Goodbye 2013, Hello 2014

Dramatic morning skies at Port Clinton

Last blog for the year

One last chance for a blog this year, so I'm not wasting it.

It's been over two weeks since the last one.  In the meantime, we sailed to Port Clinton for 5 days, had Christmas and managed to catch fish. Wayne and Barbara spent Christmas week at Great Keppel on their boat, Casper and I fell victim to Barbara's hospitality by drinking too much Champagne.

Starting with Port Clinton - with over a week to Christmas, and strong south-easterly winds forecasted, we decided to fill in a bit of time by sailing north to Port Clinton.  This is a natural harbour, about 40nm north of Yepoon and is part of the Shoalwater Bay military exercise area. 

You are allowed to anchor in the area, with exception to areas where there is any military activity going on, but are not allowed to venture past the high water mark ashore.

We managed to not catch any fish on the way up, despite investing in a "Pink Thing" which the man in the fishing tackle shop, assured us was the best lure to have on a yacht.  Well, at least we won't lose it in a hurry, it's bright fluoro pink.  I'm not sure what the fish think it would be either as it's nothing like any naturally occurring life form you would see in the ocean.

Well, at least it got a good wash.

Another yacht was anchored in the harbour when we arrived.

A couple of days later, we met, after we moved deeper into the inlet.

"Hi", he said, "My name's Ian".  Well, that's easy for us to remember!

Ian had just brought his yacht 'Instigator' in Airlie Beach, and was sailing his new acquisition home to Bundaberg.  He was hoping to be home for Christmas, but the strong south-easterlies were whittling away his chances.

Port Clinton is a Dugong sanctuary.  Ian observed that everywhere is a Dugong sanctuary as they are protected and you can't kill them.  Well, if it's a designated sanctuary, that means that they must be about.  

I didn't take much notice.  Being a bit cynical about such things, I thought it was a bit like seeing a road sign saying 'Drive carefully, Cassowary for the next 2km'.  You just don't see them and are disappointed.

Lucky that Ian was watching out for them.  

It was good to get a good subject for our cameras which had been getting a bit dusty lately.

Unfortunately, they don't spend much time above water and you don't get to see the whole animal at once.  First, the nose comes out, often followed by a spray of water as it gets its next breath.  Then the nose goes under, as the arch of its back comes up.   Finally, as the arch completes its circle, the tail does a final wave goodbye, then it's wait to see where the Dugong will come to the surface for its next breath. 

I'm not sure what happened to the photo in the bottom left of the collage.  Looks like I missed the Dugong :(

We only went ashore once in the 5 days we were at Port Clinton.  This was because, there is no shore as such as it is mostly mangrove area.  When the tide goes out, there is only mudbanks.  Not much fun for walking on.

However, we did venture on to the mud banks once.  We had decided to go exploring in the dinghy, up a few of the creeks which ran into the harbour.  We hadn't gone far when Ian noticed prawns leaping away from the dinghy as we passed through.  Hungry for any kind of seafood, we scooted back to Winkali and armed ourselves with a casting net.  Back we went to the mudbank and gingerly put our weight on it to see if it would hold.

It did, but we were up to our knees in mud.  I was in charge of holding the dinghy in place while Ian tried his hand with the casting net.

He was a bit out of practice, but after a bit of encouraging from me, he started getting the hang of it. 

Eventually, we had enough prawns for a small feed each, but after closer inspection back at the boat, they looked a bit small and muddy, so we kept them for bait.

 

High tide along the mangroves. 

The scenery was ever changing in sync with the tides.

Low tide showing exposed mud banks

Early morning.  The wind dropped out so the sky was able to see its reflection in the water.








After 5 days, with winds eased off and turned northerly, so we hitch a ride and went back to Great Keppel.  'Instigator Ian' followed and spent a couple of nights there too.  He had to re-provision at Yeppoon and make a few unforseen adjustments to his new boat before continuing.  He finally made it home to Bundaberg, midday on Christmas day.  Too exhausted after 29 hours of sailing, he secured his boat and slept.

Ian left, Barbara and Wayne arrived. 

Barbara tucks Casper's sails in for the night.

Ian finally got lucky with fishing.  He went out with Wayne and Barbara's son, Ray to do a bit of spearfishing while Barbara and I went walking on the island.  Hooray, he speared a Coral Trout.  

The next day, I did some fishing from the dinghy, while Ian spearfished.  I caught a rock cod and Ian a shark.  After that, Ian had managed to keep us in seafood every day.  Squid are always on the menu. as they tend to hang around the yacht for some reason, and, although they are a bit wary of the squid jig, Ian always manages to catch enough for a meal.

We're a good team.  

 Ian does the 3 Cs - he Catches, Cleans, and Cooks.
 I do the Es (with ease) - Eat, Eat, Eat.

Ian races with the setting sun at Svendsens Beach

Christmas lunch was spent at Svendsens Beach.  There were about 14 of us from various boats.  We all brought our plates of Christmas fare which we set up on a trestle and shared amongst ourselves.

The day before Christmas, Ian surprised me with a small Christmas tree, which he had sourced from the island.

Not having any decorations, we had to invent some.  These consisted of, bits of alfoil, scrunched onto the ends of the branches, coloured paper clips, a couple of fishing lures and a decorative fish which I have my USB dongle attached to.  The star on top was a bit more work. Ian had to drink a can of beer so he could cut a star out of the aluminium can. 

With Christmas behind us now, it's time to move on into the new year.

Happy New Year

 

Great Keppel Island

An inspirational trail marker done by Lyndie.

We've been at Great Keppel Island for over a week now, arriving late at night on 6 Dec.

It's quite a large island with a circumference of 28 kms and an area of 1454 hectares.  There is sheltered bays all around the island which provide anchorage for whatever the wind direction.

Keppel Island used to have a resort but that's been closed for 10 years but there's still a couple of smaller accommodation places for overnight visitors.

Most of the island is uninhabited and there's many walks to do with well marked trails, some of the markers being quite artistic.  These being done by Lyndie  who runs a small Eco-lodge at Svendsen's Beach along with Carl Svendsen.

Our friends, Wayne and Barbara had told us about a disused shearing shed, which was accessed by dinghy at high tide via a nearby creek.  This had a rainwater tank where one could take their towel and shampoo to and come away feeling refreshed.  This we did :)

Shearing shed

Evenings were usually spent at the beach where other boaties would gather around a smokey fire.  The smokier the better as the sandflies here were particularly thick and savage. 

 A few of the musically talented would bring over various instruments such as guitar, ukulele and bongo drums to provide live entertainment.  Often this is accompanied by singing.  Ian and I helped by not singing. 

As we have decided to stay at Great Keppel till after Christmas, with no serious sailing to do, our days are slow and relaxed.  Eggs and bacon for breakfast one morning, gave us a surprise with this double-yolker egg.  In the good old days, these weren't so rare, but I've been told that the eggs these days are screened and double-yolkers are definately a no-no.  I think it might be harder to get a double-yolker than win lotto.  The Grand Pubah of probabilities saw fit to give me a double-yolker instead of winning lotto.   

I'd already given Ian his eggs and bacon when I cracked this for myself.

We managed to get  map of the island with all its walks.  Some of them are quite long and hilly.  We decided to do the walk to the lighthouse (really just a beacon) first.  This would take us to the most eastern point of the island which was about 10kms return.  

Along the way we found these artistic little track markers, some of them with poems and verses, done by Lyndie.

The first few kilometers took us through trees and therefore shade.  A luxury in the tropics at this time of the year.  

Ian was wondering what he would look like with a beard so he decided to try one on for size.  Hmm, wrong colour.

The walk took us up some moderately steep hills with the highest point being 170m.  This wasn't too difficult after having tackled Fitzroy and Dunk islands.

But, we didn't let that stop us from having a rest now and then.

We took heed of these little pearls of wisdom along the way.

The eastern side of the island is quite barren and windswept.  A few stubborn, lonely trees clung to the steep hillsides.  I took some photos as we sailed around the island the first day.

As we were nearing the lighthouse, we were able to see them close up.  A gnarled and ancient living sculpture.

Ian took this photo as we were nearing the lighthouse.  We are anchored off the far side of the headland in the distance.  I'm that little black speck in the middle, taking a photo of the tree above.

It was in this area we first came across the feral goats.  As in most of the islands, goats were introduced to provide a food source for sailors in the late 1800s.  There are some very unusual goats here on Great Keppel.  Some of them have originated from milking and meat goats but at another stage (so we've been told) someone had started breeding goats for their wool, which resulted in some very strange looking goats.

Some of these goats look really odd with Mowhawk-like hairdos along their back and head.

Another anchorage took us to the resort end of the island.  The old resort is overgrown and has been closed for ten years.  Nearby is a small bat colony which is a lot more interesting than a derelict building.  Not having seen many birds and animals on this trip besides the goats, these kept me amused, while Ian waited patiently for me to turn up at the dinghy.

After a couple of days at Great Keppel, it was time to head to Yepoon on the mainland.

We showered, laundered, shopped for fresh food and best of all, met up with Wayne and Barbara who we had met on our trip back from the Kimberlys.

We abandoned ship that night and stayed with Wayne and Barbara.  Caught up on stuff, reminisced, played pool, drank rum and ate hot chilli mince. 

The following day, our tour guide Barbara, took us for a whirlwind tour of Yepoon/Emu Park, before kick out time at the marina.  We will see them again at Christmas when they sail Casper over for their break.

Back to great Keppel which is home for the next few weeks.  we continue to fish with no luck.  We bought new fishing gear and restocked our bait at Yepoon, but expectations aren't being met.  We go snorkelling and see fish.

More walking.  We find another community of goats, much larger this time in a pasture near the old homestead.  I didn't take my camera!

Another walk, this time for photos.  Last time they had been frolicking and bleating.  The boys had been play-fighting and leaping at each other head first.  I was looking forward to some great action shots.

We got up early so we could get them before they got tired.  Our plan was to sneak around the back of the old sheds at the homestead and get award winning photos of them doing their thing.

We succeeded in the sneaking but the 'thing' they were doing was eating.  Action was slow.  I even managed to 'sneak' up on one of them while it was so busy eating, it didn't notice me.  In the finish I had to clear my throat quite loudly before it leapt away, about  10m. 

 

I finished up spooking them by roaring like a Lion.  That worked and they jumped over the fallen down fence into the relative safety of a bygone pasture.

Well, we had a little bit of success at last with the fishing.  Ian had a hopeful pilchard hanging in the water one evening.  After a long time he decided it was time to give up.  As he reeled in the line, a squid followed the bait.  He tried several times to hook it but that didn't work.  

Ok, well we had a squid jig in the tackle box.  On it went and into the water.  Hooray, one squid.  Now squid usually go around in families.  We had noticed this while snorkelling.  

In goes the jig again, another squid in the bucket for us.  Squid ink goes everywhere, but we can clean that up later.  Eight times we do this, alternating buckets with fresh sea water as each turns black when a new squid ejects ink.

Finally, no more squid, but we have more than enough. 

They are quite handsome creatures.  Large intelligent eyes, a vivid green look at me.  Ian suggests I find something else to do while he does the next thing.

They are now in the freezer, awaiting consumption.

The next day, Ian decides it's time to give the bottom of the boat a scrub.  What does he find down there besides barnacles on the prop and and a thin film of slime on the keel?  

 

Four squid, waiting at the bottom of the boat, wondering where the rest of the family had got to!

Middle Percy Island

Sunset at Middle Percy Island

Curlew Is

Our first night at Curlew Is had us up in the wee hours, watching the lightning display in the western sky.  We had been waiting for the south-easterly weather change which we would be sheltered from, but this was something a little extra that Mother Nature threw in.  The following morning we smelled bushfire smoke.  A few days later we would learn that lightning strikes had caused fires on South Percy Is. 

The following  day had settled down enough to take the dinghy across to shore.  The Sandflies were happy to see us and sent out the signal to all their friends. We fed them.

Ian had been looking at an unusual boulder through his binoculars from the boat the previous day.  There were many small cavities in it, carved out by wind and weather.  They were just the right size for people to decorate with shells, coral and Pelican skulls.

The next day was too rough and windy to go to do anything so we had a lazy day.  Ian read a book and I watched Lord of the Rings part I.  I also made my first batch of yogurt ever which turned out perfect.  

There was a sandbank which ran from a headland on the island to a small rocky outcrop off the eastern side of the island.  It was fascinating to watch the waves chase one another across this sandbar during tide change.  We were between this sandbar and Curlew Is.

Middle Percy Island

Middle Percy Is is well known to boaties on this stretch of the coast.  The island became popular when a man known as Andy, leased the island in 1964.  He planted coconut palms, built a large A frame shed and a large treehouse on the island.  One can eat the coconuts, stay in the treehouse and leave your equivalent of 'I woz here' in the A frame. 

The A frame is full of mementos from passing boaties and it is obligatory to leave the name of ones vessel on a self-made plaque or anything else that is interesting as shown in these photos.

Winkali is now a part of that tradition and Ian is about to install our humble plaque in the hall of fame.

The coconut palms produce an abundance of fruit.  Coconuts products have become one of the trendy health food items at the moment and it is with pleasure that we can help ourselves to this wonderfood for free  (nothing miraculous has happened to us yet, but we haven't spent a fortune having to find out).  

The island has an interesting history and at one stage there was a sheep station here.  There is a homestead on the highest part of the island and a long walk will take you up there where the current owners of the homestead, John and Kate, currently live.  

A long walk took us to the homestead.  Visitors are welcome, but alas, no-one was home.  Even island dwellers have to leave now and then.

The homestead is surrounded by chooks, goats, vegies and fruit gardens and peacocks.  It is quite unexpected, almost like walking into an English country garden.

Many of the islands in this region are inhabited by goats which were introduced and the late 18 hundreds along with coconut palms, in order that ship-wrecked sailors would not starve while awaiting rescue.

We hadn't anticipated such a long walk, and finding no-one at home, we had a polite look around and headed back.  At least we had the luxury of walking downhill this time.  

 The walking track is well marked with these signs and 'coconut heads'.

A Brahminy Kite flies overhead to see if we're going to be a threat to his hunting grounds.  

We woke early in the morning (2:45 a.m.) on 5 Dec to find our next northerly wind had kicked in early.  That was our signal to head south - destination - great Keppel Island.

I'm a bit behind with blogs but will catch up soon.

See you there.

The Whitsundays

An odd thing happened to me in Townsville, 2 days before we left.  I had somehow picked up a tick while in  town.  It must have come off an overhanging branch from one of the trees along the road.  It had attached itself to my head just above the hairline. 

Ian managed to remove it and found that it hadn’t been there too long as it wasn’t bloated yet.  That was lucky.

The morning we were leaving, bright and early, I woke with a very swollen face and a closed up eye.  We decided I should go to the doctor before leaving, just to make sure I wasn’t going to die. 

A couple of hours later, armed with Cortizone and antihistamines, we left for Magnetic Island.  Half way there, the wind picked up for favourable southward sailing, so off we went, towards Gloucester Island instead.

All was good till that evening, when the wind changed direction and the weather turned nasty.  We had bought more bananas, were we getting too complacent with them? 

We quickly found an anchorage off Rita Island, which isn’t to be found in our anchorage bible.  Ian is getting good at this.  I think he should write a book on alternative anchorages

The next afternoon saw us anchored at a better known anchorage off Gloucester Island with a friendly name of Breakfast Bay.

We did a little fishing, as usual and before long, I caught an interesting looking fish with blue teeth.  After putting him in a bucket of seawater to keep him alive, we looked him up in Grant’s Fish Guide to see if he was edible.  Grant’s tells us that it was a Blue Tusk Fish – “ a well textured food fish with bright blue-green bones.”   He was delicious!   

The next day we went ashore to do some exploring.  We found some sunscreen left on the beach which was handy, as the last one I found a few weeks ago had nearly run out. 

There were quite a few Mistletoebirds on the island.  I made some silly little noises that seem to attract birds.  It worked and this female Mistletoebird came and had a curious look.  The males have a bright crimson breast, similar to a Robin Redbreast.

A Young Sea Eagle lands nearby.  He calls continuously to his parents for more food.

Our next island was Grassy Island.  The unsettled weather continued and produced some heavy rain.  We took advantage of it and washed our clothes, hair and anything else that looked a bit grubby. 

We noticed a Sea Eagle sitting on a tree branch on the island, looking very wet and miserable.  Later that day, after it cleared we went ashore and found that he had move to a sunnier spot to dry and rearrange his messed up feathers.

Next on the list was Hook Island, one of the larger islands of the Whitsunday group.  We stayed at Nara Inlet, which provides protection from most weather directions.  It is an outstandingly beautiful spot to anchor, somewhat reminiscent of the New Zealand  fiords.













Large tides swirl around the foreshore boulders, creating natures sculptures.



Apparently, Nara Inlet is a breeding area for Hammerhead Sharks.  I decided not to go snorkelling today and thought I might do some fishing instead.  Ian said if I dropped a nail overboard, I might catch a Hammerhead.
From here, we went to Whitsunday Island  where we snorkelled and saw squid. 
At Shaw Island we found a freshwater stream which flowed down the hillside in a series of rock pools.  Heaven is laying in one of these pools, looking through the overhanging palm fronds at the white fluffy clouds in an azure sky.  Memories like these stay fresh forever.

Another stroke of luck at Shaw Island was that evening when we heard a thump in the cockpit.  We went in search of the source of the thump and found a squid of edible size which had committed a kamikaze act.  How convenient.

Next stop was Goldsmith Island.  This was part of the Sir James Smith group of islands which all had wonderful names to do with forging and smithing, such as, Ingot Island, Solder Island, Farrier Island, Blacksmith, Silversmith and Lynne Island which threw a spanner in the works.  Thinking Linne must be some smithing term that we hadn’t heard of before, Ian looked it up.  Linne turns out to be the man that formulated the system of botanical classification using Latin names for genus and species.  We’re not sure if he ever even came to Australia.

 




We found a really unusual tree which is Hoop Pine on the bottom and Golden Orchid at the top.  I doubt that it has a  name, either Latin or common.






By now our fresh food supplies had almost run out, so our next destination was Mackay. 
On our return bus trip from shopping, we met a woman who had sailed around Australia with her husband on a 21 foot yacht.  It took them 6 years.  They were living on that boat in the marina, so Ian and I went for a walk later that evening to have a look at it. 
It was tiny and had been built in 1893.  This was a reality check for me, who had been secretly thinking lately that maybe we should have a bigger boat with a watermaker and a hot shower on board.  The truth is, Winkali (36 foot, built 1990) is palatial in comparison.
I’ve had a couple of computer problems lately which is why I haven’t blogged lately.  I managed to Google up the problem just before we left Mackay and I’m back in business. 
Right now we’re at Curlew Island which is just south of the Whitsundays. 

 

Although we have sailed through countless schools of fish, they are impervious to our fishing lure and the closest we come to catching one, is on our camera.

The above photo is a collage of 7 photos I took going through these schools.  I'd like to get all this in one photo but I don't think it will ever happen.

The Last Crab

Brisk winds got us from Dunk Island to Goold Island in only 2 hours.  Ian was hoping it didn't turn nasty because he had bought bananas during our last shop.  

Bananas are meant to be bad luck on boats so I thought I might like to buy one and eat it before we got back to the boat. Ian had the same idea but he had bought a bunch of them and was ignoring his superstitions. 

  

We had a relaxing afternoon after anchoring off Goold Island and did a bit of fishing, deciding to go over to the island the next day.  Ian had better luck than I did by not catching anything.  I caught a small fish (hooked in the gills), which I released,  Unfortunately, it had been mortally wounded and slowly sank, belly up.  I felt lousy!

Cameron and Colin had also anchored at Goold and had gone over to the island in their dinghy.  On their way back, they dropped in to warn us about a particularly nasty stretch on the beach, and whatever we did, don't go there.

Horrified, we said "Crocodiles?'

No, it was Paper Wasps.  Colin explained that one minute they were walking along the beach, minding their own business, the next thing he was being stung all over.  They even got up his board shorts.

We tried unsuccessfully not to laugh.

The following day, Ian goes to the danger zone to track down and photograph the culprits.  

I stayed well away.

That afternoon, we sailed to Hinchinbrook Island via the Hinchinbrook Channel and anchored in Gayundah Creek a beautiful mangrove lined estuary set against the magnificent backdrop of Mount Bowen.

It was a perfect habitat for mud crabs

THE MUD CRAB SAGA

About 14 months ago, while in Darwin, we decided we should buy a crab pot as there were millions of Mud Crabs out there in the mangroves waiting to be eaten.

Although we almost set it once (see A Conundrum), it has just been one of those items which adorn our boat - until now.

This was the perfect opportunity in the heart of Mud Crab territory.  Off we went in the dinghy to set the pot in a likely place.  Then it was off to do a bit of trolling while we waited for the Mud crab to get in the pot.  With Coral Trout heads as bait, how could he resist.

A while later, we returned to inspect the pot. Nothing!

We relocated it just around the corner, maybe it was too secluded where we had it and the crabs didn't even know about that little estuary.

So far, no fish and no crabs.  We had curried vegies for dinner.  

Ian wanted to check the crab pot before we went to bed. I was worried about him getting eaten by a croc, so I went with him, that way he had only a 50% chance if there was a croc about.

We pulled up the pot. Bingo!  A beautiful fat mud crab.

Now a Mud Crab has powerful claws and can be the cause of lost fingers, so it took a bit of maneuvering to get him from the pot to a bucket.  From there it was over to Winkali where Ian had to truss him up with string before putting him into the freezer which would put him to sleep before going into the pot.  By now I was feeling sorry for the Mud Crab.

An hour later it was into the cooking pot.  I looked sideways at the pot as its legs were waving about.  Ian explained that it was only nerves left.  The crab had been killed instantly with the boiling water.

The following day, we sat down to a fine lunch of Mud Crab.

We cracked open the huge claws and found . . . . . a small amount of meat in them. 

Does anyone want to buy a used crab pot?