AUG22, 2005

AUGUST 22 , 2005

August 1 - 22, 2005

Just before we left Yellow Patch, Paul befriended a local fisherman who took him out for about an hour to his favourite spot. Paul came back with 5 flathead, a very ugly fish which looks like a lizard, but is the Australian equivalent to Pickerel. Great eating.

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August 3 - 11, 2005

We left a calm anchorage at Yellow Patch on a rising tide and were surprised when we saw the surf that we had to cross to get out into Keppel Bay. Nothing like the Wide Bay Bar though and we made it through without any drama. No drama with the waves on the bar, that is. Our autopilot decided not to function that day and Mary had to hand-steer for five hours in windy conditions with big swells as Paul tended to the sails. The best thing about hand-steering a sailboat is that you don't have time to be seasick because you are concentrating so much on steering.

After five hours in Keppel Bay, we entered the muddy Fitzroy River. As the tide was falling, our intent was to start up the river before low tide and, hopefully, get past a few early shallow patches with enough water to continue the four-hour trip to Rockhampton.

This is the third muddy river that we have travelled in Queensland. We now jokingly call ourselves "river rats". It is not our intent to travel up every river that we see but we wanted to go into Rockhampton to meet up with another amateur radio operator, pick up a few deliveries by mail, and get provisions.

Alas, shortly after starting up the Fitzroy, we hit a very shallow patch one hour from falling tide. We were stopped dead in the water with nothing to do but wait for rising tide. Two hours later we were floating and continued on our journey. As it was now 4 p.m. and sunset is at 5:30 p.m., we realized that we could not continue to Rockhampton so we stopped for the night beside Satellite Island. We had a very calm night at anchor.

Early the next morning when Mary was getting breakfast ready, Paul looked out and saw heavy fog downriver and it looked like it was moving fast towards us. This caused some concern as we did not want to travel up an unfamiliar river in fog. So we quickly hauled up anchor and beat it out of there and managed to outrun the fog, which eventually dissipated.

Sometime after we started we tried the autohelm to see if it was working, and it was! We shook our heads and logged this as something that we would have to investigate further while in Rockhampton.

We spent just over one week in Rockhampton and had a delightful time with Geoff and Daphne who took us shopping and for a driving tour of the area. As well, we replaced our original marine batteries, which had proved to be faulty from the beginning, with new batteries that had been delivered to the Fitzroy Motor Boat Club. These faulty batteries were probably the cause of the failure of the alternators a few months ago. We have had both the alternators and batteries replaced under warranty and the boat is much happier now as our total charging time has been reduced to one hour per day.

August 11 - 12, 2005

We left Rockhampton at 11 a.m. on a falling tide and stopped for the night just past the entrance of the Fitzroy River at Sea Hill, a rolly anchorage. After an uncomfortable night, we sailed to Great Keppel Island, the largest island and one of the jewels of Keppel Bay.

August 13 - 16, 2005

There are several walks of varying difficulty on the island and we took three of the most rugged walks. This one was on the way to the resort and airstrip so that we could check out the ice cream! We had already climbed the steep grade on an earlier walk and for a moment, thought the sign meant that we had to do it again.

Paul found this black and white cormorant, with his head tucked out of the wind, having a night-time snooze on our boom. We thought that it was cute until the next morning when we found a mess on the targa top. We then hung CDs from the boom as we were told by other yachties that this would deter the bird. Sure enough, it worked.

August 17 - 22, 2005

We left Great Keppel Island and traveled to Port Clinton where we spent a rolly night at anchor. We made radio contact in the morning with new friends, two cruising couples, who we had met at Yellow Patch and learned that both couples were waiting for us at Island Head Creek.

As the Port Clinton anchorage was uncomfortable we decided not to delay and travelled to Island Head Creek where we spent the first two days with Bob and Julia from Kinta and David and Heather from The Catch. What a reunion! David and Heather and Bob are avid fishers and all have their favourite spots in this meandering creek with several different anchorages.

We had our first "yachtie beach barbecue" where everyone brings what they want to cook for themselves and anyone can join in. Sure enough, when several other yachties saw the fire, they joined us on the beach. David hauled out his guitar and we had a sing-along (with Paul teaching everyone the famous campfire song, "One Bottle of Pop"). Heather had a game called Boule, something like lawn bowling, that is played on the beach and Mary was the overall winner that night.

Bob and Julia and David and Heather all left the next morning as they were both travelling to Mackay and wanted to beat the next weather low that was coming in. We were happy to stay and fish in Island Head Creek for a few more days and then start our island hop to the Whitsunday Islands.

David and Heather left us one of their crab pots and Paul has been trying to catch mud crab for the past two days. No luck yet but he'll keep on trying. We have had one lesson on how to clean the mud crabs and have learned of two different ways of cooking them - boiling and frying.

Fishing is good here. We are finally filling our freezer with not just meat - we trolled in the dinghy for 60 minutes yesterday afternoon and came home with Salmon (not like what we are used to at home), Queenfish, and Dart. Enough for 6 meals. This afternoon, we are going to try and catch Red Emperor, one of the tastiest fish we have had yet. Paul caught his first Spanish Mackerel this morning.

We are watching the weather and will probably leave here on Wednesday, August 24.