Tuesday 15th May 2012
Pearl Bay22’26.601 E – 150’ 44.000 S
Very cool morning, 10/15knt SSW wind, seas SE 1mt, swell ESE 1mt
Keppel Island at sunrise, as we sail away heading north |
It is a very cool morning as AR slips out of the Keppel Bay Marina bound for Pearl Bay some 40 odd nautical miles north up the coast. MrJ is wearing his heavy jumper and I have my knitted beanie under my sailor’s hat; we are both wearing our long track suits and the wind chill factor is keeping me cold.
Three other boats are leaving just after us; I hear their
call to Coast Guard on the radio some time after I had called in. I have seen
two more boat on the horizon but too far away to make out who they are.
MrJ and I have the genoa out and are travelling alone very
nicely at 5knts. As we get further along, past the shallows of Roslyn Bay, the
swell turns more easterly and the seas have increased in size a little making
our passage lumpy. Two boats pass us using the wing-on-wing technique to catch
more following wind which can make a boat get along a bit faster but it does
not necessarily make the ride any better. The two boats know each other. Maybe
the skippers were having a bit of a race? You know what they say – “if there
are two boats out there on the sea then it is a race”. Haha!
By early afternoon MrJ steers AR through the rocky inlet between
the South Hervey Islands and the unnamed mainland headland east of Mt Gibraltar
and into Pearl Bay which opens up to long golden beaches back by lush green
wooded hills. We are following another boat in.
Military Training Area on the coast |
In 2005 the federal government
entered into a long-term agreement with the US over the use of Shoalwater Bay
for military training purposes. Similar agreements over a shorter time span
have been agreed to with the Singapore Ministry of
Defense.
Military exercises with the United
States have aroused considerable controversy in the Rockhampton-Yeppoon area,
due to the threat of environmental damage to the Shoalwater Bay region. In
recent years, concern has been raised about the possibility of depleted
uranium weaponry been used during training exercises at Shoalwater
Bay. Peace activists protesting Exercise Talisman Saber were
arrested in 2009.
Support for a permanent US presence
has been expressed by the Rockhampton mayor, Brad Carter in 2011, and by former
mayor, Margaret Strelow.
On another note and more
environmentally friendly: The bay its self contains one of the most important sea
grass habitats in the Great Barrier Reef
Marine Park. A plan of management for the bay's dugong
population was released in 1997 to protect the dugong population and reduce
impacts on the sea grass meadows.
A 483 km2 area of the
bay and its surrounds, covering all the habitat types suitable for migratory
waders,
or shorebirds, has been identified by Bird Life International as an Important Bird Area (IBA)
because it supports over 1% of the world populations of Pied Oystercatchers, Far Eastern Curlews and Grey-tailed Tattlers, and over
1% of the East Asian -
Australasian Flyway populations of Bar-tailed
Godwits, Whimbrels and Terek
Sandpipers. It also contains populations of Beach Stone-curlews and Mangrove Honeyeaters.
(information taken from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Heading into Pearl Bay |
MrJ suggests (I use the term lightly) that I go out and
greet them because I can understand them much better than he. Yeah right and I
do speak French – NOT...!
I welcomed them on board; Jean-Michel spoke very good
English with a thick French accent (lucky for me) and Jonathan had a popper
English accent. These seafarers were from New Caledonia where most people can
speak French and English and some people can also speak in a native language. On
their boat is Jean-Michel and his family, wife Nauel (I think), children, Johan
and Oceane and crew/friend Jonathan. The old brain is not that good – my
remembrance and spelling of the names may not be totally correct.
Jean-Michel was asking MrJ and me about the weather and was
interested in any reports that we may have as his VHF radio had not been
getting good reception. Jean-Michel was also interested in any chart that we
could help him with as far as going any further north; he only had a couple of
chart of the eastern QLD coast and they did not have a great amount of close up
detail. Jean-Michel and his family are heading for Cairns where they will be
clearing out of Australia, unless they can get an extension of their visas, and
heading for Papua New Guinea on route home.
Why these people sort us out amongst four other boats is a
delightful mystery; maybe because we were anchor near them at Great Keppel
Island or maybe they think we are great people.
I will believe the later!
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