Rosslyn Bay

Sun 29 to Tues 31 August 2010

The hole in the wall

Leaving Great Keppel Island at 0940 we were tied up and in a pen by 1130 after sailing with headsail only at 5-6 knots in winds of 20+ kts and a 2m swell. Annies expert helming kept the boat comfortable as the swell tried to do otherwise. Crewman Mick was reduced to trimming sails for optimum speed until taking over the wheel to negotiate the marina. A successful entry through the hole in the wall and then to the berth was made with no dramas or bashing of the dock (wonders will never cease!).

The protective rock

Our berth was 2 down from Penny & harry's 'Free Spirit' safely tucked up in her pen. Harry must have 6th sense, as Anne recieved a phone call from the marina office about collecting something from Harry. Thinking that he probably wants us to bring a generator or something back (such uncharitable thoughts we have) Anne was surprised when Crystal gave her a bottle of wine from Harry (the 6th sense is from knowing that Anne had run out of white and was now into Michael's red, thanks Harry!!).
Keppel Bay Marina bills itself as the friendly marina and we would certainly agree with that. The restaurant at the marina does very good breakfast and lunch but the dinner menu is not only pretentious but a bit pricey!


On Monday after defrosting the 'fridge' (which did start working again after its Friday 13 spasm) we Yeppooned in the courtesy car (what a civilised Marina!) and stocked up at the butchers, Woolies and surprise, the grog shop. The car was really flying at 30+ knots and that was against the wind. On return to the marina we restocked the boat ready for the sail towards home.

Lazy Bones says goodbye.

After a few drinks at the yacht club we dined at the motel restaurant (excellent steak) with Bert And Lana from 'Lazy Bones' a very comfy Riviera powerboat from Sylvania Waters. A pleasant evening and fine meal was had by all.


By Tuesday it was time to get Muhu and Brutus back on board and tied down ready for the ocean. The afternoon was consumed by fixing a seal on the engine water pump (Mick the Mechanic may have triumphed again, but time will tell).

Kerry from Tangara kindly bought us some bread during his big day out in the courtesy car and Megan and Bruce from Winkali arrived from The Narrows. On the sailing circuit one tends to run into a number of the boats encountered elsewhere ( its not surprising really).


Its off to the south tomorrow winds permitting.

Great Keppel Island - Leekes Beach

Fri 27-Sat 28 August 2010

Mastflagorama

Kerry from Tangara visits

Our whinging must have worked and the weather people gave us some great weather again, sunny and calm.
Saaremaa was feeling a lot better too after all that fresh water washing the decks. With the better weather there was a bit more movement of boaters in the anchorage.

Kerry from 'Tangara' a Duncanson 37 came over to see what the flagshow was all about on Saaremaa and another veesel passing asked "Whose birthday is it?"

Flags Ahoy

Since this is our furthest point north for the trip Saaremaa was dressed with flags for the occasion.
The fore flags are from the top: Australian Red Ensign, Union Jack, Polish National Flag, Estonian National Flag, Jolly Roger, Boxing Kangaroo and The Eureka Flag.
The Union Jack is for Michael's Pommy heritage whilst the Polish and Estonian flags are for Anne's parents nationalities.

Aft signal flags are Starboard TOJKEBDHAQTOJKE, Port TOJKEBDHAQBDHAQ, so no message as such, just a pretty flag string.

Up the creek with paddles

After our flag fun and coffee we took a trip up the creek and there we were with a paddle (each actually). The crabbing and fishing is said to be good but we were not to find this out since we are not expert at either.

A few eerie mangrove roots and the odd ray plus our old 'friends' the sand flies inhabit this creek. Plus we also ran into Kerry from Tangara.

Kerry from Tangara

Eerie roots of mangroves

Leekes Creek entrance

Stranger on the shore. (there could be a song in that!)

Fore!!

A trip by Muhu & Brutus to middle Island gave us a walk on the beach and Michael a chance to play 'Keppel Golf'' with a palm frond and coconut. No sharks or tigers allowed.

Flow through.

Only 5 boats anchored overnight, it must be Michael's cockpit crematorium driving them away, (pork chops this time, a pity we have run out of spuds).

Follow through!

After another moviefest of 'Mama Mia' followed by 'Yes Minister' we were ready for bed and a good snozz.















We woke to another idyllic day (thank you weather people again) so trotted off to the top of the island to a snorkelling spot.

The wind was making it a bit cool so we hung around for a time untill it eased off and after the local charter cat had left with their daytrippers. Jacqueline Anne and Jacque Michael Cousteau donned their gear and proceeded to scare the fish.

Another top day is finished with a lovely sunset.

Great Keppel Island

Tues 24 to Thurs 26 Aug 2010

Ah!! The Tropics

Awaking to overcast and misery conditions with the wind from the SW we decided to move from this southern beach anchorage we being the last of 2 boats along with 'Insatiable II' a USA registered yacht but Austalian built glassed wooden yacht. We motored around to Leekes Beach on the North side of the island and dropped anchor along with 'Insatiable II'.

The little tree we passed on shore was having a great time too!!!

A windswept friend having a good time.

'Insatiable II' of Ann & Jim Cate

The wind dropped altogether and the swell rolled in from the NE rolling us uncomfortably all day until late afternoon. With a forecast of 20+ kts from the SW we were reluctant to move around to the western shore so put up with the roly poly. We were invited aboard 'Insatiable II" where we had coffee and a long chat with Ann & Jim Cate who have been cruising for 12 yrs around Australian waters. Their yacht was a newish 46 footer with beautiful woodwork down below. The rolling even on a 46ft boat was still uncomfortable but it looked worse on Saaremaa across the way. Ann & Jim were an interesting couple with a wealth of cruising knowledge.

Yacht Envy at sunset

A large navy blue 60+ ft sloop with 4 spreaders and 2 satnav domes on the lower spreaders was causing us some boat envy however we resisted the urge to sticky beek too closely. The owners of that boat are probably not ex teachers!

It was good to see the sun just before it left for the night.

The sun did eventually come out just for a great sunset as we moved further into the bay to catch some breeze and avoid the rolling. Gradually more boats entered the bay until 16 were counted for the night.

Wednesday was cloudy and overcast all day so we resisted the urge to go swimming in the still clear but less inviting waters.

Another Tropical Morning????

Thursday we awoke to the gentle sound of rainfall which continued all day. Thank you southerners for sending your cold wet weather to these tropical waters but really that's enough now. Anne & Michael are getting cabin fever with these less than balmy conditions of "Tropical Weather????"
We have watched several movies, episodes of Yes Minister and FawltyTowers, and are 1 game each in the great Canasta championships. Definitely time for the sun to come out!!
A swim would be good to save on water as we are really getting into the 2 litre showers.

Greeting the lovely Tropical weather???

Michael dressed in his full tropical outfit to take in the ambiance of our surroundings!?!??

Cape Capricorn to Great Keppel Island

Sun 22 to Mon 23 August 2010

YellowPatch

Waking up to yet another beautiful day we had a lazy late breakfast and then headed for Yellow Patch 1.5nm away. On entering the shallow entrance at half tide and falling it was difficult to see where to go (this was even after scoping it from the heights of Cape Capricorn previously) so not wanting to spend the day on the sand we  followed the old adage 'of when in doubt give up' and we gave up on Yellow Patch.

Ready for a Hummocky night.

Leaving Hummocky Island

Heading for Great Keppel with only the headsail up we were only making 4kts. Decision time - do we put the motor on and head for Keppel, or stay at Hummocky Island and leave for Keppel tomorrow? Wrong decision as it turned out. Initially a good anchorage but by early evening we were rocking and rolling for Australia (and cooking a roast dinner!!!) It fair near caused a wine glass to topple now that would have been a disaster!! An email from Penny almost got us ready to leave at about 9pm but we decided to tough it out. Oh what a night!

Still leaving Hummocky Island

Distant Great Keppel

At 6.30am we upped the anchor and headed for Great Keppel - sailed all the way making good time. Sun shining, aqua blue waters - this is what we came for. Dropped anchor just off the ex-resort and performed the Herculean task of getting the outboard motor organised. Brutus was eventually grafted onto Muhu so we could go ashore. Beaching near low tide and close to the 'Oh so life like' shark jaws we wandered up the beach in search of a shower (pongy that we were). No deal, shower heads were removed because people were drinking the bore water or so we were told, it even sounds like bulldust! After a compensatory ice cream we wound our smelly way around to the Pizza Restaurant (closed for renovations) and so had lunch at the cafe washed down with a couple of beers.

What a bathroom!!

Our onward tour of the camp ground lead us to a doubtful looking shower block which was in need of some fixing up. Check it out we believe that it is disused these days but who knows what a bit of  spit and polish could achieve??  Marquis Bathroom Products here is a marvellous opening to for a few new vanities etc???

"Hotel Capricornia"

On sauntering back we took a look at the resort which closed in 2008 and is awaiting an upgrade to 5 star pleasure palace status. From the pictures it looks like "Hotel Capricornia, where you can check out but never leave" apologies to The Eagles.

Macho Man

After Michael wrestled with the shark jaws (he just could not resist the urge) it was back to the boat for a swim and a shower on the the back deck. The water was crystal clear and it is the first time we have felt like a swim off the boat (temperature pleasant and good water quality with no dangerous greeblies around). Anne had her Steve Irwin moment after spotting a ray and quickly left the water. Michael being a fearless soul (or a wuss take your pick) took to the water to check out the prop and hull growth. Snorkelling along the length of the chain to the anchor which was only in about 1.5m of water it was disconcerting to see tyre tracks on the sandy bottom from a weird 3 wheels boat. It reminds one of tides and that maybe we were pushing our luck here in the shallows. On the way back to the the transom I passed Anne's friend (a pretty small ray). We showered 'au naturelle' on the back step but have no pictures to distress the world (a huge sigh of relief has been heard).

Erosion of beach sand

After waiting for the tide to rise a little we retrieved the anchor and motored around to Long Beach on the S side of Great Keppel Is for what would be a nice calm night. However the wind got up to 25+ kts from the N, which was not forecast, it was a bit rocky but not hummocky.

'Laser' anchor light???

Gladstone to Cape Capricorn

Sat 21 August

To those who received the email from the story of SaaremaaSailsOn in the foreign language, Estonian. The story is from an Estonian Newspaper from Kuressaare the capital of the Island of Saaremaa. Just so that people do not think the paparazzi are after us we make note of this point.

Cape Capricorn from NE

Leaving Gladstone marina at a leisurely 0900 we  motored across the harbour, after logging in with Gladstone Port Control, and up the winding narrow and shallow North Entrance between Curtis and Facing Islands. Holding the Curtis Coast pilot book in one hand and the wheel in the other we traversed from buoy to buoy with Anne checking the shape/colour for port/starboard plus keeping a depth lookout. It is easy to come unstuck and mistake the correct buoy as we found out with the depth falling from 4m to 2m then 1.5m, motor into low as we quickly reassessed the buoys and headed for the correct one back in the channel. With an ebb tide to speed our progress it was no time to be taking the mud (care Michael!). Further along depth was only 1.4m next to a port buoy (perhaps a little more room off is required next time), thank goodness for our shallow draft. The place where it was supposed to be shallow (ie Farmer's Reef 0.8m datum) turned out to be 3.5m deep and caused us no problems as we followed the leads out of the channel.

Light and houses of Cape Capricorn

After escaping the channel unscathed (and the gearbox running like a champion) we were able to set sail for Cape Capricorn 18nm away. It was a leisurely sail in the light conditions and we put the motor on as speed dropped to less than 3 knots. Cape Capricorn is a pretty impressive headland with its light and houses standing out above a bluff wall of volcanic rock, we rounded and anchored in its lee at 1500.





We launched Muhu and paddled ashore climbing the track to the lighthouse and were rewarded with magnificent views plus a couple of beers from Rockhampton Amateur Radio Club members who were involved in a radio link up with others at light houses around Australia for the weekend.

The photo seat with Hummocky Island in the background.

Another photo seat shot

'Sir Richard' or Shauny and dinner.

The caretaker of the houses (which can be rented out about $1300/week) was named Shaunie but we reckon he is Sir Richard Branson avoiding the Virgin limelight. The mud crabs here are quite large. Check out these being murdered for dinner.

While on the headland we checked out the likely entrance to Yellow Patch in the distance on the right and then it was back to Saaremaa for dinner and a nod. It was a bit swelly as the waves refracted around the cape but not too bad.

Needs a little maintenance?? and some!!

  Cape Capricorn Transport Services may leave a little to be desired in these vehicles. However there are others somewhat more sand hill worthy than these.

Quite a good view from up here.

 
 The peninsular view shows Yellow Patch on the right and further down with a lovely sandy beach to the left.

Cape Keppel and Peak Island in the distance. Looking NW.

Gladstone-boat maintenance

Tues 17 - Fri 20 August 2010

Mike the Mechanic

Annie's birthday present was an engine service for Saaremaa (who says romance is dead) and then dinner out. Mike the Mechanic left the gearbox for the next day, following the old adage 'why do today what you can put off until tomorrow' cos' its a bugger of a job.

Good one         Bad one

By Wednesday afternoon the new but buggered gear box was out and on the bench alongside its old but refurbished mate (I hasten to add refurbished by Michael so lets all keep our fingers crossed). The engine alignment on the stuffed gearbox did not seem to be a problem so why it decided to die again is anyones guess. After spending all day hunched in the confines at the rear of the engine with knees and legs aching (I won't be doing this when I'm 80 as it hard enough at nearly 60) it was time for steak on the electric BBQ's. This time the gearbox did 120 hrs before pphhwwt!! The good one is on the left and the bad one on the right. Note the special use of a large chart table come workbench.

Hawaiian Ham Steaks

Thursday saw Michael refreshed and ready to install the old Hurth gearbox and align the engine. All went well and 'sea trials' were carried out tied up in the marina pen. The gearbox engaged forward & reverse gear with no problems. Another go at the electric BBQ's saw tropical ham prepared to perfection (pineapple obligatoire).
A lovely bag of Bud Naked topped off the meal.

By Friday Michael finally connects the gear cable, installs the engine rear cover and replaces all the cruising gear. Only 3 days for a 1 day job (I work slowly but hopefully thoroughly). Electric BBQ'd steak yum, yum. why waste the gas or charcoal on board?

On Saturday having no need to vote we are off finally to Cape Capricorn and then Yellow Patch. The winds look favourable and we will take the North Passage short cut to speed the journey.

Pancake Creek to Gladstone

Sun 15 - Tues 17 August 2010

The Crematorium in preparation.

After a windy Sunday of northerlies sweeping through the anchorage where we decided it was too rough to launch Muhu let alone put Brutus outboard on. We decided that in the morning we would head off to Cape Capricorn and then Yellow Patch with the wind direction coming from the SW it should be a good sail.
Michael had another go at cremating the meat, but this time failed, and burned the pork chops to perfection.
Master Chef eat your heart out!

The cremated meat ready to eat.

We had an earlyish start in the morning, up at 0600 anchor up at 0715. On motoring out of the anchorage we noticed that the gearbox would not engage fully and kept slipping (back to the ongoing problem). It was decided that Cape Capricorn would be abandoned for today and it was off to Gladstone to fix the problem. We had already logged on with VMR Gladstone for our passage to the Cape so we radioed our change of destination. It was a beautiful sunny day with a flat sea and 10kts of wind from the SW. As we entered the Gladstone Port Control area we radioed our presence to the harbour authority (failure to do so when over 10m long can incur a fine) and monitored Ch13 as stated in the directions.

An ugly duckling.

Eyes on the road Annie MV Jupiter can't catch us!

We followed the way points from the Beacon to Beacon book which kept us out of the shipping channel as a bulk carrier 'MV Jupiter' passed us. Travelling with the tidal current had us making 6.5 kts and we arrived in Gladstone marina at 1315. Michael managed to bash his way into our pen putting another scrape on the paintwork (bloody wind from the starboard quarter), at least that's Michael's excuse.





The marina is very reasonably priced at $27.50 per day for a 35ft vessel however the paperwork here is the most detailed we have come across with a 5 page list of terms and conditions and quite a bit of information required. Boating licence number, Insurance number and insured value of vessel, home address & tel no, holding tank fitted, 240v power needed, names of all people living on board, size and brand of underwear (well maybe not the last bit)! Every other marina was just interested in the money and little other detail.
The marina precinct is the most attractive we have come across with park lands and BBQ facilities although the port operations around are a bit noisy during the day with a pile driver going bang bang bang.

Auckland Inlet

Not the Swansea Bridge

Crossing the river into town we came across the lifting bridge (shades of Swansea here) except the bridge lifts on the hour on demand 24 hrs by pulling a cord or ringing the bridge control. the sad demise of a dumb pigeon occurred as the bridge lowered trapping it in the workings, its mate hopped out but the other was too late. Town is a 15 minute walk and has banks, cafes and a Woolies. Dinner for Anne's big 58 at the Library Square Restaurant was good value and we were both well sufficed if not stuffed.

Lights of the Tanna Coal Wharf

While Michael did the business with the gear box I headed off on the local bus to the "big" shops - quite an experience!! I was the only person who didn't know every one else on the bus, but was made to feel welcome. Didn't quite know how to respond to the "only use for a cat was for crab pot bait" dialogue so kept my head down while a local took on the argument!! There are some interesting if not strange characters around!

Stillness and serenity

I have to give the Gladstone Marina the **** so far for amenities, overall appearance, proximity to transport and shops; a good coffee shop nearby  would have earned it the extra *!