Wow! It’s been about a week since we last posted a report. Problem was, we have been more than 60 nm offshore and hence, no mobile, and therefore no internet or VHF reception (which is quite liberating!)
OK kids, no reason to call in Marine Rescue (called Coast Guard in Queensland), we are still alive and kicking and enjoying every moment of this journey.
So, to catch up: After cleaning out Woollie’s and Dan Murphy’s in Yeppoon, and forgetting to do our early vote for the federal election, we set forth towards the Great Barrier Reef. First stop was just South of the Defence Force artillery area, where we ran out of reception. We anchored in Pearl Bay after a 50 nm run and popped a bottle of Spanish sparkling wine to celebrate tenants in all our investment properties and a bonus payment from Coldbuster for increased sales of 31% compared to the same quarter a year ago.
It was a bit of a windy and rocky night, so we sailed to Hunter island in the Duke group the next day, where we anchored in the lee for a quiet night. The next day was a doddle, with the current taking us out to sea at 10.5 knots to South Percy Island where we anchored on the North shore to seek shelter from the predicted 30 knot Southerly, in the lee of the island.
South Percy island
We had a good anchorage just outside the fringing reef in sand, in about 10m of water. Saturday was very relaxed whilst we sat out this buster, in sunshine and in the nuddy as we were the only boat in sight. “Tight lines” Schady managed to catch 2 coral trout and a potato cod for dinner. They looked decidedly undersized after their heads and the tails were removed by the fish woman.
Catch of the day
On Sunday we lifted anchor and had a wonderful sail to Digby island where we arrived at 3pm. We had an appalling night with currents on the beam, rocking the boat. We were glad to lift anchor today and had a good sail in an Easterly to Mackay harbour where we are in the marina tonight. Beware of the Hay Point coal loader – we sailed through an ocean parking area of 28 huge cargo vessels waiting in line to be loaded!
These southern islands are quite barren
Glad to be back in reception – tomorrow, we are taking the bus into town to do some shopping before we sail North to the Whitsundays. Cheers!
After a bumpy night in Pancake Creek with a howling South-wester threatening to drag our anchor, we motored out into the bay at 7:15 and had the sails up at 7:30am. After a muesli breakfast on the go, “Slocum” Schady said “this light Southwesterly is ideal for the asymmetrical spinnaker, so let’s get it up before the wind peters out at midday”
Motoring out of Pancake Creek
So, at 8:30 the spinnaker went up. Now, for our non-sailing friends a short explanation: Esprit has two standard sails, a mainsail of 50m2 and a foresail of 42m2, total area of about 92m2. We have bought a storm jib of 10m2 for extreme conditions. Also, an asymmetrical spinnaker of 135m2 for when the wind is light and blowing from behind, from about a quarter off the stern, to about square on the beam. We furl the foresail when the spinnaker is hoisted, increasing the total sail area to 185m2.
An hour into a relaxed sail, the forecasted drop in the wind turned into an increasing wind from 10 knots, to 20-25 knots in a matter of minutes. Problem is, at this wind strength it is virtually impossible for two people to get the spinnaker down. So now we are entering the main shipping channel of Gladstone harbour going at about 10-11 knots, with about 28 ships within sight, either anchored or transiting in the shipping lane.
A four hour roller coaster ride followed, including five broaches, before the wind dropped, allowing us to douse the spinnaker. Needless to say we covered half the 70nm distance to Hummocky island in this time. For the non-sailors, a broach looks something like this, compliments of Google:
A spinnaker broach
The night at Hummocky was again a sleepless one with strong wind gusts from the East, but we woke this morning to a glorious day with a gentle Southerly pushing us on to Great Keppel island, 3 hours to the North.
Beautiful 3 hour run with the jib poled out.
Here we are anchored off the North of Great Keppel island on a quiet Sunday night, six weeks into our journey!
It’s been awhile since our last post, but we have been too far offshore for phone and internet service. Leaving Urangan after the outboard was serviced, we motor-sailed to Port Bundaberg due to a lack of wind. After filling up with diesel, we left early the next morning for Lady Musgrave Island, again motor-sailing the 54 nm in 8 hrs because of light winds.
Approaching Lady Musgrave
It was quite tricky entering the lagoon surrounded by a fringing reef, but after anchoring, we were again treated to a spectacular sunset.
Channel markers – about 15m wide
Lady Musgrave sunset
Thursday dawned bright and sunny and Annie caught two sucker fish before breakfast. She released them again, as these ugly fish which attach themselves underneath sharks, are inedible. We then visited the island to explore and my, what a magical place. Birdlife galore and covered with vegetation, mostly Pisonia trees.
Island information map
Native in Pisonia forest
Annie and Pandanus palms
Annie, Stephen and Sandy
After lunch we went snorkelling with Stephen and Sandy from the boat next to us. We looked at beautiful coral reefs and schools of exotic fish.
Snorkelmeister Schady on the left
Today we went for an early walk around the island, which only takes 30 minutes and after a swim and breakfast we lifted the anchor to go to Pancake Creek on the mainland. We will stay here tonight before sailing North in what looks like a good South-east wind tomorrow.
After a good night’s rest behind Ida island, we waited for the incoming tide at 12:30 and set sail up the Strait in this section where it is wide enough, to sail up to Garry’s Anchorage. With just the jib up and a 3 knot incoming tide we sailed all the way up to Garry’s doing the 14 nm in 2.5 hours. Once we had set the anchor, we went ashore for a long walk on the island.
Going ashore
Mud crab artworks
We got back at 4pm and were greeted by a big group of yachties having sundowners on the beach. Introductions were made and they insisted we join them. All these people are retired and are making their annual sail up the coast. A most convivial group from Yamba.
Liquid sunset at Garry’s
We pulled up the anchor at 5:30 the next morning to get to the notorious Sheridan Flats at high tide. This is the shallowest part of the strait, more or less halfway to Hervey Bay and we crossed it at 7:30 with less than 100mm below the keel. Thank goodness the GPS and channel markers are there to make life easier in these complex channel passages. We entered the Great Sandy Strait Marina at 10:30, welcomed by Bob and Deb Rafter, the friendly managers who were waiting to catch our mooring lines. The warm showers were enjoyable and Annie did the laundry duty whilst I took the opportunity to have a haircut and visit the local Apple expert. I use my iPhone 6 as a hotspot for internet access for my MacBook Air and they inexplicably stopped talking to each other. David the Apple expert, showed me the dark arts of the OS system and got them talking again.
This morning we went for a long walk to the markets at the Urangan Pier, an amazing relic from days past, fortunately kept in good repair after part of it was demolished. The photo below tells the history.
Urangan Pier history
Two relics from the past
Annie at Pier’s end
The market, in particular the farmer’s fruit and vegetable section was a delight. Annie paid $25 for all the fruit and veg below:
Moreton Bay fig tree at the markets
$25 for all of this!
There is a lot of rain forecast for tomorrow, so we will do chores around the boat. On Monday morning Andrew from “Aquaholics Outboard Service” (I just love the name!) will come to service the recalcitrant outboard before we set off to Bundaberg in the arvo. This is of course sugar cane country and the home of Bundy rum – the twin’s favourite.
Since our last post from Mooloolaba, we ended up waiting there for 4 days for a 30-35 knot S-E offshore to subside. We were getting bored, so we bought our first newspaper in a month and that was so depressing, we turned on the TV for the first time since we left Sydney and Annie watched one of Ron Watson’s collection of movies we downloaded on a hard drive.
On Wednesday we decided to bite the bullet and make a run for Wide Bay Bar, to get into the Great Sandy Strait behind Fraser Island and get shelter from the wind. Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world and sailing around it would have added another 120nm to our trip. Despite the predicted 3m swell offshore due to the 4 days of S-East winds, we thought the wind had dropped enough to 20-25 knots, for us to manage the trip. Besides, Esprit is a big bottomed girl of 10 tonnes and it takes 15-20 knots to really get her fat arse going on a broad reach.
Once outside the harbour we hoisted the sails and as this was in the lee of the breakwater, it was still manageable. Sailing out 3 miles to sea to get away from the lee shore, it became clear that the 25 knot wind and 3m swell was quite messy. “Slocum” Schady is one of the best helm persons I know and she took it in her stride.
Leaving Mooloolaba
From here things became interesting and we had one of the most exhilarating sails since sailing into a hurricane South of Madagascar in 1987. We had logged in to Marine Rescue at 6:30 to report an expected transit time of about 10 hours for the 55 nm to Wide bay bar. But averaging 8-9 kn/h in the building wind, we completed the distance in 6.5h. I think the following videos illustrate the conditions better than I can describe. From the relatively benign start, to sets of 4-5m rogue waves breaking at their crests, to squalls later in the piece. This gave us speeds in excess of 10 knots.
Then this:
And this:
And finally, to cool Annie off:
Rounding Double Island Point, a big squall hit us, forcing us to tuck in a reef – and a half hour later, a second reef, reducing the mainsail to 50% and shortly afterwards, furling the jib. We were still doing 8 knots as we approached the bar, so we dropped the main and was looking ahead at a horizon of breaking waves. Fortunately, we had Marine Rescue on channel 16 following us on their screens through our AIS transponder, saying “100m to starboard, 50m to port” allowing us to miss the various sand bars, before a huge wave picked us up and we started surfing at 18 knots. I could hear Annie saying “oh sh1t – we shouldn’t be here!”
I wish I had a Go-Pro mounted on the spray-dodger to capture the view of the waves behind us, but we managed to surf into the “Mad Mile” as it is known locally, and work our way into Pelican Bay where we anchored in the lee of Ida island. We knocked back a half a bottle of whisky! Lesson learned: don’t cross this bar in 25 knots of wind, in a 3-4m sea!
