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??? |
No comments:
Post a Comment