Rockhampton

I don’t think I was dry the whole time I was in Rockhampton.  It was hot and I was sweaty.  Being on the river you think “swimming”.  You could swim in the river… if you were willing to take on the sea snakes, eels and crocs.  Needless to say, I wasn’t willing. 

 

We moored at the Fitzroy Motor Boat Club.  It was a non-descript little club that was rarely open but it had showers and a washing machine, that’s all I needed as there was a pub on every corner, so refreshment was never far away.

 

I actually liked Rocky as a town but the Fitzroy River had absolutely no redeeming features at all.  It was the colour of coffee and full of the aforementioned scary creatures.  It floods every summer and is not easy to navigate, even at high tide.

 

We spent a week in Rockhampton.  On our second night we went to The Great Western Hotel for the Young Guns Rodeo.  Kids as young as 4 riding calves up to the big boys riding bulls.  There was bull riding, the bucking broncos and the barrel races.  The rodeo clowns (actually called bull fighters) are amazing.  I reckon the riders have the easy job… try to stay on for 8 seconds and most don’t even achieve that.   The bull fighters worked for 4 hours and constantly put themselves between the bull and the rider… and not a barrel to hide in.

Bucking Bronco

 

 

The rodeo clowns dress like footballers,

is that a not so subtle dig???

 

During our stay Michael helped Keith replace his damper plate and Keith helped us by driving us around while we bought new generators, groceries and miscellaneous knick-knacks.

Michael working on Keith & Pauline's Boat - Tan T'ien

 

Once Michael & Keith got the new damper plate installed in Tan T’ien, we bid farewell to our new friends and headed back out to open waters.

Bound for Rockhampton

No need for an early start so we had an 11.00am beer and discussed our plan.  We offered Keith a case of beer for his efforts on Kidnapped the previous day but he was adamant that what “goes around, comes around” and he may need help in the near future.  He didn’t want to screw with the karma fairies.

 

At around lunch time our little convoy of 2 left Great Keppel for Rockhampton.  It will be a 2 day trip.  The first to the mouth of the Fitzroy River and the second would be the trip up the river. 

 

Great day for sailing.  We hoisted the sails and were travelling along at 7 knots.  Love not using the motor… less things go wrong.  Keith and Pauline on Tan T’ien were motoring and it wasn’t long before we’d lost sight of them.  We were watching the water go from clear blue, to opaque green to muddy brown… paradise was behind us. 

 

At about 4pm my mobile rang (cause I suck at turning the VHF on), it was Keith.  They’d lost their gears.  They were hoisting their sails and would be stopping at Sea Hill and would see us some time in the future.  I assured him we’d meet him at Sea Hill.  We anchored at about 4.45pm and waited for Tan T’ien to arrive.  I don’t think Keith expected his “gone around” to come back as quickly as it did.

About 1 hour 30 mins later, Tan T’ien anchored nearby and Michael jumped in the dinghy to go and see them.  It was their damper plate.  Been there, done that and my bank account bares the scars to prove it!  Nothing could be done before Rockhampton.  Parts needed to be ordered, delivered, fitted.    

The next morning both boats hoisted sails and headed for the mouth of the Fitzroy River.  Tan T’ien weighs 30 tonnes and with the little amount of wind was not going anywhere in a hurry.  We rafted up to them and the boys secured the boats side by side.  Our motor was to propel us all the way to Rockhampton, but the steering was to be done from Tan T’ien.

Tan T'ien under sail

It was fun.  It was like having an extension.  We spent most of the time on their boat as it is bigger and has a lot of outdoor area under cover.  Pauline made sausage sandwiches for lunch and it was a very social event.  With the stop at Sea Hill our 2 day trip had turned into 3 days.  At about 3.30pm we stopped at Botony Point, about 10nm inside the Fitzroy River, and had to wait for the right tide the next day to get further up the river to our moorings.

 

Rafted up

 

 

]

Pauline & Keith - our new terrace style neighbours

Everyone retired to their own quarters and Michael was not to be outdone by Pauline’s lunch efforts and he made up a huge batch of pikelets for the trip into Rocky the next day.

It’s now 20 September and at 9.20am it is the best time for the tides to get to the Fitzroy Motor Boat Club a further 20nm away.  Again hopping from boat to boat, eating pikelets with jam and sharing stories of sailing woe, we made it to our moorings at about 3.10pm.

 

Bugger me with a pitchfork… Rockhampton is hot! From the river, one block up to the pub, the temperature rises 10 degrees.  A couple of cool ales and Keith and Pauline made their way back to their boat whilst we made our way to Macca’s for a disgusting fast food fix.

Great Keppel Island

There was much anticipation for our trip to Great Keppel Island.  My childhood memories were making the expectations high.  It was only a short trip from Rosslyn Bay to Great Keppel and as soon as we got there, we dinghied to shore to check it out.

 

You may remember Great Keppel Island used to have an advertising campaign “Get Wrecked on Great Keppel”… well it’s kind of appropriate now too I guess as it is a wreck!  It was really sad to see.

 

Don’t get me wrong, the beaches are beautiful and the water a gorgeous clear azure blue but the resort, due to development approval not being forthcoming, has closed down and been abandoned.   It’s just like everybody went home for the day and never returned.  The rooms still have furniture in them, there are still mowers, tractors and planes just been left to rust and yet the people still come.

 

Every day the Freedom Cat shows up with a couple of hundred passengers.  There is a pub and some camp grounds but that’s about it really.  I guess it’s a good thing for us as it wasn’t crowded and was a real paradise.

 

We met a great couple, Keith and Pauline from Tan T’ien, and they took us around the other side of the island.  We went ashore and found a souvenir tree.  That’s were visiting sailors leave a momento of some sort on the tree marking their visit.

 

Whist walking around we found a barbecue area set up by passers by.  It had table and chairs, bench, pots and pans, vinegar (for stings) and a request that you remove all of your rubbish.  We even found a chair that once belonged to a friend of ours.

 

During our trip back to the other side of the island, a steering issue reared its ugly head and made sure Michael didn’t have a completely care-free trip to Great Keppel.

 

The steering arm is under the helm and cannot be reached.  We called over Keith, he’s a shipwright, and he helped Michael cut a hole through the floor to reattach the steering arm.  10 hours and 4 sweaty armpits later a case of beer was coming Keith’s way.

 

 

Keith and Pauline talked us into going to Rockhampton to stock up.  We’d been in Great Keppel for 2 weeks we needed to bathe, get groceries and refill the water tanks.

 

Tomorrow we’ll be heading for Rocky!

Cape Capricorn to Rosslyn Bay

We left Cape Capricorn early and sailed to Rosslyn Bay.  We’d booked a marina berth and I was a little excited about bathing… it had been a while.

 

The weather was kind and the sailing was good.  It was an overdue uneventful trip.

 

I called ahead to the Rosslyn Bay Marina to find out our berth number so we could motor straight into our home for the next week.  Armed with all of the relevant information, we approached the marina, turned on the motor (with our newly installed key bypass system), lowered the sails and put her in gear… where’s my fucking gears?  No forward, no reverse, no sails and being pushed into the breakwater wall around the marina.  I knew the uneventfulness wouldn’t last long.

 

We opened the hatch to the motor, jiggled the gear cable and managed to get her into gear.  We motored into the marina and found our berth.  It took a couple of U-turns but we eventually managed to get into the berth without reverse.  I jumped out onto the dock and the kids threw me the ropes.  I tied her to the front cleat but she wouldn’t stop coming.  Michael had turned the motor off but the tide just kept pushing her in.  I was trying to stop 16 tonnes from mounting the dock (and taking out a fire hydrant in the process).  A couple of neighbouring grotty yachties came and helped get her tied up at the back and stop her progress.

 

A shower and dinner out was a lovely but short lived diversion from our gearbox problems.

 

The next day Michael was again head first in the motor (I see more of his arse than anything these days) and the inevitable was confirmed… we need a new gearbox.  The next 24 hours consisted of much internet research, forum reading, phone call making and deal doing until we had one being sent from Sydney.  Now for the waiting…

 

We stocked up on groceries, got a haircut (I am now dye-free and very grey) and spent some time at the Capricornia Cruising Yacht Club, where even the dog is welcome.  It was quite relaxing knowing we couldn’t do anything until the new gearbox showed up.

 

The gearbox showed up late and it was all backwards.  The gear lever was on the wrong side and it was too short to reach the couplings.  Thank God Michael does nothing by the book and managed to bodgy everything so that it fit and worked!  He started the motor and got me to watch the drive shaft.  He put it in forward

 

Michael: Is it turning?

 

Me:  Yes

 

He put it in reverse.

 

Michael: Is it turning the other way now?

 

Me:  Yes

 

Michael:  Great, we have gears.

 

Gears, cheers and beers all round.  A mighty celebration was had as we prepared to leave the next day.

Our shiny new gearbox

 

We were headed to great Keppel Island, only about 10nm away so we didn’t need an early start.  Marina check out time was midday so at about 11.30am we untied Kidnapped from her comfortable  bed, put her in reverse and went forward into the dock!

 

Thankfully we were being cautious and had a neighbouring yachtie hold the bow line while I held the stern line.  No damage was done and we realised that as everything on the gearbox was backwards and bodgied to fit, the gears were now backwards.  Oh well, there’s only two, not that confusing, we can live with it for the moment.

 

Off to Keppel Island to “get wrecked”.

 

Tropic of Capricorn

We left our little paradise of Pancake Creek to continue our journey towards Yeppoon.  The prediction was winds of 10 to 12 knots and as we were running low on fuel this is exactly what we needed.  We got out of the creek to find winds of 2.6 knots.  We turned off the motor and sailed at about 1.5 knots, certainly not what we were hoping for.

Not long after our departure we picked up some traveling companions.  They were so close you could just about touch them and they swam with us for about a nautical mile.  The kids loved it… who am I kidding? I loved it!

 

 

As we were approaching Gladstone, we started the motor up again.  Gladstone is a little daunting.  There are two anchorages, East and North, for huge cargo and container ships.  There were dozens of them anchored.  Between the two anchorages is a Pilot Boarding Area.  This isn’t for fly-boys.  This is where a local captain boards the ship and takes into the harbour for loading/unloading.  If you are over 10meters and enter these zones you need to notify Gladstone Harbour Control, so I get on the radio…

Me:  Gladstone Harbour Control, Gladstone Harbour Control, Gladstone Harbour Control this is Kidnapped, Kidnapped, Kidnapped. Over

(Sounds ridiculous, I know but repeating 3 times is protocol)

GHC: Kidnapped, this is Gladstone Harbour Control.  Over

Me:  Just wanting to let you  know we are approaching the east anchorage on our transit to Cape Capricorn.  Over.

GHC: Black dogs wearing tutus meow at the lake until they get their jellybeans.

(Okay, he didn’t say that but he may as well have… I don’t know what the fuck he was talking about).

Me:  Thanks Gladstone.  Over.

I went out to Michael and he asked what they said.  I told him something about dogs, tutus & jellybeans.  He said “Don’t worry, these ships let out a huge plume of smoke when they start up, we’ll know if something’s about to move.”  We made it across the anchorage and pilot area without incident.

We continued to motor for another hour or so and the wind finally picked up to 8 knots.  We still had the main sail up but hauled the foresail, cut the motor and were humming along at about 7.5 knots.  More dolphins and even a whale and her baby were not too far away.  It was a fantastic way to spend an afternoon.

We sailed over the invisible line that is the Tropic of Capricorn.  I was really excited by this, I’m not sure why.  I’ve been over it in a car when I was a kid and didn’t feel any excitement but sailing over it was different.  Was it because it marked some sort of milestone on our journey?  Our first milestone?  I kind of hope it wasn’t our first milestone as we won’t be sailing over the equator or the Tropic of Cancer so it would be our only milestone.

As we approached Cape Capricorn, our stopover for the night we brought in the foresail so we could motor into our anchorage near the rocks.  As the sail was being brought in, the rope wrapped around the ignition key and ripped it out of the ignition and into the sea.  OH FUCK!!!

There was going to be a witch hunt and as I was at the helm at the time, the pointy black hat was planted firmly on my head! 

Michael managed to turn us around using just the wind and main sail and got us quite close to the bobbing ignition key.  I hung as far over the side of the boat as I could with the net but was just short of reaching it.  If only my arms were 30cm longer (okay, I’d be able to tie my shoes whilst walking and look terribly funny… but I digress).

We have no motor and therefore limited manoeuvrability  and the wind is pushing us ever closer to the rocks, I have no problem letting you I was beginning to panic and my sphincter was tightly puckered.  I ran inside to see what we could use to try to start the motor.  The key is not a precision instrument. It’s like a bayonet fitting on a light globe (albeit a lot smaller) designed to create an electrical loop.  Michael grabbed a padlock key and managed to restart the motor.  Now that we had a motor he headed back in the direction of the lost key but we couldn’t find it.  I’d taken my eye off it!  I was not getting rid of the pointy black hat at any time soon.

Michael gave up the search (but not the yelling) and we headed back into the cove where we would be anchoring.  I was steering and Michael was bringing down the main sail when we lost gears.  We had no drive… that’s one of the ones we like!  We did have reverse though.  God, please don’t tell me I have to reverse park this fucker.  Ask my dad… I can’t reverse park a car let alone a 16 tonne, 42 foot boat!  We managed to drift into shallow enough water and drop the anchor.  Thank God!

The next couple of hours were spent trying to fix the gears… again, Michael managed to fix the problem with nothing more than a screw driver and a pair of pliers then he had to get to work on the ignition.  Using some wires and connectors he created that electrical loop needed to start the boat.

Michael’s getting closer and closer to earning himself a knighthood and I’m getting closer to earning myself a broom to fly on!

Pancake Creek

On 21 August we left Bundaberg for Seventeen Seventy but upon arrival found out our keel is too deep and we couldn’t get into Round Hill Creek even on a high tide so we anchored outside the creek in Bustard Bay for the evening and on the morning of 22 August headed further north to Pancake Creek.

 

Wow.  Pancake Creek is a beautiful spot.  Pancake Creek is only accessible by sea or  small aircraft landing on Aircraft Beach.

 

We did the 7km round trip walk past Aircraft Beach, Bustard Head lighthouse and caretakers cottage which was restored by Shirley Buchanan (wife of former lighthouse keeper, Stuart Buchanan) after it was vandalised and virtually demolished in 1995, then on to Jenny Lind Creek lookout.  Besides the midges it was truly beautiful.

 

Light aircraft taking off from Aircraft Beach 

after dropping off a couple of campers

 

Bustard Head Lighthouse

 

Jenny Lind Creek

 

During low tide at Pancake Creek a huge sandbar is uncovered completely.   This morning we took the dinghy out the sandbar to go for a walk.  It was quite a treasure trove of marine life out there….

 

 

huge sandbar

 

 

A sea snail... it's hard to tell just how big it is but I could've worn the shell as a hat!

 

Starfish

Solider Crabs

Odd man out

 

lugworm mounds

 



Bundaberg

Unfortunately we didn’t get the chance to explore Bundaberg as thoroughly as we’d have liked due to the mechanical issues we faced and the repairs needed, but the people of Bundaberg are definitely worth a mention…

Krissy, Pete & Zayne

Pete, Krissy, Zayne, Michael

Jed & Grace

 

Krissy is Michael’s half sister, Pete is her partner and Zayne is her son.  It was our 3^rd catch up in 5 years… it was also Michael & Krissy’s 3^rd catch up in 35 years.  Michael’s family has a complicated history and that’s a story within itself.

 

 

It was the first time I’d met my nephew Zyane and was delighted to meet him.  He is a fine young man and a real pleasure to spend time with.  He looked after Grace & Jed during our stay and that just adds to his list of good points.

We were lucky enough to have been in Bundaberg for both Krissy & Zayne’s birthdays and feel very fortunate that we were able to share their special days with them.

They helped us enormously with the repairs on the boat and for that we cannot thank them enough… oh and of course the home made alcohol they loaded us up with prior to our departure.

Suzie the Sailor
 

Suzie & her daughter Melissa

 

Suzie is a brave and admirable woman who is sailing solo and working as a teacher.  She’s also an absolute hoot and fantastic company.  She has faced many trials as a solo female sailor and if anyone thinks they can pull the wool over her eyes, they could be in for a surprise.  I truly hope our paths cross again.

Gary the Mechanic

Gary couldn’t fix our damper plate or our starter motor has he was completely chocka-block with work but he took the time to come and have a look, offer advice and even lent us tools to help us complete the job on our own.  He didn’t charge any sort of call out fee or tool hire so a case a beer was handed over as a thank you for his efforts.  We bought the beer, it wasn’t part of our stash from Krissy & Pete.

Paul the Electrician

Paul is the opposite of Gary the Mechanic.  Paul came to the boat, offered bad advice, charged a call out fee and had no intention of repairing any of the problems.  Michael was able to fix the anchor winch for about $20 after refusing to believe Paul’s solution that would have cost us $320.

 

 

During the two weeks we spent in Bundaberg Michael managed to complete the following…

·         Remove broken damper plate

·         Order new damper plate from Sydney

·         Have new damper plate resized

·         Install new damper plate

·         Attempt to have started motor repaired

·         Purchase new starter motor

·         Install new starter motor

·         Erect new davit and move solar panels (with help from Pete)

·         Fix winch by replacing wiring and switch

·         Fix auto pilot

·         Replaced broken exhaust hose

 
 

He has to start wearing his undies on the outside because he’s my hero!