We are still in Pancake Creek. We now think that Monday looks positive to run to Bundaberg. It takes a deal of patience to put up with waiting for the weather window but as there is nothing one can do about it you just have to go with the flow. Tuesday was a red letter day for the crew of Phlat Chat. We went to check our crab pots about midday and lo and behold a giant mud crab was sitting happily on the trap we found washed up and wrecked at Sea Hill. We rebuilt it and it has paid us in spades! The crab was male (you can’t keep females) and was 180 mm across 30mm more than legal size and it weighed 1.25KG – a whopper. The question was what to do now – the damn thing had claws that cold literally take your finger off. We did the smart thing and called for help from the locals. Bob from Kinta knows what’s what and he came to the rescue. We tipped the monster out into a bucket and put a wet towel over him, and a bloody big cover on the bucket. Chris was VERY nervous about getting up through the night in case he got out. He didn’t. Wednesday morning he was dispatched and cooked (thanks to our crab consultant Bob, who directed proceedings and allowed us to borrow the kit we needed. We can him cols for tea – he was magnificent. God, I hope we catch a few more!! Last night we had a progressive dinner on three boats, Synergy, Phalt Chat and Tack Z Evasion. It was great fun – we ate too much and had a ball. 12 people moving from boat to boat eating too well and too often. Today we walked to Aircraft Beach (about 4 kms each way) and had lunch with the “Tin Can Bay Mob”. It is called Aircraft Beach as planes land there. One was there as we arrived and he took Chris for a lift as he taxied up his “runway” – pretty cool. After lunch four of us decided to walk the extra distance to the Lighthouse, another couple of kilometres. There we met Anne and Dennis who kindly invited us in for a cup of tea and a chat. We then walked back to the dinghy and checked our crab pots (nothing!!!). Another busy day at Pancake Creek.

Fishing was the order of the day this morning so off we went to fish in the same spot Andrew caught a few good whiting yesterday – guess what no fish, well no keepers anyway. Bob from Kinta got two nice whiting and two good bream. I wondered where he was sneaking off to? While we were fishing it poured with rain and we got soaked, worse still we left our hatches open a tiny bit for ventilation and as this was the strongest rain we had had we got water inside. My side of the bed is wet, wet, wet and some water ended up under our computers, fortunately they seem OK and the galley had a bit of water on its floor too. So we have learnt a lesson, don’t leave the hatches open even a tiny bit if rain is even a remote possibility. We ended up with 12 people aboard Phlat Chat for morning tea, which started at about 1230 and finished about 1415. Chris and I then had lunch about 1500. We ate yesterday’s flathead for lunch, it was beautiful. We have a little whiting left for tea – which will just be a snack as drinkies are on Tack Z Evasion tonight. It is raining non stop now and Chris has rigged up a water catcher and of course it works a treat (I was not that confident) just a little funnel on the coach house roof with a bit of piping. So far we have filled three buckets and the solar shower bag. We’ll have to disconnect it soon as we will run out of buckets. Chris is delighted with this new source of fresh water so she can keep cleaning, her favourite pastime.

Yesterday was an interesting day! We started out fishing off the back of the boat and caught a stingray, followed by a GIANT toadfish (see picture) what an ugly brute with teeth to take finger off and it is reported that these fish have done exactly that! Yuk. We set two crab pots also yesterday and at low tide we went yabbying in the same area. We got a good few yabbies, great bait for whiting. Anyway Chris decided to walk over the sand banks to check one of the pots – it was in a little channel. In she waded to look at it and pulled it up to see if we had a couple of fat mud crabs. No such luck but we did have a metre long grey coloured shark – she shrieked and threw the trap back in the water. So brave Andrew to the rescue. In I went and pulled up the trap – I could not see the shark, until it moved – scared the crap out of me. Undeterred I reached in a pulled it out by the tail. Once I had it suspended from my hand I was wondering what to do next when Chris said, “it’s got a little sucked fish on it”. So I turned it to see and the damn thing started to fold upwards toward my arm – my turn to shriek and drop the bloody thing as fast as I could. Unfortunately it landed in the water and took off. It was AP’s job to re-set the crab pot, hard to do looking all round you at the same time. Will check the pots today and I hope the shark is smart enough to avoid the pot this time. We had drinks of Synergy last night and on the way back one of the ladies fell into the water off the back of her dinghy – her partner managed to help her to get to the side of the dinghy, where she was able to hold on to the gunwale. A couple of us left Synergy in our dinghies realising something was wrong – we did not know what it was until we got there to help. We managed to get her on board but she was in mild shock so I don’t think we will see her for a while. It was a frightening and sobering experience for all the people in the team we are travelling with. It is blowing quite hard here today over 20 knots I reckon and we are getting occasional rain squalls so it is a day to catch up on inside jobs – maybe a walk this afternoon. We didn’t walk, we checked our crab pots instead and caught up with Bob and Julia and Ron and Robyn where Chris was taught how to play Rummy-o ( a game with tiles using numbers). But the crab pots were interesting. In the first fancy one, nothing, but in the little one two muddies and a fish. Unfortunately the muddies were tiny so they went back into the water but the fish was a beauty, a nice big flathead – he must have been 55cm long so he is for breakie tomorrow. A quite night tonight on board with some red meat for tea. We have been eating a lot of fish lately – good for us too.

We arrived at Sea Hill mid morning on Wednesday not too much of a great spot and no wind (that is until 2 hours after we arrived – we should have left later). The next morning, Thursday was “The Narrows” a thin strip of water between Curtis Island and the mainland leading to Gladstone. It is very shallow – so much so that it dries out at low tide and cattle are herded across at low tide on dry ground. We had to wait until the tide was right – easier for us than for the keel boats travelling with us. Cadenza Blue and Synergy had to time it just right as they draw about 2 m. We all got through with Phlat Chat leading the way as we only needed a metre. We got to Gladstone Marina, and did the work start!! The girls hired a king cab ute and went shopping filling the back – the ute even had a flashing yellow light on the roof – very cool. The boys did boat jobs – we fuelled three boats with jerry cans, which took a long time, filled up water , replenished gas for cooking etc. We had Rob Turnbull to dinner and it was great to catch up with Rob. We even saw him the next morning at 0540 when he delivered a package for us. Thanks mate! We left Gladstone at 0555 to go to Pancake Creek before the next big southerly blow comes in - they are not supposed to do this at this time of the year but the weather system have clearly not read the book. Looks like we are here for 5-7 days before a long run to Bundaberg. Today’s trip was not much fun, safe but lumpy- 15 knots from the east and of course on this part of the coast we are heading due East!! Pancake Creek is a great place so it should be fun especially with all the boats we are sailing with who were at Port Clinton too. We also caught up with Bob and Julia again so that was a bonus. “Sundowners” was on a sand island that forms at low tide. We were restricted as to how long we could stay as there was an incoming tide. It was good to have an early night.

We are now in GKI having motor sailed from Port Clinton on Tuesday. It was an early start – up anchor at about 0545 and not much wind especially as the day wore on. One good thing though – we broke the drought!! We caught a nice Spotted Mackerel which we landed, filleted and in had the fridge within an hour of being caught. You should have seen the boat – what a mess. It tasted great we had a sample of it last night. Today we head to Sea Hill where we will stop overnight to do the Narrows on Thursday and overnight at Gladstone Marina with a very early start on Friday for Pancake Creek before the big blow comes in.

We ended up with the inmates on board for sundowners last night and a most pleasant evening it was. So a cup of tea for tea and in to bed as it was decided that we needed a rematch of the boules competition on Monday. It was a lovely day and we had another BBQ with fish provided by Lyndy and David again – they got a second good sized GT and we ate him for lunch with fresh baked on board bread (thanks Robyn) and some salads – it was lovely and good for us too. It looks good for an 0600 departure tomorrow and there is a lovely full moon as I type this and the breeze has settled to 10 -15 knots for the first time in ages. So hopefully tomorrow night we will be an anchor in Long Beach at Great Keppel Island. Chris has made the interesting observation that we have just had a “weeks holiday” with 6 perfect strangers. We have had a ball and we are very grateful to David and Lyndy from “Tack Z Evasion”, Bob and Libby from “Synergy”, and Ron and Robyn from “Cadenza Blue”.

With a bit of luck it looks like we could be on the move on Tuesday as the winds are swinging to the north a bit. So our enforced stay at Port Clinton might be coming to an end. Yesterday we had another beach picnic but at a different more protected beach and both Chris and I learnt a new skill. We can each now throw a cast net, which is used for catching bait fish. There is a trick to it and it took us a few goes to get the hang of it. There are illegal in NSW but up here everyone seems to use one. Today is a make and mend as the Navy say, we have a few jobs to do to make us ready for Tuesday, so I’d better get on with it.