Shaw Island to Airlie Beach

A fairly early start to head the 30nm from Shaw Island to Abel Point Marina at Airlie Beach.

An uneventful trip with only 5kt winds up our bum.  We passed South Molle Island and watched a series of boats go through Unsafe Passage.  As navigator, I looked at the passage, it was shallow and narrow and said “Unsafe Passage” which I took to be a warning so navigated Michael the long way around North Molle Island.  I later found out the error I had made and Unsafe Passage was the name rather than a recommendation not to pass. 

As we rounded North Molle Island, we discovered why everyone was cutting through Unsafe Passage as we got hit with 13kt winds from the north and a 1 metre swell hitting us from the side.  That made the next 6nm slightly uncomfortable to say the least.

We approached Abel Point Marina entrance and lined up the red markers to the left and the green markers to the right to make our way through the entrance when an impatient touring fastcat decided he didn’t want to get stuck behind us, sped up and cut in front of us between markers and we got hit with his wash and were pushed sideways narrowly missing one of the markers.  The fastcat then nearly took out another yacht and a dinghy… all in a day’s work, I guess.

We located our marina berth, our home for the next week, and the space was sooooo narrow.  Michael did exceptionally well maneuvering Kidnapped into the tiny space, I leapt off the front on to the dock and tied her off.  We’re actually getting pretty good at this.  The guy in the boat next to us came out and said “I’m glad it was you coming in next to me because if it was me coming in next to you, my insurance would be buying you a new boat about now.”

Airlie Beach

Airlie Beach is beautiful. The week was spent doing the usual… bathing, laundry, shopping, refuelling, fixing, bleeding and yelling but we did get to have some fun as well.  We had pizzas at Sorrento’s at the marina, swam at the lagoon and managed to catch up with a girlfriend, Liz, who invited us all to her home for her special homemade pizza (and a damn fine pizza it was).

Airlie Beach Lagoon

No matter where we go, how far we try to put Maryborough behind us… it still seems to rear its ugly head.  The ugly head this time was John, AKA Captain Kaos who we came to know pretty well in Maryborough.  We only chatted for about 15 minutes at the fuel dock before we went our separate ways.

Liz came to see us off and it was nice to have a friendly face waving at us from the dock as we departed.

Kidnapped leaving our tiny dock space

Great Keppel Island to Shaw Island

Great Keppel Island to Port Clinton

20 August

Port Clinton reopened after war games and but we had to wait an extra couple of days for a weather window to make our way up there.

We were to make an early start and were travelling with Graeme & Karen on Omega.  The night before our departure, at 11.30pm, Leroy (the dog) jumped up on our bed and sat on me.  He was making this weird clicking noise with his mouth.  I thought he’d got into the bin and was chewing some aluminium foil.  I reached into his mouth to grab it and felt fishing line.  “Michael, wake up.  We have a problem”.  Michael was out of bed and half way out of the boat when I yelled “No, the dog’s got a fishing hook caught in his mouth.”  I pried Leroy’s jaws open to reveal a nice shiny fishing hook stuck in the side of his tongue.  Michael tried gently to coax it out but in the end it was brute force that was needed and finally he managed to remove it.

The events of the previous night meant not a lot of sleep and a later than planned start.  We took off at 6.00am.  We had decent wind and were able to sail without any motor assistance for about 4 hours of our trip.  It was uneventful and we anchored at Port Clinton at 4 pm.  We’d heard tales of unexploded bombs being left around after the military war games but I’m happy to notify you than we didn’t throw our anchor down on any of them.

We want to head for the Percy Islands about 60nm away but tomorrow looks pretty rough so we’ve decided to head north another 20nm to Island Head Creek to cut our distance down to the Percy Islands the following day.

Port Clinton to Island Head Creek

21 August

Pretty rough was an understatement!  It was white knuckle terror out there today.  I must admit, we’ve been in worse but that doesn’t make it any less frightening.  We were in 17 knot winds… which would’ve been great if they were pushing us in the direction we needed to go, but alas, we were fighting against them.  The swell was only about 1 metre but it was hitting us side on and really throwing us around.  The dog didn’t cope well at all and I must admit that I fared only marginally better.

We had sustained internal damage, a door came unhinged (well, let’s face it, why should it act any differently to me), the structure boxing in our toilet workings also collapsed under the turbulent conditions.  Our sound system broke through its ties and was hanging purely by the cables and swinging against the TV screen.  Other than that, there was really just cleaning up to do.

My door fell off 

Graeme & Karen had a tough day of it too.  It took them an hour longer than us to reach calm waters and by then the tide was too low to get across the sandbar to anchor down at the beach with us.  They anchored near the rocks at the entrance to the creek.

When the tide came up again, we raised our anchor and headed up to the mouth of the creek with them so we could make an early start in the morning to head to the Percy Islands. 

We had no phone or internet.  No internet, no work!

Island Head Creek to Percy Islands

22 August

Graeme & Karen decided to stay at Island Head Creek for a couple of days after being knocked about so severely the day before.   Unfortunately for us we had to go in search of internet connectivity… as much as we’d have loved too, we had no time to sit and lick our wounds.

It was a calm day with no winds so we had to motor the whole way, which was actually quite welcome after the previous day.

I kept checking my phone for signal.  Nothing.  The boss (and my best friend) is going to think I’m shipwrecked or dead!

The trip was calm and the sights beautiful.  It was a whale-palooza out there!  We saw so many whales and one even put on quite a show for us.  He spent about 20 minutes leaping and splashing and waving his wingy-fins (I don’t think that’s the technical term) about.  We’re thinking of starting up Kidnapped’s Whale Watching Tours.

Putting on a show

We finally arrived at Middle Percy and anchored at about 7pm.  Again, no phone and no internet.  I just know people are organising search & rescue parties.  We’d have loved to stay for a few days but alas, we will be off early again in the morning looking for internet.

Percy Islands to Scawfell Island

23 August

4.30am and we’ve been woken by whales singing.  We went out on deck to see if we could see them but it was still too dark.  Time to prepare for our departure (by prepare, I actually mean have a coffee and a cigarette).

5.00am we lifted the anchor and started making our way north.  60nm ahead of us and not a breath of wind. 

6.00am Using the steel sail we were motoring towards Sphinx Island when Michael realised we were losing ampage from our battery.  We put Grace in charge of steering and ripped out the floor up to access the motor.  Michael used the amp meter and it showed the alternator was working.  We checked the batteries.  Not quite enough charge, but certainly not dead.  It appears the fan belt needs tightening and we would slowly lose power until the motor cut out.  Can’t tighten a fan belt whilst the motor is running.  With 60nm ahead of us and no wind, we couldn’t afford for the motor to die but we need power so we need to fix one of our two broken generators.  We decided the small inverter generator would be the easier fix.  We thought it was an oil problem and would need to extract and replace the oil.  This meant fixing our broken oil extractor.  Fuck… it’s a never ending fix-it cycle.  We fixed the oil extractor and extracted and replaced the oil in the generator.  Nope.  No good.  We gave up on that and decided to attempt to fix the other generator.  Michael started pulling bits off and we found the carburettor was full of oil.  A quick clean out and by 8.00am we had it going and keeping charge in the batteries. 

Still no phone or internet.

Another lovely day on the water, more whales (in fact it’s starting to get hard not to hit the bloody things).  At one point, I was standing on deck watching a whale behind us.  It was on its back and slapping its tail on the water when I heard this almighty “WHOOSH”… I leapt and turned and shat in one graceful motion to see a whale right next to our boat, if I’d reached down I could’ve touched it.  It was actually touching our boat and had exhaled its blowhole right next to us (that was the noise I’d heard).  They’re amazing but I really don’t want them that close!

The whale that distracted while his mate snuck up on us

Managed to get a text message out notifying people we weren’t dead or shipwrecked.  Still no phone or internet though!

We anchored at Scawfell Island at about 6pm… another 40nm ahead of us tomorrow. 

Scawfell to Shaw Island

24 August

A 40nm trip today… uneventful except for the fact that I got phone and internet!!!!  Wooo hoo!  Was able to get a little work done and berate anyone who had not noticed we were missing.

Motored all day, just not getting any winds to help us along but I’m happy to report that the motor is holding up well (even if it is held together with cable ties and bubble gum).

We anchored at Shaw Island at about 3pm and by 3.05 Jed had landed his first fish.  Gotta love the tropics!

Jed's queen fish

Mary River to Rosslyn Bay

Where was I? Ah yes, the 2^nd flood…

After a night at Devil’s Elbow we decided to get out of the Mary altogether.  We headed for Fraser Island and a much more pleasant environment than the flooding Mary.

I jumped aboard Ryan’s boat (Don Diego) to play navigator and Michael & the kids followed in Kidnapped.  Kidnapped was travelling well for a couple of hours and I was keeping in radio contact with Jed.  When we reached the mouth of the Mary the water got pretty rough and Kidnapped was struggling against it and started to overheat.  Jed radioed asking us to come back and tow them the rest of the way to Fraser Island.

Don Diego still had our rope attached to the back from the last time he’d towed us so he headed back to Kidnapped, motored around behind her and passed very close to her.  It was pretty awesome steering and I didn't even have to throw the line to Michael, simply handed it to him whilst Jed kept the boat steady in the rough water.  I’m so proud of my little man and the maturity and level-head he has held when we've put a 9 year old boy under more pressure than he should have to face for his tender years… but I digress.  Michael tied the boat in mere milliseconds and I've yelled to Rod (Ryan’s dad) to tell Ryan to go (before Kidnapped ran up his arse).  Rod yelled at Ryan “Go, go, go” and Ryan was yelling back… “He has to tie on!”… “He’s on…Go!!!!”  Ryan couldn't believe the speed with which Michael managed to tie the boat on in such atrocious conditions, but accelerated and towed Kidnapped to Fraser Island.  We both anchored and settled in for a couple of weeks of cocktails, sunsets, fishing and good times

Fraser Island sunset

The floods and my woman overboard during the 2^nd flood showed us the importance of a decent dinghy so we started the internet search and phone calls looking for a Polycraft and a 15hp motor.  We arranged a purchase from Bundaberg and Ryan & Michael caught the ferry across to River Heads where Alan (from Tradewind) collected them and drove them to Bundy to collect our new tender.  Alan then delivered Ryan, Michael and the boat back to River Heads and the boys then had a rough trip across Harvey Bay.  The waves were coming over the front of the Poly and filling it up.  With no bailer (as it was the dinghy’s first trip), Ryan drove and Michael bailed for the entire time with his hat.  They made it back safely, albeit soaked to the bone and we now have a reliable (and bloody fast) dinghy.

Our pretty new dinghy

I won’t rave on about the wonderful time we had at Fraser Island… that’s not what this blog is about.  It’s about troubles and tales of woe, so it would seem.

When the waters had sufficiently receded, we unhappily made our way back up the Mary.  More overheating, more towing, more woe!

We also got a visit from my folks.  I have missed them terribly and it was wonderful for them to visit.  A little boring for them I'm sure but just what I needed after the rough couple of months we'd had.

The family

Due to the damage in the boat yard, it took nearly 3 weeks for them to arrange to get us out of the water so we could inspect any damage caused by the debris during the floods.

When we got Kidnapped out of the water, her bottom hadn't fared too badly.  In desperate need of an anti-foul and a few patches needed here and there, it all seemed pretty good.  We also had to address the overheating problem with the motor.

Kidnapped coming out of the water

A filthy Michael standing back and inspecting his work

We had Andrew from the boat yard come and check out our motor… he had no good news for us.  We weren't mounted properly, our prop shaft is too short for the new motor, we need our prop repitched for the increased horsepower, our cutlass bearing needs replacing, we need a header tank made for the motor to drag through more water to help cooling, blah, blah, blah.  The list seemed endless.  Anyone who owns a boat knows that “BOAT” stands for Bring Out Another Thousand.  So for two weeks we had our motor hanging in the only access to the boat and we had to try to live around it whilst the motor and associated bits were fixed, fashioned, replaced, etc.

Our suspended motor

Our cockpit area was also very soft, had been for quite some time.  We decided whilst we were out of the water to have a closer look at that.  Ignorance is bliss!!! We found rot and were really quite lucky we hadn't fallen through the floor.  Ernie the boat builder had been brought into to the boatyard to help with the repercussions of the flood.  We go Ernie to have a look at our rot and he confirmed the whole cockpit floor needed replacing.  Stupidly enough, we pointed out a couple of soft spots on our coach house roof and he advised us that would need replacing too. I was beginning to think it should be spelled BOATT, Bring Out Another Ten Thousand. But you gotta do what you gotta do.

Our rotting cockpit

Our rotting coach house

Ernie working hard & getting bog everywhere 

(we're still finding bog dust in nooks & crannies)

Our new rot-free wood

Finally, after 5 weeks, everything was fixed, fitted, painted, polished and perfect… except the tide.  We had to wait another week for a tide high enough for us to go back into the water. 

We went back into the water on 27 May.  The relaunch went well, we anchored in the river and were waiting for our friends and travelling companions from Tradewind to finish off the little bits they had left to get their boat ready for travel so we could start heading north together.

I was starting to panic that I would have to spend my 40^th birthday in the Mary River on 6 June.  I put my foot down and refused.  My husband, my hero got me out of the Mary on 5 June.  We headed for Fraser Island and organised a Pirate Party for 8 June.

Ryan brought a cast of thousands out to Fraser on Don Diego and made my 40^th a fantastic one and one I won’t remember…

The boys are back in town

Scallywags

On the morning of 8 June my friends arrive on Don Diego.  Drinking started on Don Diego at about 11.00am.  At 5pm Michael took us back to Kidnapped to get ready for the party.  I fell backwards off the boat and into the dinghy, went to the Sand Bar and raped and pillaged, back to the boat for a well earned sleep.  In the morning, back to Don Diego for a hearty breakfast, a visit from the water police, a bush walk, pain in the neck from previous day’s backwards fall into the dinghy, lunch and a swim.  Could not have asked for a better 40^th.  Thanks to everyone who made the journey to spend the day with me.

Morning after breakfast

 All our friends left and headed back up the Mary, we decided to stay at Fraser Island and wait for Tradewind to meet us there.  Conditions at Fraser got quite lumpy so we headed to River Heads to escape the rolling seas.

On 28 June, Tradewind made it out of the Mary River and met with Kidnapped at River Heads.  I was in Tweed Heads working at the time.  Kidnapped and Tradewind travelled up to Bundaberg and I met them there on 8 July.  I had missed Jed’s 10^th birthday on 1 July but had made it back in time for Grace’s 12^th birthday on 11 July.  The birthday celebrations where quiet and probably a little disappointing for the kids but sometimes it’s a little difficult to make things happen on the boat.  Both kids got a PS Vita for their birthday so they were pretty happy with that.

We were organising to leave Bundaberg for Pancake Creek when, for personal reasons, Tradewind decided to head south back to their base but that is not my story to tell.  We are very sad they will not be travelling with us and will miss them dearly.

On 21 July, we upped anchor and set sail for Pancake Creek… one of my favourite spots.  It was an uneventful trip (which is the way we like it) besides the fact we saw a whale.  They’re amazing!

We spent a couple of restful days at Pancake Creek, fishing and relaxing but not in the best weather.  We had a small window of opportunity to travel north so headed out of Pancake Creek on 24 July up towards Cape Capricorn.  The weather wasn't great and we had wind over tide so it was like a washing machine and a very uncomfortable 10 hour trip.  Saw another whale but have noticed a distinct lack of dolphins lately.  We saw a few but not to the extent that we've encountered them in the past. 

We anchored at Cape Capricorn for the night (without the associated problems of our last visit there) and had a lumpy old night with not a lot of sleep.  In the morning, we checked the weather and thought we’d best not head to Great Keppel Island but instead head for Sea Hill and hope for calmer conditions.  Sea Hill and Great Keppel are about the same distance from Cape Capricorn and after a couple of hours decided to chance our luck on heading to Great Keppel.  Not a great move!  The swell was about 1m with a following sea and a 10 knot wind which means a rough trip.  We did the whole passage under motor and without sails.  At one point a wave hit the side of us and ripped one of our life rings from the boat.  We watched as our little ring emblazoned with “Kidnapped” bobbed away behind us.  Oh well, at least we have another.

We anchored at Svendsen’s beach and hoped the weather would improve.  Three days later we had clear waters, beautiful sunshine and pristine white beaches where we could while away the days swimming and fishing.  

Cod - tastes pretty good

We found out there is “sundowners” on the beach every afternoon at 4pm and we have met some amazing characters and been reacquainted with friends we've met during our travels. We've sung sea shanties and swapped stories, gained knowledge and eaten some pretty awesome fish.  I’ve truly enjoyed Great Keppel Island a great deal and could imagine living like that for eternity!

New friends & friends from travels past

Yesterday we bid farewell to the idyllic time we spent at Great Keppel and headed to Keppel Bay Marina for showers, washing and to stock up.  We’ll be heading out again around 15 August when Port Clinton reopens after the military war games. 

We feel a bit like this is the beginning of our adventure as this is as far north as we made it last time and so next week will bring completely new shores.  Wish us luck!