One Night in the Keppel Sands Marina

Thursday 10^th May 2012

One Night in the Marina
23’09.646 E – 150’47.249 S
Warm, sunny, wind SE 10/15

Up at the usual time, round 0530/0600hrs, I do my Yoga exercise in the cockpit while MrJ answers his email and writes his blog. Brett and Deb off Swanning Around call past in their dinghy to say hello (we have met them down the track somewhere). They tell us to keep a eye out for Brett’s dad on SASHA B, he is in the marina and will be back out and about in a couple of days.

An easy breakfast of oats, fruit and yoghurt before rolling up the covers, starting the engines, pulling up the anchor and then setting sail with genoa on a ¾ rising tide for the Keppel Bay Marina at Roslyn Bay. The shallow seaway between the islands and the mainland is a bit lively this morning. The tide is coming in, running in a WSW direction and the 12knt wind and 0.5mt swell are pushing from the SE against the tide. We see another catamaran coming towards us from the marina and its bows are dipping into the sea and I know that we are doing the same.

The marina entrance with Double Head as a backdrop

By 1100hrs MrJ and I have tied up in Berth Blue 83 and have checked in at the marina office and are looking for something to eat. Maybe a late second breakfast/morning tea/early lunch would be good so I finds a table at the marina cafe after ordering a couple of ham and cheese croissants while MrJ find the bathroom. Sitting at the next table is a couple of fellers off a big motor catamaran only a few berths up from us and we get talking. You what it is like; talk about where you have been, where you are going and more stuff about boats and boating. This is how the boating network operates and this is how we all find out bits of useful information.

Walking down the marina finger

I give Dot and Jono a ring to say that we are in and will see them in the morning. They will pick me up round earlyish to get some supplies for the weekend from Woolworth Yeppoon. MrJ and I walk across to the service station to bring back fuel in the jerrys and I order some bread for pickup in the morning and then I trot of to the marina laundry to wash our sheets and towels while also tidying up the STB forward cabin for our guests.

By 1600hrs I am stuffed and a coffee and a sit down. Just after this Mark off Perfect Solution pulls alongside in his dinghy with a friendly hello, a big grin and a tray of fresh Spanish mackerel fillets that he has caught that morning. I welcome him on board and I am not going to knock back the fresh fish; he does this to us every time we see him and that may only be once a year and he never forgets us as friends and we will always be his friends – and that is not because of the fish – it is because he is a decent feller and can tell us the most interesting thing, stories, yarns and is a walking book of information. We met Mark a few years back while AR was our on the hard stand in Mackay Harbour; Mark had his boat out too and we have been good friends ever since.

Now MrJ and I end up at the marina cafe again for a steak, salad and chips dinner. Banana Beef the locals call it; the beef is raised in the area and very nice; melt in your mouth. After dinner we stroll back along our finger and see the light on in the boat Charon so MrJ knocks on the hull.

Richard is home alone as Wendy has already flown back home but will be back in a week. We are invited on board for a glass of wine which leads in to two or three and lots of cheerful conversation. Charon is a beautifully crafted wooden boat from Hobart Tasmania; you can smell the richness in her timbers and there is a fantastic ambience in the glow of the night lighting. We hope to catch up with Richard when we get back to the marina on Sunday.

Now it is a late night again as MrJ and I finish our stroll down the finger to our berth, to our boat ALANA ROSE and into bed.

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.

Wistari Reef

Sunday 8^th May 2012

23’26.886 S – 151’53.847 S

Warm, light SSE breeze

Wistari Reef

Sunrise at Lady Musgrave

Two hours before the high tide MrJ and I head AR out of the passage at Lady Musgrave Island. Looking back I do not see Neriki making a move; they are supposed to be sailing along with us. MrJ radios back to them and it is a stressed Shelly on the other end explaining that their anchor winch has broken down and that their anchor chain has been snagged on a coral bommie. Not good news! There is nothing that we can do for them; Ric will have to dive on the anchor to free it and then pull it up by hand. We wish the well and continue on our way hoping that Neriki will follow tomorrow.

Two hours out the winds drops and we are now motor-sailing under the genoa and STB engine. By mid-day we are passing Fitzroy Reef. It is now high tide and there is not a boat to be seen inside the reef. The sea water has covered the reef and we are not too sure as to where the exact entrance is, so we think better to be on our way. Sailing further north along the Capricorn Reef and Island Group we pass by Lamont Reef and One Tree Island, which is nothing more than a tiny sand cay with a large surrounding reef. The sea is fairly flat; this enables me to be able to take a little rest in the tramp up on the bow of AR. The tramp (we have two – Port & STB) is a big trampoline mat stretched between the hulls across the bow. It is so peace lying up there, watching the wind in the sails, watching the clouds in the big blue sky and the occasional bird fly past and listening to the rush of the sea pushing through the hulls of the boat as we move through water. I never stay up on the tramps for too long as the strong sun will do me a lot of damage.

Back in the cockpit it is my turn at the helm while MrJ get his rest in the cabin. I have to phone in our position to VMR Roundhill as there is still no radio contact. The reason I am calling in the middle of our trip is that VMR were expecting us to stay over in Fitzroy Reef and were waiting to hear from us. Now that we are going on I will have to contact VMR again when we finally put the pick down and anchor for the night.

Passing Heron Island

MrJ is back at the wheel so I am free to do other things. Inside the saloon I make myself busy photocopying some information about the passages and place of the top of Australia (Cape York, Darwin and the Kimberleys) that I have borrowed from Neriki. We have been collection all the information that we can from all kinds of sources and now have a huge library of information; cruising guides, mud maps, blog writings, charts, CDs, DVDs and the list goes on. I believe that no matter how much information you collect it is always up to you to find the ways!

No much wind; we are still motor-sailing between 5-6knts with a 0.5mt E swell and SE wind wave, we are heading NNW at 298* true and this beam on sea with conflicting wavelets is making thing a little lumpy when we arrive at the entrance to the channel between Heron Island reef and Wistari Reef. Through the channel which is very deep, well over 30mts in most places, about ½ n/m wide and is an easy passage at this time of day with the tide being at its low water mark making the surround reef shelf exposed to our view. We motor out of the channel and around the NE corner of Wistari Reef; this is where we drop our pick in about 7mts of clear water, just where the “good book” tells us to round 1530hrs. There is a goo 3mt range in tidal difference out here or just about anywhere on the coast at this latitude; I pay out the extra chain to allow for a 10-11mt anchorage and then wait for the anchor to set before attaching the bridle. Here we are, the only boat in sight and we have this reef to ourselves in a glorious warm sunny afternoon that soon slips into another magical sunset at sea.

Sunset at Wistari Reef

After dinner of steak and veg, MrJ hits the sack early as he is so tired from a full days travelling. The salt air, the glare and the motion of the boat at sea all make you very weary. I stay up a bit longer to read some of my book and I couldn’t sleep; the chain was rubbing over the sand/coral bottom and vibrating through the hull. Not very loud but just enough of a new noise to keep me awake. MrJ says that I am always on anchor watch.

Lucky that I was! Around 2145 I could hear a different louder noise coming from the chain. The tide was high and the rolling swell was coming over the large reef causing AR to a bit of “hobby- horsing” on the anchor. I was not comfortable with this; got up to check our GPS that we set as anchor alarm and the graphic picture has shown the we have swung around slightly to the N. Maybe this is due to being pushed by the sea and the tide change, maybe not. I stay up in the saloon being very alert to all sounds. By 2215 we have swung right around with our stern facing the reef – “not happy Jan” – and then the anchor alarm sound. I just about jump through the roof! The GPS shows that we have move a short distance from where we had first anchored (the depth is at 10.5mts) and there is a chance that we would drift over the reef. My third reaction is to wake MrJ.

1055hrs we are out of there; leaving Wistari Reef for a night sail across to Great Keppel Island. I leave MrJ at the helm and  head for my bed – good night.

Day Three – Lady Musgrave

Monday 7^th May 2012

Day Three – Lady Musgrave
The wind is still blowing 15/18knts – rolly at high tide – warm sunshine

I have a bit of a headache and hay fever this morning; no wonders with the two previous night’s consumption of white wine and MrJ and I have been invited over to Sea Mist tonight. I will have to behave myself for tomorrow we sail and that means I could be sea sick especially after alcohol intake the night before.

Sunrise in the lagoon

This morning’s chore is the shelving in the saloon cabin where, in Brisbane, MrJ has been sorting through our old DVDs and burning them onto a separate hard drive. Everything gets tidied in no time which leaves me time to do some hand washing before lunch. Lunch over MrJ and I take to the dinghy once more; this time to see some of the reef and to see if there are the numerous fish and Green Sea Turtle that we have come across on our last visit to Lady Musgrave some three years ago. The tide has not fallen enough to make the travelling by dinghy especially with the wind up a very comfy ride; we are getting drowned by splashes of water coming over the bow. We are not able to see very much of anything with the large ripples of water rolling across the inside reef so it is back to the island spot to do a bit of reef walking in our hard sole “Crocs’. This trip I have put my old Olympus Point & Shoot camera in an underwater plastic housing that I bought especially for this camera last year in Cairns.

Treading very carefully in the shallow water on the reef shelf near the island cay I come across a few small clam shells, some of a particular bright blue, some dark yellowish and other just a dark colour. There are millions of “Sea Cucumbers”, Sandy Sea Cucumbers and Black Sea Cucumbers, everywhere in the low water or sandy edges.

Sea Cucumber at low tide

Black Sea Cucumber under the water

Sea cucumbers are generally scavengers, feeding on debris in the benthic layer. The diet of most cucumbers consists of plankton and decaying organic matter found in the sea. One way they might get a supply of food is to position themselves in a current where they can catch food that flow by with their tentacles when they open. Another way is to sift through the bottom sediments using their tentacles. They can be found in great numbers on the deep sea floor, where they often make up the majority of the animal biomass. The body of deep water holothurians is made of a tough gelatinous tissue with unique properties that makes the animals able to control their own buoyancy, making it possible for them to both living on the ocean floor or floating over it to move to new locations with a minimum of energy. Also in more shallow waters they can form dense populations. Sea cucumbers extract oxygen from water in a pair of 'lungs' or respiratory 'trees' that branch off the cloaca just inside the anus, so that they 'breathe' by drawing water in through the anus and then expelling it. Sea cucumbers reproduce by releasing sperm and ova into the ocean water. Depending on conditions, one organism can produce thousands of gametes. Movement for all Sea Cucumbers is slow but definitely detectable, using their tube feet. They remain residents their local reef, bank or general area, being contained by suitable habitat. There are distinct separate sexes and spawning is a community, seasonal, external exercise.
The Sandy Sea Cucumber is black but secretes a mucus layer over itself which and sticks to. There for it is very well camouflaged and often quite difficult to see.

The Black Sea Cucumber is normally found with its back end under coral but occasionally is fully seen. On close observation you can see this creature feeding, picking up sand with its delicate feathery tentacles and putting them into its mouth. If this sea cucumber is touched at the front it will slowly retract underneath its coral shelter.
Around the world the Black Sea Cucumber is farmed or harvested, depending on the area.

On my explorative part of the reef I did not see much exposed colourful live coral; there is a lot of dead hard coral on this shelf and other bits of dull brownish coloured live corals. The only Green Sea Turtles that I have seen on this trio was at the entrance as we came in yesterday.

Returning to AR to get cleaned up for out invitation on board Sea Mist for tonight’s Sundowners; I am making Garlic & Onion Flatbread with a Yellow Dahl Dip which went over very well with everyone.

Sunset over Sea Mist

I can never remember people’s names unless I write them in my boat index book; John and Cheryl had some other Canadian friends over this evening who have just arrive at Musgrave this afternoon from Mooloolaba and do you think I can think of their names – no. Another sundowners, another sunset and another great time with new cruising friends.

Day Two - Lady Musgrave Island

Sunday 6^th May 2012

Day Two - Lady Musgrave Island
23’54.105 S – 152’24.278 E
Sunny, warm, windy – wind 15/20knt (this was not predicted) rolly at anchor – Full Moon

Who can sleep-in when there is a great sunrise to see? I stick my head out the hatch just in time to catch the sun’s magic in all its glory just peaking over the horizon silhouetting the yacht to out port side. The golden ray are small but the grow spreading a glimmer of light across the dark blue sea. The day has begun.

Sunrise at Lady Musgrave

The tidal waters are rising, rising and coming in over the fringing reef that surrounds Lady Musgrave Island. It is nearly high tide and breakfast time too. After sunrise, photos, exercise and a leisurely breakfast MrJ and I potter around AR doing some catch-up chores. Mines are to unpack a couple of lockers, clean them out and repack. I have decided to tackle a couple of lockers in the galley as I need to get some things out to do some cooking.

Shelly, off Neriki, shoots over in her dinghy to see what we are up to, she has left Ric onboard tinkering; time for a coffee break and a chat. We talk about our plans (theirs and ours) to go north and ours to go further. Neriki will not be making the trip to the Kimberleys this year; too many other things on their plate, maybe next year. We talk about the crocs, where to get fuel and water, where to get and who has the best information, which areas have a barge for supplies etc and other things like tides and weather patterns. So much information is needed by any boatie going anywhere.

After lunch MrJ and I drop our dinghy to go ashore; I love walking the long beaches of the sand cay islands. Shelly sees us and pops over too. The tide is low so the sea is not coming over the reef making the water rolly but now the reef is exposed we have to anchor our dinghy a fare way off the shore being mindful of the tide not coming in too much before we return. I have put my camera in a padded camera case and then into a waterproof zip bag; I really do near one of those small marine watertight bags like the one MrJ has for carrying larger things.

Shelly being attacted by "little Terns"

The three of us Shelly, MrJ and I toddle off along the beach anti-clock wise around Lady Musgrave Island. We have only stepped out a short distance when we are being attacked by some birds swooping down upon us. Shelly and MrJ nearly get their heads pecked off and I have one little bird make an eye to eye dart at me. I am too quick, duck to escape injury and get a great photo for my troubles. We are too close to a nesting area (they nest on the sandy ground) of some very upset “Little Terns”; we detour further down the beach and move away quickly.

"Little Tern" - headed straight at me

Around the next bend we come across some “Black Noddys” nesting in the bushes and trees. These birds are not aggressive like the “Little Terns” but we do not linger any longer than to get a couple of photos. The “Black Noddys” face is full of expression; I would say that they were giving me “the dirty look”. On the sand near the base of the bushes I see a couple of “Wood Sandpipers” scurrying along. One sandpiper darts under a log and the other just stands there to have his photo taken. How cute! The island is just full of birds!

"Black Noddy" with that look

As Shelly, MrJ and I return to our dinghies we meet up with some other boaties, a family, exploring the reef near the dinghies. One of the ladies, the grandmother, begins to tell Shelly and MrJ how “they own the big power boat out there, the 52’ (or something) Riviera which they have just recently up sized from a 44’ (or whatever)”. How nice! Meanwhile the grandkids and dad are having a ball in the water; they spot a small “Ray” and get so excited.

Back on board it is time for showers and to get ready to go over to Neriki for another Sundowners; the crew off Sea Mist are coming over too and I will take my Italian Hot Pot over for our dinner.

The sunset is brilliant!