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