Urangan to Rosslyn Bay, Yeppoon & onto Mackay

Great Sandy Straits Marina as seen from the Hervey Bay Boat Club's deck

Time has come to continue on my journey as I have

spent some 6 weeks here in Hervey Bay waiting out the

results of Cyclone Debbie to subside.

Coming along on this leg is some friends from Hope

Island Marina, Rob & Kerry Black aboard their own

vessel sv Errant.

Hervey Bay area is made up of 3 separate settlements, Urangan, Pialba & Torquay. A good stopover for anyone wanting to get to Kingfisher Bay Resort on Fraser Island or into the Sandy Straits to watch the whales.

At left is the marina complex with 3 separate marinas and a hardstand with a 300 ton travel lift.

Whilst there I caught up with a life long friend,

Grip (Ross Wright) and his friend Angie.

Grip lives aboard his yacht and is studying to become a nurse -

I believe that he is almost completed the degree and

will soon be wearing a nice blue skirt to work . . .

Good to catch up again mate - see you on the way back.

 Friday 12th may 2017:

With preparations having been completed, we intend

to leave around sun up tomorrow around 0600hrs.

This time I will be on Fete by myself with no crew,

so Rob & Kerry came over to give me a hand to leave  the

mooring and they will follow me out.

Saturday 13th May 2017:

As we leave Urangan , up past the Urangan Pier this rainbow

appeared just as the sun was rising to the east. Destination

for today is Bundaberg, some 35nm north. It should

be an easy day with seas predicted to be around .5-1m with gentle 5-10knt SE winds, we should be at anchor at around 1500hrs this afternoon.

Sure enough, we were anchored and having

a Buddie or two before sunset . . . and I guess the Rainbow decided to follow us all the way.

A great days motor sail and I was extremely happy with the day and having Fete to myself.

Sunday 14th May 2017 - Destination Pancake Creek - 63nm north:

Awoke early to get ready for the long haul up the coast. It
was anticipated that it would take at least 12 hours, at an average
of 5 knots to reach our destination before dark.
It was cold and pitch black, due to the cloud cover, when we set
off at 0300hrs even though it was almost a full moon.
I had been to Pancake Creek before with Zom aboard sv Upstart
when we ducked in there to get away from a front on the way back to
the Gold Coast.

(Pic at left, & 2 above, courtesy of Kerry Black)

Arrived Pancake Cr around 1500 hrs

after 12 hrs of motor sailing. Had the Headsail up for approx. 5hrs before the winds turned NE again.

We anchored in the mouth of the

creek as we were leaving early the

next morning for Cape Capricorn.

Monday 15th May 2017 - Pancake

Cr to cape Capricorn

As we left pancake Cr, we could see the bulk carrier ships up ahead awaiting entry into Gladstone. Bob & Kerry whistled for me to get a pic of them sailing under autopilot.

Arrived and tucked ourselves in behind the cape as you can

see above. We had to anchor a long way out due to the shallow

depth, but we didn't want to go all the way to Keppel Is

as we would have got there in the dark - something we are

trying to avoid as much as possible. It was a roll type of a night

and I didn't get much sleep and was glad when the sun hit the horizon.

Tuesday 16th may 2017 - Cape Capricorn to Great Keppel Is.

0700hrs - upped the anchor to head for GKI (Great Keppel Is), but

looked over to the cape and as you can see above, fog was just streaming off the point and covered the lighthouse. The fog moved out to sea, a long way out, and didn't diminish for a couple of hours.

GKI is only 25.5nm away, as you can see from the pic at right, so we were in for a leisurely 4-5 hr run.

Arrived at GKI around noon and anchored in Svenden's

Beach (pic at left). Bob & Kerry were keen to catch up with Paul

off sv Cobwing whom they had been travelling with prior to

catching up with me in Urangan. That afternoon we had

sundowners on Fete and Paul bought Jackie over. She had just  started out on a round the world cruise and we enjoyed the interaction and the drinks.

With this storm front approaching,

we decided to head into Yeppoon,

Rosslyn Bay Marina for a couple of days to let it pass before heading further up north.

Saturday 20thMay 2017 - Rosslyn Bay to Pearl Bay 

With the passing of the front, Paul and

Rob are keen to get going so we decide

to have our last meal & sundowners at

the Rosslyn Bay yacht Club. Tomorrow

we intend to leave 0500hrs so an early

night was planned by all. Sundown at Rosslyn Bay Yacht Club with Bob silhouetted at left.

Pearl Bay, some 43nm north of

Yeppoon, is a pretty bay and good

protection from the  S/E's. It is situated at the bottom end of the Military area in Shoalwater Bay & just above Port Clinton.

Just as when thought that we would get a

clear run with the weather, the radio and a couple of local divers warned us to expect strong winds for the next couple of days. Winds of 25-30+ knts S/E were expected, so we decided to stay in this beautiful bay for the time, but as Rob & Kerry are under a time restraint due to them looking after the grand kids up at Mackay, time is of the essence and we need to keep moving . . .

Wednesday 24rd May 2017 - Pearl

Bay to Middle Percy Island

Decided today was the day so awoke

early, Paul having left at around 0330hrs, to start the 55nm leg to West Bay, Middle Percy Island.

We are expecting choppy conditions with 10-15knts+ S/E winds.

Arrived at middle Percy only to find many other travelers anchored here, so we had to

anchor out a bit. During the trip, I had snapped off

the engine "Kill Switch' from the cockpit bulkhead, so I was perplexed

as to how I would shut the engine down once anchored. Once again,

Bob, came to the rescue and we dismantled the cable to enable me to

shut down by using a set of plyers.

Thursday 25th May 2017

Today we start our run to Mackay as I

think Kerry was starting to get a little bit

nervous as to whether they would make

it in time. So headed off around 0700hrs

for the 26nm trip over to a little island called

Digby Is, part of the Beverley Group.

5 Hours later we anchored in a beautiful

little bay, well protected from the S/E and

in plenty of water. I say this as we were

expecting 7m+ tides for the night.

Digby Is approach, as you can see  

here, is spectacular. Although both Bob & I were both stressing as to where the entrance to the little bay was. Eventually we found our way in and anchored as you will see below.

Pristine Digby Is. . . .

This was our 1st impression on entering the bay and my impression of that time will last me a long time.

Cobwing, Errant & Fete enjoying Digby Island

and as you will see below, Kerry caught and

amazing Queen fish. actually it has been Kerry doing all the fishing up to this stage. Only then did Bob get out his rod and have a go, but Kerry was the champion angler today.  

So as the sunsets on beautiful Digby

Island, and as Paul is leaving us tomorrow to continue his trip north, and we are heading to Mackay, sundowners are called for onboard Fete, to say our farewells.

Digby Is, a GEM - will be back!!!

Friday 26th May 2017 0- Digby Is to Mackay

Awoke early and left Digby around

0600 for the 44nm run to Mackay

marina where we will spend the next couple of weeks, whilst Bob & Kerry look after the grand kids.

I have to say that the Marina was in

a worst state than I had imagined

after Cyclone Debbie, which was

a couple of months ago. As you can see from these pics, some arms are

still missing, with much repair work still needing to be done and in some cases, totally replaced.

Well as you can see from these recent pics, there is still a lot of work to do here in Mackay . . . Soon we will be travelling off to the Whitsundays and the islands in between and I guess I will be able to see first hand what damage was caused and what still needs to be done - I will send thru a blog after I have been thru the  area.

So as always . . . Cheers until then

"A formatting problem has occurred during the production of this blog and I haven't been able to rectify it - so please enjoy in the state it appears as I will try to rectify in my next blog" - S

Mooloolaba - Urangan (Hervey Bay) - 2nd leg of trip

Having arrived in Mooloolaba late on Thursday night, and with "What" leaving the next day, I settled into the Duck Pond, (Mooloolah River), for what would be only 12 days before the next leg of this long awaited northern journey.
During this time I wanted to catch up with my daughter, Kristian, and a couple of other friends that live here, prior to heading further north.
Kristian and I had lunch at the Surf Club whilst Rae Blanchard(???), Sheree's sister and John Nant joined us for lunch at Hogs Breath Café. Pity I didn't take any pics but I can do that on the way back.

Above and left will give you Fete's position in relation to the land and facilities in the River - very close to everything . . . but a couple of days later the Dept of Transport (Marine) came by to say that I was outside the designated anchorage and I would have to move further into the Duck Pond. As I tried to start the motor, the starter motor played up and I couldn't move - this also happened at Tangalooma which What fixed temporarily. Anyhow to cut a long story short, $750 later a new starter motor was installed and off we went as instructed.

Sunset in our new anchorage. Today I also heard from some old friends, Robert & Trish Budd who warned that their weather app, Windytv, was showing that a Cyclone was starting to form out into the Pacific and that I should take care and keep a watch on the system.

Monday 27th March:
The crew for the next leg arrived today, Ian (Grumpy) Knight and Shelly.
Once on board & settled in, we discussed the Cyclone (Debbie) that had formed N/W of Townsville and decided that as it hadn't crossed the coast yet we had a small window to get up thru the Wide Bay Bar and in behind Fraser Island for some protection. So a night sail was planned for that night leaving at approx. 1800hrs.

So as the sunset that night, we raised the anchor and headed down to Mooloolah River towards the mouth and got set for the next 12 hours at sea.
As we exited the bar, another Cruise liner was anchored just offshore and was preparing to leave as we passed her and raised the headsail and headed north.
The trip was uneventful until we were approx. 2nm south of Double Is Point. All of a sudden a line of lights appeared across the front of us. It turned out to be trawlers fishing the grounds so we proceeded carefully to avoid getting in their way.

Once passed the trawlers we realised that we were 2 hrs too early to cross the WBB so we took a northerly route before turning back to our original waypoint and heading for the bar.
We crossed the bar and headed up the inside of Fraser Is to Garry's Anchorage for a well earned rest. That night we sat down to a roast lamb and watched this amazing sunset.

The next morning we heard that "Debbie" had crossed the coastline around Airlie Beach/Hamilton Is and caused a lot of damage. Wide Bay Coast Guard advised us that we had a window of 24 hours to get to Urangan before the destructive winds reached the area. In addition, Bob & Deb Rafter, managers of the Great Sandy Straits Marina, rang to say that if we  didn't get in today we most likely wouldn't make it due to the worsening conditions.
We set off around 0800hrs and headed for Sheridan Flats, (The narrows & shallowest part of the Sandy Straits). The water was calm and the tide was with us most of the way but little to no wind as you can see below . . .

It rained intermittently all the way up the Straits but we were making good time and looked to be ahead of our projected 1500hrs ETA at the Marina.

After passing Turkey Is & Kingfisher Bay Resort, we rounded the top of Big Woody Island and sited the top of Hervey Bay (Pialba) and knew that we only had a couple of nm's to go to safety. Weather was still calm but we knew from listening to the radio that this was the calm before the storm.

Safely moored in the marina, you couldn't believe that we were expecting a "Blow". The remnants of "Cyclone Debbie"  was due within the next 12 hours. Having squared Fete away, we all went and had hot showers, followed by a lovely meal at Café Balaena, one of the superb quayside restaurants here at the marina, and went home for an early night.
The next day Grumpy and Shelly headed off back to the Gold Coast as he was worried about his boat, Outward Bound II, back at the SYC as this aftermath which was about to hit us, was then expected to carry on down to Brisbane and the Gold & Sunshine Coasts.

That first night, after returning from the restaurant, we noticed the tide height. We knew there was a 3.4m tide expected, but with the storm surge, the tide was enormous as you can see here - Amazing!!!

The next night we copped the storm. Fete was rocked all over the place as we were hit with winds of 72 knots (140 kmph).
Jan, a lady 2 berths over from where I was moored said that she had recorded winds of 54kn on her wind instruments.
All in all it was a sleepless night.
I have decided to stay here in Urangan for a month to let the weather and rivers settle down before continuing on again.

Here at left is the wind gauge from another boat here in the marina which a mate (Grip) Ross Wright put on his FB page just to show how strong it really was within the marina itself.
It is now been nine days since the blow and the weather has not really abated as yet. We are still getting 20-30kn winds with some stronger gusts although it hasn't been raining much and I have had time to explore the region in some detail . . . more about that in another blog.

Well that's about all for this blog, but I will continue to write them for each stage of the trip . . . so until then...

Cheers as always!!!