Lots of nautical miles covered...
Monday, June 04, 2018
2018 Travels
Date: 27/5/18
Location: Shaw Island, Whitsundays
20 27.55 S
129 04'.71 E
Weather: Sunny, 10-15 knot SE
Author: Kylie
We are back in the land of mobile phone service again...I think it has been a week since we had patchy service and another week since we had decent service so we have a bit to catch you up on.
After waiting 5 nights for the windy and swelly conditions to abate we departed Pancake Creek on Monday 28th May feeling a little under pressure to head North. We were surprised that the other boats remained an extra night in the creek as the conditions offshore were really not too bad. There was a slightly messy & confused swell to begin with but the breeze was steady and we sailed fast under a poled out headsail.
As we passed Gladstone we wrenched the kids from their nintendos to come up on deck. They were very excited to see up close the anchored ships . Joel helped Peter to count them up and I think it was about 28!
We sailed through to Cape Capricorn and anchored just after 2pm under the lighthouse. I think that will be a good one to walk up to so it will be on our list of anchorages for the return trip. We launched the rubber duck and motored around the sand banks and into a creek mouth and towards the great yellow sand dunes called "Yellowpatch". The kids were in awe! And then the sun shined and it really is breathtaking.
Every time we go to a new place the kids say "can we stay here for the rest of the trip?" and this was no exception. I think it may well be the highlight of their trip!
The colour of the sand is like you have never seen before, more ochre than yellow, it has a real golden appearance. And the shear height of this sand dune is astounding. We climbed up and up and up. Joel was in heaven, this is the biggest sand pit he has ever played in. From the top you can see North and South east, it is a special view but coming down the sand dune is certainly the best part. Mia and Joel jumped, slid, ran and bottom scooted their way down and when they reached the bottom they screamed "can we do it again? Can we do it again?". How could we say no? And I'm sure if the sun wasn't setting they would have wanted to go a third time.
The following morning we upped anchor and left the rather rolly, uncomfortable anchorage behind for a short hop to Great Keppel Island. With fond memories of this island we were disappointed that we really only had time for 1 night but with an early start and another fast sail we arrived before lunch. This was a remarkable trip as we clicked over 25,000 nautical miles of cruising! That's equivalent to a lap around earth at the equator! Or 40,000km
The afternoon was spent on the beach, although the water was a little chilly for swimming. In the sand dunes we found the biggest swing! Who ever made that swing had no fear of heights as climbing the tree would have been no small feat.
We had an early start again the next day and made our way under spinnaker (we call our spinnaker "Big Bird" for obvious reasons). It was a very unusual day, there were boats all around us heading north. It really is quite uncommon to see another boat whilst you sail and on this day we had 7 other boats in sight for almost the entire 10 hours of travel! The breeze was nice for the majority, light enough to carry the spinnaker but windy enough that we kept moving at a reasonable pace. We are accustomed to sailing past other yachts as our boat moves pretty efficiently, however, on this day the boats were keeping up with us and we had more sail up than them! Yep you guessed it, they were motor sailing. How anyone can stand listening to their motor for 10 hours we have no idea.
We decided to continue on a little further north than the other boats and the wind forecast for the following day changed to a 25 knot SW/SE breeze so we headed into Island Head Creek which we haven't been to before. Coming in on low tide we were concerned about coming aground. The guide book we have for this region is from 1998 and we weren't sure if there had been major changes. We madly tried googling on the frustratingly bad mobile service we had and came across a 50 foot yacht which had been there in the past 4 years. Drawing the same as us we decided to give it a go. Much to our surprise the guide book was quite accurate! The only negative for this anchorage was the midgies- the worst we have seen. Next time we will anchor closer to the creek mouth along the sand bar rather than heading up the creek.
We decided to sit the next day out as we weren't interested in taking the kids out in 25 knots. However, as the day progressed, lunch time passed and the wind lightened, and with the knowledge that we would be inundated with midgies again at 4pm we decided to head north to Cape Townsend.
From Cape Townsend we again set out at day break (see its not all sleep ins and bacon and egg breakys) for Digby Island. We were really knocking off some miles. What was the rush? Well 2 things, we wanted to find a nice beach for Joel's birthday on Sunday and my parents are coming to meet us in the Whitsundays.
Digby island is another new anchorage for us and it was quite pleasant. We were disappointed to see a recent boat wreckage on the shore. The entire contents of the peoples boat was strewn all up the beach. We later heard that the motor boat had lost their radar and thought they were at another island altogether. Not sure what caused them to go aground though. The kids enjoyed an afternoon on the beach.
From Digby we sailed to Scawfell, the most southern island in the Whitsunday group. This was where we planned to have Joel's birthday the following day. It was another long day on the water. The breeze again was pleasant and we popped up Big Bird straight out of the anchorage. The other 3 boats in the anchorage also departed with us, 2 heading the same direction as us. We were again surprised that they were keeping pace with us. As the wind increased we got away from them, , the best wind was first thing in the morning and it dropped all day. We had to motor the final hour into Scawfell as the breeze dropped away. (The following day we spoke with the catamaran that we 'sailed' with from Digby Island and they were hoping we had taken a photo them with their mainsail up so they could send it to their kids to say "see we did have our sails out", apparently it is a rarity and the mainsail hadn't been out at all the entire trip, or the last 12mnths! They confirmed that they had motor sailed the entire way the day before.)
It is beautiful island and the beaches looked lovely, we were all looking forwarding to spending the day on the beach for Joel's birthday. One of the things Joel was most concerned about when we planned this trip was that he wouldn't have his birthday at home with his friends. We tried to reassure him that it would be a special day no matter where we were.
The much awaited Sunday 3rd June finally arrived and we had one very excited almost 5 year old on board! Unfortunately we were still out of phone service area so he got no special phone calls and we haven't seen even 1 boat with kids on board yet so the poor boy had to put up with just us 3 for a party on the beach.
We played beach cricket, and scoured the beach for sea shells, had bbq sausages on the beach and birthday cake too. Then we went exploring each end of the beach. Unfortunately the day did not finish as we had hoped and the little boy who has taken a love to rock climbing/leaping over the large boulder rocks got a little too over confident and tried sliding down the rock faces and came off second best with an unseen oyster. He certainly gave us a scare with the amount of blood coming from his ankle and I later turned a little green when we cleaned it up back on the boat. He, however, is in high spirits and it really doesn't seem to be worrying him too much. Keeping him out of the sand and water for a few days is going to be a challenge.
Today we sailed up to Shaw Island and have just anchored for the night. We will head to Airlie Beach tomorrow to get water and prepare to stock the boat again with some fresh food.
I forgot to say I made the yummiest cheese and bacon bread! Check this out for a first attempt.
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