Great Keppel Island

Well we made it to the Keppel Islands we were glad to drop anchor. We anchored at Svendan’s Beach. It felt better to be behind land even though we were still rolling around. The wind blew for the entire time we were here with gusts of up to 30 knots. There were also squally showers which made it hard to go ashore. We did drag while we were there and ended up moving to hide behind some small rocks, where we still managed to drag we ended up setting 2 anchors, one of one fell off and we had to dive down to find it when we were going when we had realized what happened. We did go shore everyday even if it was only for a short time.


Walking along the beach to the resort on Great Keppel Island.

The kids collected shells which we hadn’t seen on any other beach so far. It was really windy and rolly which made for not much sleep at night with checking we hadn’t dragged. We took the dingy for a ride to the resort the first time we went there as we weren’t sure on how to get there and Amy is getting too heavy to carry too far. We had tried to walk there but Ian said it looked like kilometers. We walked to the resort on the other side of the island when people told us the way they had gone and saw goats the second time. We had a camp fire 1 night which was a success despite not having dry wood which was fun to light but it got there in the end and we toasted marshmallows. We tried to have a game of cricket until the bat broke.

We stopped at Pearl Bay for a couple of nights it was a pretty place and is shut up at times for military training. We were asked if we could take some oars up to a man called Barry who had left them behind, we did this and he gave us a couple of mud crabs and fish which were great. We did a bit of exploring and collected more shells and had a swim. We saw turtles but didn’t see any dugong’s which have a protection area there. We then moved a little further up the coast to Island Head where we collected yabbies and tried a spot of fishing. Ian caught a small shark but it got off the line in the shallow water. You can go further up the river than where we did. It was a comfortable place to stay in the boat as it didn’t move much.



Ian and Amy walking along the beach at Pearl Bay.

From here we went to Middle Percy Island which was great and the water was clear. This is a place that you can only be visited in calm weather the anchorage is no good in anything else. As we dropping the anchor the gear box got stuck in reverse, yet another thing for Ian to fix. At first Ian was worried that we have broken the gear box but he found a crack in a tube which he was able to repair. There is an A frame building that heaps of people have left their mark on by leaving the name of their boat on different things from wood to a bra.



Can you find Saltheart's mark around the middle of the picture we all helped make it. It took a few hours.

The kids managed to make some friends here for the day before they left. We met the lady (Margaret) who has the lease of the island and told us a bit about the history of the place. We also went snorkeling amongst a huge school of bait fish which was amazing. We made a plague to leave here with the name of our boat which took the better part of the morning with a screwdriver and a soldering iron.

We moved onto Digby Island from here for the night before we went onto Mackay the start of the Whitsunday’s. We have spent about a week here. We needed to get the pipe that broke replaced or repaired permanently. Then the winds picked up to 25-30 knots so we stayed until it settled a bit. As it turned out the pipe wasn’t fixed properly and Ian had a hard time trying to get it to fit back where it came from after part of it must have been cut out. The marina is out of town, we have caught a cab a couple of times which is a bit of a rip off, we have walked back twice which was a bit of exercise it is a 5km walk. We got slightly wet once. We haven’t really done anything exciting here. We did stubble upon an event in a park where the kids got to do some volleyball, face painting, pillow fighting and jumping castles which were free. We are going to Brampton Island the wind is still supposed to be 25-30 knots but it wasn’t that strong today.

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.

Big sand hills and big fish

We left Brisbane on Tuesday and spent the first night at an anchorage called Big Sandhills on Moreton Island. Here there is a massive natural sand blow. The following morning we all climbed the sand hill and the kids took their boards to slide down. There was many fine crashes but no one was hurt too much.

. Those dots are us sliding down and climbing up.

Then we were off to Tangalooma, about 8 miles further north on Moreton Island. Here there are 15 wrecks that have been sunk to form an anchorage. There is lots of fish to been seen when you snorkel around them and there is also big sand hills. Amy made friends with a boy from Holland, they are spending the cyclone season in Brisbane and we met up with them again here.

. About to eat lots of sand, and below are some of the wrecks

From Tangalooma it was a days sail to Moolooaba. We dropped anchor the first night but as the tide swung we found ourselves about 10 feet from another boat. There was no where else to anchor so we grabbed a berth at Lawries Marina for 3 nights. This is the first walk on berth since Yamba at the beginning of the trip. We took advantage of the close proximity to shopping and stocked up.

. Michael caught this nice Spotted Mackeral just out of Tangalooma

This morning we made our way to Double Island Point, which is a head land that gives some protection until we cross the wide bay bar, then the inside of Frazer Island. We had a great sail, motoring for about 2 hours until the winds picked up. We had the lure out and something big grabbed it because the line broke. It was my $20 lure, I didn't want to use it at first as i thought it was too expensive to loose. We then used a cheap lure and didn't think we had much of a chance but shortly after Daniel reeled in a 45 cm Mackeral Tuna. He was pretty pleased that his was bigger than Michael's. It had a dark flesh and we didn't find it a very nice table fish. A couple of hours later, not to be out done by the boys Kathleen brang in a whopping 100cm Spanish Mackeral. A fine eating species that feed us tonight and probably another 2 nights.

, Daniel pleased with his efforts

. What a beauty and what a day

Brisbane

We left Tippler's and moved slowly up through the Bay Islands. We anchored off Russell Island for a couple of days and visited some of the smaller Islands in the dingy through out the day. It was quote busy at some of the anchorages with the long weekend and a yatch club going to one of the places we stayed at off Russell Island. We had to have Easter late with the kids as we couldn't get any eggs for the Easter Bunny to deliver on Russell Island. We ended having Easter in Brisbane.


We didn't plan on going to Brisbane, we were going to go to Moreton Island but the anchorage that we were going to didn't offer any protection in the southerlies that were blowing. That's why we ended up here. We are currently tied up next to the Botanical Gardens at Garden Point between a couple of pilers. There is all facilities of a marina but at a much better rate, $50 a week, right in the centre of the city

While we have been here we have done most of the tourist things like visiting the museum, the Maritime museum, art galleries and have been to Southbank where there is a great park for the kids,a beach with a pool and a water play park. We plan on leaving here on Tuesday and heading to some big sand dunes on Moreton Island and then a little further up to Tangalooma where there some sunken wrecks where artifical reefs and a anchorage for boats.










Left - Southbank, there is a hugh public pool and water
playground here.

Right - Botanical gardens, Brisbane.

Happy Birthday Kathleen

Fourteen years ago today Wendy & I were doing laps of John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle trying to bring on the birth of Kathleen after Wendy's waters broke the night before. Now 14 years later she is a beatiful and clever young lady who puts too much toilet paper in the head and blocks it up, then I have to unblock it and get covered in it!

We have had a busy few days this week. On Wednesday John, Jan & Mechelle(John's Daughter) & her 4 month old twins came up for a visit. We had a cuppa on the boat and then went over to the park and had lunch. It was good to see them all again as its been a while since we last saw them.

Michael, John, Charlotte, Harrison, Ian, Middy, Kathleen, Amy & Wendy at the park on the waterfront. We have spent a bit of time here with the kids. .

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The next day we caught the bus to movieworld, which is a theme park with rides and shows etc. Everyone had a good time and there was hardly any crowds as it was mid week and no school holidays, so there was only a couple of minutes to wait to go on the attractions.

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Amy hated this ride, too scarry.

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The following day we walked over to the chanderly to pick up the exhaust part that split on the way from Ballina. We fitted that and left for Tipplers Resort on South Stradbroke Island. We arrived just before dark and had trouble finding a place to anchor as it was packed with houseboats and powerboats dropping anchor in the channel. We ended up finding a little hole close to the resort after sending the kids ahead in the dingy and the portable depth sounder. We went over to the hotel in the resort and there was live music and Toad races. 8 cane toads(which are an introduced pest here) were painted with numbers and people could bid to buy a toad. The first three toads that crossed the line earnt their owners the pool. Some of the faster toads went to $100 and none went below $50. The winner picked up over $300.

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Cane toad races at Tipplers

Back on the Gold Coast

We left Iluka on the 18 March with a plan to go to the Gold Coast. We had fairly light winds and not in the direction that was forecast so we called in at Ballina where we had a new hard drive installed on the laptop. On the 22 March we made our way to the Gold coast again. We were only off Skenners Head, a couple of miles out when heaps of smoke started coming out of the motor room again. There was a split in the exhaust water lock. I managed to sort of mend it with tape and bandages and we decided to keep going. The southerly current was running pretty strong so we had to motor the whole way and as there was still some exhaust leak everyone had to sleep on deck.

Sunrise on the Gold Coast

We entered the seaway at about 9:00am the next day and dropped anchor in Marine Stadium, outside Seaworld, Southport. Since then we have had 30 knot southerly winds that have tested our anchor and given us a wet dingy ride to shore. From here we might have a day at movie world or one of the worlds and then head into Moreton Bay. Wendy's Uncle John and Jan are visiting us tomorrow and then we are off, there are too many jet skis and aquaducks buzzing around here.

Kathleen and Amy on the passage to Southport