Sunday 6 October 2013

Pancake Creek to Arlie Beach


28 + 29 August: Gladstone
We left Pancake creek early in the morning and arrived in Gladstone around 10 a.m. After having checked into the marina we headed of to restock our supplies, which had gotten quiet low. We were told that the shops nearby (25 minutes walk) would not suffice our shopping needs (we wanted to buy a pizza stone so the heat would be distributed more evenly when baking bread rolls, which tended to get burnt rather quickly) and that there was no public transport nearby and that our best bet was to take a taxi to another shopping center located ca. 6 km away. We decided to walk to the shopping center 25 minutes away so we would at least be able to stock up on groceries, and save the taxi fare. After having walked about five minutes we found a tourist information where we were able to score a bus timetable. We decided to change our plans and walk to a bus stop, which we estimated to be a 30 minute walk away, so we would be able to go to the shopping center and get everything we needed. When we finally got to the bus stop we found out that the buses only drove at irregular times and that the bus times on the timetable we had been given were outdated. The next bus was due to arrive in two hours. We finally gave up on the idea of saving money and called a taxi, not wanting to wait in the scorching sun at 35 degrees Celsius! We were very glad when we got to the air-conditioned shopping center, but disappointed that we were only able to buy groceries there. We were not able to get the pizza stone nor was there a liquour store. Our moods were quiet deflated when we got back to the marina after having footed a hefty taxi bill.
The next day we found out that we didn’t have to leave till 3 p.m. so we decided to walk to the shops near by. Ironically there was a really well stocked kitchen store there where we were able to get a pizza stone and three liquor stores on the way!!! We set sail at 3 p.m. towards Rat Island, which is located at the entrance of the north channel of the port of Gladstone. We dropped our anchor just as the sun was setting.

The firs thing that greeted our eyes as we neared the southern entrance of the Port of Gladstone: a line of waiting tankers exceeding the horizon.

Our first glimpse of Gladstone. Gladstone is one of the bigger coal export sites of Australia. Moreover it has its own aluminum smeltery. 






Leaving the Port of Gladstone


Industrial development was booming in the city center.

Our first nice view after having left Gladstone.


30 August: Cape Capricorn
Early in the morning we set sail for Cape Capricorn. The sailing went smoothly and we arrived early in the morning. The water was crystal clear and we walked up a steep sand dune, which gave us an exquisite look out over the bay. Too bad we forgot to take our camera. Neither of us was keen enough to climb up the sand dune again. Maybe we will take a picture or two on the way back!




We had this beautiful beach to ourselves.


Someone must have been pretty bored for a long time (probably the tenants of the light house). Concrete steps are moulded into the rocks leading from the left beach to the right beach.


Service elevator leading up to the light house.

As we headed towards Great Keppel Island two whales swam towards us. We changed our course, but so did they. Again they were headed straight for the boat. Suddenly they went under water. As we frantically looked for them, they suddenly appeared again about 10 meters away from the boat lazily gliding past on their backs.

31 August + 1 - 3 September: Great Keppel Island
We started around 9 a.m. had made way for about half an hour when the wind abruptly dropped off. We drifted around, sometimes even backwards until about 2 p.m. when the wind picked up again and sent us speedily towards Great Keppel Island. At sunset we dropped our anchor in long Beach, where we had a very rolly night.
On the 1st of September we headed around to Second Beach to sit out a strong wind warning. Second Beach, and the beaches to either side of it were the nicest we saw in our time on the Island. The water here was crystal clear as well. You could easily see the sandy bottom at four meters. Once we had dropped anchor we paddled a shore to have a look around, accidentally trespassing on the property of some Island tenants. Luckily they were quiet friendly and we were even able to pick some deliciously smelling lemons of one of their trees. On the way back we also harvested a coconut, which we proceeded to de-husk with a rather elaborate method (see the photos). Later, we were to find out that there is a far easier and quicker method! The coconut flesh was absolutely delicious J. In the evening we saw a fair few people go to shore so we decided to paddle to the beach and have a look at what was going on. They had all gathered in a communal sitting area (which had been put there for passing sailors) and were having a merry time. After a welcoming hello we joined them, and the nights after. We even met two people who used to live in Dorrigo – Trevor and Sue, which was quiet a surprise.
The next day we went for a hike to the other side of the Island to check out the resort. The walk was quiet interesting and hot. We saw a huge swarm of blue tiger butterflies on the way. We made it to the resort in about 2 hours where we had an ice-cold made-it-there beer with a beautiful look out over the ocean.
On the 3rd of September we celebrated Pete’s birthday. A little bit of background: Pete is a man who has been stuck on Great Keppel Island since December. He has two yachts, both with broken motors and no means of fixing them. But he didn't seemed to be too distraught, with a micro distillery and two home brew kits on one boat and the other for living.
On the 4th we decided it was time to head further north. The yachters on Great Keppel Island had recommend Pearl Bay as a must stop so we were headed towards it. The winds were meant to have calmed down a fair bit. Alas, if only weather predictions were always right. About an hour after having headed off the wind picked up by quiet a bit (we were later to find out that we had had around 30 knots instead of the predicted 20 knots) and the waves grew to what felt 6-7 meters high (you could have put a house inside the trough). It’s fairly scary when you are on top of a wave and you can’t see the bottom and then when you are in the trough all you can see is water. Our ride to Pearl Bay turned into a rather wet and quick one. We were actually glad when water washed into the cockpit because it was very warm compared to the chilling wind. Towards the afternoon the wind dropped a bit and the waves reduced to about 4 meters, which made our ride a little bit less strenuous. Sadly, this was short lived as we were soon hit by a cold front and torrential rain. The waves and wind picked up within seconds. We were quiet relieved to get into Pearl Bay, where it was much calmer. However, the anchorage was less than ideal so we decided to head to Island Head Creek, about 8 nautical miles further up the coast. We were really happy that we had taken the main sail down at this stage and were only motoring, since we were hit by the full force of the waves and wind as soon as we came out of the lee of the islands in front of Pearl Bay.
When we got to Island Head Creek we were quiet exhausted, the sun was setting and all we wanted was to throw in the anchor, get something in our bellies (we had only eaten breakfast) and pass out in bed. To add to this the bottom of the creek bed where we wanted to anchor wasn’t the indicated 6 meters deep but a mere 20 centimeters. We got stuck, and the fixtures for the rope that hold our rudder in place got torn out. After about 10 minutes of maneuvering we were able to pull ourselves free, but it wasn’t clear whether we would be able to fix our rudder. Worried about how we were going to get from A to B sleep didn’t come easy or last very long.



Great Keppel Island approaches

We keep encountering dense brown patches in the ocean which smell like old fish. Algal blooms?

Second Beach

Svensden's Beach


Our coconut.

Husking the coconut.

It proved hard and tedious work.

Finally. Coconut flesh! It was the best we have ever eaten. 


The weird brain like organism/coral(?) Heidrun discovered. It wasn't attached to the ground. Can you spot the fish?

Cleaning the hull.

At the start of our hike.



Kite.



There were butterflies everywhere, concentrated in a ca. 200 meter radius. As soon as you got near them they would fly up in a big blue and black cloud.



It must have flooded a while ago and a lot of dirt must have been swept out to the ocean leaving a big cleft and a little creek behind.


The remains of what used to be a dam ahead.

The lookout on top of the island.



Civilization?

Getting closer to the resort 
These birds were everywhere. They were quiet funny to observe. They would sneak around and as soon as they thought you saw them they would stand really still and only continue to move very slowly when they though the coast was clear.


The communal area.


Leaving behind a memory.


5 September: Island Head Creek
We beached Kite and hat a look at the extent of the damage caused. Luckily it wasn’t as bad as Bernd thought it was and he was able to fix it. Yay! We would be able to keep sailing. We did a couple of other repairs on the boat and got some much needed relaxation in the afternoon.
At 10 a.m. the next morning we headed towards Middle Percy Island. We would have liked to head out earlier but we had to wait for the water to come back in since we were still beached. The wind was good and we made a swift passage, arriving close to sun set in West Bay.
 
Beached to do repairs.

There were pelicans everywhere. The only time we saw them move was when the flood water got too high. They would then get up and waddle to a spot that wouldn't be reached by the water.

Drying our wet weather gear.


Our second attempt at beaching ourselves didn't work that well. We thought we would wake up in the night when the tide went out but we didn't. Instead we woke up to a crooked boat.










7 + 8 September: Middle Percy Island
After a morning swim we paddled to the Island to have a look around. We decided to walk up to the homestead, located at the top of the Island. When we got to the homestead we got quiet a surprise – we were greeted by Ernst a German guy who lived on the Island. He was very hospitable and gave us a lift back down to West Bay. He also showed us how to climb up a coconut tree and gave us a hand tying Kite to mangroves when we needed to move her into the nearby lagoon (we had to beach her to do further repairs on the trampoline, which had started to come undone again).
In the evening we had our first shower in about 10 days, which was really great (although going for daily swims helps you never really feel 100% clean when you are covered in salt crystals) and sat around a communal fire area with a man from the only other boat anchored in the bay,
On the 8th Bernd decided to climb up a coconut tree himself, and was successful. :) We brought two coconuts back to the ship with us for on the way. At night time we gathered at the fire place again but called it an early night since we were going to head on very early in the morning. We were running low on supplies (we had about 4 more days worth of food and water so had to get to Arlie Beach within that time frame).
We headed towards Digby Island (approximately 20 nautical miles further north) around 6 a.m on the 9th of September. However, the wind was really good, we were making an average of 7 knots, so we decided to head on to Scawfield Island. We arrived in the dark.

Middle Percy Island approaches.


The lagoon.


The lease holders boat dock.



These creepy little fellows marked the way up to the homestead. Someone must have had a lot of time on their hands. We spotted about 50.



Random goats.

The goats were really friendly.






Middle Percy Island harbors some interesting spiders.




Probably the best honey we have ever tasted - produced of Middle Percy Island.

Sitting in the back of the ute on our way back down to the beach.


More butterflies and rain forest. The landscape on Middle Percy Island is probably the most diverse we have seen so far.

The beautiful lookout from the top of the island.


Inside the lagoon.

The sand was really soft. Lots of air was trapped in it. It made for a natural spa bath if you jumped up and down for a bit :). 

The lease holders boat dried out.

Kite, also dried out on the sand.



Kite must be much heavier on the right side since she always tilts to the right. The weird thing is most of the heavy things are on the left side :-/.


The A-frame.


Bernd climbing up a coconut tree to get us some coconuts.

We climbed up this rocky outcrop barefoot to get some phone reception. Yes. Barefoot. There are no deadly poisonous snakes on Middle Percy Island.



10: Scawfield Island to Goldsmith Island
We moved on in the morning towards Goldsmith Island, since we were on a fairly tight time schedule. On our way out we saw Whales up fairly close. One of them did a roll in the water! (See video).
We arrived at Goldsmith Island in the late afternoon.


Scawfield Island.


It was often the case that we would see butterflies crossing the vast expanse of ocean between two islands. Sometimes these were 4-5 nautical miles apart. 




11: Goldsmith Island to Pine Island
In the morning we made our way towards Arlie Beach. However, we hadn’t anticipated that there would be such strong tidal currents so we made a very slow way towards midday. To add to this the wind was blowing against the current. Although the waves were quiet low, we still managed to get soaked. Since we hadn’t anticipated getting wet we were not wearing our wet weather gear. We decided to cut our journey short and ducked behind the headland of Pine Island, some two hours away from Arlie Beach. Just as we dropped anchor our waterproof tablet decided to give up its life. It had been charging when the first wave hit the cockpit and some water had gotten into the charger dock. We laid the table out to dry hoping it would work again the next day, since it makes navigating a lot easier.

Our anchorage in the southern end of Goldsmith Island. 




12: Pine Island to Arlie Beach
The tablet still wouldn’t work in the morning. Heads hung low we familiarized ourselves with the tiny screen of the chart plotter. We had been rather spoilt! We arrived in Arlie around midday.
We were very glad to dock onto the fuel station to refill our water and fuel, both of which had gotten very low. We were also able to refill our gas bottle, which had been empty since our last night at Great Keppel Island.
After we finished everything we anchored in Pioneer Bay, to the right of the Able Point Marina.
We were able to anchor quiet close to the shore. This was convenient since the nearby shopping center was only a 5 minute walk away.
Spot the face. 


13 - 15 September: Arlie Beach
In the morning we paddled to the shore. We walked to Bunnings (about 25 minutes walk) and bought a hammock there. We then took a bus to a bigger shopping center since we needed to go to BCF and it was located about an hours walk away from Bunnings. We completed most of our shopping there.
On the 14th in the afternoon we managed to do our washing. However, we left it too late for Coles (they closed at 5:30 p.m that day) so we weren’t able to get any milk.

On the 15th we headed out around 10 a.m. to pick up our friend Bayden from Hamilton Island, who was coming to visit us.

Bernd relaxing in our hammock.

A giant three master, shipwrecked near our anchorage in Arlie Beach.

We usually paddle to the marine rescue on the left to get to shore. There is a boat ramp and a light post we can chain the canoe there. Other yachters leave their supermarket trollies there. This is perfect for transporting washing to the shopping center laundromat.  We also found a toilet block with a shower in the park to the left of the marine rescue :).

No comments:

Post a Comment