Gladstone marina is comparatively small with an advertised 320 berths on 5 piers. It is very well maintained with tidy, pleasant gardens nearby and a well-appointed facilities and office block. The marina is in a man-made lagoon which is vaguely triangular with sides of perhaps 1/2nm. There is good depth en-route to, and in the marina which forms part of the southern side of the lagoon. The lagoon was being dredged by a suction dredge on a barge with the output hose heading ashore. The dredge and pipe were well marked and so did not present a navigational issue; however, the dredge worked 24 hours a day and the powerful diesel motors aboard could be clearly heard in the quiet hours.

The gardens are very well appointed and, apart from extensive manicured grass areas, has a children’s play area, BBQ areas, small performance stage and visitors information centre with café and fishing shop. It is crossed by a network of good quality paths. Across the lagoon Spinnaker Park forms the entrance. This is another parkland area with good facilities including play areas, nature walks, BBQ areas and café. Our suspicion is that the parks are part of the restitution of previous industrial and commercial areas. Whatever, the reason, the parks are very pleasant and most welcome.

Gladstone is a major port, and this was very evident from the number of wharves and ships. The north side of the lagoon was partly formed by a huge coaling wharf. We never saw less than two large bulk carriers docked, and usually three. These were fed by immense mobile cranes linked to long conveyor belts. Apparently in the past this wharf meant that visiting boats ended up coated with a black dust. Clearly things have improved environmentally as we did not notice any dust. The port website shows that the port had a throughput of 124 million tonnes with 1900 visiting ships for the financial year 2018/2019. Coal accounted for 70% of the throughput. In addition, Gladstone is a major aluminium export port. The raw Bauxite arrives from North Australia where is it processed at the Gladstone refineries before being exported as alumina. Gladstone has one of the largest refineries in the world. In addition, Gladstone has a major LPG wharf and significant power station. Despite all this industry, the environment around Gladstone seems very clean.

The lagoon also has a marine industry area with one small and one large boatyard. Most importantly for us, it includes a chandlery. This was reasonably well equipped, but did not have the pump we needed. We had called them on our way in, and so one of our first calls on arrival on Monday was into the shop. They informed us that there was not a like-for-like replacement for our bilge pump. However, after some research they had found a suitable pump. This ‘Whale’ diaphragm pump would pump almost anything including holding tanks (we had similar design pumps on our holding tanks) and bilges. The shop could order us one, and it could be in Gladstone on Wednesday. They would call us when it arrived; great!

On Tuesday we decided to walk into Gladstone town. Gladstone has a population of some 33,000 and is quite concentrated geographically. The Central Business District (CBD) is an easy 2km walk from the marina. Most of this is through the park, then over a bridge spanning an inlet and then up a hill to the CBD. The bridge is interesting in that it is a lifting bridge. There were several yachts and larger boats in the inlet, so the bridge is still in operation. We later learned that it opens on demand at midday each day, although sadly we never saw it open.

We had been warned that the CBD was business and not retail, and this was indeed the case. The centre was a mix of lawyers, accountants and government buildings with the occasional small café. At least the traffic was light and the footpaths wide. However, unlike Bundaberg there was not much tree cover, so the CBD was all pretty uninspiring.

We walked on and after a few hundred metres came across the Museum and Art Gallery. This was open and free to enter. The first room showed some promise with a display on the history of communication, some of it with a Gladstone focus. It was interesting to see the ‘old ‘dial telephones from the 70’s and then even a push button example from the 80s along with a flip top Samsung mobile phone from the 90’s (we had one of those!). Unfortunately though that was the museum. The art gallery consisted of two large rooms. The first had work from a famous modern artist – not our cup of tea. As Helen put it, it was what kids painted at primary school. The second was better with a series of painting of local young sportsmen and sportswomen. Not bad, but, well not particularly great.

And on to the Valley Shopping Centre. This was a couple of blocks of shops including a Woolworths supermarket, car park and bakery. Helen tried the hot chicken from a small fast food place whilst Paul went for the bakery pie (typical Kiwi!); very nice too. Over lunch we chatted to an older local lady. She was recovering from cancer and had lived in Gladstone pretty much all her life. We got the full, interesting, tale.

After lunch it was a case of into Woolworths for a few supplies and then Helen headed back to the boat whilst Paul pushed on to the viewpoint at Round Hill. The hill was some 3km away and, as our local lady put it, a real climb.

The walk up the hill was indeed a bit of a steep climb by road. The summit is fenced off as it is a communication station with several aerials. A road with car parking runs around this just below the summit. It offers great views all around, with useful information boards at intervals. Well worth the push up.

Wednesday was time to fix the lazarette drain that had decayed and so was leaking. The new part, a plastic affair, cost $11. First the lazarette had to be emptied of its contents (spare anchor, chain, fuel tin, 2 stroke oil, wash bottles, BBQ stools, flippers, dinghy pump, etc. – you get the idea!).. Then a new hole made to fit the new drain. Not easy as the lazarette access is just over 300mm square, and the bottom of the lazarette just out of arms reach. Then the old drain was sealed, and the new one fitted. Back inside to the aft cabin where the drain went under the aft bunk. This was again a tight space accessed through a small hole and, yes, all done at arm’s length and largely by feel. Suffice to say the repair took all day. Although as a bonus we also derusted the (pretty rusty) anchor and painted it with silver ‘Hammarite’ paint. That evening we met up with our friends Darren and Lisa from ‘Satori’ to use one of the electric BBQs in the park; a good time was had.

We had not heard from the chandlery so Thursday we went in and asked; no pump yet. We decided to head for the larger shopping area at Stocklands. This was a 6km walk so we decided to take a taxi. The taxi arrived promptly and we were soon at the shopping centre. This was quite extensive with several major shops including Woolworths, Coles, Kmart and Big W alongside a range of smaller stores. We took the opportunity to restock and taxied back with a boot full of supplies.
Friday, and still no phone call from the Chandlery. Early afternoon, and Paul called in to the shop. A quick check and yes, the pump had arrived! The pump was fitted that afternoon. Then how to test? We duly used our shower to fill the bilge, which took at least 30 minutes. Our bilge float switch which automatically sets off the pump when the water reaches a certain level appeared not to work, so we used the override ‘on’ switch and, sure enough, the pump emptied the bilge in short order; much easier than manual pumping!

Saturday morning was a check of the float switch. We suspected that its location, under the engine, meant it has accumulated dirt and so not functioned. We got it out and cleaned it, and it worked as advertised. The float has to rise some way to activate the switch and we suspected we had been too hasty in using the manual override. There was no other place to fit the switch, so, having been cleaned it was refixed in the same location as before.

Helen had also been busy cleaning Tai Mo Shan and making full use of the laundry facilities (which were clean, well-appointed with 4 washers and 4 dryers) and comparatively cheap). The marina had a few people living near permanently here as well as several boats passing through. The dock was therefore a very social place and we were often to be found chatting about all things boating, including the passage north, and whether to use the notorious ‘Narrows’. The Narrows are a narrow strait of water between the mainland and Curtis Island. The passage is picturesque and takes at least 20nm off the journey. However, the strait is not just narrow and shallow, the middle 5nm dries! Indeed the middle used to have an active cattle crossing as it dries to 2m. The tides are sufficient for keel boats such as yachts to pass. Overall though, we considered it just too narrow and shallow (even with the tide). Many boats have used the Narrows, and many more will, just not us.

We decided to head off Monday. The next stop was Great Keppel island, some 75nm using the Gladstone shipping channel. It would be a new anchorage for us and so we wanted to arrive mid-afternoon. High tide was Sunday 2147, so a nice early start at say 0030 would give us a nice boost on the ebb tide and a reasonable arrival time; shame it was such an ungodly hour to set off!

Picture: the view from Round Hill. Clockwise from top right: CBD, Alumina Plant, Airport, Cement Plant, Power Station, Coal Wharf and (long) conveyor belts.