We
reprovisioned on Thursday. Friday was
Robyn’s birthday and we hitched a ride with the Curtis Ferries Barge that
services the islands in Curtis Harbour.
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| The Curtis Endeavour - Our Gladstone Harbour Cruise Boat |
We
saw the settlements of Farmer’s Point on Facing Island and South End on Curtis
Island. We also dropped cars off at
Quoin Island and Compigne Island. Once
onboard, we headed straight for the bridge and the Captain allowed us to stay
there for the whole 2 and a half hour trip.
It is a very attractive waterway – pity about the industrial
activity. Matthew Flinders named Quoin
Island after sailing north in investigator
from naming Woody Point and
Redcliffe.
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| Captain Ian (with offsider) |
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| South End on Curtis Island - Where the locals come down to watch the barge arrive |
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| Farmers Point on Facing Island |
We set off from Gladstone Marina on
the rising tide on Saturday afternoon for Black Swan Creek. Here we intended to await the rising tide the next morning to go through the area known as The Narrows that dries a low tide. The chart below shows about 5 nautical miles
actually dries out.
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| The Narrows - The Green area dries at low tide |
On Sunday
morning were fogged in at Black Swan. We
could hear the fog horns from the northern parts of Gladstone. The fog cleared at 09:30 and we needed to
leave at 0745 to have enough water with the high tide to get through The Narrows. So we spent another pleasant day at Black Swan Creek.
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| Sunday morning fogged in at 0900 |
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| Sunset from Black Swan Creek |
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| Sunset from Black Swan Creek - on Sunday |
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| Redcliffe Island in The Narrows |
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| Water quality monitoring bouys. They are everywhere. |
We were very focused travelling up The Narrows as the channels are narrow and winding. At one place on some leads, we encountered
another boat coming from the north. It
was a ketch rigged trimaran and we could see her masts before we saw her. Interesting thing about leads, you are either
on THE line of the leads or not. Neither
of us were when we passed and both got through OK. We turned into Badger Creek, our intended
anchorage and happily dropped the anchor in 7 metres of water. It was just after high tide when we anchored
and as the 3.24 metre high tide dropped to the 0.88 metre low tide, we were
protected by the mangroves and the banks of the creek. It was perfect. The sand flies though so too and we quickly retreated
to the cabin for the day!
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| Badger Creek |
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| Badger Creek at low tide |
During the
course of the day we abandoned our plans for the next day to go to Sea Hill at the mouth of the Fitzroy River and the intended
anchorage in Pacific Creek as it looked similar to Badger Creek. Instead we headed direct to Great Keppel
Island.
The trip from
Badger Creek to Great Keppel Island is 30 nautical miles. It was a fabulously clear, warm day. We needed to observe some red beacons coming
out of The Narrows before turning to a more northerly course to take us clear
of the rocks on the eastern side of Great Keppel Island.
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| Mt Larcom from the northern end of The Narrows |
The wind was SW (square behind us) until we turned
north and then it went around to the south to continue to be square behind
us. We declared it to be a spinnaker run and
carried the kite almost to the top of Great Keppel, dropping it as the wind
became too light and variable for it to continue to carry.
We are
anchored off the small headland between Svendsen’s Beach and Second Beach.
We have been
at Svendsen’s Beach since we arrived.
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| Great Keppel Island |
We
visited Carl and Lyndie who live at this beautiful place; have been walking; and
have put in a few hours helping maintain walking tracks on the island.
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| Svendsens Beach |
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| "Svendsens Bay" |
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| Wreck Beach headland |
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| Mini Maripi on Second Beach |
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| Chris cutting back lantana on Cooee walking track |
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| 190mm log which had fallen across the track |
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| Leeke's Lagoon where some Cats dry out |
Tomorrow we intend to walk the 7km round trip
(up hill and down dale) to the old resort which has been closed for 4 years. We love Great Keppel Island and have been
here several times before. The walking
tracks are extensive. One visit, when we
were between boats, we stayed in Lyndie’s brilliant camp style accommodation.
We caught up
with the folks on Mistweaver, who we
saw in Pancake Creek, and had a cup of tea with Pauline and Keith on Tan T’ien. Pauline knew one of the former owners of Maripi, Bill Withers. Keith, a boat builder, put the stern extension
on Maripi several years earlier.
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| Tan T’ien in the setting sun |
