties together with the owner of South Molle resort who offered free accommodation to anyone who was too drunk to row back to their yacht HAHA. That race is now famous and continues to grow each year.
Too Funny!! Parts of the resort are in good standing condition and look amazing, and sadly some parts are deteriorating and rotting away, but it looks like it would have been magnificent in its day. We are very impressed with the caretakers and how well they we taking care of the grounds and keeping the grounds nice. Sam used to work in the whitsundays and take passengers to South Molle Island overnight and has some awesomeeee stories from there! -Cait
@@sailingwiththejamess South Molle was the best party island haha The only island resort at the time that truly welcomes yachties. I can still remember the tables with pyramids of empty beer cans and it was tables, plural! Many yachties woke up in their dinghies the next morning, didn't quite make it back to their boat the night before! Hmmmm yes there's lots of great stories!
@@sailingwiththejamess I can tell you how the figured head race began actually. It was from a drunken conversation between a yachties named Bob Cockren, he'd be dead now for sure, who sailed an old H28 up from coolangatta and the owner of South Molle resort. It started as a joke, let's all have a race tomorrow, see who can start with a hangover lol, then it took on a world of its own and other things got thrown in like, we are not all fast yachts so let's break it up, let's have some challenges where everyone needs to jump in their dinghy while sailing, row to the shore and get a cowrie shell from a particular beach, something else from another beach etc etc It got more outrageous with each round of beers. By the end of the night it was forgotten. Just another drunken conversation. But Bob remembered the next day and talked again with the resort owner who agreed to put on dinner and drinks for every yacht that participated. At the time there were 73 yachts in total around the Whitsundays, this was 1976. For memory we had more than 50 yachts participate and a yacht called Chebucto, owned by 2 brothers from Perth, here for a good time not a long time, had their 2 crew members, girls they had picked up from airline beach, go topless at the bow of their boat. This was by no means planned but it has become tradition for that race ever since. Thanks to 2 young Perth guys who loved their girls which they changed almost monthly hahaha It's a real shame that place has gone, with it so has the carefree lifestyle to some degree. Ask your friend if he/she remembers old Jock, the old silver haired guy who lived alone on his old yacht and was best dressed in his jocks, that's all he wore or nothing at all if he for some strange reason felt like a shower up on deck. Genuinely nice old guy, would help anyone with pretty much anything. No idea what his real name was but we all knew him as old Jock. Great time to be alive!
Sounds like it was an awesome island from your stories and Sam's stories! The jetty is new, hopefully someone comes along and wants to reopen a resort there, great location near Airlie 👍 -Cait
@@sailingwiththejamess You're right it really was. It was such a fun place one night, drunken night, while anchored in Cid harbour (Whitsunday island) we decided to row the dinghy to South Molle to buy more grog (beer for the non-Aussies). Now that seemed like a good idea at the time. But hours later, still rowing, doubts and soberness started creeping in haha. We got there and we're met by a bemused security guy who simply said "You did what?" He opened the bar for us, let us buy 2 cartons of VB and we drank and rowed our way back. I'd never do it again, it's a bloody long way in a dinghy and 1m swells are not uncomfortable in a yacht but in a dinghy you gotta hold on to your beer! Hahaha I'm sure there are thousands of such stories, South Molle would welcome everyone and do their best to ensure a good time. It was a rare gem of a place.
The caretakers are doing an amazing job at taking care of the place, the pools are in great condition with nice clean water and the lawns mowed, etc but a lot of the buildings are deteriorating - cyclone Yasi in 2011 was the final cyclone that ended the resort but there have been talks and rumours about some investor rebuilding it - that would be awesome if it was back to its glory days, would be beautiful! -Cait
Well, that was an enjoyable visit despite the limitations. Lovely beaches, tropical flora, interesting places to explore. Discoveries for Charlie. A real bummer though about the closure! Hope you'll get that amazing shower soon.
Thank you! We searched all over when we were looking for a cat, we found her in the Gold Coast. The previous owners are the original owners who had her built (built in the Gold Coast in 2004, 2005 launch) and they sailed her to NZ, Vanuatu, New Cal, and up and down the east coast of Aus before retiring from boating life adn moving to land life. We fell in love with her and we really liked a lot of the features they custom did. We found her for sale by word of mouth, one of the agents looked at a few cats through, knew the family and knew they were looking at moving to land -Cait
We love Dunk we have stop there twice now in our travels a year ago and last month. Our favourite part is the beach around the north corner called muggy muggy beach. Definitely worth the look. 🙌🏼
So beautiful hey! Loved Muggy Muggy beach that is where we found all the little frogs 🐸 everywhere - so many hopping all over the place. We will definitely be back one day for the showers 🚿 🙌 -Cait
Yes! Looking forward to getting back there one day and having a shower in the facilities one day. Really awesome that there's 2 GBRMPA moorings 👌 Hope you catch up with you guys one day! -Cait
What a beautiful island. Why would you have a calendar. That limits you from being able to change your plans. Take your time, when you get there, you get there, ENJOY yourselves. Charlie sure wasn't having yhat frog, lol she's just so dang gone cute. Ehat a beautiful life your giving her. Ad always stay safe and God bless
@krisnace thank you so much! We have a date in Cairns we are aiming for Cairns because we have a date set there we have to make 😍 all very exciting! Charlie really really wanted to be friends with the frog but didn't want to touch him 🥰🤣 She is having the best time ans we are really blessed to be able to give her hopefully a childhood to remember 💜 Thank you so much -Cait
Just wanted to Say thank you so much, we really enjoy reading your comments every week Kris! Hope the weather in Arizona isn't too hot! We have never been to Arizona, hopefully one day we will have the opportunity to see Arizona! -Cait
Im always ammazed that people and buisness developers in these places insist on building such vunerable buildings in Hurricane, Cyclone and tornado areas ... Let alone flooding and fire risk areas. Big flat walls and windows with flat or pitched roofs are not generally going to stand up to seasonal and climactic extreem weather events. Yet the location clearly could support a community and a range of visitors, explorers or people supporting scientific work. 🤷🏻 I thought Charlie was chasing small fiddler crabs at first. If she wants a friend see if you can set up a container with some sea water rocks etc for a hermit crab or two... Youl need a lid mind you incase you get some choppy sea conditions.
@clivestainlesssteelwomble7665 We've thought the same, getting an enclosure for hermit Crabs 🦀 and having a wee little pet onboard, we haven't done it yet but we have discussed it- they're pretty neat animals especially really neat to see them change shells 😍🦀 -Cait
what the camera doesn't see, no one else will ;) how was the hot water lol ( just after i tyoed this, i saw you had found the fence open ;) Frank from Sydney
SHHHH! HAHA yes, just popped in to have a look, didn't take a shower or look around for too long. It's really gorgeous inside the camp area - definitely worth a stop again! 🚿⛵️🤍 -Cait
@@sailingwiththejamess love your work, I'd do the same :). what amazes me more so is the fact that you take the time or make the time, to reply to so many comments, even mine. aside from obvious youtube benefits, persay, having someone like yourselves respond really makes us viewers feel close to you and your adventures. since stumbling upon your channel, i feel a part of your family and aside from learning lots about living aboard , i so look fwd every week or fortnight to your new adventures. Frank
@@djmini2numpty141 Thank you! We've have had the pleasure of getting to know some very cool people through youtube and the comments and getting to know people every week. And we really enjoy reading everyones comments. You said you were moving from Sydney - have you found a place yet? -Cait
Thank you for helping keep our boat afloat. See the 👍 button, please consider pressing it as you would be helping us out more than you know.
Would you like to see more of Sailing with the James’s?
Become a virtual crew member by becoming a patreon and get more of Sailing with the James's. You can check out what it’s all about here 👇come and join the fun.
www.patreon.com/Sailingwiththejamess
We hope to see you again next week ❤
nice drone footage! very beautiful with all the trees
Thank you so much, it was a lot of fun exploring as well from the drone and the tree tops. Gorgeous place
-Cait
I remember Dunk Island in the 80's, it was THE resort to go to.
The joke was always, I'm going to Dunk, lay on the beach and wait for a falling coconut to wake me up for my next cocktail.
It's a shame so many of the small resorts are gone now, South Molle was another great one. Which is where the figurehead race was thought up in 1976 by a bunch of drunken yachties together with the owner of South Molle resort who offered free accommodation to anyone who was too drunk to row back to their yacht HAHA. That race is now famous and continues to grow each year.
Too Funny!!
Parts of the resort are in good standing condition and look amazing, and sadly some parts are deteriorating and rotting away, but it looks like it would have been magnificent in its day. We are very impressed with the caretakers and how well they we taking care of the grounds and keeping the grounds nice.
Sam used to work in the whitsundays and take passengers to South Molle Island overnight and has some awesomeeee stories from there!
-Cait
@@sailingwiththejamess South Molle was the best party island haha
The only island resort at the time that truly welcomes yachties.
I can still remember the tables with pyramids of empty beer cans and it was tables, plural!
Many yachties woke up in their dinghies the next morning, didn't quite make it back to their boat the night before!
Hmmmm yes there's lots of great stories!
@@sailingwiththejamess I can tell you how the figured head race began actually.
It was from a drunken conversation between a yachties named Bob Cockren, he'd be dead now for sure, who sailed an old H28 up from coolangatta and the owner of South Molle resort.
It started as a joke, let's all have a race tomorrow, see who can start with a hangover lol, then it took on a world of its own and other things got thrown in like, we are not all fast yachts so let's break it up, let's have some challenges where everyone needs to jump in their dinghy while sailing, row to the shore and get a cowrie shell from a particular beach, something else from another beach etc etc
It got more outrageous with each round of beers. By the end of the night it was forgotten. Just another drunken conversation.
But Bob remembered the next day and talked again with the resort owner who agreed to put on dinner and drinks for every yacht that participated.
At the time there were 73 yachts in total around the Whitsundays, this was 1976. For memory we had more than 50 yachts participate and a yacht called Chebucto, owned by 2 brothers from Perth, here for a good time not a long time, had their 2 crew members, girls they had picked up from airline beach, go topless at the bow of their boat. This was by no means planned but it has become tradition for that race ever since.
Thanks to 2 young Perth guys who loved their girls which they changed almost monthly hahaha
It's a real shame that place has gone, with it so has the carefree lifestyle to some degree.
Ask your friend if he/she remembers old Jock, the old silver haired guy who lived alone on his old yacht and was best dressed in his jocks, that's all he wore or nothing at all if he for some strange reason felt like a shower up on deck.
Genuinely nice old guy, would help anyone with pretty much anything. No idea what his real name was but we all knew him as old Jock.
Great time to be alive!
Sounds like it was an awesome island from your stories and Sam's stories! The jetty is new, hopefully someone comes along and wants to reopen a resort there, great location near Airlie 👍
-Cait
@@sailingwiththejamess You're right it really was.
It was such a fun place one night, drunken night, while anchored in Cid harbour (Whitsunday island) we decided to row the dinghy to South Molle to buy more grog (beer for the non-Aussies). Now that seemed like a good idea at the time. But hours later, still rowing, doubts and soberness started creeping in haha.
We got there and we're met by a bemused security guy who simply said "You did what?" He opened the bar for us, let us buy 2 cartons of VB and we drank and rowed our way back.
I'd never do it again, it's a bloody long way in a dinghy and 1m swells are not uncomfortable in a yacht but in a dinghy you gotta hold on to your beer! Hahaha
I'm sure there are thousands of such stories, South Molle would welcome everyone and do their best to ensure a good time. It was a rare gem of a place.
I had my honeymoon on Dunk Island back in 1985, what a shame it has gone to rot.
The caretakers are doing an amazing job at taking care of the place, the pools are in great condition with nice clean water and the lawns mowed, etc but a lot of the buildings are deteriorating - cyclone Yasi in 2011 was the final cyclone that ended the resort but there have been talks and rumours about some investor rebuilding it - that would be awesome if it was back to its glory days, would be beautiful!
-Cait
Well, that was an enjoyable visit despite the limitations. Lovely beaches, tropical flora, interesting places to explore. Discoveries for Charlie. A real bummer though about the closure! Hope you'll get that amazing shower soon.
Thank you so much Frank, it's a beautiful island - definitely worth a stop especially after July so the hot showers are open ! 😍 🍻
-Cait
Great video. FYI, exploring an abandoned resort with you is on my bucket list. :-)
Thank you! We hope to explore some places with you guys 🥰
great video, always intrigued by abandoned resorts. thanks for the video
Thank you so much!
Great video! Do you mind if I ask how much your cat cost and where you found it forsale?
Thanks for sharing
Thank you! We searched all over when we were looking for a cat, we found her in the Gold Coast. The previous owners are the original owners who had her built (built in the Gold Coast in 2004, 2005 launch) and they sailed her to NZ, Vanuatu, New Cal, and up and down the east coast of Aus before retiring from boating life adn moving to land life. We fell in love with her and we really liked a lot of the features they custom did. We found her for sale by word of mouth, one of the agents looked at a few cats through, knew the family and knew they were looking at moving to land
-Cait
Shame you couldn't stay longer.. Having places to be at a certain time is not ideal but sometimes necessary.. Thanks for the video.
@stephenmurray9850 there's a saying "the worst thing you can have on a sailboat is a calendar" and it's very true 😆
We love Dunk we have stop there twice now in our travels a year ago and last month. Our favourite part is the beach around the north corner called muggy muggy beach.
Definitely worth the look. 🙌🏼
So beautiful hey! Loved Muggy Muggy beach that is where we found all the little frogs 🐸 everywhere - so many hopping all over the place. We will definitely be back one day for the showers 🚿 🙌
-Cait
@@sailingwiththejamess omg yes those new facilities look amazing 😍
Yes! Looking forward to getting back there one day and having a shower in the facilities one day. Really awesome that there's 2 GBRMPA moorings 👌 Hope you catch up with you guys one day!
-Cait
What a beautiful island. Why would you have a calendar. That limits you from being able to change your plans. Take your time, when you get there, you get there, ENJOY yourselves. Charlie sure wasn't having yhat frog, lol she's just so dang gone cute. Ehat a beautiful life your giving her. Ad always stay safe and God bless
@krisnace thank you so much! We have a date in Cairns we are aiming for Cairns because we have a date set there we have to make 😍 all very exciting!
Charlie really really wanted to be friends with the frog but didn't want to touch him 🥰🤣 She is having the best time ans we are really blessed to be able to give her hopefully a childhood to remember 💜 Thank you so much
-Cait
That frog is probably a baby cane toad.
We believe so too 🐸⛵️
Just wanted to Say thank you so much, we really enjoy reading your comments every week Kris! Hope the weather in Arizona isn't too hot! We have never been to Arizona, hopefully one day we will have the opportunity to see Arizona!
-Cait
Im always ammazed that people and buisness developers in these places insist on building such vunerable buildings in Hurricane, Cyclone and tornado areas ... Let alone flooding and fire risk areas.
Big flat walls and windows with flat or pitched roofs are not generally going to stand up to seasonal and climactic extreem weather events.
Yet the location clearly could support a community and a range of visitors, explorers or people supporting scientific work. 🤷🏻
I thought Charlie was chasing small fiddler crabs at first.
If she wants a friend see if you can set up a container with some sea water rocks etc for a hermit crab or two...
Youl need a lid mind you incase you get some choppy sea conditions.
@clivestainlesssteelwomble7665 We've thought the same, getting an enclosure for hermit Crabs 🦀 and having a wee little pet onboard, we haven't done it yet but we have discussed it- they're pretty neat animals especially really neat to see them change shells 😍🦀
-Cait
what the camera doesn't see, no one else will ;) how was the hot water lol ( just after i tyoed this, i saw you had found the fence open ;) Frank from Sydney
SHHHH! HAHA yes, just popped in to have a look, didn't take a shower or look around for too long. It's really gorgeous inside the camp area - definitely worth a stop again! 🚿⛵️🤍
-Cait
@@sailingwiththejamess love your work, I'd do the same :). what amazes me more so is the fact that you take the time or make the time, to reply to so many comments, even mine. aside from obvious youtube benefits, persay, having someone like yourselves respond really makes us viewers feel close to you and your adventures. since stumbling upon your channel, i feel a part of your family and aside from learning lots about living aboard , i so look fwd every week or fortnight to your new adventures. Frank
@@djmini2numpty141 Thank you! We've have had the pleasure of getting to know some very cool people through youtube and the comments and getting to know people every week. And we really enjoy reading everyones comments. You said you were moving from Sydney - have you found a place yet?
-Cait
We had a swarm of flying ants invade the boat when we stopped at Dunk!
Woooo, no thank you to flying ants! 😆😆😆
-Cait
❤
@janaferreira8882 thank you! 🤍
Was the frog really a cane toad ? Seeing so many together hopping about , toad. Maybe im wrong .🦘🇭🇲👍
We believe they were baby cane toads 😆
Definitely cane toads- don’t play with them!
Dude, there was so many!
I think this resort was damaged due to cyclone a few years ago...I don't think the owners ever wanted to repair it.
Oh that's a shame!
We are hoping to stop in there on the way south to sample the coffees and use the showers 🚿. It is in a great location.
-sam