We are taking a couple of days in the Rosslyn Bay Marina – hot showers, clean clothes and a chance to pick up supplies as well as avoid some predicted strong winds. Having crossed the tropic of Capricorn we are now living in the tropics, I am not sure if it is just my imagination, but it feels warmer. Not that the weather has always been that kind to us.

Since leaving the Sandy Straits we stopped at Bundaberg, famous for its Rum. But when I suggested to Janice that we, once again, visit the Rum Distillery I was firmly told that we had enough on board already! And just because I want to visit it every time I am in Bundaberg is no reason to be difficult. Can a sailor get too much rum that is what I want to know?

Our trip to the Burnett River at Bundaberg meant an early morning start leaving from our anchorage hidden behind Big Woody Island at the northern end of the Sandy Straits. Taking up the anchor in the dark, Janice managed to get two of her fingers caught in the anchor chain. She let out a squeal and I thought that she had done herself a real mischief, but it was only a couple of bruised fingers, bad enough but not the blood and squash that I had in my mind when she cried out. Not a great start, and only served to put us both on edge.

It was dark, with no moon to assist and we still had to negotiate the passage from behind the island into the main channel, which was narrow and with shallows on either side. The plan was to follow a path on the GPS then pick up a red beacon, turning hard to port (left for the landlubbers). Get it wrong and you go aground, not good for my nerves at 3:30 in the morning. But we managed to get away in at least 6 meters of water throughout. I was feeling rather pleased with myself, Janice said, “What did you expect, that was what we planned”. After the rather challenging start the rest of the trip albeit long (64 nautical miles or120 klms) was quite uneventful. The winds were too light to sail and we motored most of the way with the autopilot engaged.

Bundaberg to Pancake Creek, was another early start, in the dark and once again 3:30 am. No squashed fingers, not being at anchor. Only the shallows north of the Burnett River to negotiate and a long sail, another 63 nautical miles. Such distances are not far in a car travelling at 100 klms per hour, but at something between 7 - 10 kms per hour it took us a while.

With strong winds, rain and squalls we were stuck in Pancake Creek. Not a bad place to be stuck, quite scenic. We had to move further into the Creek to a place where there was better holding for the anchor once the winds started. We did manage to meet a couple of other yachties, and have a bit of a look around. It was a good place to be sitting, even though we had to watch for anchor drag when the winds were particularly high. We felt sorry for those on a 60 foot ketch that kept spinning around on its anchor when the winds hit. The skipper, Keith, spent hours in the squalls sitting in the cockpit dressed in wet weather gear, just watching the anchor and warning other boats to keep clear, us included. In spite of all this it is a lovely location and we would happily do it all again - a great place to spend a few days.

From Pancake Creek we had a two day sail to Keppel Bay and Great Keppel Island, stopping at Cape Capricorn. The latter being very sheltered from the rather large swell that we had been sailing in all day. During that first day it was wonderful to sail through the midst of all of the large ships waiting to take on coal from Gladstone – 12 in all. These large vessels were all at anchor waiting to go in and load up. We did get a small fright when we realised that one of them was making way and heading very close in our direction, as it turned to pick up a pilot.

I think this was the first time we had been completely out of sight of land, more because the visibility was reduced, but we were also a few miles off shore. The yacht seemed much more at home with all of this than we were.

Great Keppel Island was simply wonderful! We managed to have swims, a bush walk and took the tender (small rubber boat) through a grove of mangroves. Very relaxing, and as Janice said, “This is what it is all about”. And she was right!

This morning we had a lovely sail from the island to the marina, only 9 nautical miles. The wind was perfect, sea a little large, but not too much, sailing at 6.5 knots – all good! So here we sit, all ready to go out for a meal at the restaurant – not too posh, but will make a nice change, especially for Janice who, to my surprise, is becoming quite the chef - what she has been doing with the pressure cooker fills me with surprise and culinary delight. Who is this woman?