Hinchenbrook to Cairns (12th August)

After spending some time at Orpheus Island in the Palm Group we departed from the anchorage at Little Pioneer Bay early on the morning of the 27th July in order to meet the high tide at Lucinda.  As with a lot of the east coast of Queensland the water is shallow and the entrance at Lucinda is even shallower than most so it is prudent to make your entrance at the end of the flooding tide.  The sugar wharf at Lucinda would have to be one of the longest in the world being 5.6kms in length and dipping 1.2mts over its length as it follows the curvature of the earth!

As per our earlier posts this trip we had plenty of calm weather so were very lucky to be able to explore the eastern side of the Hinchinbrook and now we are heading up into the Hinchinbrook Channel.  Our first stop is as Haycock Island which is very pretty.  The Hinchinbrook Channel has a bit of a reputation for having a good supply of crocs in the mangrove creeks however this didn't seem to deter some locals who spent most of the afternoon wake boarding around our yacht.

On the 28th (which I believe was a Monday) we motored up to the township of Cardwell and went ashore for a few supplies.  Again this whole area is shallow so we had to anchor Big Sally around 1.5NM off the pier and take the trip in on Little Sal - glad that we now have a 15HP motor on the back which meant the trip was a breeze.  Back in 2011 Cardwell, as with most of this area, was hit badly when Cyclone Yasi went through and it was great to see that the town is going through a bit of a re-build and looking really good again and thriving with plenty of the grey nomads passing through as the town is on the Bruce Highway.

 After the shop we head back south to anchor up in one of those croc infested mangrove creeks - the one we picked doesn't seem to have a name but provided a very calm anchorage and no crocs to be seen.

Muggy Muggy beach

On Tuesday it is up early as we are off to one of our favourite spots - Dunk Island.   Dunk was also badly damaged with Yasi and it was great to see that it is also recovering well 3 years later.  The resort has now been bought by a miner who has started doing some work round the place although to what level it will be developed to is still a bit unknown however, we were thrilled to see that the Beach Bar is back and open on weekends & public holidays and the walking tracks are all cleared again.

View from Mt Kootaloo

We stopped at Dunk for about four nights which included a Friday so that we could enjoy lunch at the Beach Bar - the best prawns ever!!! We also did the walk around the island including the trek to the lookout at Mt. Kootaloo, which has some great views, and lunch at Muggy Muggy Beach .

The Best Prawns!

Unfortunately the calm weather is about to end after around 4weeks (we can't really complain) so we figure it is time to start heading towards Cairns.  We dropped in at Mourilyan Harbour for the night which is always an interesting stop although there is not a lot there apart from the sugar loading wharf.   On the 3rd of August we headed into Cairns which will be Sally's home until the end of August when we continue the trek north to Lizard Island.

We are stopping at Cairns for a while as we are heading back south for a week (all the way to Hobart - Brrrrr) to attend my nephews wedding on the 23rd. 

There is plenty to do in Cairns and the place is really going off with plenty of tourists in town.  There are also plenty of international yachts in the marina including a number of yachts participating in the ARC Around the World Rally. Our stop in Cairns has also allowed us to get a few jobs done - one of the messy ones

was cleaning the BBQ - never a fun job although there were plenty of yacht owners that were very keen to employ my BBQ cleaning skills!   The other main job was to sort out the anchor winch which has been on suicide watch for the last few weeks.  We arranged a new solenoid switch however, this didn't seem to do much at all and after finding out that a new motor would be around 10weeks in the making we decided to remove the offending motor and take it up to the local auto electricians to see if he would fix the beast. Luckily it looks like we only had dirty brushes which were easily cleaned - unfortunately the re-installation of the offending unit was not quite so easy and Mark spent many hours stuck up in our anchor locker - not fun!


We are currently on board waiting for our Coles On Line delivery which is the big stock up before our trip to LI.  Tomorrow we are hiring a car for a few days and heading down to Mourilyan to catch up with some old cane cocky friends and also do a bit of sight seeing on the way.  We are flying out on Tuesday and will be back on board on the 26th.  Leapy Lynda is then joining us on the 27th and we will be heading off shortly after that for our first stop which will be either Yorkey's Knob or Port Douglas.

Townsville to Hichinbrook Island (26th July)

As predicted Amanda departed from Sally on the 12th of July and it was once again back to two of us. We stayed at Townsville until the 17th July and had a good look around the town including the Maritime Museum, many walks down The Strand and quite a few swims in the Tobruk Pool.  We also tried to watch Jack Miller in the Moto 3 race being run on Sunday night but were unable to find anywhere televising the race, however we did get to follow the race, and ultimate victory to Jack, via the internet.  Just in case you don't know he is currently leading the Moto 3 category - not bad for a young bloke from Townsville!



The Forts Walk - Magnetic Island

We departed from the marina in Townsville on the morning of the 17th and headed back to an old favourite, Horseshoe Bay on Magnetic Island, where we caught up with Gail and Ian Pearse (L'etoile)from down south who have been enjoying a few days with friends at the Lotus House.  We decided rather than rush off we would enjoy a few more nights at Maggie, especially as the weather is continuing to be rather nice.  We enjoyed this time and did the walk to The Forts, which was the forward defence for Townsville during the Battle of the Coral Sea which was pretty much fought on the door step of Townsville.  We also walked down to Acadia which is the other main town on Maggie Island and stopped in at Gilligan's cafe' for a coffee and morning tea.



Maggie Island Local

View from Maggie

Site of Leper Colony - Fantome Island

On the 20th (Sunday) we finally left Horseshoe Bay and started the trek north yet again.  Our first stop was at Juno Bay on Fantome Island in the Palm Group which is about 40NM north of Townsville.  We spent a couple of nights in the anchorage and went and explored the old Leper Colony that was only shut down in 1973 -  which was not that many years ago. Hopefully we are still leprosy free!.   We also were visited by a Navy Patrol Boat during our stay - it is quite a daunting sight to see one heading straight for you! 

Navy on Patrol -Juno Bay



Zoe Falls

As our remarkable run of calm and warm weather is forecast to continue for a few more days we figure this our best opportunity to finally get over and explore the very exposed eastern side of the world heritage listed Hinchinbrook Island.  Our first stop is in the very well known and beautiful Zoe Bay where we went for the short walk up to Zoe Falls which is definitely worth the stop.  Naturally as there was a lovely big pool of fresh water I decided that I must go for a swim and also decided a bath was in order only to find our later on that perhaps I should not have been using detergent in the source of drinking water for the many walkers that frequent this area - so I apologise for the error of my ways and promise not to do it again.


Zoe Bay

As Zoe Bay is totally exposed to the East we figured it is a better option to anchor up for the night in Little Ramsay Bay which is only a further 5NM north and has much more protected and ended up spending a couple of nights there on the pick which were a bit rolly but certainly worth it to get to spend some time on Hinchinbrook.   The anchorage is quite spectacular as there is jungle down to the beach and has the mighty Mt Bowen as a back drop.  There are also the well known Achtung Signs around warning that Crocodiles have been seen so we are pretty careful when making our beach landings!  The world re-known Thorsborne Walking Trail extends for 32kms along the eastern of the island with camping sites along it length.  Luckily enough we were able to walk on some of this trail from the anchorage at Little Ramsay to the north end of Zoe Bay and return which was fantastic and can see why so many people make the effort to walk this track.  During our stop in Little Ramsay we were also joined by some of those very intrepid Sea Kayakers that were also enjoying their visit to Hinchinbrook.



View of Mt Bowen - Hinchinbrook Island

Not wanting to push our luck too much and with easterly winds forecast we figured it was time to head back down to Orpheus Island (also part of the Palm Group) for a few nights.  This was quite a shock to the system as we actually had to go onto the wind and tighten the sheets which is something we haven't down for a very long time.  Anyhow we managed to deal with the situation and cope with the 20nm trip south and pull up a mooring in Little Pioneer Bay.  We were quite keen to pull up a mooring as our normally very trusty anchor winch has been a little temperamental of  late which we are pretty confident is a problem with the solenoid.  Mark went to work and has given the contacts a good clean and so far it is all looking good although we will give it a bit more time before we make a final analysis on that!

As we are moored right next to the reef we figure it is a good opportunity to hit the water again and enjoy some snorkelling and we weren't disappointed as the bay has some beautiful hard corals.  We also took a dinghy ride down to Pioneer Bay (about 1nm) to see if we could have a look around the James Cook University Research Centre but unfortunately our timing is not good so that one got ruled out however, we did go and have a look at the Giant Clam Garden which was very impressive with huge numbers of clams over 1mt across.  As our visit was at low tide we also got to see the Squirting Giant Clams which very much reminded us of the water feature in the Crown Casino at home - it is worth googling this as their are a number of you-tube clips showing this phenomenon

View from Orpheus Island

This morning (26th July) and we are still at Orpheus and went for the walk to the top of the island which has some great views of the windward side of the island down to Great Palm.
Luckily the good weather is continuing so I think we might be off for another snorkel this arvo or at least a couple of swims.  Tomorrow the plan is to head off early to meet the tide going into the entrance of the Hinchinbrook Channel at Lucinda and head up to Haycock Island for the evening.
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Whitsunday's to Townsville (11th July)

As planned we picked up Amanda at Hammo (aka Fat Island) on Friday 27th of June.  We enjoyed a couple of days at Hammo including a day sunning ourselves by the pool and the highlight of the stay was our trip over to Dent Island which is right next door to Hammo.  They have built an 18hole golf course over on Dent however, for those of us not quite up to playing on this very challenging course, you can take the soft option of lunch and tour of the course which was excellent fun.  You hop on the golf ferry at Hammo for the short trip across the Dent Passage where you are picked up in a mini bus and taken to the club house for a pretty swanky lunch with an awesome view over Hamilton Island.  Once lunch is complete the team all hop into golf buggies for the island tour.  As we were a group of 3 we got to go with the guide and lead the party which meant that Amanda and I, who were sitting in the back, had an excellent view of the golf buggy chaos behind us.  Eventually all 12 buggies made it back just in time to catch the ferry back to Hammo.  As it was such a lovely afternoon we decided that we should finish off the day with drinks at the Bommie Bar at the Hamilton Island YC before calling the day quits.

View from Golf Cart on Dent Island

On Monday it is time to get moving again and our first stop is over the Whitehaven Beach for a few nights before heading around to the top of Hook Island for a bit of snorkelling around at Maureen;s Cove with our overnight stop at Stonehaven on the 3rd of July.  We were lucky enough to catch up with our good friends Bill and Sue on Dilligaf again and naturally dropped in for a few sundown drinks!!

Whitehaven Beach

As the temperatures are now starting get a little cool in the Whitsunday's it is definitely the right time to be heading north again.  Our first stop on our trek north is Gloucester Passage which is well known for the Shag Islet YC, Monte's Resort and also the Gloucester Passage Resort which is where we decided to stop in for drinks and a meal.  As the wind is forecast to abate over the next few days we figure it is better to keep moving north while we can sail rather than going into Bowen so on the 4th July (Independence Day) we are on our way to Cape Upstart for the night and then up to Cape Bowling Green before making it into Horseshoe Bay at Magnetic Island on the 6th. 

Poor Imitation of Noodies

When we arrive at Maggie Island the weather is amazingly calm and as hoped warmer and to make it even better we have the same forecast for the rest of the week!  As we made it north a little quicker than initially planned it means we are lucky enough to spend a few days out at Maggie which always a bonus.  We had a few sunset drinks at the Marlin Bar, had a lovely walk over to Balding Bay (aka Noodie Beach) and Radical Bay (Family Friendly Beach) and also took the bus down to Picnic Bay for a spot of lunch at the pub.

Sunset at Horseshoe Bay

We arrived in at the Breakwater Marina at around 9am yesterday morning (Thursday 10th July) in order to meet the tide as the depth at the marina entrance is only 0.5mts so we need at least 1.5 and preferably 2mts to get in and out!  Luckily you get a lot of big tides around Townsville.

Surprise Surprise  - our cruising buddies Arjuna and Dilligaf  have beaten us in!  Townsville is a really nice spot to spend a few days and after giving the boat a bath it is off for a walk down the Esplanade and then over to the Yacht Club for a meal with Bill an Sue.

Today we are going to head over to the Aquarium which is always worth a visit and may also get to the Maritime Museum if we get time.   Amanda is getting voted off the island tomorrow and is heading back to winter in Melbourne.  We are thinking of spending at least 1 week here and hoping to get up to see Margy and Joseph on their cane property at Mourilyan during our stopover.

Some other highlights during the last couple of weeks:

• Mark caught a fish and we ate it!
• Carlton finally managed another win against the Saints
• Dan Ricciardo got a well earned 3rd in the F1
• Matt Lawrence (Mark's nephew) and Matt Seton finished the Melbourne to Vanuatu Race (~1800NM) last night on Jazz Player which is an awesome effort.  Hope they are enjoying the celebrations which I am sure will continue for a while.  Great to see Adrian and the Geomatic crew make the trip over to Port Vila to welcome in the competing crews  - even though it ended up being in the Flying division. after having to retire from the race.

Matt & Matt - Jazz Player

The Whitsundays (25th June)

 

After a couple or wet and windy days in Hammo, Barry and Ros said their farewells (Tuesday 10th June which didn't to quite as smoothly as planned as their flight was delayed for a number of hours as planes were struggling to land with the poor visibility. As the winds are still a bit boisterous on the Wednesday we decided to hand out for another day in Hammo before heading out for some time in the islands which also allowed me a bit of time to have a badly needed haircut.

As forecast the weather was much nicer when we awoke on Tuesday morning so we did a last minute shop at the general store before heading out and around to the very popular Cid Harbour for our first night out.  We counted 25 anchor lights in the harbour and were visited by the MV Dennison which does a lap as part of its sunset and dinner cruise.  We went for a bit of a stroll in the afternoon to Dugong Bay which is a really lovely walk through the rain forest.  Our next stop is Stonehaven which is on the western side of Hook Island.  We picked up one of the southern most moorings which are very pretty as you are almost totally surrounded by coral.  We even went for a bit of snorkel on the coral just at the back of the boat which was a whole lot better than we were expecting.  Suzanne from Osiris also came with us for a bit of a dip.

 On Friday morning we headed over to Blue Pearl Bay for a snorkel which is always good and always busy.  It also gave me a good chance to have a go with my new Go Pro camera although this first attempt was not all that successful so better luck next time!  As there is a cool change and strong winds forecast we are off to the very protected anchorage at Butterfly Bay for the evening only to find the crew from Arjuna already tucked up on a mooring and were invited over for afternoon drinks which was great – when you have three young boys on board sundowners come a little earlier than other boats!   Just as we were saying our evening farewells the change decided to hit so we had a rather wet and bumpy trip back to Sally but got there safe and sound and pretty much battened the hatches for the night.

Birthday Celebrations!

As the next few days are forecast to be a bit windy we figure Butterfly Bay is looking like a good spot to hang out especially as there is some nice coral in the bay swimming distance from the boat which provided some more snorkelling opportunities and a little more success at my new project of becoming an underwater photographer with the Go Pro attached to the Boat Hook  Sunday and we are still shacked up in Butterfly Bay but being intrepid yachties decide to take the RIB out for a burn around to Maureen’s Cove for even more snorkelling.  The trip was definitely exciting with the dinghy becoming airborne on a number of occasions but we did make it there and back quite safely.  During our stay at Butterfly Bay it just happened to be my birthday and despite the windy and slightly cooler weather had a lovely day which included a snorkel, a bottle of Moet Chandon to celebrate and a very nice top which I know was expensive as it was purchased at the Henri Lloyd shop at Hammo so not too shabby at all.

 
Monday and a few more windy days are forecast so we head back around to Stonehaven for a night before making our way into Airlie Beach for a few days before the good weather comes.   Able Point Marina has recently been taken over by someone that cares and is looking great and the staff are really helpful so our stay was great.   It was even made better as they seem to think Mustang Sally is a Super Yacht as we were directed to a 30mt berth which was very comfy and we felt right at home with all the other Super Yachts!   We also managed to catch up with Michael Arcaro, a neighbour from Safety Beach, who is up here doing some boatie type work with his charter boat business.  No surprises here but we also found the crews from Dilligaf, Osiris and Arjuna also in for a stock up!

 Finally on Friday (20^th June) the forecast is on our side with at least five days of calm, warm and sunny weather on its way and we are not going to miss any of it.    Our first stop is lunch at Bauer Bay at South Molle Island before heading back over to Cid Harbour for the evening – this time there were 23 other anchor lights in the anchorage and some of the boats don’t seem to have moved since we were here last time.  Friday was a bit of an eventful day.  It started with me tripping up the steps in the companion way and putting a bit of a gash in my knee.  Next up Mark lost his hat over the back of the boat at South Molle although he did go over the back to rescue it.  Lucky last was me knocking over a cup of coffee in the cockpit and during the clean-up operations forgot to shut the hatch over our bed and ended up with very wet bedding.  It can only get better!

Saturday morning and we are out of Cid Harbour and around to Whitehaven Beach for a couple of nights.  This has to be one of the best stops in the Whitsunday’s.  Apart from being a beautiful anchorage with aqua water and white sand beaches there is entertainment all day with various tourist boats, helicopters and water planes turning up at all times during the day.  There is also plenty of coming and goings with the yachties and bare boaters.   We were even lucky enough to be there for the inaugural Whitehaven Beach Fun Run.   We had a lovely stay here which included the walk to the Solway Lookout and over to Chance Bay, a stroll down the beach and lots of swimming.  We even took the dinghy for a trip over to Chalkies Beach on the nearby Haselwood Island for a beach walk.



Hill Inlet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Backpacker Games

On Monday (23^rd June) we left Whitehaven and stopped in at Tongue Bay (at the top of Whitsunday Island) on our way north.  This is a very popular stop for the back packer boats as there is a walk to the lookout where you get great views of Hill Inlet and Whitehaven Beach en-route to the beach where they spend the day getting burnt and frolicking in the water – what more could a back packer want!  After a quick stop and walk we are off again on our way to the north of Hook Island and a stop in at Manta and Luncheon Bays for a snorkel as the conditions are perfect – calm day, lots of sun, calm day and clear water.  Naturally the Go Pro came out again and we managed to get some great footage of the coral and huge numbers of fish.  Even managed to get Mark feeding Fat Albert – the huge, long term resident, Maori Wrasse!  All we can say is that the GBRAMPA (Queensland Marine Parks) program is working as the fish and coral have never looked better.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Manta Ray Bay

 



After our snorkels we head into Butterfly Bay for the night and were lucky enough to pick up the last of the nine moorings available.  Tuesday morning and we are off to Blue Pearl Bay for yet another snorkel (can’t get enough of the water at the moment as the conditions couldn’t be better) before heading back, to what seems like our favourite anchorage, Cid Harbour, for a couple of nights as we are planning to do the walk to Whitsunday Peak on Wednesday morning.   

Manta Ray Bay Local

 

Wednesday and we are up bright and early for our walk up to the Peak which is only 5kms around trip however, it takes around 3 hours as it is quite steep hike with the peak at around 450mts.  The walk is lovely in itself as it follows a creek for the first part through palms and ferns and then heads into the dryer vegetation towards the top of the peak.  The views from the peak are amazing to both the south and north of Whitsunday Island. 

 

Views from Whitsunday Peak



Hamilton Island from Whitsunday Peak



Walk to Whitsunday Peak

Tomorrow we are back around to Hamilton Island for a few days as we are meeting Amanda there when she flies in from Melbourne on Friday.  We will probably spend a few days there as it is always worthwhile spending some time at FAT island before we start trekking north again on our way to Townsville.

 

Mackay to Hamilton Island (10th June)

Barry and Ros arrived as per plan on Friday afternoon and settled into the boat before heading up to the Mackay Yacht Club for drinks with the crews from Speranza and Dilligaf.  We hired a car for Saturday afternoon and headed into the new Caneland which is absolutely huge for a spot of shopping and boat provisioning. 

Beach Walk at Scawfell Island

Sunday we headed out and had a beautiful sail out to Refuge Bay on Scawfell Island which is a lovely anchorage so much so that we figure it is worth spending a couple of nights. We were very excited that the new GPS receiver is working a treat!. On Monday we headed in for a shore party and had a great walk along the beach with a couple of Oyster Catches.  In the afternoon we all headed in for a snorkel and managed to find some nice soft corals and even a turtle who didn't seem too impressed by the company

Brampton Island Look Out

Tuesday and we are off to Brampton Island which is one of the most popular anchorages in this area.  We arrived and around lunch time and headed into shore after a quick bite and met up with Chris the caretaker of the resort, which shut down around 5 years ago, He was also here when we visited on our east coast trip in 2011.  We walked up to the lookout in the afternoon and were rewarded with some wonderful views of the South Whitsunday islands and had a refreshing dip off the back of the boat upon our return - the water temp is still around 25C so it is rather pleasant.

View of the Southern Whitsunday Islands



Around the Island Circuit - Brampton Island

Wednesday and we tackling the 'Around the Island Circuit' on Brampton which is a gentle 8km lap of the island.  It is a fantastic walk as the scenery and vegetation is continually changing.  We have also decided that this definitely wins the top spot as Butterfly Island as there are literally thousands of them.










On Thursday we departed from Brampton bound for Goldsmith Island which is all of 15NM away.  The really nice thing about the Whitsunday Islands is how close the islands and anchorages are so generally you have the pick down before morning tea.   We spent the day at Goldsmith and as the winds are starting to build a little we head up to Shaw Island on Friday as this it is re-known as one of the best trade wind anchorages in the area.  No surprises but we have quite a bit of company in the anchorage. 

Brampton Island Resort

We have always wanted to do some of the walking tracks on Lindeman Island so we head over to Gap Bay which is at the north end of Lindeman Island on Saturday morning and head off for the walk over to the resort which is on the south east corner.  The walking track doesn't seem to have had much use lately and it is very much a bush bash although it does appear that someone has been through here recently!  Like many other islands resorts Lindeman Island closed around 12 months ago however, we believe it has been bought by a Chinese consortium so hopefully it may open again one day soon.   After our trek it is back to the comfort of the anchorage at Shaw Island for the night before heading into Hamilton Island on Sunday for a few days of R&R in resort world as the forecast is looking pretty crap for a few days.

Hamilton Island is looking as good as ever so it is not too hard to spend a few days here even if the weather is a bit ordinary.  We met up with Rex, a friend of Barry and Ros that now works up here at Qualia Resort, for drinks and dinner at the Tavern.  It is pretty busy on the island as it is both the long weekend plus there is apparently a trucking convention in town and as the weather is a bit ordinary there are plenty of people kind of wandering around looking for things to keep them amused.

The weather on Monday (9th June) is no better in fact it is really wet so it is kind of a leisurely day on board apart from the occasional walk around the shops or a lap of the island on the courtesy bus.  We were lucky enough to catch up with Alan and Michelle that were also on the Louisiades Rally in 2011.  They now have a rather large power cat berthed up here as their holiday home so it  was great to have some time for a chat and also a tour of their new boat.  We also found out that they were the walkers that had been at Lindeman Island before us - how bizarre!

It is now Tuesday the 10th June and Barry and Ros are cleaning and packing up their bags for their flight out at 12.30 today.  We are now starting to think that Barry may be a rain god as it is still raining and we also had similar conditions when he was aboard when we were trying to get back home in 2012.  It is looking like we will be here until Thursday when the forecast is starting to look good again when we can head out for a lap of the Whitsunday Islands.

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.