Salter heading north 2009
Author: John and Elizabeth
Design: 44′ C
We finally left Brisbane river June 11th having spent 3 weeks moored at the Botanical Gardens while we did various jobs ashore. This is an amazing mooring right in the middle of the city, the only disadvantage is having to leave the dinghy on a jetty where it gets knocked about by the wash from the ferries.
We spent a further 2 nights at Rivergate marina, just below the Gateway bridge, while a modification was done on the mast. Rivergate must be the most expensive marina in Queensland! Elizabeth took advantage of their free laundry service to wash about everything except the sails to get our moneys worth.
First stop was Mooloolaba and Elizabeth invited Justin, Betty & Peter Rowe on board for dinner. We left the boat there for two nights while we visited Justin and Betty in Caloundra.
While we were there, the weather turned against us – strong Northerlies, so we stayed put until the 15th when we made a 3am start to get us over the Wide Bay bar at the bottom of Fraser Island. We were able to carry the flood tide all the way up the Sandy Straights to anchor at dusk off “White Cliffs” on Fraser Island.
After our early start the previous day, we had a lazy morning, followed by a gentle sail over to River Heads at the mouth of the Mary River to catch up with Bob Oram. This was followed by another dawn start for Bundaberg, where we arrived around 4pm.
We had intended to stay one night to collect mail which had been forwarded to Port marina, but it hadn’t arrived, so we stayed a second night and caught up with Claus, an old German yachtie who still lives aboard with his dog, but has retired from sailing due to poor health. We met him on the way North last year.
After Bundaberg we sailed to Pancake Creek. Weather was perfect and we saw 13 knots several times.
Pancake Creek was as far as we got last year before Elizabeth’s accident, so it was all a bit déjà vu as we hoisted the sails in the morning. We planned to get to great Keppel island for the night, but the wind dropped off to about 10 kts, so since we were unlikely to make it before dark without motoring we anchored at Hummocky Island.
A pretty and sheltered anchorage, but with a big swell. It didn’t worry us so much but a couple of other yachts anchored beside us rolled quite a bit. Another early start, planning to make Pearl Bay which we have heard is a good spot, but the wind slowly dropped to zero, so we had to motor against a strong tide with the result that we weren’t going to make it before sundown. For our overseas readers, the sun sets around 5.30pm in these latitudes in winter and when it is low it is difficult to select a good anchorage.
Plan B was Freshwater Bay which is in the military restricted area, but we were advised by coastguard that there were no exercises in progress, so headed for it, only to be buzzed by a coastwatch plane. We thought that they were going to warn us off, but they called us only wanting to know our destination. Big brother is watching.
While we were plodding along at a fuel saving 7 knots we had time to do odd jobs, trail a fishing line (with no luck) and admire the dolphins who often come to play around the bows at this sort of speed.
Anchored in Freshwater bay by 4.30 again a fair bit of swell, but alone this time.
The weather is warming up at last, a crew member was observed topless on the foredeck this afternoon.
23.6.09
Enjoyed the dramatic scenery over breakfast and had a gentle downwind sail to Pearl Bay. 7-8 knots under reacher only. Anchored in time to have a picnic lunch on the beach. Not quite warm enough for a swim!
24.6.09
Still no 3G coverage. Very light wind from South gave us a chance to try our new (second hand) spinnaker which was a huge success, even though the sheeting system still needs some fine tuning.
As we were only making 5/6 knots over the ground, with some strong tides in this area, we opted for Hexam island as our next overnight stop and were anchored by 3pm.
Tried to go ashore to see if we could get a ‘phone signal from the high part of the island, but abandoned attempts to land on the beach as the dinghy would have been swamped. Tried fishing for dinner and enjoyed left over lamb stew!
25.6.09
Very light variable winds & strong (2/3kt) tides meant that we motor sailed to Middle Percy Island. As we got close the wind turned Northerly and freshened, so we anchored in Whites bay on the South side of the island. Very sheltered, but some swell.
Next morning we went ashore and climbed up to a high part of the island to see if we could get a ‘phone signal without any luck. Owing to the surf on the beach we had to anchor the dinghy about 100 metres off the beach, which meant that one of us had to swim! I was glad we were alone, as getting back into the dinghy was somewhat undignified!
A huge thunderstorm woke us during the night, but it passed over in under an hour.
Next morning we motored round to West bay and dinghied into the tidal boat harbour, from where we walked to the famous A frame where passing boats leave messages and mementos. We then walked 2.5 miles to the homestead and met Cate Morris who has recently won a long court battle to gain a lease on the Island. She is an amazing lady and intends to restore the island to its former glory if allowed to by various government departments. She has six tame goats which she keeps for milking and shoots wild ones for fresh meat. So that she doesn’t accidentally shoot a tame one she has painted their horns bright orange!
When we got back to Salter we decided that where we were anchored was too rough to spend a comfortable night and so returned to Whites beach. Late in the evening a pretty old double ender “Fair Dinkum” came and anchored very close to us, why is a mystery, as there were only three other boats in the whole bay. Of course when we got a wind shift around 1am he was about 15 metres off our stern which was too close for comfort. He resisted attempts to raise him, but moved away in the early morning.
We had a lovely sail from the Percy Is to Digby Island and anchored in time to go ashore & climb to its highest point a vain attempt to get a 3G signal, after which we frightened the fish for about an hour from the dinghy, until we snagged out lure and lost it. Fried rice for dinner.
29.6.09
When we went to bed there were another couple of yachts anchored in the bay, but they had both gone by the time we surfaced, so it was great to have they bay to ourselves in warm sunny weather.
Haven’t managed to get a forecast for four days as we are marginal on vhf from Mackay here and there was no signal at the Percys, so hoping the weather is settled for a bit as we are exposed to swell here.
Had to run the generator for only the second time since leaving Brisbane, so Elizabeth went exploring/fishing in the dinghy to escape the noise.
30.6.09
Had a very calm second night at Digby Island but this translated into a flat calm all day today which saw us motoring all the way to Keswick Island.
6.7.09
Our planned 2 night stop in Mackay turned into 3 nights, as we did a major re-supply which took a lot of time, as we had to bus into Mackay town from the marina and the buses only run 4 times a day, the last one back leaving at 4pm. On our last trip we were fortunate to bump into Chris from “Sea Dreams” (Simpson 12m cat) who we had met previously and he drove us back in his rented car.
Departure was delayed due to a slight hiccup when refuelling, so we decided to head back to Keswick island, but anchored on the North side. We were heavily laden, full fuel, water and stores, so reefed the main but were still doing 9-10 knts in a lumpy sea.
Next morning felt very windy as we left the shelter of the island, but as we were heading downwind we kept the main stowed and were soon soon running at 8-9 knots under screacher only. As we are now officially in the Whitsundays, we decided to just take it easy and did a twenty mile hop to Goldsmith Island, where we found another two cats we had met previously and had a very cheerful drinks evening aboard “Pipes of Pan”. There were heaps of oysters fresh from the rocks in the bay.
The other cats left in the morning, while we went ashore to explore. We discovered a sign saying the island was a National Park, another pointing to an environmentally friendly compost toilet, but no way to get to the interior of the island other than through dense scrub.
We had another fruitless (fishless?) expedition in the evening and a very peaceful night. While at this anchorage we have had numerous sightings of turtles, but they are impossible to photograph, as they dive as soon as they see you move.
Next morning was a significant birthday event, which proved painless. We had a leisurely sail downwind to anchor at Shaw island, opposite the Club Med resort on Lindeman island. On the way our persistence was rewarded with a spotted mackerel which was the basis of an excellent Mackerel Paprikash birthday dinner.
In the morning we said hello to another Bob Oram designed (and built) cat “Mango” which was anchored in the same bay. We then had another downwind blast (8-10kts screacher only) to our next planned stop at Cid Harbour, which isn’t a harbour, but a big protected bay which was used as a harbour by the allied navies during the Coral Sea battles.
We intend to stop here for a couple of days, as it is very pretty and sheltered and we have a strong wind warning for tomorrow. Our friends on “Pipes of Pan” have just anchored near us and we have invited them aboard tomorrow evening. Another couple we met at Mackay are also in the bay, so we will ask them to join us also. We are now in bareboat charter country and we have heard the charter companies on the radio advising their yachts that this is a safe place to be in bad weather, with the result that at dusk we counted 67 boats at anchor, all shapes and sizes, including 3 motor yachts over 100ft and one timber gaff rigged 30 footer with a centre board, who has parked on the beach for the night.
13.7.09
We are still anchored in Cid Harbour, the weather has blown over and it has been warm and sunny for the last few days. We have been ashore and walked through the national park to Dugong Beach which provided a green change.
On the way back we swapped 2 litres of outboard fuel for a good sized fish which so far we have fried, curried and made into a marinara. Thai fishcakes are next!
Two of our close friends have been aboard for the last couple of days and we have had a really fun time with plenty of swimming and lots of après dinner singing. They arrived on our new high speed tender, which allowed us to blast round Whitsunday Island, stopping for a leisurely beach lunch on the way . We were back on board Salter just too late for a sundowner, but made up for it with some excellent pinot which our guests had thoughtfully provided.
Tomorrow we are going to Hamilton Island to fill up with water as we are getting very low.
