Year One
Date: 25/6/2008 18:00
Weather: Clear and warm, windy
Location: Goldsmith Island 20'40 23S, 149'08 94E
Author: Peter

The three of us now find ourselves island hopping about every 3rd day. The sailing between islands is ridiculously short so we seem to go everywhere just under a headsail. Nothing is more than two hours away. Down in Tassie, cats were rare, so rare we were wondering for a long time if they even existed down there. In Queensland however it is a very different story. We are the odd ones out. We are always out numbered in anchorages and the last two nights we were the only mono hull. This helps give me more confidence when considering that if I build another boat it will be a cat.

We ended up spending two nights at Scawfell Island but it is so nice I know we will be stopping there on the way back down. After leaving Scawfell we sailed a leisurely 20nm across the waves (a little rolly) to Brampton Island (20'48 00S, 149'15 78E). Brampton Island is mainly national park except for the small area taken up by the resort (not sailor friendly) and the air strip. The anchorage itself, although protected did not have the spectacular beach and views that we had left behind, so that afternoon we decided to go for a walk up to the top of Mount Brampton and were rewarded with scenic views of Turtle Bay and the surrounding islands.
The veiw from the lookout

Eugene and Peter

Along the path we were greeted by large groups of butterflies. Four different kinds could be found at any time along with one that was the same as the one Kylie and I released on our wedding day.



I think we paused a little to long to play with the butterflies as dad was now long gone and well on his way up the hill. On the way back down we got a little lost and ended up in the resort, which looks really nice if you are interested.

The following morning while I went for a snorkel, dad took off to walk the island loop. An 8.7km walk. Two and half hours later he was relating to us how much better it was than the previous days walk so that one will go on our list of things to do on the way back down. The snorkeling near the jetty was ok for fish life but once again the coral was a little silted over.

After a quick two hour headsail run between Linne and Goldsmith Islands we find ourselves now anchored at Goldsmith island. Once again National park but not quite as nice as Scawfell. Kylie has banned me from swimming today in an attempt to help some of my scrapes to heal so today after some shell collecting (not very productive) we played Boules on the beach. A game dad seems to be very good at. The coral seems to be clean from the duck so I'll have a closer look tomorrow.

Sorry to hear the weather back down south is grey and cool. Its a lovely sunny mid twenties up here except there is a little wind (20 Knots) but when out of it, say on the beach, it is glorious and we still have turtles swimming by all the time.

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Year One
Date: 22/6/2008 18:00
Weather: Clear and warm, windy
Location: Scawfell Island 20'55 77S, 149'25 66E
Author: Peter

Our pace has slowed down again and we feel a little out of routine. It wont take long and it will all feel normal again. We are now in the southern edge of the Whitsundays away from where all the charter boats are allowed to go and it is majestic. We have had turtles constantly swimming by for the last few days.

not sure what this is, looks like eggs.. anyone know?

This is what I imagined the Whitsundays to be like. A quiet island covered in dense green bush (mainly gums), long beaches(if not a little gritty), wonderfully clear water, and coloured coral that is beautiful to snorkel over. We did not realise that giant clams had coloured lips. We saw blue, purple and green. The coral we had seen up until now had been covered in silt and what remained looked fairly forlorn, but this was just alive and bright.

Up until the 19th we were doing fairly long days so that we could meet dad at Mackey (21'06 84S, 149'13 52E). During this time we were wondering where the rest of the cruisers were as we had seen no other sail boats until we arrived at Great Keppel Island (23'09 71S, 150'57 26E) and there they all were. The coast on the way up appeared devoid of humans except around Gladstone where to our surprise there were 28 ships at anchor. Once north of Gladstone it was interesting to see how the colour of the water changed to a stunning turquoise, the same colour Kylie had put into our sign writing, and so clear it feels like you can see the bottom a mere 44 metres down. I also did not realise how many islands there are up here as we now appear to be sailing through a giant maze of them. Their rocks look mainly volcanic in nature and alot of them have pine trees.

We have finally caught up some boats that had left ahead of us. Beagle III (Tas) off Fraser island and Valhalla (Cronulla) at Mackay. We also bumped into an John Harris an old Connells Point sailor cruising up here on his new cat.

Since leaving Bustard Bay we have over-nighted at Cape Capricorn (23'28 97S 151'13 89E), Great Keppel Island, South Percy Island (21'44 22S 150'18 59E), Mackay Marina, Keswick Island - 2 nights (20'55 77S 149'25 66E) and Scawfell Island. Keswick was a little disappointing but Scawfell well and truly made up for it.

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Year One
Date: 15/6/2008 12.30
Weather: Clear and warm
Location: heading north just off Bustard Head
Author: Peter

We are currently on the move and I'm debating whether to put up big bird. Kylie is whale spotting. The other day whilst off Fraser Island Kylie spotted her first whales. They were right next to the boat. She startled me awake, but I think she startled them as the next thing we new they started following (chasing?) us. It felt really weird looking straight out the back of the boat at three whales bigger than us within 15 metres. Actually it got a little nerve racking after a while.

We spent three nights at Canapia Point while the southerly blew through. Although the Sand blow was a disappointment the view back over the delta and all the islands of Morton Bay was not. If you had some small kayaks, you could pretend it was a maze and send groups out to find their way to the prize in the center. Thank goodness we had maps.
Sunset at Canapia Point

Canapia Point was also enjoyable as we got our first turtle experience. Around sunset while off in the duck we had at least five turtles swim past us, one even poking his head out to have a good look at us. I think we are the only ones that noticed them because the rest of the crowd was well and truly into the grog and making allot of noise on each others boats.

After we left Canapia we spent a night in the Brisbane River(27'24 24S, 153'09 17E). Not much to mention here except, go further up, the oil refinery really stinks. We then made our way to Scarborough Marina (27'11 69S, 153'06 34E) for two nights where we were having our duo-gen checked out. During our stay we tested out the QLD public transport system and made our way to Kippa Ring to do some shopping and catch a movie which felt a little strange. Narnia Prince Caspian was not the Disney movie I expected but was still worth watching.

After leaving Scarborough, we spent a rolly (not nice) night off Bribie Island (27'01 85S, 153'11 29E)before doing an over nighter to Bustard Bay (24'08 95S, 151'50 87E) in a building breeze trying to out run the forecast strong wind warning. We only had a bad time of it across the top of Harvey Bay with the boat now covered in salt from all the waves we had over the deck for half a day.

Bustard Bay is the spot where Captain Cook anchored and first went ashore in QLD to climb round hill to have a look around. It is a pretty spot with low hills covered in gum trees and the small town of 1770. We enjoyed it as we both got a good nights sleep in still waters after the rough last 48 hour run.

Today we will cross into the tropics, hoping to anchor at Capricorn Point which lies directly on the tropic of Capricorn line.

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Year One
Date: 7/6/2008 12.30
Weather: A southerly expected
Location: Canapia Point 27'38 48S 153'25 17E
Author: Peter

Sorry that we have not been on the air lately but I'm sure you can all understand. We finally got away from Coffs, a week later than planned thanks to a southward bound low sitting just off the coast. It played havoc with the east coast as it went. Plenty of north bound boats sheltered in Coffs as the low passed by, while the seas outside were quite spectacular breaking across the entire entrance to Coffs Harbour and breaking heavily across the northern break wall of the marina sending water high into the air. Someone even told us our anchored boat made it onto the local news on the worst night showing how bad conditions actually got.

While in Coffs we caught up with family and friends and the new addition to the Herbert family. There never seems to be enough time, as Kylie was always in high demand. Dad (Eugene) even caught the train up and spent some time with us, although no where near as exciting as when we are normally on the road. I even managed to get a little work too helping our very poor looking budget increase just a little. Towards the end of our stay the seas finally calmed down a little and I took Alan, Graham and Toni out to sea for some whale watching while Kylie went shopping with Linda and Coryn. After a slow start we came across a group of four? humpback whales that put on a spectacular show of breaching and tail slapping for us. I know a great day was had by all by the size of the grins on everyones face.

We had a slow sail up the coast in variable winds ranging in strength from 3 to 12 knots (at least we did not have to tack). The coast around Coffs was stunning with layers of high peaked mountains, stretching inland, competing for our affections only with south eastern coast of Tasmania for beauty, before it once again flattened off all the way to Byron Bay. Our sail was pretty uneventful, seeing only two whales over the 150nm. We made landfall at Southport on the Gold Coast at around 1 in the morning before anchoring off Sea World (27'57 07S, 153'25 28E) for some much wanted sleep. Allot of yachts were anchored in the area, though some chose not to have any anchor lights on which made it a little difficult manouvering around (stupid, just stupid). Also being surrounded by so many lights bright lights of the Gold Coast after such a long time is just weird. We are now in our third state. Eastern seaboard soon to be covered.

Yesterday saw us motor our way through the channels in the delta at the bottom of Morton Bay. A "street directory" would have been good as there are that many different ways through (for shallower boats) that we got a little confused at times. To begin with we thought we were on a good thing as Alan Lucas, the writer of many cruising guides, had also just picked up anchor next to us and we thought we would follow him through, however a short while later he bumped into a friend and stopped for a chat. After a few hours, some elevated heart rates, some stress and few minor grounding's, we eventually made it through and anchored off Karragarra Island (27'38 10S, 153'25 16E) for lunch (hot dogs).

After lunch we took a leisurely sail to Canapia Point where our guides show a sand blow. Much to our disappointment the sand blow looks nothing like it used to and is almost now completely re vegetated. It is also a long weekend up here in Queensland and today has seen many boats come here to anchor. It is starting to remind us of New years on Sydney Harbour. We have been so spoilt in Tasmania that we are hoping we adjust soon. Talking about adjustments it's great to be back in shorts and a t-shirt again. We have missed the warmth. The water offshore is now up to 22 degrees, a bit warmer than the 6.5 we had in the southern ocean. Can't wait to get further north still.

Finally we are soon to start expecting some visitors. We always wanted to share this experience with family and friends. Dad is flying up to Mackay shortly to join us for a few weeks as we head into the Whitsundays. Also some sailing friends are joining us for Hamilton Island race week, to test out the "cruising boat", so if you have time give us a call or a simple email, and come and join us, we are looking forward to seeing more family and friends.

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