Wednesday 31^st July

An early run ashore on South Percy where we met up with Alan and Michele Larkin off the eye catching Schionning 15 Catamaran named ”Attitude” which had arrived just on dusk the night before. This triple spreader rigged  cat with reverse rake bows did the Louisiades Rally two years ago. A number of these cats with lightweight fit out (6 tonne) are doing well in overseas regattas. Attitude has a full cruising fit out (9 tonne) but is still a very quick cat.

After our walk we had a leisurely sail under headsail to West Bay on Middle Percy, 10 miles to the North West. This famous anchorage is a “must stop” for most cruising yachts with most leaving some memento of their visit in the large A frame shed. There would be literally thousands of boat plaques here; anything from a signed thong to ornately carved timber boards 

 

                                      

                Our previous boat "Malew of Man" put there by the previous owners in the late 1980's

                                                                                                 New board for Allusive

                                                                                                 BBQ at the back of the famous A frame

                                         

A bit hard to read but this typed linen plaque was done by past members John and Audrey Garwood in 1984 Some senior members will remember them well.

                                                                                                              West Percy sunset

Apart from a walk over to the lagoon at low tide we spent a quiet day on board reading and fishing with a run ashore at 4.30 for the mandatory sundowners and BBQ with the other cruisers from the 4 cats anchored in the bay.

We ended up staying two nights and after a half day walk to the homestead enjoyed the company of Ernest "The goat man" at the BBQ  on the second night . He spent some time telling us about the islands history. He lives full time on the island and is famous for his wild goat currys.

Tuesday 30^th July

South Percy Island is not on most cruisers radar as an anchorage, most preferring to head straight to Middle Percy and we therefore had the island anchorage to ourselves and “Entice”. There are many rocky bays and coral shelves around the Island which don’t encourage anchoring. However there is a small deep anchorage on a sandy beach on the N East corner where we spent two nights.

A very interesting walk on the island to the Southern side revealed steep cliffs and when scrambling down one  cleft we found a small entrance which opened up into a very large cave about 100 metres long but only a couple of metres wide which we spent some time exploring.

                                                     the intrepid explorers Greg and John

 

                                                            Karen in the cave

                                                       looking into the teeth of the trade winds

 

Further along the shore were a number of rocky inlets with much debris washed up. We were intrigued by the number of thongs….. Boat people??  and old fishing ropes and nets.

Monday 29^th July

An early morning dog run then it was time to move on from Great Keppel Island, once again in loose company with the cat Entice.

 

The original plan was to head for Cheviot Island but the anchorage was not useable in the boisterous conditions. For the first part of the day we had a pleasant 15 knot wind from astern which slowly built to the forecast 25 to 30 knots and a steep short sea once the tide turned. The war games were interesting with a big USA hovercraft coming out from the shore and sliding into the back door of an aircraft carrier. (as there was an exclusion zone of 3 miles we called the carrier for his course and speed and he responded! , 3 knots  155 degrees).

We ended up sailing to South Percy arriving at 1900. Greg arrived about an hour before us and his lights guided us into the anchorage. A wet, windy night followed

USA Carrier 6

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great Keppel Island to the Percys

We spent another three nights at Great Keppel along with about 20 other cruisers after a great night at Keppel Bay Marina catching up with Di's niece Kellie and family.
The weather had been blowing 25 to 30 offshore while we waited at GKI but we were in no hurry to move on as there was lots of good company and every night was BBQ night on the beach thanks to Pete who lives on his boat in the anchorage. He had furnished the site with scrounged furniture and provided the firewood in return for a bit of tucker around the BBQ. We did a couple of walks and one night lindy Svensen from the island brought along a guitar and a cruiser brought along a banjo to everyone's great enjoyment.
Lindy and her husband do a lot to keep the tracks open on the island and she hand paints a lot of directions and little poems on the granite stones around the tracks. As a thank you about 10 of us gave them a hand the next morning clearing up some fire hazards around their property. I couldn't help myself...another working bee!
finally on the 29th we left GKI for the Percys in loose company with Greg and Karen on Entice.
We did the 100 miles in 12 hours and Entice (Grainger 43 cat) managed to do it in 11 hours.

 One of Lindy's 50 or so hand painted stones

 

 Pete' s BBQ campsite (all welcome)

 

 

Part of the working Bee at Svensens

 

Lady Musgrave to Great Keppel Is

Saturday 20^th July

We left Bundaberg early on Thursday for the 50nm run out to Lady Musgrave Island as there was a great forecast for the next 4 days.

The wind started off as a South Easterly of 5 to 10 knots and slowly swung to the North East of about 10 to 15 knots with 20 knots during the rain showers.

Lady Musgrave is part of the Bunker group of islands and is a coral lagoon of about 12 square kilometres in area with a sandy cay situated at the western end.

The entry channel is on the Northern side of the lagoon and is one of the very few coral lagoons where vessels can safely enter in almost any weather.

Allusive motored in through the narrow, deep channel and anchored in 9 metres of crystal clear water with about a dozen other vessels. Apart from a quick run ashore late in the day we didn’t do a lot as the breeze had picked up to about 20 knots and the lagoon was a bit lumpy with the swell breaking over the reef top for an hour or so either side of high tide. Once the tide drops the reef is exposed and the lagoon becomes very peaceful. The holding here is excellent and during the night the breeze slowly died away.

Friday turned out to be a million dollar day with no wind all day and lots of sun. We spent the day snorkelling, taking photos and cruising around the lagoon in the dingy looking at the various reefs.

 

 

 

 

At one spot we found a turtle cleaning station where the turtles gathered in a depression in the coral and small fish nibbled away at the accumulated algae on their shell. The fish life here is very colourful and abundant and the tour boat Lady Musgrave calls regularly with day trippers who hand feed a lot of the fish life, so they are fairly tame as you snorkel through the schools.

 

 

The dogs get a quick run ashore in the morning and evening but as there are a lot of ground birds in the undergrowth they are kept on the surrounding coral beaches on their leads.

 We have enjoyed the company of Greg and Karen from the Grainger 43 cat, Entice for a few sun downers and beach walks.

The weather is still holding on Saturday morning as I write this with a 5knot breeze coming in from the North West.

During the day we took a walk on the reef at low tide and found heaps of tropical fish and numerous turtles in the reef pools. Another snorkel along the edge of the reef then a snooze and sundowners with 3 other couples off the surrounding cats finished off another great day.

 

 Sunday 21^st July

Out departure from the lagoon this morning wasn’t without incident as the engine of the mono hull departing 2 minutes in front of us stopped just as they got to the entrance. We managed to get a line onto them and towed them out through the coral pass into deep water where they made sail and headed off for Gladstone

The 100nm run to Great Keppel Island was a mixed bag of showers, multiple reefs in the main and eventually motor sailing in light breezes. This is a picturesque run up through the Capricorn group of reefs and small coral fringed islands including Heron, Masthead and other less known islets. The fishing is usually pretty good up through this area with Entice picking up three good fish (tuna and Spanish Mackerel) on their trolling lure around Heron Is. Our luck was out but we did lose another lure to something big.

We arrived at the anchorage at 9.00pm under a near full moon and spent a quiet night.

Hoping to improve our luck we set 3 crab pots in the mangrove lagoon behind the beach on Monday morning, but only picked up a couple of small ones overnight.

Dawn Monday at Great Keppel Is

 

Today, Tuesday is overcast and a bit windy, a good day to catch up on the blog. We are both well but the midges are leaving their mark on Di.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Bundaberg and beyond

The passage through the Sandy straits was uneventful.
After the night at Inskip Point we motored up to Tin Can bay to find somewhere to buy a couple of crab pots as we didn't want to pass up the opportunity of hopefully catching a few muddies.
The local chandlery was able to help out, so after a cruise around the Tin Can Bay estuary in the dingy we decided to stay in the area at anchor for the night.
Early the next morning we sailed up the strait to Garry's Anchorage, a muddy gutter off the main channel which is a popular anchorage, as it is sheltered and easy to get ashore. This is thickly forested and has some very pleasant walks.
We loaded up the crab pots with dog food loaf and tried to look as if we knew what we were doing as we located the spot to drop the pots. At low tide most of the pots are sitting on the mud and we realised we needn't have bought pots as there were old pots scattered everywhere throughout the anchorage.
On our first pull the next morning we caught a biggy! Onto Google to see how to cook it! All was revealed and a pleasant lunch followed.

After a couple of nights at Garry's it was time to move on, especially when Di spotted a big dingo on the shore where we water the dogs. Her last trip ashore that morning saw her armed with a dingy paddle over her shoulder. No dingo was going to get one of her babys!!

The weather in the sandy straits was overcast and showery so we were pleased to find the sun shining when we anchored later in the day at North White Cliffs, an area of sand cliffs and a long sandy beach. We had been keeping company with Mike and Helen on Grande Cru (Bavaria 50) during our time in the straits and a few relaxing sun downers were enjoyed in their company.
Helen introduced us to skipr.net which is a position reporting site that covers boats on the move all over. Its worth a look.
We left this anchorage early on Friday 12th and had another good sail to Bundaberg (60 miles) with the headsail poled out most of the way.
The Bundaberg Port Marina only lost a couple of pontoons in the floods last year but the Mid City Marina was wiped out with many boats swept out to sea still attached to the marina pontoons. This flood was HUGE with water speeds reported as high as 80KPH.
We have used our stop here to catch up on some restocking and washing plus an important stop at the rum distillery shop for some of their yummy liqueur.
On Sunday we drove South 300km to catch up with Tim and Sue Gourlay and family who are holidaying at Noosa Heads. It was great to see their family and meet all of the grandchildren.
Two days were spent doing things not normal for us yachties like golf and chasing one another around the Go Kart track in the wet! Tim and I taught the younger generation a few tricks probably left over from our younger hooning days.
We arrived back at the boat yesterday and spent the day today sorting through a months mail (thanks Aileen)
The weather over the next couple of days is forecast to be fairly light so we are planning to head out to the reef to Lady Musgrave atoll. As this is 50 miles or so offshore we wont be in phone range so I will move my sim card into the Sat Phone.

I hope to find time to select a few photos covering the last week or so. It is amazing how quickly the time is going and how diverse the trip has been so far.

Sandy Straits

The good weather continued when we left Mooloolaba yesterday for the 40 mile run up to the Wide Bay bar which is the entry point to the bottom of the Sandy Straits running between Fraser Island and the mainland.
Although we are now fairly late in the season there are still plenty of vessels of all shapes and sizes heading north.Our entry over the bar was without incident in company with a Hanse mono and two small cats. There were 16 boats in the anchorage last night.
We are now well and truely into the South East Trade Wind belt with 15-25 knots forecast for the rest of the week, so we should be able to cover some good ground when we leave here.

 The new haircut

 our wet day bushwalk

 

Inskip Point anchorage (Tin Can Bay)

How to make the day go quick when we go to sea (Dog Watch?)

Delivery Trip - A Quickie!!

The passage to Sydney from Southport with Ken Gourlay on the 36 ft Chris Craft went off without a hitch and we enjoyed some incredibly kind weather during the 48 hours it took to do the trip.
The first leg from southport to Coffs harbour took 8 hours and the second day to Port Stephens was the same. total running time 20 hours for 400 n miles!

 flat seas allows a quick run

Ken takes control

Another week

Oh dear, doesn't time "fly" when you are having fun.

I see it is a week since we posted anything on the blog, so thought I had better do something about it.

We have covered a few miles since the last posting and left Brisbane early, (out of bed at 4am - that is still before daylight) to make the most of the fast out going tide. Sailed most of the day in lovely conditions and arrived at Mooloolaba at about 3pm. The rain set in over the weekend so we hired a car and did some touring inland, still raining there but a good day's outing. Caught up again with crew of Escape Pod and once more enjoyed very pleasant evenings with them. Particularly tasty fish dinner aboard Allusive with complements of Peter & Nicole.

We picked up Ken (Gourlay) from Maroochydore airport on Wednesday afternoon. We then drove to Southport, about a 3 hour trip as we encountered delays on the motorway. Thursday morning John & Ken left Runaway Bay on the boat, that Andrew and business friends have bought, for the delivery trip to Sydney. Good first day's run and they arrived at Coffs Harbour for the night, refuelled (thankfully the owners pay the fuel bill!!) and off this morning destination Port Stephens or Newcastle.
The dogs & I are having a quiet couple of days back on Allusive at Mooloolaba. We will get in several walks and probably catch up on some reading. I like Mooloolaba as shops and beach are close to the marina. The weather has been dry the last couple of days and the forecast is for good weather for the next 4-5 days so I will probably get in some beach walks.