We had hopes of exploring Great Keppel Island today but the weather had other plans. A trough coming from the Coral Sea is impacting the Queensland coast and it looks like it is going to be sticking around for a while. The weather forecast states that it will move west over the coast and then move back east, out to sea. Thus, it will pass over us twice.

As it moved in today, the winds picked up a bit and were blowing mostly in the 20 to 25 knot range. They are predicted to go up to 35 knots. Fortunately, we are in a very protected anchorage with a sand bottom that is great for holding. The winds are to be from the SE to E and we are on the north side of Great Keppel Island. Even with the winds howling, the waters in the anchorage are tame and we are hardly noticing the storm.

It has rained a few times but most of the heavy rain has either been on the mainland or further out to sea. I am sure our time will come but so far, it has not been bad.

Instead of exploring the island, we stayed warm and dry and...yep, you guessed it...we continued sewing on the new shade tarp we are making. Boy, is it fun or what!! It is coming along nicely and we just have one more side to complete.

Since we will not be going to Mackay to haul out the boat, we have decided to zip over to Rosslyn tomorrow. It is just 7 nm to the east of us. We need to restock on fresh fruits and veggies before moving on toward the Whitsundays. Rosslyn has a marina which lets you use their car for free to drive up the road to the town of Yeppoon, where the supermarkets are. Since the weather will be crappy through the weekend, we have decided to use our time well and go shopping during the bad weather. Once the weather clears, we will continue our trip northward.

By the way, I wish to thanks both Catherine and Sheldon for identifying the poor little sea bird that died on our boat back at Lady Musgrave Island. They suggested that it was a black noddy tern, also known as a white-capped noddy. I looked that up on the Internet today and the picture provided was identical to our deceased friend. They are known to nest on Lady Elliott Island, which is just to the SE of Lady Musgrave Island.