END OF AN ERA & START OF THE REST OF OUR LIVES

Lazy days in Paradise

Quite surprising to me that I have had constant requests for the old Silver Affair Blog to have a return appearance.  So here goes. Here for the last time is the final update of our Winter/Spring/Summer cruise with a BIG (to us) announcement at the conclusion of this final chapter in the life of our Silver Affair.

Can't believe it's been nearly two and a half months since we sailed in to Port Douglas.  Have loved the relaxing and casual life on the Marina.  We've had many trips to the beach and the reef as well as being kept very busy with trips up and down the mountain to spend time with Grant, Nina and the kids. Pleased to have been able to help Nina with some babysitting, allowing her to do a little extra work.  We love the little Julatten State School where we often take and/or collect Tahla.  I've sort of become a bit of a local fixture and enjoy chatting with the Mums and Dads that I know.  Funny to see the kids running around shoeless in the playground, it's a lovely little country school, with only 80 students K - Yr.6 and not even a canteen. In fact there was great excitement last week when the P & C Mums organised a sausage roll and cupcake day.

We had another visit from Germany, this time Nina's Mum and step-father. Great to see them again and enjoy a catch-up both on the boat and a few lovely dinners out as well as the big occasion of Tahla's 6th birthday.  Lovely to have her grandparents there all together for her big day.

Had a very happy time when Liss and the boys flew up for 10 days onboard.  We took the boys swmming again to the World Heritage site, Mossman Gorge where the local Kuku Yalanji Indigenous people are running the new Eco Tourism Centre with 40 new jobs already taken up at this truly stunning place.  The boys were great and enjoyed time up at the farm with Uncle Grant as well as 3 days out at Low Isles where they spent much of their time feeding the bat fish and reef sharks circling the boat as well as mastering the stand-up paddle board and swimming with the sharks when and if they fell off. 

Our Friendly Bat Fish

Bruce & Bat Bob

The boys off into Low Isles

Stand Up Paddleboarders

Liss & I - Champers at the Reef

  

Around this time Col persuaded me into agreeing to something he had thought he might try while we were at a standstill at the marina for a few months.  That was to contact a Yacht Broker and maybe see if there was any interest in finding a buyer for Silver Affair, not really expecting any such thing to happen.  Unbelievably it's now 20 years since we launched old Silver and I must say she, along with us have aged well.  Well at least Silver has and what a time we've had together. Four long fantastic trips to the Whitsundays, Great Barrier Reef and Lizard Island and our Padi Scuba Dive Certificate at age 59 thrown in, not to mention practically 20 New Years Eves.  Of course, the most memorable of these being the 2000 Millenium in Sydney Harbour,  where somehow we found beds for 16 adults and 3 grandchildren.   Now 7 grandchildren have many happy memories of their time with us on Silver Affair.  Well you guessed it and blow me down after 3 weeks along came our buyer, a man called Joe, originally from Germany but now living up here in the Tablelands.  We sold the caravan we bought for Grant & Nina when they were building to a German couple, we have a German daughter-in-law and now along comes Joe.  We seem to have this German connection and I always did say how I love Germany, said it was my favourite European country back when we were there in the 80's.  Joe is our age, his wife is not a keen boaty but Joe can't wait to get a few mates on board and hit that reef.  We had a sea trial with him a couple of weeks back and he loved everything about the boat.  We are still can't believe it and the kids are sobbing.  Mia gasped in shock and in tears, dropped the phone.  As I said to them, it's the end of one adventure and now it's the start of another bigger and better one.  Well, not bigger, but we are already spending hours online weighing up the pros and cons of what type of boat we now need, sailing or power, trailable or not.  Only time will tell.  Perhaps caravanning we thought, nahhhh, not yet, we'll leave that till we're old. 

On 9th November we sadly and finally will say goodbye to our Silver Affair and head for home just before end of November.  Two weeks after arriving home we fly to Bali  for 2 weeks.  Just enough time to unpack and re-pack.  We were all going for Christmas, but in the end it's just Trude, John & Co and us and now we will be home 2 days before Christmas day.   What then............

This is now not only the final goodbye for Silver Affair but for the Silver Blog as well, but maybe stay tuned, perhaps we'll resurrect this one day under the Blog title  "Sailing North with Golden Affair". 

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

- Mark Twain 

PORT DOUGLAS - Our new home

EXCITEMENT as Grant meets us & escorts us into the
 Douglas River at Port Douglas

Doesn't time fly when you are having fun.  We can't believe we are almost into our 3rd week here at the Port Douglas Yacht Club Marina.  Grant gave us a lovely welcome by flying out of the Douglas River (as only Grant can) in his boat and joining us side by side as we finally came into the last port on our very long trip. Luckily we managed to get one of the last berths available and we got Silver Affair parked with many excited and willing hands taking our ropes.  It was time to party.

Grant escorts us down the Douglas River into Port Douglas

Settling in to Marina life at the PDYC

Motor bike mad just like his Dad

Now we have slotted right in to marina living and almost feel like a local.  Have enjoyed meeting our yachty neighbours and hearing the many interesting stories of how people ended up here in beautiful Port Douglas. 

We now have a bike each, thanks to Grant's good friend and Boss who is moving house.  It's an easy ride through a park and across one road and we are at the beach or if it's not too hot, we do the 10min. walk.  It's good to be swimming and loosening up those creaky knees and we are loving the tropical water temperature.  Grant has his boat parked next to us and he calls in after work each day and early most mornings when he and Col duck behind into the river and set the crab pots for the day. We have enjoyed quite a few yummy mud crab lunches. 

Have enjoyed a couple of nights up in the mountains with Grant, Nina and the kids and loved the early morning wake-ups from our little torpedo running and jumping all over the bed.  It's lovely to be able to pick up Tahla from school, she is growing up so fast.  We are all looking forward to being here for her 6th birthday in September when she will have both her Aussie and her German grandparents at her party.  Nina's Mum & step-father fly into Cairns on 10th Sept.  We will all have a day out on the boat to the reef and to Low Isles while they are here.

So now we settle down for the next 3 months enjoying 28 degree winter days.  We will be staying up with Grant at least one night a week to help with Liam on Nina's work day.  We will go to the reef for a couple of days a week and maybe towards end of September we will disappear for a while and head up to Lizard Island for a week or two.  End of October I suppose we will have to think about heading home.  Only time will tell.

NEARLY THERE - The Mothership arrives in 2 days

Left Bowen early with the aim of a leisurely sail up to Cape Upstart, only about 35 miles.  Was a perfect day with a nice 10-15knt SE from behind, which allowed the spinnaker to finally make an appearance.  Pleased to turn the corner at Upstart but as per usual the rocky bottom made anchoring tricky but the chart plotter was a great help this time in finding a bit of sand.  WJ  we had to have a toast to you here due to memories of past eventful anchoring moments. 

Next day was exactly the same with excellent conditions again and more spinnaker and our visitor from Germany loving every moment as he spotted one whale after another.  Had planned to just go to Cape Bowling Green but as we arrived there before lunchtime we decided to push on to Cape Cleveland at Townsville.  We rounded the corner of the Cape into a calm bay and settled down for our last night with Chaman.

Got into our berth at Townsville Breakwater Marina a little after 9am and headed over the hill to the Mall where we jumped in a taxi to the new Townsville Train Station.  Of course, trains being trains in Australia and unlike trains in Germany it was 45 minutes late.  We sadly said our farewells and Chaman settled into his single seat on The Sunlander for his 7hr trip to Cairns with the hope that we might catch up again one more time in Port Douglas before he flies home to Germany in just over a week.  We jumped on a bus back into the Mall, had some lunch and then wandered through the lovely park back to the Marina to visit the laundromat and get the boat ready for take-off again the next morning.

The weather is getting better and better every day and we left Townsville Marina at 10am, got the spinnaker up again and sat back and relaxed as the wind took us out past Magnetic Island and up to the delightfully named Rattlesnake Island where we anchored for the night just off the beach.  It was a more pleasant stay at Rattlesnake than another time there in 1995 when we were chased off by two big Blackhawk Army Helicopters. They use the island as a firing range and we thought we were close enough inshore to be of any nuisance or in any danger. WRONG.

Spinnaker AGAIN

Weather was even better the next day, spinnaker again, sit back relax again and we left Rattlesnake for Orpheus Island, arriving by lunch and decide to stay, read, relax a bit more and snorkel the reef.  We had our pick of about half a dozen good moorings off the beach in the next bay from the Resort.  Nice and quiet and peaceful until Col yells out "WHALES" and there must have been 5 of them a couple of hundred metres out from the bay and hurling themselves out of the water as they headed south.  It was an amazing sight.-


6.30am left Orpheus with the intention of sailing through the inside  (Hinchinbrook Passage) of Hinchinbrook Island, however the weather was excellent, we had the spinnaker up again so we had a great run and stayed on the outside.  The stunning mountainous terrain forming Hinchinbrook Island,  Mt. Bowen being 1150m high is a fantastic sight.

Passing Hinchinbrook Island

At this stage we could glimpse our Dunk Island destination about 15 miles ahead, Dunk being the most dominant island amongst a group of a dozen or so smaller islands.  



We rounded our favourite Dunk Island sand spit and anchored just off the now destroyed jetty - thanks to Cyclone Yasi.  Devastation would be the word to describe what Yasi obviously did to lovely Dunk Island, with yet another Island Resort wrecked and closed.   Most of the buildings are still there, but in pieces, however we still enjoyed going ashore, having a swim, wandering the beach and doing a bit of my favourite past-time, finding beautiful shells and just beach-combing in general.

Dunk Island sand spit

Destroyed Jetty at Dunk Island

Destroyed buildings at Dunk

Favourite Ulysses Butterfly survived at Dunk Island

Lovely to see the beautiful blue butterfly still prominent on the bottom of the pool, at least that survived.  Beautiful afternoon and sunset from the back of the boat and we had an early and very quiet night.  Just a hop, step and jump over to Mission Beach and we toyed with the idea of popping over for breakfast, but in the end, left that for next time.

After a few hours on the beach in the morning we left Dunk, sailing through the lovely North Barnard group of Islands.  Decided to have a morning tea stop off on one dear little island.

Some of the Nth Barnard little islands 

This Spinnaker musn't  know what's going on, out she came again, flying high, taking us on a short 20mile hop to Mourilyan Harbour which is a funny one and hard to find because it's only a fairly small opening between two hills.  Once you get inside, it opens up into a large harbour, but there are no facilities or shops around, only a sugar and timber mill operation.  The small town of Mourilyan is 10kms away. Innisfail is just a bit north of here.  Dead quiet night in Mourilyan and we headed back out to sea around 7am for a 40mile hike up to Fitzroy Island just off Cairns. YEHHHH.

 It's hard to believe we are here, it has been at times, a difficult trip, due of course to the bad weather we've had along the way, but it's making up for itself now with the past couple of weeks being brilliant.  Also can't believe that in less than 3 days, we will at last see our Grant and his little family, who are geared up to give us the big welcome at the edge of the Dixon Inlet, Port Douglas.  The Mothership (as he calls it) is almost there.  Hallelujah.

PAPA ARRIVES HAMILTON ISLAND

Crystal water and reef at Windy Bay - We snorkelled right along the edge

We had a very comfortable night anchored just off the jetty at South Molle Island and left early morning in order to be all settled at Hamilton Island Marina for Nina's Papa, flying in from Cairns at 9.30am.  A nice little boat boy in his welcome to Hamilton Island  boat met us at the entrance and ushered us to our berth which was only a short stroll to the General Store where Papa was meeting us after a short 1km shuttle bus ride from the airport.  It was very exciting to see the very dapper Chaman again looking so handsome and so well since we last saw him in Goslar and Bad Harzburg, Germany in 2010.  He very quickly settled into his Silver Affair Stateroom and was very impressed by the German and Australia flags we had flying from the back stay. Off we went back to the pretty Hamilton Island Harbour for lunch followed late afternoon by sunset drinks at the fantastic new Hamilton Island Yacht Club.  A beautiful architecturally designed building inside  and out, the nicest building we have seen in a very long time.  

Boatboy - Hamilton Island Parking Service

Papa arrives at Hamilton Island

Hamilton Island with Papa from Germany

Hamilton Island Yacht Club

Hamilton Island Yacht Club

Off we went next morning towards Solway Passage and through to Whitehaven Beach for a quick visit where we caught up with Robyn and Ian from "windChalmer".  Robyn and I had worked together at Glendale TAFE for about 20 years and Col in more recent years.  After we told Robyn and Ian about lovely Windy Bay we all decided to tootle over for a look see and a snorkle.  Again, it was low tide, the sun was out and we were able to go really close into the beach and marvel at the absolute crystal clear water and sandy bottom.  Spent a few hours looking at the reef in our dinghies and snorkelling as well.  The next morning was magnificent, so I called out to "windChalmer" ......"what a morning?"  to which they replied ...."what a night".  Not a ripple did we have, the boat could have been parked bang smack in our bedroom at home.  P e r f e c t   n i g h t.  "windChalmer" could not believe it.  We all explored the beach, did some more snorkelling and Ian went off for a little "troll" in his dinghy and under half an hour came back with 4 Mackerel (2 each boat).  That took care of dinner ....thank you Ian - delicious. 

"TAFE??"  ......"What's TAFE?"

WINDY BAY

Thousands of crabs on the march at Windy Bay

Eventually had to take off for Nara Inlet for the night, arriving there just before dark.  Anchored down the end of the Bay ready for an early morning hike into the bush to the Aborigine cave and paintings.   It blew like a gale right down the guts of Nara Inlet (I"m so eloquent, aren't I) all night.  So different from Windy Bay that didn't have even a puff of wind.

Decided I might as well not look like a grotty yachty for the Aborigine hike so got into my nice new white 3/4 pants, new top and off we went to shore.  Stepped out of the dinghy straight onto a slippery rock and went DOWN  %$@*&^#*- over head covered in green slime all over white new pants.  Tried to keep smile on dial to the top of the hill where we viewed very old original cave paintings before heading back down again. Nice photo from the top. 

Aboriginal Painting Hike at Nara Inlet

 Took off after breakfast for a longish trip up to Butterfly Bay, passing Hayman Island on our left.   Picked up one of the many moorings.  Beautiful sunny day and the fringing reef and bommies looked fantastic from above and I just HAD to get amongst it, even though the boys thought the water was a bit cold.   It was 100m swim from the boat to the reef, so I solved that problem with my brilliant suggestion of "let's not swim over or use the dinghy, lets all get on the stand up paddle board, henceforth known as the SUP.  Fortunately, or unfortunately there is no pictorial evidence of 3 silly old seniors complete with masks on head, fins on feet, flopping themselves onto a SUP with Capt. Col,  I mean Capt. Bligh at the rear trying to paddle our craft in a not straight line to the reef.  Our craft, which we christened the "SUP Dementia Delivery Express"  did eventually make it and Nina's Dad is thinking  we have the makings of a new business going around the Islands offering dementia delivery service to other senior boaties.   We saw clams and heaps of fabulous coral before Col's Taxi, this time the bright red dinghy returned and "towed" Papa from Germany and myseIf on the SUP back to Silver Affair.  Understandably we did leave Butterfly Bay rather early the next morning before other boats were awake.  We saw a whale flip itself out of the water just outside the Bay.


Nina's Dad thought we were unaware that today was his birthday, but his lovely daughter had sent down a secretly disguised package of a packet Gluten Free chocolate cake.  Happy Birthday Chaman........We sang Glückwunsch Geburtstag to him first thing this morning and I whipped up the cake for morning tea complete with candle AND THEN right on cue three whales and a baby were 50m off our bow as we came alongside Gloucester Island heading for Bowen.  Thanks to Nina's early birthday planning I was able to get Papa a nice Hamilton Island cap along with a 2013 pictorial calendar of the Whitsundays including lovely shots of Butterfly Bay and other spots he had visited.  Tonight we are having a special birthday dinner in Bowen.  As I said to his daughter............"Nina, we cannot get rid of him".  He was planning to fly back to Cairns from Hamilton Island but he wants to stay on board till at least Townsville or we run out of time for him. He has taken to the boat, the sailing, the charts, the chart plotter, the sails, EVEN the anchor like a duck to water, he seems to be really loving it all and has been a great help to Capt. Bligh and hence giving me a nice chance to just sit back and relax even more than I"ve been doing up till now.  Col and I have been so happy to show him a beautiful part of Australia and we have loved his company and having him on board. Thanks Grant for lending us your Father-in-Law, we've had a ball.

MAGIC WHITSUNDAYS - We are here

It was good to escape from Mackay Marina after 4 days sheltering from 33knts, but a very nice, well equipped and serviced marina it was.  We re-fuelled and set off for Brampton Island about 18 miles north.  Had a comfortable night just off the main jetty of the now closed down beautiful resort of Brampton Island. It seems unbelievable that such a fantastic tourist  destination is now defunct due we believe to the usual high cost of Australian accommodation and tourism.  So many people, ourselves included we have to admit, often consider overseas holidays a cheaper and better alternative for our dollar.  Brampton was a sad and lonely looking Island. Maybe someone will come along in the future and get it all up and running again.


Set off around 7am in a nice breeze for a 20 mile sail towards Thomas Island but moved onto Shaw Island to a more secure anchorage.  Lovely to at last see the first Whitsunday Pine Trees on Thomas and just like magic the water turned brilliant aqua and our first turtle popped it's head up for a sticky beak as we dropped our anchor at Shaw.    Nice roast pork cooking in the oven and an unbelievable Whitsunday sunset to finish off the day.  All good.
Late departure from Shaw Island, passing Lindeman and spotting Hamilton Island also on the left  and we made a straight path for 8 miles and into and through the notorious & famous Solway Passage. Famous because my grandfather's name was Charles Solway Fowler.  Hmmm, maybe named after him.  Straight away we were at the World's best and most famous beach, the fabulous Whitehaven Beach and it didn't disappoint.  Crystal turqoise water, white sandy bottom to see underneath as we anchored in about 2metres not far off the beach.  Took it all in as we had a beer in the beer garden on the back deck enjoying the sunshine and the magnificent views all around us.  Went to shore for a few hours, took lots of photos, then we went back and moved the boat closer into the southern corner where we stayed all night with just a very gentle movement to rock us off to sleep.  

Finally we arrive on Whitehaven Beach - Whitsundays

There we are in the middle

Yes SR, my dinghy awaits just off shore

THIS IS DEFINITELY THE LIFE......To wake up in the morning and sit up in bed with a morning coffee and toast and look out the window and realise where we were was a bit mind boggling, especially after the marathon journey we've had, but I must say, very satisfying and exciting to finally be here in the beautiful Whitsundays.  We spent a few hours watching the various boats and planes arrive at the beach, when we decided to have a little move and exploration over to Windy Bay.  This is a spot we've had a few stops at on previous trips but this time it was coming on low tide so we were able to guage just how far we could get into the beach.  Windy Bay is not too windy when in close and we decided we would stay for the night. There was not a person or boat in sight and the sun was out so we could see the reef and work out our plan of attack to get in close and we could also see the path and the way into the beach with the dinghy.  What a lovely little beach and sand spit we had all to ourselves.  We took in our soap and fresh water solar shower, hung it from a tree and Bob's your Uncle... all done and we saved on our boat water supply.  Col decided to check out his "new" knees having his first proper little run in about two years along the beach.  I could have been heard singing Chariots of Fire.  After a few hours we mosied about in the dinghy back along the edge of the reef to the boat and heated up some yummy  sausage rolls straight from the good old (but new) trusty Waeco.  Back to healthy salads tomorrow.  Had a really good quiet night.

SILVER AFFAIR anchored in Windy Bay

BLISS

Chariots of Fire

Had a fairly wild ride north to get to Hook Passage (28knts from behind) and made our way to Nara Inlet and Refuge Bay to have a lovely catch up with long-time TAFE teacher friend, who with her husband are on their first big sailing trip on their beautiful boat that Ian spent many years building.   We are meeting up again in a couple of days to do a joint snorkelling expedition and will also be joined by our new onboard guest from Germany.  We are booked into Hamilton Island Marina on Wednesday to collect Grant's father-in-law who is flying in.


For the next week at least we will be incognito, incommunicado and  doing some beach exploring around the islands with lots of reef snorkelling and lazing back to boot as well as plenty of sauerkraut I"d say.  Auf Wiedersehen 

BYE TRUDY & Co PLUS KEPPELS TO MACKAY

BYE TRUDY, JOHN, JACKSON, DREW & MIA

Many tears as we waved goodbye to Trude, John and the kids and watched them disappear down the road. We'd had such a lovely few days altogether and felt very down as we wandered back to the boat. However, a reality check dawned as we realised the boat must have been hit by a torpedo so we set about getting Silver Affair ship shape again, ready to take off within the hour. All washing was done and dusted and we set off at lunchtime for North Keppel Island, a mere 8 miles east from Keppel Bay Marina and 5 miles north of Great Keppel. We anchored close inshore from another lovely little beach for a well earned rest in a nice quiet anchorage. 


Left North Keppel at daybreak in very light winds and had to motor-sail towards Port Clinton, but ended up going an extra 6 miles to the beautiful Pearl Bay that has a number of little rocky islands at it's entrance. When anchored just off the beach and looking out towards the entrance it reminded me on a smaller scale of Vietnam and all it's little rocky outcrops and hongs.  Three other yachts were with us for the night. One boat was the biggest catamaran we've probably ever seen. It was 62ft long x 31ft wide, a veritable block of flats. Col didn't like that boat's chances getting through Swansea bridge.

PRETTY PEARL BAY Just north of Port Clinton

We had to laugh later as we were reading in bed and I asked Col the time.....7.40pm came the reply.  Now that was definitely a record.  Not surprising that I didn't seem to have any trouble with my 6am "anchors up" call, also a record. For our early bedtime excuse I am reminded of something a good boating friend once told us and that was the fact that your body is constantly moving when boating and it has nothing to do with alcohol but the movement of the boat and very quickly you become exhausted. That'd be it.  Thanks Laurie G. you are our Guru.


It's my second very worrying day in the non-communicado zone of Shoalwater Bay Military Excercise Area, the fact being that I have absolutely no "in service" bars on my mobile phone, let alone any mobile wi-fi. I don't even know if Trudy, John and the kids have made it safely home yet, not happy Jan, but it's not the only worrying fact. The Army just happens to be playing it's "war games" for the next two weeks. We have to head out and around more than what we wanted to go in order to dodge the military zone or we will be SHOT and blown out of the water never to be seen again.


Well we made it through the war games in one piece, what a relief that was. As we were making good time we by-passed Hexham Island and kept going towards the Duke Islands (40 miles total) in a very fine misty drizzle and anchored behind Marble Island and had a little late afternoon aperitif on the back deck. As I sit here I am gazing across to a passage between two Islands here at the Dukes (Hunter & Marble Islands) called Lola Montez's Passage and I won't say anything further on that interesting piece of information!!

We leave Curlew - head for Mackay Marina

Seem to be having good luck with all anchorages here in Queensland so far with all of them being dead quiet and calm with no nasty wind changes during the night. We left Marble Island at 6.30am heading for Curlew Island only 30miles north. An easy one today and the ocean is better than the lake, dead flat and glassy which of course means no wind. So it's just one engine on, sit back and relax, finish my book and do the last hour on my Liam crocheted rug. Must say I"m very pleased with it, somehow it has the look of the reef colours about it which is appropriate for my dear little far Nth Qld boy. I'm hoping it can go on the end of his very first big boy bed which might happen soon now that he is 2. Although Mummy says he hasn't quite worked out how to climb out and over the cot yet, which is very surprising as like his father he climbs anything and everything. 

LIAM'S BIG BOY BED RUG

Curlew was beautiful in the afternoon when we arrived in glassy conditions with the sun shining. We dropped anchor and another yachty rowed over for a chat, talking about the weather (what else does one talk about)and had a beer. Next thing, old Bligh looks at the glassy conditions, considers the 30knt southerly coming the next day and says "let's go". Have to admit I could see the sense of it so by 5pm we left Curlew, heading 40 miles in to Mackay Marina ready to sit out the strong winds and SHOP. Yeh. 


Bligh did well with that decision - to keep going through the night while conditions were excellent, ie excellent as in we had flat seas but pitch black, no moon whatsoever and FOG. We couldn't see 10m in front of us - thank God for the chart plotter which delivered us right to the very front "door" of the huge Mackay Marina. The good thing was, our heads hit the pillow at 4am and by 4.30 an almighty blow arrived in the form of the 30knt southerly which was not supposed to arrive till lunchtime.  Message for Sue: If it's Mackay Marina it must be Rissoles tonight. Bligh has put in the order. Where's those sarongs?????
Welcome back to Australia Nina's Dad - arrives today - see you soon

TRUDY & Co GREAT KEPPEL ISLAND

Our 4th time visiting Gladstone Marina - Good marina and nice to be back

We were well and truly "victualled" up again as we departed Gladstone marina early morning after a comfortable 2 night stop. Quite a navigational nightmare leaving there and going north with huge freighters, ferries and work boats to contend with, even floating pipes and channel markers every which way. We got into  'The Narrows' behind Curtis Island and made our way at high tide over the cattle crossing and in the afternoon went up Pacific Creek at the end of The Narrows and was surprised to find it full of boats due I suppose to the current 30knt wind warning. Of course,
Bligh being Bligh, decided after 5 hours of being quite safe and comfortable on anchor that he was not happy and a little move was in order. So up anchor in the dark (never nice with a howling wind) and I swear we moved 10m, well maybe 20). At least he slept well all night.

The Cattle Crossing in The Narrows behind Curtis Island

Left Pacific Creek early next morning as Trude and John and the kids were only 6hrs away after enjoying a night with the kangaroos at the Warrumbungles and then another night at Possum Park in Miles.  We had 30knt S/SE, 3m waves across the bay but
finally made it into Roslyn Harbour at Keppel Bay Marina near Yeppoon.  Had a nasty drama on the way when we were trying to bring in the whisker pole. The end of the pole smashed into the front bedroom window and the genoa sheet whipped and cut into
the Bimini windscreen.  We now have some repairs to attend to.

Wonderful to see the boys and little Princess .Great excitement and enough gear and food transported to the boat to last a month. Trude had done well with her pre-cooking and freezing for the road trip and we had lovely, warming home made soup etc and an early night. Left the marina in the morning and had a nasty 25-30knt trip out to Gt Keppel Island. Spent the afternnon exploring the lovely Keppel Island and it was very sad to see the main resort was closed down. The Wappaburra Bar was still up and running for the usual chips, burgers, pizzas. Spent a calm night at Fisherman's Beach off the resort.

Breakfast Chaos at Gt Keppel Island

The following day we moved around to Leekes Beach to do a bit
more exploring and up the creek we went WITH our paddle. Four catamarans were sheltered up inside the creek and we considered going on in but didn't really fancy going high and dry for 4hours of every tide change.  The boys took the stand up paddle board in and out of the mangroves and little side creeks and had a lovely time. We then had a nice afternoon on the beach collecting shells for a necklace to be made for Mia.  Capt. Col went back to the boat and brought in a cold bottle of champagne, 4 glasses and some nibblies and we stayed there till late afternoon.  Moved back around to the sheltered corner at Fisherman's Beach for the night and we
had a lovely dinner finished off with a marathon game of Uno (Mia being the Uno Queen).

Pop sharing some good fishing know-how

Trudy and John

1. Munchkins Movie Night on the boat

Heading now back into Keppel Bay Marina as we have showers most of the day. The morning was spent on the beach and we will cosy down at Keppel Bay Marina again tonight for our last night before we all head off in our different directions.