Escape to Great Keppel Island

Wednesday 9^th May 2012

Escape to Great Keppel Island
23’15.482 E – 151’17.087
Warm, sunny, wind SSW/S 11/15, SE swells, small but confused seas

Sleep seemed to have evaded me through the night; I must have slept somewhat on and off for it was 0530 when I climbed out of my bed. Poor MrJ had been at the helm all that time and said that he was trying to let me sleep, when I scolded him for not waking me after the usual 4 hours. His excuse was that there had been a lot of boating traffic, the seas were not very comfortable and the night was cold.

Well hello.........!!! :o{}

MrJ is trying to shake a cold and I am pretty damn good at night watch.

In the half light of the early morning there has been a large ocean tanker that has been bearing down on us a few miles off our STB bow. Whether we are under motor-sail or full sail, by law we have to give way and besides this feller is just too big to argue with. MrJ swings the helm 20* to STB till the tanker has passed and then swings the helm to put AR back on course for Great Keppel Island. Now he will agree to go below and get some sleep.

As morning breaks

0630 I radio VRM Roundhill to log off and then radio Coast Guard Keppel Sands to log on our position, eta and our destination just as the sun is rising to the east and the moon is setting to the west. What a beautiful way to start the day!

I have set a course to head between Egg Rock and Barren Island which will bring AR round the NW corner of GKI (Great Keppel Island). Now I sit back and watch the sea birds mustering to where the fish are in the sea then dive in a frenzy of motion while still keeping an eye on our course either by standing at the helm or standing on the cockpit seat on the Portside. You can get a really great view form either position.

Watching the moon set

0730 MrJ is awake but not all that “bright eyed and bushy tailed”; late of a good night’s sleep and the lingering head cold are paying their toll, but he insisted on being up and about. Stubborn man...!!!

0930 we drop the pick just inside the anchorage off Second Beach on the north side of GKI. There are several other yachts in the three anchorages around this side of the island. One is CHARON (Richard & Wendy), a wooden boat from Hobart that we had met last season in Canipa Passage near Brisbane. They are leaving just as we are arriving (this happens a lot and you catch up somewhere else up or down the track), CHARON is heading into the marina for a week as Wendy has to fly home. This is something else that can happen to a lot of boaties; having to get back to somewhere for some reason and having to either fly, train or bus out of the nearest town.

MrJ is not very well, he looks terrible. I make him a nice cup of tea and some hot porridge and then pack him off to bed. During that day MrJ is able to get two more sleeps in and by late afternoon he is feeling and looking a hell of a lot better. I rest during the morning reading my book, around midday I send a text family and friends letting them know of our safe arrival back in the land of communications; mobile and Wi-Fi service. My afternoon is spent in answering emails and phone messages, writing notes for this blog and editing photos with the warm sun beaming down and the sound of the wavelets breaking on the shore.