To Mackay, via Curlew Island and Freshwater Point.

By Glenn:

Hate to say this but I'm starting to loose track of what day it is! I have to consult the log book now. We are relaxing at Mackay Marina, but what day did we leave the Percy Islands? Ok, it was Saturday. I'm not showing off or anything but see how relaxed I've become without the alarm clock routine. Of course Jen suspects that it's the early onset of "old timers" disease.

We hauled up the anchor at beautiful Whites Bay and followed in the wake of Ocean Child on a leisurely motor sail to Curlew Island. ( I was hoping to get a encore from Denis on the "Dobro Comb"). It was another relaxing day on the water, with the obligatory whale sightings. We witnessed a baby whale learning to leap out of the water. It looked big until we saw the mother slowly surfaced. We motored into the anchorage on the northern side of Curlew by mid afternoon.

Absolutely stunning Curlew Island.

We scoped out our anchorage position. The art of anchoring plays a major part in successful cruising sailing. It means the difference between a relaxing night's sleep or loosing your yacht on the rocks or coral. Even worse would be the embarrassing look of waking up aground, high and dry! The tidal ranges here are up to 5 metres. I'm continually doing calculations. Goodness it's hard enough bloody trying to count my fingers and toes. To make sure ST3 is in the right depth I have let out enough chain. ( ratio 1:5, 1:6 or 1:7)

Our Curlew Island anchorage at dusk.

 

We set sail on Sunday for Freshwater Point, Llewellyn Bay, which is about 20nm south of Mackay. Freshwater Point isn't in any of the cruising guides, but Dennis from Ocean Child thought it would be a great anchorage. (good call mate but still no Dobro Comb encore :( ) Now if I've said this once I'll say it again....."the sail from (add-name-here) "Curlew Island to Freshwater Point"...was definitely the best sail we've had all trip". Sea Trek III is a cutter rig, and for the uninitiated this means we can put up 3 sails. With more sail we make greater speeds, at times flying along at around 8 knots on a close reach. There was a mad panic to get the all of the sails down when we arrived at Freshwater. We tucked into the totally comfortable anchorage for a great nights sleep. Jen slept with one eye open because she definitely thought this was croc country.

Ocean Child at anchor at Freshwater Point. (Real croc country?)

So although the water temperature was a balmy 25 degrees, I decided not to dip the toe in. We motor sailed to Mackay on Monday. We have settled in for a few days of catching up with long lost friends, and members of the "CRAP Uke Band" for the reunion of "Love and other Bruce's". Hopefully we will have an encore on the Dobro Comb. (see youtube). A minor engine repair requiring a courier service from Brisbane and an oil change undertaken by yours truly, before venturing to the Whitsunday Islands....FINALLY.

Mackay Marina at low low tide.

Final news flash:

Jen now has a real camera! All pics on this blog up until now have been taken on the iPhone. I think you would have to agree that the pics have been great considering her limited resources. No pressure Jen but I'm expecting big things from today onwards.........

 

Posted with Blogsy

The Percy Islands

By Glenn: I didn't really want to go to West Bay, Middle Percy Island. I know it's a tradition for cruising yachts to call in and mount a plaque of their boat at the Percy Island Hilton. (the A-Frame).

Mecca for cruisers.

Everyone says "you really must do it". To me it seemed over-hyped. Call me a cynic. I've had a lifetime of wondering what all the fuss was about when told "you've gotta go and see this movie" or "listen to this band" etc. Jen says I'm revealing more about myself than the story here, but I really thought there were better places to go. Jen's enthusiasm won me over. I knew she was very excited about making an artistic plaque and mounting it at Middle Percy.

Jen's plaque: a beauty!

Detail of the punch-hole and paint technique.

So from Hexham Island I plotted a course to West Bay. As usual it was a beautiful warm sunny day. We spotted whales breaching and a handful of inquisitive dolphins greeted us just as we rounded the point. (always a good sign in my mind). I was dumbfounded when we sailed into West Bay. It was a picture perfect tropical island setting (think Gilligan's Island) with only 4 other yachts anchored in the bay. Mmmmm, it seems my reluctance for coming here had quickly dissipated! It looked great!!!

First impression.

How it all began.

I couldn't get the anchor set and into the dinghy quickly enough. This place demanded some serious exploring at once. We spent ages in the A-Frame looking at the yacht plaques. It seems that world cruisers have been putting them up since the 50 's. Some famous boats have been here.....

John Guzzwell: 1958 SVTrekker. 20'6" circumnavigation in a timber yawl.

We spotted some friends' plaques including Bruce and Sue from Chilli Heat as well as John from Dream Weaver. Jen couldn't resist mounting ours next to Chilli Heat..." Sailing and cooking our way up the East Coast of Australia".

One of the many uses for a bread board.

Pandora's box at the Percy Hilton.

 

The book swap in the old telephone shed.

Around the corner we spent a few days in Whites Bay. The wind had changed direction. Stunning. I had a few swims here.

Colours!!!

For some reason Jen took a great interest in the green rocks that cropped out of the hillside. She said that they just didn't fit in. (See photo above with bright orange earth). I guess they are vulcanic in nature. To prove the point she began collecting stones with great glee. (normally she collects shells).

Green of all kinds and 'almost Jade' and semi-precious?

The stones on the beach ranged from mauve, pink, orange, brown, cream and green. I guess Jen has a point.

"Meat and three veggies".

We explored behind the massive white sand dunes on the Middle Percy Island and eventually the creek bed wound its way into sub tropical forest.

 

A riverbed behind the large white sand dunes.

I can see clearly now....

Musicians in the cruising community seek each other out. They tend to be eccentrics of sorts who creep out from under sails as a surprise. (I'm always crawling out from under the sail). We had a great afternoon session in Whites Bay where the crews from Ocean Child and Bramniny came over for a few songs. Hans played Uke and a mean harp, Denis from Ocean Child had us bemused by his improvisations with the "dobro" comb. Much later he "just happened" to play some great sounds on the guitar.

A wandering minstrel.

I laughed so much that I forgot what song I was playing, anyway here's a sample of the master Dobro Comb player.

He rocks!

Jen loved this sketch from the A frame.

And so after a week without news, Internet or phone reception we are returning to the main land. Tomorrow Mackay, then the Whitsundays! Loving this lifestyle, but I know it's gotta end soon, for a while...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Yeppoon to Port Clinton, island Head Creek and Hexham Island.

With the anchor winch fixed and our sleeping berth freshly painted; farewell drinks, BBQ and all bills paid, it was time to leave Yeppoon. (There is no truth in the rumour that Glenn was running a bar-tab at CCYC). We left early on Friday morning with a fresh south-east wind, our destination being Port Clinton, 40 nautical miles to the north.

Once out of the Rosslyn Bay Marina we motored into a confused brown mish-mash of splashing ocean, we hoisted our sails and hurtled our way north. The seas had been churned up by the relentless winds of the preceding week and the looked disgusting! (Think effulent).

Sloppy and muddy.

We gradually moved away from the coast, and the water colour turned a more acceptable grey-blue but the seas remained unpredictable.

Unpredictable and slushy.

It was a long day and the horrible nausea and shivers of sea sickness to me. I'd noticed that over the months of travel I was adjusting to the motion of ST3, and apart from a "quick nap" on route I was managing without medical assistance. I was below decks. Glenn was happily telling me about everyone else's plans when I needed to find a bucket fast. The cabin sole was uncomfortable but supported me for the next 3 hours. A warm blanket was supplied. Dizziness had engulfed me. Thank goodness Glenn is so capable at the helm and had wisely taken the blue "ET pill" prior to leaving port.

We found the remote Port Clinton to be surprisingly expansive. We watched a bush fire burn in the distant hills as the smoke turned the sunset red. A large shiny white and blue checked motor cruiser silently passed close us. "Police" !! We suddenly tried to act normal.(straight that is) It had slowed down to a "polite speed" (no wash created) and they waved at Glenn. Afterwards I noticed that he was "Captain Underpants" again. Oh dear.

Distant burning.

The next day and a few quick hours of wonderful sailing delivered us to Island Head Creek.This "creek" was also expansive. Queensland I remembered is the land of the BIG stuff. As we studied our paper charts it was hard to comprehend the size of the next two bays: Shoalwater Bay, followed by the huge Southern Broadsound. These are soooo big that they have their own tidal heights and flow rates. They are used as a military training area and Jervis Bay in NSW is just a little pond compared to these two. On a regular Queensland map they are the pair of prominent indentations about half way along the coast. We know that the extremely rare Snub fin dolphin is found in the upper reaches of these bays.

Glenn's T shirt...thanks Ginny for your efforts.

As we continue to sail further north we feel the vastness of the wilderness more and more. The busy Great Barrier Reef tourist areas are within a full day's sail, but right now we could be amongst the few remaining humans on earth.

Hexham Island is our safe anchorage for tonight. We passed a mother humpback whale and calf quietly wallowing in the channel just around the corner. Glenn kept ST3 on a course west of them so as not to distress the couple. Judging by the frequency and height of the breath-spouts it must have been a very new calf.

A cramped anchorage Hexham Island.

A weird natural occurrence: see the photo. For days we have been passing through streams of ? Coral Spawn. It looks like thick Nestle's Chocolate Quick floating in streams along the coast. An internet sewrch; it is a nitrogen fixing floating algae "Trichodesium" bloom.

 

Much excitement onboard of Sea Trek III. The tradition of cruisers visiting Middle Percy Island ( our next stop) is to leave a plaque of the ship's name in the "A frame" building on West Bay. Some creativity will be required......

.

More to come soon, including our time at Middle Percy Island....

 

Posted with Blogsy

Jen, You're a lunatic, but Glenn, you are the luckiest bloke in Australia.

Rosslyn Bay: Keppel Bay Marina. We are in the tropical waters now and are getting used to the extremes of high and low tides. This ramp was level when we went shopping. That's Glenn at the bottom of the ramp.

The down-hill run in life.

We only meant to stay at Keppel Bay for a day or two. The electrical fire and repairs changed all of that. Strong winds have pinned us here for eight days now! The great thing about our trip is that there really isn't any plan. We can just go with the flow. Luckily for us our prolonged stay (and potential boredom) was eased by the discovery of the Capricorn Cruising Yacht Club. The club house is really an old portable workers shack with verandas, umbrellas and atmosphere galore. While we were there it was abuzz with friends, old and new swapping stories. (As a matter of fact we needed to stay in tonight to have a rest). A big highlight for Glenn was the Friday night special: Steak BBQ and dessert for $10 dollars. (Homemade fruit trifle and two scoops of ice cream). The German beers were a give-a-way at $2.50 each.

What? Sundowners again!!!!!!(another great "selfie" of Glenn)

Sundowners is a yachtie' tradition. Cruising yachties are generally anchored and relaxing by sunset. When in a marina they tend to seek out a common area to exchange "whale tales" and nautical advise. There is always much discussion about the up coming weather. The veranda of the CCYC became our base. The group organised a BBQ and music as a farewell event prior to the predicted weather improvement. (wrong again!). 'Bravado' with Steve and Ines from Melbourne;......'Ocean Child' from Tasmania has been called home by Dennis and Jenny for 6 years now;......catamaran 'Simba' is solo sailed by Ray from Wollongong and heading south;...... 'Windsong' has completed the "Hamilton races week" and is heading south to Melbourne with John and Jimmy wearing their team polos;..... 'Ceol Mor' with Stephanie and Duncan (Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra members) and their neighbour John, all from Kettering in Tasmania; two other catamarans that keep crossing our path are 'Tribal' and 'Plum Loco', and finally ..... 'Roger Ram Jet', a catarmaran built by Stevo and heading south to Mooloolaba with his crew Mal.

Stevo just happens to be Glenn's long lost friend from his Mooloolaba Garage Band days. They were a bit rusty together but their guitars really added atmosphere to the lively gathering.

Musician scraping off the rust.

Overlooking the marina.

What do yachties do in daylight hours while waiting for unfavourable weather to pass? Maintenance of course. Glenn often sprouts that "Cruising is just boat repair in exotic locations " . However by the look of the people we meet it is also a good way to stay fit and flexible....yoga anyone?

The easy style of catamaran repairs.

Our elderly and ambitious marina neighbour.

Rosslyn Bay is well serviced by buses travelling into Yeppoon shopping area. It is all very convenient, economical and well used. Why was Bundaberg so awkward? Lots of cruisers there missed the last bus run at mid afternoon and had to pay a taxi fare of $48 to return. Today we travelled in comfort (ie: someone else navigating the bus) to Emu Park to visit "The Singing Ship". This is a musical sculpture set on a small cliff looking out to sea. Utilising the ever-present sea breezes, it hums when air flows through the pipes and strings. Different speeds create different notes. Glenn was not impressed, partly because he couldn't sing along but also because he had just been swooped by a nesting plover protecting it's eggs. (I warned him).

Coastal harmonics enjoyed by some.

Tomorrow we hope to be out of the marina and sailing to either the Keppel Islands or Pearl Bay. Each yacht crew reads the weather and sails according to their vessels abilities. Staggered departure days will no doubt lead to heated discussions at destinations in other yacht clubs along the east coast of Australia.

Note: It is now very easy to leave comments for us. It is no longer necessary to subscribe to the blog. We like to get your feedback.

Thanks: Jen and Glenn of ST3.

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Fire! Fire! fire down below its fetch a bucket of water Glenn there's fire down below...

Our new anchor winch motor was installed in Bundaberg. The old one did not survive it's encounter with the humpback whale at Roonie's Point. We'd experienced so much frustration with delays ($$$) over the long and futile days at Bundy that we were keen to get moving. What a marvel the new motor was, and it worked very well at Lady Musgrave and Pancake Creek.

Our third use of the anchor winch motor was at Cape Capricorn. We completed our "up anchor" routine with ease. We are a well oiled team. Glenn is clear with his hand signals as he hangs over the bow. I can interpret his waving and shouts. I don't let his port/starboard confusion interfere at all with my own deeply entrenched dyslexia. I can easily juggle the helming and engine controls with the up and down switch, while reading the real time chart and depth soundings. I do this with my head poked out to one side of the dodger. I can steer with one outstretched leg. It's all very routine.

After about 20 mins of happy motoring I felt like a strong cup of coffee and climbed down the steps/ladder. I turned around as a stench hit me. Thick white smoke was pouring from the front cabin ( our V berth/ bedroom) and into the saloon ( lounge room). I turned and called out to Glenn but could only repeat #%#%! #%#%!, #%#%! I just didn't have the language to tell him what was happening. He looked blankly at me and then realised that he needed to spring into action. My brain just couldn't make any sense of what could possibly be happening to cause this burning plastic cloud. By the time he entered the saloon and headed forward Glenn could not see through the dense smoke. So he simply reached out and turned off the power. And that was it.

A fire to me is the charred ruins of bricks and mortar. An electrical fire however gathers heat and melts plastics, metals and surroundings before bursting into flame.

And so after only 8 days our shiny new anchor winch motor was no more. Glenn felt somewhat despondent because of what the recent replacement required So much hassell. I focused on the fact that there was no loss of life or boat. We are at sea after all, and fire is especially dangerous. Yachts are full of strange gasses and fuels.

Damage that was very nearly of the worse kind.

Burnt insulation caught just in time.

 

So here we are at Yeppoon, in the friendly marina of Rosslyn Bay. Our sailing instructor from some years ago Ginny Gerlach, greeted us and arranged for a good marine electrician to assess and assist us in our new anchor winch motor installation. No problem, except for where to sleep. The stench in the V berth was nauseating. All linen, pillows and doonas etc, needed washing. (boring, but thank goodness I have been collecting $1.00 coins for the laundrette). Our mattress is custom made, with innovative suspension and aeration for comfort at sea. Our choices for sleeping at night have been a round of 1: putting some lounge cushions on the floor (me), 2: the aft cabin with its stone-like mattress or 3: the narrow lounge/lee berth. All of these options have been most uncomfortable for the ageing nurse's spine. And what about Glenn who so likes his comfort? Much moaning. Five long and restless nights.

But just like any Polly Anna story there Is a silver lining. In my mind the interior of ST3 is too "log cabin" with too much use of timber. What better way to banish the stench than by painting the veneer timbers with fresh white. I'm smiling now, and the price of marine paint seems really economical now that we've paid the second mechanics bill.

Jen: Never happier than when in disarray while painting and decorating.

Glenn: aaaaarrrggghhhh!

 

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Musgrave to Pancake Creek to Cape Capricorn to Yeppoon with a fire onboard thrown in for good measure.

By Glenn : Déjà Vu, "If I have probably been here before I would probably know what to do, don't you?"....

....I guess that it had to happen. We have experienced dramatic highs in the last few months. Last week was especially amazing with our unforgettable time at Lady Musgrave Island. During this past week all things nautical have came to a halt. We are in Rosslyn Bay Marina, carrying out repairs after an electrical fire on board................

Jen's eye view of the lagoon

We set sail from Lady Musgrave Island last Sunday heading for Pancake Creek about 36 nautical miles away. The forecast of a 15 to 20 South East wind was accurate and consequently delivered the best sail we have had all trip. ST3 really romped along, no motoring required, and a great day indeed.

"Quick glimpse" video of a great day sailing.

We arrived late afternoon at Pancake Creek. It's always interesting arriving at a strange new anchorage. We have two cruising guides on board for this area and both state that "Pancake Creek is one of the most popular anchorages on the QLD Coast". It's easy to see why with beautiful crystal clear water and a shoreline of rarely visited National Park.

They make the creeks big up this way! Pancake Creek.

We spent the next day exploring and enjoying the rocky shoreline. Breakfast was pancakes of course. Yes I'm a walking cliché.

What was left of my pancake before I remembered to take a pic.

Jen: Amazing things exist in nature, and are often overlook. I spotted this spiders web with its perfectly woven trampoline between some boulders. It is a kind of Russian Tent Weaving spider: Cyrtophora. It is small and grey but is an Orb spider. My research has failed to identify this spider. Although it's web has the same strong structural supporting threads web it is not shaped like a carnival tent. Perhaps it is as yet un named.

Nylon stockings? It looks so synthetic.

 

Jenniferophora: Trampoline Weave Spiders web.

We set sail early Tuesday morning for Cape Capricorn...although I should say we set 'motor' for CC. We weren't lucky with the wind this time. The challenge of the day was to avoid being on a collision path with any tankers anchoraged off Gladstone, while not loosing too much travel time. If you look on a chart of Gladstone Harbour you will see that the anchorage area holds about 26 ships. We tuned to Gladstone Harbour Control on channel 13 to hear what was going on and to see if any ships were moving in our direction.

I wonder if he's got a spare anchor winch motor?

After an uneventful trip we arrived at Cape Capricorn in the pink of the afternoon. We were feeling quite pleased having crossed the Tropic of Capricorn. ( Not quite as note-worthy as an equatorial crossing). No sooner had we dropped anchor when up popped a very pesky feathered visitor. Cormorants normally keep well away from humans by just diving deep. This little fellow saw me and thought " here's a man who likes his tucker, and just maybe I've scored an easy feast". Unfortunately for him a Love family member and his food are not easily parted. After a long conversation on the virtues of natural selection and a moral lesson of effort equals reward he realised that he was wasting his time, and swam off in a huff.

How's the size of that 'partially unfurled' flipper.

Out of the blue a man motored up to Sea Trek III and gave us his phone number asking us to keep an eye on his boat overnight. He would be doing maintenance "up there" and offered us the chance to view the Cape Capricorn Lighthouse with him. We declined. It was already sunset. We watched him sprint up the hill/ mountain and drive the truck down the razor back. When loaded he revved the Landcruiser all of the way back up again. It was so steep. No road. The convenient tram track remained unused.

Spot our tour guide as he reaches the Lighthouse of Cape Capricorn.

To be continued....

Also our blog now accepts your comments: feel free.

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy