Gladstone-Mooloolaba

Enough meat on this one...?

Harlequin sat lonely in Gladstone marina for a little over 3 weeks in November, gathering a fine but comprehensive layer of coal-dust. Sad, but true...

When David & Chris flew in from Sydney on 29 Nov, they had a few jobs to do - but first a jolly good hose down! Then into provisioning and make & mend, with The Bosun doing what he does best: fixin' stuff.

Left-overs

Jim flew in a couple of days later from Hong Kong to inspect, compliment where due, chastise else, then cast off for a 150 nm overnight to the Great Sandy Strait, the famous inshore passage by Fraser Island. A full moon, calm seas and (finally) a gentle NE'ly made for champagne sailing.The option of breaking the journey at Bundaberg Port Marina came and went without a backward glance.

Galley swabs

Not long after dawn, the celebrated pink squid lure worked its usual magic and produced 5 kg of Tuna for the fridge. To join the 2 kg of minced beef, 2 kg of lamb chops, 1 kg of bacon and 2 dozen eggs. Between 3 blokes over 6 days, we were going to have to endure some serious scoffing! So anchoring off Moon Point, in the lee of Fraser Island, everyone leaped into the water to clean hull & prop, and work up an appetite. And a thirst. It worked!

Goujons of Tuna

Next day was a slow start, as tides would not quite allow a straight-through of the Great Sandy Strait. So we had a chance to mess around with the new charge-splitter to find out why it had been acting up. After a couple of hours experimentation & cogitation we were still none the wiser, but at least had discovered how to manage the problem.

Moon Point supper

By midday we had positioned at Bookar Island, just north of the shallows. The plan had been to finish the hull scrape, but with a vicious current, running, and equally vicious looking jellyfish in the water we unanimously decided to chill and have a long lunch instead.

Which somehow turned into an early Christmas dinner, with multiple exotic courses, each accompanied by a different wine:  tuna/rice patties & salad (Sav Blanc), followed by lamb chops, rosemary potatoes & peas (Shiraz/Cabernet), chased with oranges in Bundy rum, cheese, very dark chocolate & strong, strong coffee.

Gettin' fuzzy again...

Tue, 4 Dec saw us rocketing through the Strait on a 2 kt flood and a 25 kt tailwind, surrounded by a half dozen like-minded yachts all taking the standing advice to begin the run about 3 hrs before high tide. The consequences of touching the sandy bottom on the flood were not dire, but seeing 1.5 ft under the keel on a couple of occasions certainly focused ones attention, and the 3 hr transit seemed to fly by.

Fraser Island sunset

Given the wind strength (now gusting over 30 kts), Pelican Bay looked too exposed for the overnight so a quick tidal calc dangled the alternative of anchoring in Snapper Creek by Tin Can Bay. Not much spare draft to play with, but if we hurried...

Tin Can Bay

By 1300 we were anchored opposite the Yacht Club, with the wind still howling, only to find one of the valves on the dinghy was u/s. Given the need to run ashore for a re-supply of stogies, Coke & tonic (bit of a giveaway that...), it didn't take long before we had switched to Plan C! A quick call on ch 73 confirmed that a berth was available for the night at Tin Can Bay Marina, and we just had enough of the falling tide to nip in there. Or so we thought!

Tin Can Bay Marina approach

Motoring in, just 100 m short of the entrance, we were suddenly aground. The Skipper had strayed too far right in the narrow side-channel (known locally as a 'gutter') approaching the marina entrance, and we were now at risk of a stranding with close to another metre of ebb to look forward to!

Straying from the gutter

No time for the faint-hearted, we popped the Genoa, spun the helm with full throttle, pirouetted on the spot, and shot out the way we had come. Genoa in, fenders down, take a bit more care with the track into the marina, and 5 minutes later we were alongside and battening down the hatches (read: tucking into the Bundy Coke...) as the gale blew itself out. Phew! Dinner: home-made beef patties & new potatoes topped with avocado & cheese (Shiraz).

Nuff said...

Tin Can Bay marina proved a delightful spot once the din of the gale had subsided: reasonably priced, very friendly, excellent facilities and with an extremely well-stocked chandlery. Must be very popular - and busy - in the holidays.

Next day we departed for a carefully-timed crossing of the Wide Bay Bar (the southern exit of the Gt Sandy Strait) which can often be daunting but today was flat calm, in a light E'ly. We didn't complain, just popped the assymetric for the first time in weeks (months?) and sat back to enjoy our run down the coast to Noosa. The forecast was for a swing all the way round the compass to S'ly, so we felt an anchorage off Noosa main beach would be secure.

Tin Can supper

Coastguard Noosa confirmed that the charted shark nets were in place off the beach (actually there are now at least 3) so it required a bit of care anchoring inside them at dusk. Safely achieved by us, but we spent dinner (spag-bol & a cheeky little Chianti) watching another yacht hanging up in the dark. They were still there as we retired for the night, but had managed to free themselves by dawn. Without a serviceable dinghy, there was nothing for us to do, except watch and tut-tut, with much sad shaking of heads.

Noosa supper

The presence of (open-ended) shark nets never really allows much comfort, as you slip into the water for a hull scrape. The Commodore felt someone should be on shark-watch duty and quickly volunteered. Job done (in double quick time, it has to be said), we weighed for Mooloolaba, reefed 1 & 2 for the strong S'ly in the face. Ah, that old chestnut...

Noosa shark nets

Thankfully, it soon backed SE'ly, allowing us an almost direct run down the coast to our final stop, berthed alongside at a friend's domestic pier at the foot of his garden in Minyama.

Thanks, Eric!

Minyama Xmas berth

This is it, where Harlequin will rest for a month or so over Christmas, before our lift and departure prep for the next leg of the voyage: Brisbane-Lord Howe Island-Opua, New Zealand.

Roll on 2013...!

A little memorie from the Backpacker team

With apologies to Ewan McColl, The Dubliners, Pogues, et al...

Keppel Bay Marina - Gladstone

Alexis at the masthead

Nice timing!

Just arrived, strolling along the Keppel Bay Marina pontoon to berth Blue 69, and there was Harlequin drifting into place!

Good to see Alexis & Carolle again, and to meet Loic & Anouk for the first time - now all thoroughly experienced sailors aboard Harlequin after their trip down from Mackay with Captain Steve.


Masthead view

Didn't take long to get the handover from Steve, before he had to head off to Rockhampton airport to return the hire car and overnight back to Hong Kong. Felt for him - he very obviously wanted to stay on for a few days more.

Having discovered that Bundaberg Port Marina were not taking bookings due to an expected influx of boats from the Vanuatu Port-2-Port Rally (wonder if they found any cocaine this year...) our new target was Gladstone, which gave us more time to kick back and enjoy shorter daily passages. Starting with... bugger it - let's stay here tonight!

Guijons of Tuna

Dinner was thus rustled up on the spot, with more Clean Skin wine (our favourite local 'chateau') and we put off the bulk of the jobs until morning. This included sending Alexis up the mast. Forget why, but it seemed like a good idea at the time...



Allez...

-oop!

Then off on a short 12 nm leg to anchor with about a dozen other boats (the most we've seen anywhere outside the Whitsundays) north side of Great Keppel Island, off Second Beach. Snug as a bug, and a great spot for star watching, with moon-rise not 'til after midnight. The water was cold, though - the first time we've noticed this on our cruise south.

Forever flexible, the forecast of a moderate-strong SE'ly for the next few days altered our plans yet again. Out went the route via North West Island which (would have been nice), and In came the more direct Hummocky Island for lunch then Cape Capricorn overnight for the planned Tropic of Capricorn Party.

Named by Cook himself in 1770 (the cape, not the party - although, you never know...), we thought it would be the perfect spot to celebrate reaching as far South of the equator as we had been North, before departing Hong Kong way back in February.



Sunset at Gt Keppel Is

Barely had the anchor taken, but the guitar & harmonica were out. Oh, and Square Bear of course (Bundaberg rum - we are now officially out of Tanduay), which proved an effective lubricant as the crew belted out a string of French numbers, led very sweetly by Loic & Anouk. In harmony, no less.



More fish!

Even after hours of this, the three neighbouring boats hadn't sent anyone over to complain, so we assumed they wanted more. Which is what they got...


[Narrative break for some pretty piccies]

French lookout

Crash positions...

Tropic crossing

Loic & Anouk

Le Vent Nous Portera

Gettin' fuzzy...

Next morning was an early, if painful start, bound for Gladstone via the North Channel. Timing the flood, we expected at least 2 m under the keel at the shallows, which proved the case - right up to mark N6 when we ground to a slow but undignified halt. Ooo-kay. Obviously haven't dredged much around here recently...

Ready about...

Backing the main and full reverse took us straight back off again, but it did focus the attention somewhat! See pic (below) as we approach the very spot...

Safely through, we were soon alongside at Gladstone marina and relaxing in the airless heat over lunch (you really miss the breeze), before setting to on the usual round of jobs & cleaning.




Northern approach

The plan of fish & chips for dinner had to be abandoned as we missed the closing time of 8PM (how barbaric), but that gave us an excuse to enjoy Alexis' famous Carbonara one last time. And how good it was!

Looks shallow...

The party ended with sad farewells, as Jim was stepping ashore at 0520 for an 0645 flight. Alexis bravely volunteered to act as taxi with their van, but I'm sure he went back to his bunk straight after.

Hopefully not the last we've seen of our famous French crew (maybe they can return next month?) but safe to say that we have thoroughly enjoyed having them all aboard. Good food, good humour, good company.

Bonne chance et bonne journee mes ami!


Blog stats

As an aside, we thought it interesting to see how our blog's audience has changed since our international (and most especially French) crewmates came aboard. Have a look at the stats for the last month...

click on the pic for more detail

In terms of pageviews by country, you will see that France has moved up into close second place, just behind Australia, and ahead of Hong Kong!

I'm guessing that friends & family of Alexis & Carolle, Loic & Anouk may have something to do with this?

For their fans, we have plenty more photos of their sail from Rosslyn Bay to Gladstone to follow shortly...

[PS.  Anyone know anybody in Latvia...?]

Mackay to Keppell Bay

3-2-1-Go!

4 Backpackers and me!
 
Well, I am a lucky chap.  Barely has the sun tan had time to fade after the Whitsundays-Mackay leg than I made it back again (thanks to my very understanding wife) for 3 quick days of sailing to press further down the coast - to Keppell Bay Marina near Yeppoon in fact. It is planned that I will handover here to Jim who has his sights set on making it to Bundaberg.

Housework sucks!

I’ve had to ditch my better half and attractive friends for this leg and in their stead Jim has tee’d me up with a crew of four unknown (to me anyway) trendy young French van-packers on their way around Australia. Could be an interesting few days!

Alexis, Carolle, Loic and Anouk did me the very great favour of arriving in Mackay early and largely getting the boat ready, doing the laundry and getting the groceries so we could get going asap.  They even picked me up in their van from the airport – respect.  We used that to pick up some extra diesel and stop off at the bottle shop as I was told we were totally out of rum!  There’s no way we could set sail like that so, the Tanduay now finally finished, we would have to switch to Bundaberg though I suppose that as it's the local brew it’s only appropriate.

"I'll go mad without music"!

Pressies!

After a bit of lunch and a couple of nice presents from the crew by way of a ‘thanks for having us’, a few jobs before we could get going.
  
First priority, fix the chest fridge to restore the cold beer supply.  Second, fit the funky new stereo system so the Mega Cruz could once again be conducted appropriately with sounds.  With nearly 40GB of music on his old but functional iPod equivalent, Alexis was on a mission with this – he had it fitted before I’d even unpacked my bag.

Mr Fridgemagic

Jesus, in the form of Byron from MBS Refrigeration arrived to perform miraculous surgery on our sick and leaky fridge compressor.  Though there was a price (of course), and coupled with the cost of the ‘non-fix’ in Townsville we probably weren’t far off a new unit we now had cold beer available to soothe wallet pain!

With everything done in good time and a gentle northerly breeze in place for the evening, we took the opportunity to save a nights berthing fee and press for the Percy Isles leaving Mackay Marina just as darkness was falling.   

An easy nights cruise had the destination in sight as dawn broke, fishing lines in the water and immediately fzzzz, fzzzz, fzzzz! 

Something was having a go at one of the lures. 

Whites Bay

For a very short time, I think Alexis actually believed Jim’s rumour-mongering that I had some fishing sixth sense, though my pathetic performance with rod in hand soon dispelled that notion.  Thought I finally had fish on but then one leap into the air and dinner had escaped.  Of course, it had looked huge and tasty!

We had hoped to park at West Bay on Middle Percy and visit the famous A-frame hut, perhaps leaving a Harlequin momento with all the other cruisers memorabila (I was thinking of an empty bottle of Tanduay Rum with a Hong Kong flag stuffed inside and a note from the Harlequiners but I digress....).  However, the northerly was strengthening noticeably making the anchorage untenable so we gybed around the back and into the excellent Whites Bay. 
 

So nice was it and so tired were we that we decided to hang there for the rest of the day doing a few jobs, enjoying the sun, blue water, lunch and live musical entertainment from Loic.

 

Catch da fish,

Bright and early the next morning, it was evident that the wind had a bit more easterly in it than the day before (a southerly change was forecast for that evening) but it still enabled us to hold the one tack (just) all the way to Port Clinton.  Blue sky, breeze, dolphins and a fish! 

Eat da fish!

Clean da fish,

Cook da fish,

Hmmmmm...

Dropped the hook easily into sticky mud on the ledge down the South Arm of Port Clinton just under the lee of Mount Flinders and enjoyed the solitude with a cold beer. We then got down to turning the catch of the day into dinner.

Reef going in!

The southerly change was in full evidence the next morning and a chat with the Yeppoon Coastguard confirmed the weather as ESE 15-20kts, 1.7m seas and passing showers so we prepped the boat for a moderately windy, wet and bumpy 45nm trip to Keppell Bay. 

Not so champagne sailing!

The tide, just starting the flood, was not in our favour but we had a rendezvous time to make and it did keep the waters calmer over the entrance bar.  The temptation was to get going in the right direction, so I elected to ‘motorbeat’ as keenly as we could without pinching past Quoit Rock and onwards to Cape Manifold from where we could bear away a little to Keppell Bay. 

 The seas and 2 knots of tide against us made it slow going whilst the dark skies, rain and foaming rocky shore combined to make it a most uncomfortable passage.  Anouk quickly succumbed to the motion of the boat and went below, followed by Loic and Carolle.  When I couldn't bear sucking my teeth any longer at the possible consequences of a technical snag, Alexis and I tacked out, accepted the extra time it would add and put some decent sea room between the angry coast and ourselves.  Next time I think I’ll try to be wise and do it early.

Just the one for the road.

Once out further to sea now sailing properly we noticed that in the rough conditions it had come alive with birds and fish.  Whirling flocks attacked the seas and good size fish could be seen breaking the surface below them, perhaps feeding on something pressed to the surface.  Alexis and I chased the melees down where we could, sailing through lures out but without even a sniff of a bite each time.  At least we tried and in any case there was still half a fish left from the day before.

Les backpackers et moi.  Merci!

Once around Cape Manifold and on the direct line to Keppell Bay Marina entrance we made steady progress arriving at 3pm, only an hour later than planned.  The lady on the radio from the marina was expecting our arrival call and efficiently explained where we’d be parking.  Jim shuffled up to the dock just in time to take our lines and give me the keys to the hire car I was going to drive back to Rockhampton for my flight that evening.  Isnt it nice when the plan comes together!

Having put up with me as skipper for a few days, Alexis, Carolle, Loic and Anouk can now look forward to seeing how its done properly with Jim in charge.

Steve

7 Nov 2012