Yeppoon to Mackay (29th May)

Sharpie Worship

As planned we had our steak dinner at the Waterline Restaurant at the marina and it was every bit as good as last time.  Monday is a pretty crappy day in Yeppoon so we have hired a car to do our provisioning and also check out the sites of Yeppoon and the surrounds.  We went down and saw the famous Singing Ship which is a monument to Captain James Cook who explored and named Keppel Bay.  We also went to the Keppel Bay Sailing Club which is my spiritual home - they worship Sharpies in this place.  So much so that they even have one mounted at the front door for all to revere and have even named some of their meals after Sharpies - naturally I had to try out the Sharpie Caesar Salad for dinner!!..

By Tuesday morning we are well over marina world and itching to get on our way again and luckily the weather outlook is looking promising for our trip through the islands south of Mackay.  Last time when we were heading north through this section of coast there was a solid 30-40knts blowing across the deck so ended up getting blown out of the area literally and were back in port at Mackay in 3 days so are hoping for a bit better this time.

View from Hunter Peak

Our first stop on Tuesday evening is Port Clinton which is a nice calm anchorage in the Shoalwater Bay Military area.  Naturally we have lots of company as it would seem that most of the yachts cowering in Yeppoon have decided that today is the day to get going.  Wednesday and we are off to Hunter Island which is pretty neat for Hunter owners.  As it is a really nice spot and the anchorage is pretty calm we decide to stop for a couple of nights so that we can go ashore for an explore.  We wandered along the lovely sandy beach and across to the other side of the island to check out the 'Lola Montez' passage which we will be navigating through on our way out - it is quite re-known for strong currents and is also fairly narrow.  We also did some bush bashing up to the top of what we now call 'Hunter Peak' which offers some excellent views.   We are not ones that are much into selfies but even we couldn't not take a photo of the Hunter's (with our Hunter caps on) on a Hunter at Hunter island :)

Friday and the weather is looking good for us to head over to West Bay at Middle Percy Island.  This anchorage is quite famous amongst boaties.  One of the early lease holders of the island had the great idea to build an A frame which is where yacht owners mount plaques sporting their boat names and it also provides a great area for socialising and sun-downers.  The other story behind Middle Percy is that we have never managed to get their yet.  This is Mark's 5th attempt to visit West Bay and finally we are going to make it so we are very excited.  West Bay is also quite infamous for being a very rolly and uncomfortable anchorage so we are hoping with the calm easterly weather that we have a reasonably comfortable stay. 

We had a lovely sail up from Hunter Island and straight after lunch the dinghy is down and we head ashore.  On the way we pick up Mr Kobyashi (not his real name but he is Japanese) and take him ashore with us for a look around as he is a lone sailor and has some troubles launching his dinghy.  It is great to wander around and check out all the names in the A frame and quite a few of them we recognise including Michael Arcaro's yacht 'Verve' and naturally we arrange to come back in at 5pm for drinkies which is when we get to meet up with Cate who is the current care-taker / lease holder of the island.  It is well worth while googling Middle Percy Island and checking out the history of this place in more detail!.

Gypsy Rose - Mr Kobyashi's

On the Saturday (24th May) we did the walk up to the homestead which was great as the vegetation is continually changing along the way which made for a really interesting walk - we think we have found our new Butterfly Island (Brampton was previously known as Butterfly Is.) as the place is absolutely full of them which is really pretty.  As the forecast is still predicting calm weather we decide to stay on for Sunday and the BBQ lunch in the A frame which ended up being lots of fun with the crew's from Speranza, Rambler and the boys from Sundowner's.

Middle Percy Homestead

Monday and we decide it is time to finally depart from Middle Percy and continue our way north so we are off to Curlew Island for the night and maybe two if the anchorage holds up.  Unfortunately the night if pretty rolly at Curlew so we are up and out of their early on Tuesday morning bound for marina world again at Mackay which again is not a bad thing as it is a really nice Marina precinct plus we have a few things to pick up from the office (including my new comfort seat) and are also picking up Barry and Ros (friends from RMYS) on Friday who will be on board with us for the next couple of weeks.

A little bit of a side note - our GPS receiver on board has been a bit temperamental since we left Manly.  On speaking with the Raymarine people it would seem that the internal battery has gone kaput which is not surprising after nine years of loyal service.  Anyhow as we have an older Raymarine system is not as simple as just bolting a new one in but they do have a kind of adapter thing which allows the new to talk to the old.  We ordered and picked up our shiny new GPS receiver in Yeppoon however, after a few goes at trying to get it up and running still had no luck.  However, after much communication with Raymarine it looks like Mark has got it all sorted so he is currently in the process of running wires and installing our new GPS receiver.  It hasn't in all been a bad exercise as it has forced me to spend more time working out how to use and get a bit more sense out of our back up chart plotter which is Open CPN on our lap-top.

The plan from here is to meet up with Barry and Ross on Friday.  Do some provisioning on Saturday and head out into the Southern Whitsunday Islands on Sunday with our first stop either Scawfell or Brampton Islands.

Gladstone to Rosslyn Bay - via the mangroves (18th May)

As planned we left Gladstone on Monday the 12th May heading up to Cape Capricorn which is located at 23degrees 30minutes or the 'Tropic of Capricorn' so we officially enter the tropics today.
The trip starts off with a motor into the wind for around 7NM to get down the Gladstone Harbour which is not the ideal start to the day but gets better when we enter the Eastern Channel and start heading north,  There is still a fairly brisk wind so we have a good sail up to Cape Capricorn but figure with the easterly swell and strong winds that it is not going to be the ideal anchorage for the night so move to Plan B which is an anchorage further into Keppel Bay where we dropped the pick for a night on our way up the coast in 2011 however, this also looked pretty crap so we had to enforce Plan C which we were still working on at the time.  After a few checks of the cruising guides we decide that Maria Inlet, which is a little creek located at the top of the Narrows, is looking pretty good which is all great except it is around 15NM away and it is getting late in the day but luckily we have a flooding tide so we rocketed around there at around 7-8knts under heady alone so it didn't take that long.  Eventually we did make our way into Maria Inlet.  This made our very comfortable 40NM day into a very long 67NM adventure with the anchor being dropped right on sunset at 5.30pm.

Maria Inlet is a rather small mangrove creek no more than 100mts wide which makes anchoring a little challenging especially with the big tides in this part of the world which meant our depth range was 4mts to 8mts.  Even with the minimum chain length out (~30mts) for this kind of depth we found at the change of tide that the mangrove bank was only a few metres from the transom of the boat - luckily this only happens 4 times a day!

For some reason Central Queenslander's seem to have a fondness for mangrove creeks which we still can't quite figure out.  To quote Noel Patrick (Curtis Coast Cruising Guide) "They  provide sheltered secure anchorages, fishing, crabbing and oystering.  What else can the visitor require?"  On the other hand the Lucas Guide warns that "swimming should be avoided at all costs - the existence of crocodiles is beyond doubt" and then later in the guide tells of a story of a cattleman being attacked while riding his horse up a mangrove creek!  This along with the greasy, oozy, sticky mud, a wide variety of insects and bugs makes this not such an attractive place for those of us that were not born here however, it did provide an excellent safe and calm anchorage for a few nights.

Pacific Creek Landing - Fisherman's Wharf

On Tuesday we left the security of  Maria Inlet and took Sally up to Sea Hills for the day to do a bit of exploring.  We bravely ventured into croc county in what is affectionately know as a croc biscuit in these parts (i.e. an inflatable dinghy).  We entered Pacific Creek and made a successful landing with everything intact at the old fishing wharf.   We had an explore of the area which was originally the old Pilot Station for Port Alma and Rockhampton which was established in 1861. 






Old Pilots Station - Sea Hills

Light House - Sea Hills

We also wandered over and had a good look at the old light house which according to our chart may still be operational although we are unable to confirm nor deny.

As the wind is still up we head back to the safety of Maria Inlet for the evening and find a slightly shallower and wider part of the creek to anchor in for the night. 
Unfortunately the weather isn't playing fair at the moment and there are strong winds forecast for the next week and to make this even more relevant the anchorages around Keppel Bay and Great Keppel Island and not all that suitable in this type of weather so we elect to head back into the safety of marina world at Rosslyn Bay on the Wednesday and are that pessimistic about the weather that we booked in for 1 week.  This isn't all bad news as Rosslyn Bay and Yeppoon is a nice place to stop for a bit especially as this is re-known as the beef capital of Australia and there is an excellent restaurant right at the marina.

Heritage Hotel - Rockhampton

On Friday we took the bus into Rockhampton for the day.  Rockhampton is right on the Fitzroy River and is doing quite well for itself with both agriculture and mining being in good shape.  It has some great old buildings that are being well maintained including the old Post Office, Customs House and the Heritage Hotel which is where we stopped for a spot of lunch - and no we didn't have a steak as we are saving up to have one of these at the marina.

Customs House - Rockhampton

They have a local farmers market in Yeppoon on Saturday morning so we head in there for a bit of shop along with half of the other yachties in the marina.  We ended up with some great purchases including mango chutney, pineapples and some local passion fruit. 

Today (Sunday) we are finally going to have that yummy steak as we have booked in for lunch at the Waterline Marina Restaurant which we are both looking forward to.  We have booked a car for tomorrow and will have a wander around Yeppoon and provision the boat for the next leg of the adventure to Mackay.  We are also hoping to stop in at the Yeppoon YC which is the place of Sharpie Worship!

The weather forecast is finally starting to look a bit more promising so we are hoping to head out from Marina world on Tuesday morning (along with plenty of others that have been sheltering in Rosslyn Bay for the week) up to Port Clinton and then out to the islands for a week or so.  We are hoping to get out to Hunter Island, South and Middle Percy and also Curlew Islands (and maybe a few others) on our way to Mackay - just depending on the weather.

As this area is all part of the Shoalwater Bay Military Area it is one of the few parts of the coast that we won't have phone or internet contact so back to old school listening to weather forecasts and Radio Australia on the HF radio - it does come in handy for time to time.

Urangan to Gladstone via Lady Musgrave (11th May)

Well don't you love it when a plan comes together and the weather behaves!
We spent a few days in Urangan (Hervey Bay) which is always a nice stop.  We had a couple of meals at the boat club and took the bus into town to top up on a few supplies.  The weather window was looking good for us to head out to Lady Musgrave on the 4th of May so headed up to Bundaberg which is the best departure point on the 3rd May.  We were off early and had a lovely and quick sail all the way to Bundy (~45NM).  As we were only propping for the night decided to drop an anchor in the Burnett River rather than go into the marina.

The trip out to Lady Musgrave is ~55NM and as it is best to arrive during the middle part of the day, so that you have good visibility when dealing with coral, we had an early start and had the anchor up by 4.00am.  Again we had a lovely (but chilly sail) out to Lady Musgrave in good 20knt southerly winds which was great especially as the wind dropped about 5NM from the entrance making the anchorage a whole lot calmer and nicer :)  The entry into the lagoon of Lady Musgrave all went well and we managed to find a nice spot to drop an anchor amongst the coral bommies and other visiting boats. 

We were very lucky to be able to spend three very calm days and nights out at Lady Musgrave and went for a couple of lovely walks on the rather small island and also had a couple of excellent snorkels near the entrance of the lagoon - we saw an enormous number of fish and some very healthy coral as well.  We were lucky enough to spot a black tipped shark, heaps of turtles, a good supply of nemo's, plenty of  BIG coral trout and all sorts of other reef fish - just wish we had a camera that could take underwater photos - but perhaps we have the solution to that!

We met and were lucky enough to be able to spend some time (including Sundowners) with Sue & Bill (from 'Dilligaf') who sailed across the pacific and are now spending the season cruising up the east coast before shipping their boat back to Seattle and also Graham and Suzanne (from 'Osiris II') that we first met up with in Manly.  As we are all heading in the same general direction we are hoping to catch up with them again further up the track.

As much as we would have liked to spend more time out at Lady Musgrave the winds were forecast to build so rather than spoil a good thing decided we should head back into the coast on Wednesday morning.  We departed from Lady Musgrave at around 8.30am and headed into Rodd Harbour which is an fairly easy anchorage to get in and out of as we were off the Gladstone on Thursday.

The night in Rodd Harbour was calm and peaceful apart from the sand flies which made their presence felt while we were in the process of anchoring so we headed down stairs, pulled across the fly screens and spent the night indoors!  On Friday we sailed up to Gladstone, just a short hop of 25NM and have found a nice spot in the marina to spend a few nights.

Although Gladstone is a VERY industrial port and not always favoured by yachties as it can be a bit grubby and is a bit off the beaten track it is also pretty amazing the see as the port never sleeps.  Apart from the coal loading terminals there is aluminium smelting and the well known LNG plants that are in the final stages of construction over at the nearby Curtis Island and also the massive power plant which is very much dominates the local landscape.  Apart from all the industry it is also quite an attractive spot with lots of parkland etc.  They are currently in the process of building a water front precinct with the obligatory restaurants and cafes as well as a water park which will make the place even more attractive to visit.   We wandered over to the local yacht club for a meal which is highly recommended and also went into the town to do a bit of provisioning before we start heading north again on Monday.

Coal Loading - Gladstone Port

Room with a View - Spinnaker Park, Gladstone

Mooloolaba to Hervey Bay (2nd May 2014)

Sunrise leaving Mooloolaba

We rose early and left Mooloolaba at around 5am about the same time as the Anzac services were beginning including the very famous ‘Raising of the Oars’ at the surf club.  We were lucky enough to have enough wind to sail for about half the 62NM trip up to Inskip Point which is just inside the Wide Bay Bar.   We had a pretty action packed trip.  Mark decided that we should do a bit of fishing so threw in the line and not too long after something big must have taken a fancy to our lure and the 250mts of line, leader, trace and lure were now gone – probably lucky as I don’t think we wanted to try and deal with something that big of the back of Sally.  Next we had a large pod of dolphins that decided to keep us company for the best part of an hour and just before we arrived at the bar a thunder storm formed just offshore of us which included a water spout – luckily this missed us however, we did decide to furl in the head sail just in case!!.

With the calm weather, small swells and also arriving at the bar at the top of the flood meant that we had a relatively calm crossing across the Wide Bay Bar and into the Great Sandy Straits and spent the first night anchored at Inskip Point – the first time on the pick for a couple of months.    The next morning we headed into the thriving metropolis of Tin Can Bay.  We had a wander around the township in the arvo – it doesn’t take that long to do a lap although we did stop in at the chandlery to purchase some replacement gear for our fishing rod.  In the evening we wandered into the yacht club for a drink and ended up stopping for a meal which was great especially as Carlton managed their second wind of the season!  On Sunday morning we were up early to go and check out the dolphin feeding at the Tin Can Bay ramp.  We did this on the way through in 2011 and enjoyed it so much we are back for a repeat performance and were not disappointed.  You will note from the photos below that there were a few interlopers (i.e. Pelicans and Cormorants that were also keen on the fish feeding!). Think we were lucky to turn up when we did as we heard there were around 450 feeders visiting on Easter Sunday which would have been just a bit crazy.

Tin Can Bay Dolphins



Monitor Lizard - Walk to McKenzie's Pier

After the dolphin show we are off again to spend the night at Garry’s anchorage which is always a good spot to stop before tackling the Sandy Strait Shallows.  We left Garry’s at around 7.30am so that we can meet the high tide at Boonley Point at 8.45am – luckily we have a 3mt high tide which made the passage very uneventful.  We spent the day and night at Sheridan Flats which is a lovely quiet anchorage especially as you find yourself almost surrounded by sand at low tide. Tuesday morning and we are up to Kingfisher Resort for a few days.  We went in on sunset for the obligatory drinks on the pier and headed for a nice walk down to McKenzie’s Pier on Wednesday morning. 
As there is some changeable weather coming we decided it is probably prudent to head into Urangan Marina for a few days which will allow us to restock and may also give me a chance to watch the big game against Collingwood on Friday Night at the Hervey Bay Boat Club.  At this stage it looks like we will be heading up to Bundy on Saturday morning and then out to Lady Musgrave on Sunday for a few days as the weather is looking nice and calm until Thursday.




Segway's at Kingfisher Bay - HUH!!