Our new neighbours

Wed – Friday 31 July We decided to stay at Goldsmith Is. for Wed and spent the day on board it was still blowing in gusts up to 25 knots and when it comes through it pushes us around. But it is a good anchorage. On Thursday we decided to head for Shaw Island – there is a protected anchorage on south western corner, which looked good. On the way (little jib, barber hauled and no main) we trundled along at 5-6 knots quite happily. Meanwhile Chris was on the radio talking to the “Rachel J Slocombe” and to Bill her skipper, who reckoned we were mad if we didn’t stop at Thomas Island – the guide book says it can be rolly but not according to Bill. Bill was right it is a lovely anchorage – still gusty, still up to 25 knots but there are three lovely little sandy beaches and quite a number of turtles to keep us amused. We went over to Bill’s boat for “Sundowners” (drinks that is !) it is very cool, made of Kevlar and he bases it wherever in the world he fancies. Nest stop is Thailand. He is a mate of Klaus (see above) whom he first met in Patagonia when they were both rounding the Horn !! He and Raquel, his charming wife made us welcome and Raquel had been cooking it was great fun and very interesting talking to Bill and his mate Sean and Aussie who has done almost as much sailing as Bill. You sure meet some interesting people. Tomorrow, Saturday we plan to run up to Gulnare Inlet as it is supposed to come in at over 30 knots in Sunday, yuk! Then on Tuesday we hope to go to Airle where we have booked a spot at the Marina for a few days to have engines serviced and to wait for Julie and Murray.

Well, these Qld weather guys know their weather, they got it spot on – it blew up to about 25 knots all day in gusts 8 knots and then whack a 20+ gust which shifted Phalt Chat as she tugged on her anchor, which thankfully was well bedded down by the faithful crew. Today was “make and mend” as they say in the RAN. We pottered and did a few things around the boat, a nice lazy day. We met Klaus and Maria who have sailed out from Germany and been at it since 1991. Makes Sydney to Whitsundays seems like a day trip really. Tomorrow we might go to Shaw Island or we might stay here – these are important decisions and not to be taken lightly. It will take a couple of coffees to work this out in the morning (assuming the weather stays good tonight!).

Sunday was a work day - we cleaned and fuelled and topped up water so on Monday we could get away. We are now at Goldsmith Island having motor sailed here from Mackay. We are only 40 miles from Airlie Beach and in the southern part of the Whitsundays. It is supposed to blow 25 knots for the next three days so I am not too sure if we will head north or stay here. This is a good anchorage according to the guide book – we will see. Saw a couple of whales today and a pod of dolphins, who studiously ignored us and no fish – we need Emily ! Hopefully a quiet day tomorrow ……

Saturday we drove up to Eungella in the hinterland, a remnant rainforest area and just beautiful as was the drive up. There were supposed to be lots of platypus up there, but I have to say we were a bit doubtful, especially as the sign said dawn and dusk were the best times, but it must have been our day as we watched two swimming about happily for 20 minutes or so. I’d never seen a platypus in the wild before so I was very pleased. We drove up to Laguna Quays to see where Phlat Chat was going to be left, then back to Mackay to do the washing and have dinner (at the Thai restaurant – the dinner not the washing!) Tomorrow, Sunday is for boat jobs to get ready to head out again on Monday, weather permitting. Friday morning we took Emily to the airport after a bit of a tour de force in the car we rented – thanks GNP for short notice car. We had coffee in town and lunch at the new Botanic Gardens. After Em left us we went shopping for groceries. Friday night Chris and I went into town to the cinema.

Us at Pelican Island (part of Brampton) and JOB's boat, Blue Sapphire

………..But wait, there’s more. I know I sound like the Demtel man but we had a magnificent dinner tonight (Thursday) at “Latitude 21” on the Marina and who should appear for dinner but Kev (again) with this entourage. So, after the drunks had finished shaking his hand we got up and with his permission took a photo of Em with the PM for her class. He was most engaging – clearly a professional politician and spoke to us for a while – he wants to learn to sail so we asked him to come out with us, but that will have to wait until some other time.

Tuesday at Brampton was fun. We walked up the top of the lookout about 3 km each way – it was hot work but a great view. That afternoon John O’Brien in his classy stink boat, “Blue Sapphire” took the trouble to steam south to see us while he was in the Whitsundays. It was great to see the boat and catch up with JOB and his family (well most of them anyway). We had a lovely night and they were very hospitable, thanks John. Wednesday dawned superb, the sun was shining the breeze was light and it just apicture perfect day. After a coffee on Phlat chat with John they went off to do the walk we did yesterday and we motored around to Dinghy Bay – what a pretty place. Emily has invented a new snorkelling technique, we think it is called mechanised snorkelling. She (and her mother) put on their snorkels and goggles, stuck there heads in the water over the side of our tender and I motored slowly along with their heads lolling in the water. I hate to think what anyone watching would have made of it but they seemed to think it worked. We motor sailed back to Mackay Marina for Em to go home tomorrow, but as we pulled into the Harbour a whale was performing about 500 meters off shore. What a great welcome to Mackay, we were all agog as this chap played around in the water. After we tied up we went for a walk and looked into the Hotel on the Marina to see what it is like and who should wander through the door the K. Rudd himself ! Yep the PM the Grand Fromage himself. G’day Prime Minister” , says I – “G’day Andrew”, says he. Well half of it is true I said G’day. Then we walked down the beach for a drink and nibbles and who comes strolling by but young Kev again – offered him a beer but he was dead keen on a walk and a long one too. He was in joggers, shorts and tee shirt but the security blokes were in suits , poor buggers – one of them toyed with stopping for a beer with us but his sense of duty overcame him. So quite an eventful day really.

Emily is here! She arrived on Sunday, Bucket having gone home on Friday. On Friday morning we went into town to the shopping centre to stock up, Bucket left from there to go to the airport. The shopping centre was very busy and we were surprised how many people were there. While we were waiting for a taxi back to the marina we got talking to a couple who looked like yachties, yes Chris picked it in one and we shared a cab back. It turns out we had been in a few anchorages with Tom and Nancy from Bloodhound. We knew which boat they were from before we formally met them – you recognise boats first and people next, lovely couple from a farm out of Guyra. On Sunday we met Em at the marina office having stowed all the tucker we purchased (and grog of course – Bucket put a whole in that !). We left early Monday morning for St Bees and Keswick Islands. It was breezy – about 22 knots and we had a bit of excitement for Em, the schreecher got into a knot but we were able to sort it out. We also caught a nice Spotted Mackerel, which was dinner that night and tasty too. We had a quick trip to the islands and girls went for a snorkel at St Bees northern shore – not too good apparently. We picked up a mooring in a ROLLY anchorage in the channel between the islands. It was not very comfortable. While we were moving a pod of five whales swam majestically up the channel – we had to move to get out of their way. It was fabulous, the channel is only 250 m wide and 5 whales pretty much filled it! Tuesday we sailed in very leisurely fashion to Brampton Island where we will rest in a less rolly anchorage. We plan to go for a bush walk and a reef walk.

We left Curlew Island at about 0620 this morning to pick up the wind (which came up last night and made new rattles on the boat – so not too much sleep). Last night Bucket went to Kev’s boat to watch the State of Origin – lucky we won, he arrived back on board “tired but happy”. Today’s sail was not too bad off the breeze and moved us along smartly until the wind gave up the ghost about midday, so we motored the last few miles to Mackay Marina.

Boat Harbour Middle Percy Island

Well, Percy is beautiful. We pulled up went ashore and looked around to see the boat harbour, the famous A Frame and all the bric-a-brac of boat names going back thirty + years. It was spectacular…. Early to bed that night after a long sail the night before, having had drinks on Allycat with John and Pam whose advice helped us a number of times so thanks guys. Next morning it was swim, fish and walk around. We went into the boat harbour at low tide – a nice walk, and a dry lagoon with a big black ketch (which we christened the “Black Pearl”) she draws 1.8m ! two cats on the dry sand too doing jobs (for us we might do the same thing on the way back). During the morning Chris saw some “fish” on the bow and we tried to catch them, but it was clear they were not fish but squid. We (Chris) caught two and had an entrée of fresh calamari, yum. That night we headed around to White Bay (from West Bay) to escape the North Wester that blew in – a rolly anchorage but good and secure. The next day, Tuesday we set off for Curlew Island, but the breeze was from the NW and we slogged to windward yuk!! We arrived at Curlew at about 1500. Having discussed progress with Kev from Scorpio who wanted a first hand weather report, we were able to help out and he very generously gave us some Coral Trout he had caught – it was delicious, thanks Kev. Wednesday we had planned to go north to another island but the wind angles were wrong and after a long discussion with Bucket and Chris we decided to, “bugger it” and stay put. The wind angle will be better for Mackay from here (we hope). Although on Tuesday afternoon it has dropped out to a zephyr – hope it stays in tomorrow on the run to Mackay. We have moved from Davidson Bay to north side of Curlew Island now as the Southerly breeze tomorrow might just disturb our slumbers and we can’t have that. Tomorrow (Thursday) we go to Mackay to put Bucket on a plane to Sydney – it has been a pleasure to have him on board and his help on the overnighter was invaluable. Emily arrives on Sunday – it will be fun to show her a little of this gypsy live we have been living.

Ian arrived yesterday and we organised ourselves to head off on Friday, but the weather was against us. It was forecast to blow 30 knots (60kph) so we were not keen but Chris and Ian thought it would be protected in the Narrows and I was reluctant. But the guys at the Marina seemed to think it would be OK. So we cast off (moving around the dredge) about 0830 and headed up the Narrows. This is a thin strip between the mainland and Curtis Island – part of which dries completely at low tide, so much so that it is a cattle crossing in parts. We had to get the tide right! We did get the tide right and the wind (so far, 1700h) was very kind to us, only blowing about 15 knots maximum. We cleared the Narrows with a minimum depth of 1.9 m. We are now in Pacific Creek with a couple of other boats and one million mangroves, and I owe Bucket a Cointreau on ice as he picked the weather. Tomorrow we will head to Gt Keppel Island and then after a couple of hours kip on through the night to the Percy Islands as the military have closed off all the land in between and therefore forcing all the yachties to stay at sea. This is of course the peak time for yachts to head north – duh.

Well, I have been a bit tardy in updating this – sorry, but here goes. Sunday was such a nice day we and John and Fran from Palmask, who were going to up to Gladstone with us decided we’d just stay (actually John dinghyed up to Phlat Chat to announce they decided to stay and we copied them!). It was a great day. We went out on to the flats to collect yabbies (nippers in NSW) and got enough to allow us to go fishing that afternoon. Five of us fished and we ended up with 12 whiting, which we BBQ’d on the beach that night with salad – yum yum, and yes, Chris got the biggest. Monday we did sail to Gladstone – great sailing for the first four hours, perfect (if the sun had shone). We arrived at the Marina about 1500 and tied up, after waiting ten minutes for two tankers (one which is in the picture) to pass in front of us. We were able to catch up with Rob and Jo too which was a treat. Rob, is an old school mate of Andrew’s and we don’t see them often. They had dinner aboard and asked us to their place last night. We had a great couple of days. They also very kindly allowed us to use their car today for shopping – thanks guys. Ian, Chris’ brother-in-law arrives tomorrow and we plan to sail up north again. The weather does not look too good however, blowing 30 knots – yuk. So we might wait. Thanks to our military who are spending our tax dollars hand over fist playing war games with the Yanks etc, a whole section of the coast is closed to boats, due to live firing from ships and planes etc. So to get past we have to do an overnight sail from Great Keppel to Middle Percy Island and we miss some very pretty parts of the coast – but c’est la vie ! Ian is helping with that leg and we sail to Mackay with him, to then pick up Emily, our younger daughter for a few days – we are excited to have one of the kids join us.

Change of plan - Pancake is just too nice a spot so we are now going to Gladstone on Monday. Hope to be there by 1700 Monday.

Sorry about no captions - dodgey internet connection in the bush !

Pancake Creek is a lovely spot and we could both spend a couple of weeks here easily... it is just delightful and so quiet, it is like being in a marina (now anyway). We are both sold on Pancake Creek !!! Unfortunately tomorrow we plan to leave for Gladstone – I say unfortunately only because this is such a neat spot. Today we hiked up to the lighthouse at Bustrad Head it is automatic now but has been restored and volunteers man it for people to come and visit – what a view, what a spot. But the little cemetery is a poignant reminder of the hash life our pioneers lived. Two babies, and a few drownings of young people brought home the reality of this life ( not to mention the lighthouse keeper who did himself in). We walked back to the dinghy after going to look at the view the other side – Jenny Lind Creek where we watched an eagle ride the thermals as we took in the view (see photo). We think we walked 6 km – but CGP decided we should walk along the water’s edge (it was low tide) and so we did adding a couple of km to the walk. But the good thing was we found some oysters…. yum yum – that was our entree for lunch, fresh as you can get. Tonight we had another fire on the beach to meet and chat to the other boaties. A Swedish girl about 28 who purchased her SMALL boat in Tonga and sailed it to New Zealand and then to Australia – she had crew for the NZ – Aust trip but is now on her own, like the trip from Tonga to NZ! The three happy blokes from Lady Hog (they call themselves the three piglets) and Lance and Rose who live on their boat and have been everywhere. What interesting people. Tomorrow we travel to Gladstone in company with John and Francis who sailed their boat through the Panama Canal back to Australia, and they are from the Margaret River area in WA. It has been a lovely day. By the way saw a dugong yesterday about 10 metres from the boat – fantastic!