ocean

Pentecost Island is an uninhabited island located between Hamilton Island and Lindeman Island. It was the first island in the Whitsunday group to be named and the only one in the group named by Cook, in June 1770 with the phrase 'More remarkable than the rest (of the Cumberland Isles), being small in the circuit, very high, and peaked and lies EBS 10 miles from Cape Conway'. It was on the feast of Pentecost, during the festival of Whitsun, that the crew of the Endeavor found themselves sailing between inhabited island paradises dotted throughout the crystal clear waters of the Coral Sea. Pentecost is an ancient Jewish Festival and it was during Pentecost after the crucifixion of Christ that the Holy Spirit was visited upon the Disciples. This visitation is celebrated in the Christian Church on Whit Sunday and therefore the association between the names Pentecost and Whitsunday is obvious. The island has the distinction of being one of the features sketched by the artist on Endeavour, Sydney Parkinson, during the voyage along the east coast of New Holland. Two pencil sketches were made, one from the south-west and another from the west, both illustrating the distinctive profile of the island. Another sketch was made by crew member Charles Praval but is more distant and less detailed. The peace and tranquility of this passage belied its unpredictable and violent beginnings. Formed 110 million years prior; born of raging volcanoes and the violent realignments of the planet's tectonic plates; centuries of debris fused into solid rock, and by the time Cook ventured north through the passage the beauty of the area was undeniable. Despite its inhospitable structure, on 22 February 1934, Edward Alexander Roberts applied for occupation license 556 over the island, though it is difficult to fathom what use it could be put to as there is practically no level ground on it. In the event, the Minister for Public Lands refused the application on 7 March 1934. The island was declared a national park in 1938. In some older writings, the island is called 'Lion Island' presumably because someone saw in its profile the shape of a crouching lion, but it takes some imagination to believe anyone could see the shape of a lion here. Source: www.australiaforeveryone.com.au/files/qld-tropical/pentec...

Beautiful day out on the water.

If you zoom in at the PURL version, around the corner from The Gap (above the white water) you can see the fixed ladders used by fishermen to scale the cliffs...I gather this is 'Jacob's Ladder'...