Photo: One of the unique signs along the walk to Lighthouse, Gt Keppel Island, placed by a pair of chairs at a spectacular lookout.
09:30 Saturday 6th August we left Urangan Marina and motor sailed to Bundaberg Marina, 41 nm north. Yachts are not encouraged to anchor in the river since the floods earlier in the year as authorities are not certain how much debris is still lying on the river bed. Bundaberg lost one of its marinas including boats plus. Once Dol was sorted we changed into our All Black gear and headed for the restaurant in the marina, owned by Kiwis, with a big TV, where we watched the AB’s defeat the Aussies to retain the Bledisloe Cup. We spent 2 days in Bundaberg, each day another yacht on its way to Hamilton Island Race week arrived for a brief stopover, racing starts later in the week. One of the permanent people living in the marina was heard to say “there is a lot of testosterone about the place with the race boats”. Monday morning with time to spare before we took the courtesy bus into Bundaberg for a look at the city and the shops, we walked around the marina’s chandlery and were surprised to see Gail’s old two piece wetsuit that we had ‘donated free to a good home’ at Bayswater Marina 3 or 4 years ago, for sale in the second hand goods area, it’s a small world!!. In Bundaberg we talked to a guy at Middle Town Marina about the devastation the January floods had caused there. On returning to the marina we returned our key, left the marina and anchored 30 metres away ready for an early start the following day to Pancake Creek. Despite our earlier comment about discouraging anchoring, we noticed several others join us the same evening.
Tuesday morning we had the anchor up at 06:00 and were off to Pancake Creek. What a great day, sun shining, flat seas and light to moderate winds. We had a day of sail changes from Yankee and staysail to gennaker on both tacks, with a south east breeze in the morning and a north east breeze in the afternoon. Unfortunately the wind was too light to sail all the way and we did motor sail a bit. Pancake Creek is a lovely sheltered creek, with sandy beaches and bush. The following day we went ashore and walked along the track under the single power line up to the lighthouse on Bustard Head and along Aircraft beach, a delightful, long, wide sandy beach. Our friends from Townsville, Gordon and Maree arrived in the afternoon of the following day on their boat Waimea, so we repeated the walk, this time we continued onto Jenny Lind beach with spectacular views of the sand banks in the estuary between Bustard Head and Town of 1770. The town was renamed in 1970 from Round Hill, to commemorate Captain James Cook’s first landing place in Queensland in 1770. They do have some strange names over here. Along the way we spoke to other walkers, the caretaker of the lighthouse and the pilot of a small Cesna aircraft which landed on Aircraft beach. He does that tourist trip several times each day, including dropping off overnight campers. We spent the next day relaxing and taking the dinghy for a ride around the creek, it was a glorious day, sun shining and little or no wind.
Saturday we left Pancake Creek at 06:30 am and had a wonderful gennaker ride up the coast, dodging the ships off Gladstone and crossing the Tropic of Capricorn, 23 30 S. We anchored at Cape Capricorn at the end of another sparkling day and even went for a fish. Unfortunately our fishing gear was to light for the fish and we ended up losing several hooks and soft baits as the fish struck and swam away with them. It turned into a rolly night at Cape Capricorn, so after breakfast the following morning we lifted the anchor and sailed 6nm to Hummocky Island for morning tea and then put the mainsail up, poled out the Yankee and sailed a further 17nm to Great Keppel Island as our next overnight anchorage.
Leeks Beach, Gt Keppel Island, is a beautiful wide sandy beach anchorage with clear blue azure water, which unfortunately is open to the predominant swell. After the first rolly night we went for a walk with Gordon and Maree to the island resort at Fishermans Beach, and decided both boats would move further into the bay and put out a stern anchor to hold us at the correct angle to the swell to avoid the roll. The first night with a stern anchor out was not perfect but better, the following morning both boats reset their stern anchors and that night we all had a perfect night with no roll. Wednesday morning we went ashore early and walked across the high point of the island and out to the lighthouse, approx. 13 -14 kms. Along the way we saw several herds of the biggest wild goats you have ever seen. Thank goodness, although they kept an eye on us, they were slightly skittish and either moved away from us stood still so we couldn’t see them. On returning to the boat we had a swim and relaxed for the rest of the day. We left Gt Keppel Island on Thursday morning, 16th August, and motored the 10nm to Keppel Bay Marina for an overnight stop to reprovision and take on water to ensure we could enjoy the next couple of weeks in isolated anchorages. (the water maker finally failed completely whilst we were in Gt Sandy Straits and a new one will be waiting for us to install in Townsville in October)
The following morning we motor sailed to Port Clinton, the predicted winds never arrived so although it was a lovely sunny clear blue day, there was not enough wind to sail. The highlight was 4 humpback whales on their way back south to Antarctica who crossed reasonably close to the boat, another whale was seen breaching in the distance. The dolphins we saw were not in a playful mood and just cruised past. Port Clinton is similar to Pancake Creek and we intend to spend a few days here, fishing and walking. Next blog update in a couple of weeks, further up the east coast.