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.