In the Tropics

Well all good things must come to an end and at Lady Musgrave this was sooner than we wanted. The wind was forecast to pick up and at high tide the anchorage here is exposed as the ocean swell can roll in over the reef. So we left at about lunch time for Pancake Creek, the closest all weather anchorage. Our departure time meant that we would be entering at night which was a bit of a worry for us as the entrance is narrow and unlit. As we got closer we could see other yacht anchored in the mouth which gave us some idea on where the sand banks weren't. We stayed here for two nights. It is national park and very attractive.


Pancake Creek

The winds had increased and we wanted to get moving before they strengthened more. So we pointed towards Cape Capricorn, a full days sail. It was named by cook because it lies nearly on the tropic of Capricorn, we are now in the tropics. It offers some protection from the swell but the night we stayed there it was pretty uncomfortable. Through the night the wind gusted to 40 knots and we dragged anchor a bit.In the morning we went ashore while we waited for the high tide to enter 'Yellow Patch', which is a creek that would have made our stay here a lot more comfortable, but as we approached the barred entrance to the creek we could only see surf on what we thought must have been the entrance.

Cape Capricorn, Curtis Island

The desire for a good nights sleep led us to Great Kepple Island, off the coast of Yepoon and Rockhampton. The wind was still 25 knots but the swell was barely noticeable and a couple of glasses of grog ensured a good nights sleep. In the morning we noticed that we had dragged again so Michael and I changed anchors to the larger spare and we are putting out more chain for the larger tidal range and we are holding tight now.

A bit of fishing on Great Kepple Island

Moving up the Queensland Coast

Well we have been on the move a bit lately, mostly trying to find a good anchorage that is comfortable. We headed up to Fraser Island and spent a couple of days at Gary's Anchorage which we have stayed at before. It offers good shelter and thousands of sandflies we had the repellant coils burning on the boat most of the time we were here. Everyone got eaten except for Daniel who they don't like. We went for walks on the beach and met up with Bill a man we first met in Moolooaba. Here the kids and I got stuck into some art work which was loads of fun.


When we left Gary's we headed up to Kingfisher Bay where we used the resort facilities. The kids enjoyed a swim in the pool and a few games of pool in the games room. We did plan on going on a long walk out to Lake McKenzie but the weather picked up and we were forced to move. We went to Riverheads for a night to get some protection. We knew that this place is not good for sandflies but we had to go there. As it turned out the sandflies weren't to bad the wind must have kept them away. We went for a walk to the shops and bought some fruit and vegies.

From here we moved to Big Woody Island we went ashore here and I walked up to an old disused lighthouse with Jess everyone else waited on the beach they thought there would be to many mossie's. The girls collected heaps of little shells while Daniel smashed rocks on other rocks.

Our next stop was Burnett Heads where we collected our mail before going further up the river to Bundaberg. We spent a couple of nights at the marina here and did a big shop as we planned to spend a bit of time at Lady Musgrave Island and Yellow Patch further up. Ian also got a spare part for the boat (an impellor for the water pump). If that goes we won't be able to use the motor without a spare. The kids went off and did some exploring and we met up with them later on once we had done our jobs. They spent a bit of time in the park and checking out the shops.


Lady Musgrave our next destination it can get quite uncomfortable here in big winds , we were fine for a few days. The kids were so excited about going here as we had told them about our last trip here. As we entered the channel to get in they could see the coral and heaps of turtles swimming around. Just before we had seen a couple of pods of dolphins or as we found out one lot many have been reef sharks which drive fish into the shallows. We did heaps of snorkling here and it was like swimming in an aquarium. There were so many different varieties of fish. We saw loads of turtles while we were snorkling and Kathleen managed to touch one. We went up with Hayden and he hung out with us which was great fun. Daniel and Michael gave him a hard time especially Daniel. We went over to a place known as Manta ray bommie in the hope that we might be lucky enough to see one. We took the dingy's across the top of the reef so we stayed for around an hour so we could get back. We didn't see any manta ray's but Kathleen saw 2 white tip reef sharks, one of which she got on video before she paniced and took off. Ian saw 1 of the sharks no one else saw any. We did see an eel and an octopus which was amazing to watch it change colours. One night we went over to the Island to see if we could see and baby turtles hatching but didn't find any. Kathleen found the shell of a turtle which must have toppled over while laying eggs and died. The shell broke as Ian tried to pull it off the sand. We ended up walking around the Island that night and checked out the lighthouse on the way.