Paradise Waits

28/07/2019, Lady Musgrave Island, Qld, Australia

Well it's been quite a while since my last entry, mainly because we were so busy and I just didn't have the energy or will, to write much. We spent 6 days in the boat yard. They were brutal, but we got quite a bit done. Firstly we solved the missing propeller conundrum: It wasn't tightened enough. We know this because the starboard prop was about to come off as well. The mechanic said that he could've almost undone it with his hand it was so loose. Holy crap! Anyway, the other jobs we completed were mounting the life raft, plumbing some salt water into the kitchen and moving the lower shrouds out of the way. All were accomplished without too much issue or annoyance.

Meanwhile off the boat we hired push bikes for a few days and saw the sights of Hervey Bay. I broke a tooth and had to visit the dentist, picked up a package from the post office and spent way too much time and money at "The Boat Club".

Our propeller arrived on Tuesday and the mechanic installed it straight away. I got to work antifouling it while Vanja cleaned the deck of all the boat yard crap that blew aboard. It was truely disgusting. I mean, I'm normally pretty blind to dirt and general untidiness, but this was off the charts. Mum and Dad also arrived in town which was a blessing as it meant we could steel their car for a few days to run various errands and do a couple of big shops. The boat is now fully stocked. hopefully it doesn't sink from all the extra weight.

We got lifted back into the water on Wednesday the 24th and motored around to Torquay to spend the night. It was a beauty, though I think we were all still shedding the boatyard stink, so no one was in a very good mood. We went to shore and had ice cream with Mum & Dad, said goodbye and planned our trip to Lady Musgrave Island which is where we are now.

The passage was pretty slow. We gave ourselves all night to make it there for a morning arrival, but still didn't get there until midday. Going places in a sailboat has to be the slowest method on Earth. Anyway, the island is picture perfect. There is a fringing reef protecting the inner lagoon which has a universal depth of around 8m with a few coral heads poking about. The water is that beautiful aqua blue synonymous with a tropical oasis.

When we arrived I dove down on the anchor only to find the chain had wrapped around one of the coral heads which meant the anchor was just sitting there like a big paper weight. This could cause an issue if we swing around the coral head a few times tangling us up. So I pulled it up and moved the boat forward 15m and dropped it again. No worries.

We dinghied over to the island to check it out only to find it was surrounded with broken pieces of coral and very little sand. None of us had shoes on so we tip toed along what was effectively a giant bowl of broken glass. Because of this we only had a quick look around and went back to the boat. Not before spotting a turtle lazing about in the shallows though. Back at the boat we had a nice quick dinner before slumping into bed for a post-passage 12hr slumber.

Today we had a terrific day, you could almost call it perfect. We all got up, had breaky/coffee then straight into the water for a snorkel around the boat. Lara and Jake are absolutely loving the swimming around here. Vanja and I still think it's a little cold, but it's 2 degrees warmer here than where we came from, so that is better, but not better enough for my old bones.

After lunch we dropped the dinghy in the water and went searching for some coral. It didn't take long as we only had to drive about 2 mins North of the boat. I jumped in armed with my snorkel, the kids quickly followed while Vanja kept the dinghy from floating away. It was pretty nice with plenty of colourful fish and large chunks of coral, but the best thing about it was the kids amazement and excitement. That is until Lara saw a shark. I was already out of the water trying to warm up when we heard Lara scream shark. Both she and Jake skimmed across the water like a couple of lizards. I pulled them both out while they continued to scream uncontrollably. Jake yelled 'I'm not ready to die today!'. I'm not sure the kids will ever get back in the water after that.

29/07/2019 En route to Great Kepple Island, Qld, Australia

Today we're off to Great Kepple Island and hopefully some internet. When we got up this morning the kids were surprisingly keen to go for a snorkel again, especially Jake. Lara was still a little apprehensive about the shark, but was convinced to go in pretty easily. We all jumped in the dinghy again and headed over to the same spot as yesterday. Vanja jumped in with the kids this time. There was a bit of a current today so staying close to the reef was a bit harder than yesterday. No sharks this time, but plenty of fish. The water was a bit cooler thanks to the current and wind that had shown up overnight. Plenty of fish and some coral, but most importantly no sharks today.

We upped anchor at around midday and picked our way through the coral heads back out to the channel where we slid back out into the open ocean. We put the sails up and started for Great Kepple. There was a bit of wind around so we were moving along at a good pace. The plan is to arrive around midday tomorrow. Of course while I write this the wind has dropped significantly. We'll probably have to start an engine in a while if it doesn't come back. Oh the joys of sailing.

30/07/2019 Great Kepple Island, Qld, Australia

We arrived at Great Kepple this morning after a faster then expected journey thanks to a steady 8-10kt wind right on the beam. It's amazing how well the boat sails in those conditions. We had barely any wind, but because of the angle the boat sails pretty much at the same speed as it. Amazing!

After we arrived and anchored the kids immediately got off the boat and went kayaking and SUP-ing. They surprised us by going all the way to the beach on their own. Normally they would want one of us to accompany them. I guess they are just sick of the sight of us.

After they came back and had some lunch we decided to move the boat to an area where the water was a little deeper as we only had 20cm under the keel with another hour before low tide. Anyway I started the engines and pressed the button to pull up the anchor and… nothing. I went forward to see what was going on and after taking apart the winch I noticed that the shaft was not spinning when the motor was working. This baffled me, so I called Muir H.Q. to get the low down. He told me the rather devastating news that we probably need a new winch, oh and it will cost somewhere in the vicinity of $2400 + delivery + installation. Oh and we wouldn't be able to get one until Airlie Beach, several hundred miles away. So now I have to manually lift up the anchor whenever we stop somewhere. That will be character building.

So that put a bit of a dampener on the rest of the day for me, but we went to the beach for a little explore anyway. Surprisingly there was a nice little camp setup on the beach with a fire pit, table and chairs under a gazebo, coconut husker, games and a water tank fed by a makeshift water catchment system made from an old sail. It was really cool. We played a game of boules and went back to the boat looking forward to more exploring.

31/07/2019 Great Kepple Island, Qld, Australia

After checking the weather last night it looks like we'll be spending a few days here while the strong trade winds pass. It's not the worst place to be stranded, that's for sure, though it would be handy to have some shops nearby for some essentials like beer and toilet paper.

Vanja decided to make some bread this morning which was a huge success. I wasn't sure how our microwave/convection oven would compare to a normal oven, but if this bread is anything to go by then I would say that it's not bad at all. I spent the morning moving the lower shrouds to their new chainplates I installed back in the boatyard. I had to shorten them by about 40cm which meant undoing the splice, cutting it off then re-doing the splice. It's always nerve racking cutting things shorter because if you make a mistake and cut too much then you are stuffed. Anyway, that said, it was a successful job though I'm leaving them overnight before I do the final tightening. Lara helped me tighten them up which made things much easier.

We then took a trip in the dinghy to Lecke Beach to find a path to the resort on the other side of the island where our guide book promises it is. It turned out to be a pretty dull walk through scrub land up a steep hill with a relatively poor view from the top, followed by a steep walk down to the resort along a crumbling road and what seemed to be the island's dumping grounds. I guess it has to go somewhere, but couldn't they dump it a little further from the walking track??

The resort itself seemed pretty nice, not 5 star, but reasonable. It must have some erosion issues as the sand in front of the main area is being held in place by giant sand bags. Weird. After a quick couple of refreshing drinks we headed back to the dinghy before darkness set in and the tide swamped our boat. We looked up on google maps to see if there was a better path to take back. Google said with promise that there was a better path and, was "mostly flat". Oh how google can be wrong. It was flat for the first 500m then it joined the original path just in time for the giant hill again. Lucky us. At least it bypassed the dump.

Back at the boat we had a cheese plate and sundowner and enjoyed the sunset while watching the monohulls in the anchorage rolling around like pendulums.

04/08/2019 En route to Middle Percy Island, Qld, Australia

Where does the time go?! We've been at our nice little secure anchorage for 4 days now, waiting for better weather. Seriously though, is there better weather for where we're going? I mean it's predicted to be 15-20kts from the SE. That should be perfect for where we're going. Anyway, after plenty of debate we decided to leave today, so I'm writing this about 4 hrs into our overnight trip to Middle Percy Island.

The last few days were pretty good. We just skulked around the island doing small walks, playing frisbee, climbing the rocks and cracking open freshly caught coconuts. One issue we had was our water tanks overflowed into the cabin soaking everything including 50% of our book collection and 20% of the kids school work. Needless to say it was a painful and stressful few hours of cleanup.

Yesterday Mum & Dad came out to the island for a visit, braving the rough conditions on the ferry. Apparently there is some sort of festival along the coast at the moment and the resort on the island was hosting a bunch of the party goers putting on some live music on the park that we got to enjoy as well. It was really nice to see Mum & Dad since we only have them until Airlie Beach before they head home. They also brought us a couple of bags of fresh groceries and toilet paper which was running desperately low. No beer though. After a reasonable, yet pricey lunch we said our goodbyes again and headed back to the boat for the nighttime ritual of sundowner, dinner, read with kids and sleep.

Anyway, we left this morning for Middle Percy Island to what looked like a perfect day. When we moved out into the ocean we found the wind at 20kts from directly behind us with the seas reasonably choppy, but we are making good time. See you at Percy.

05/08/2019 En route to Middle Percy Island, Qld, Australia

We are about and hour and a half away from making landfall at Middle Percy Island. Depending on how nice it is we'll spend a couple of days here before pushing on to Airlie Beach. We can see the island already which means this is going to be a long hour and a half.

The passage has been ok. We have sailed the whole way with only the genoa ranging from 100% to 25% when the wind spun around to the front and jumped to 25kts. That was not a very nice point of sail. Not to mention it was the middle of the night when we could only hear and feel when a huge wave would crash into us. Boom… shudder! It was pretty wild. Other than the strong wind and large waves it has been ok. Oh, there was a big school of tuna playing in our bow waves just like the dolphins do. It was hilarious, and cute! I might think twice about having a tuna sushi roll next time.

06/08/2019 Middle Percy Island, Qld, Australia

We may have just arrived in paradise. Well not quite since the water is still only 22 degrees and there is no shop, or a bar. Other than that though, paradise. The bay we are anchored in is framed by big red jagged rock headlands covered in that beautiful distinctive eucalyptus bush flora. The beach has amazing soft white sand that squeaks when you walk on it, and it is lined with those coconut palm trees that just invoke that feeling of holiday time and cocktails. It is amazing.

The original lease holders of the island have built an amazing shack on the beach for cruisers coming to the island. There are hundreds if not thousands of plaques, flags, totems and other paraphernalia left behind by boats that have anchored here in the past. It is an amazing feeling to be here amongst all the history that surrounds the place and to be one of the cruiser's that has stopped along the way. We'll try and put something together to leave a mark.

The island has plenty of walking trails, one of which leads to the homestead where you can join the "yacht club", and presumably donate some money to have your name inscribed on the wall. We will probably do that today. According to some other cruisers we spoke to at the shack there is supposed to be some internet up at "the lookout" which we will also try to catch as we need to send a message home that we have made it safely.

Last night one of the locals, Ernst, put on a bit of a dinner for all the cruisers. He rounded us up in the afternoon to let us know the "plan" which was to bring a couple of veges and a spare glass of red wine so that he could add it to the goat stew he would cook at the shack fire pit. The island has a bunch of foreign goats running around and as part of the lease they need to cull a certain number every year. Well, they oblige and in doing so also put on a feast for the cruisers. It was brilliant, both the food and the company. There happened to be another kid boat "Irie" anchored at the island which we got to meet and Lara became instant best friends with their daughter Harriet. We met a bunch of other cruisers who come up this way each season before heading home in October/November. No one but us seems to be heading further North of Airlie Beach.

Anyway we have fallen a little bit in love with Middle Percy Island, but the plan is to stay today at least then push on to Airlie Beach tomorrow.

08/08/2019 Middle Percy Island, Qld, Australia

We are still at Middle Percy Island. Im not sure we'll ever leave at this rate. We packed up the boat yesterday and switched on the engines to leave, but we had one more little chat and decided to stay another day. Glad we did too as it was a fabulous one. We bummed around the beach all morning, then after lunch I took the paddle board out for a spin to a deserted beach around the headland. Lara was keen to hang out with her new bestie so I took her in to the beach for a play while I had a sundowner with the other cruisers. It wasn't all perfect though as Jake had come down with some sort of illness which kept him laid up in bed with a fever, poor little guy.

Today was a complete replay of the day before. We arranged to go to Digby Island with Irie, but by the time we got up out of bed and packed up to go, Irie (who had left earlier in the morning) had returned with news of no wind at all. They don't have the luxury of endless diesel like we do. So once again we unpacked the boat committing again to leave tomorrow or the next day. We'll have to leave soon no matter what as we are running out of essentials again, namely beer and wine, oh and vegetables. The only difference really between yesterday and today was that Vanja took the paddle board out for a drive while I walked up to the lookout to get some weather information. Looks like we're leaving tomorrow.

09/08/2019 10:42pm En route to Airlie Beach, Qld, Australia

We finally left today, bound for Airlie Beach, despite a couple of weather warnings 2 days from now. Darren from "Irie" thinks he is going to wait out the predicted Southerly front at Middle Percy because he doesn't have the fuel to ensure he gets somewhere else with a safe anchorage for that wind. We do have the fuel, so we left. It's as simple as that. Plus Middle Percy would be a horrible anchorage after a southerly goes through. It was rolly on a nice day!

I forgot to mention the other day that the catamaran next to us "Providence" lost their rudder that night. He said he heard it in the night just slide off. Can you believe that?! We're glad we aren't the only ones losing bits and pieces off our boat. They managed to find it yesterday with the help of another boat's dive equipment. The diver found it, lifted it, and reattached it for them. I tell you, I've never heard of or been part of a community that is so helpful. Another boat in the lagoon here accidentally put a hole in his hull on the first night he arrived by parking it too close to shore where there were rocks. He said that almost all boaties came by offering their help to fix it. I must say it is very comforting. I suppose it is because we all made it out to this island in the middle of no where probably thinking the same thing, which is "Bloody hell, I hope nothing happens out here in the middle of no where". Or maybe that's just me.

Anyway, Vanja just woke me for my watch. There is 6kts of breeze from dead ahead so we have the starboard engine humming away. I'd like to say that is because we need to get there before this Southerly, but realistically we would be motoring in these conditions if we had all the time in the world. It is beautiful out tonight though. There is a thin veil of cloud across the sky that is being lit up by the moon, and the sea is as calm as can be.

11/08/2019 Airlie Beach, Qld, Australia

We made it to Airlie Beach and The Whitsundays! What an achievement, even if I do say so myself. We rolled into Airlie Beach yesterday arvo after a very nice overnight sail from Middle Percy Island. There was a bit of talk about a strong Southerly coming through yesterday morning and then a stronger one this morning. They both came and went without much fanfare. Today's brought the cold with it though which was a bit of a shock after so many nice days in the islands.

Anyway after we dropped the anchor we went to shore with our dinghy full of rubbish bags and laundry. We knocked that off pretty quickly after going to 2 laundromats to find the best deal. We then took the kids for ice cream and did a bit of window shopping. Airlie is full of backpackers which gives the place a really nice vibe. There is also a very cool playground with slides that have to be at least 10 metres high. The kids have to climb this rope ladder to the top which is precarious at best, then traverse a rope bridge to get to each of the slides. It looks terrifying! A couple of kids learnt that they were scared of heights in the process, screaming through tears from 3/4 the way up "I can't do it!!". One kid tried 3 times, screaming and crying when they hit the 3/4 mark. I can't talk though, that would be me if I was forced to go up there.

After the washing was done and ice creams eaten we got some essentials from the shops and made our way back to the dinghy only to find it full of water. The tide must have come up at a ferocious pace swamping poor dinghy in the process. Ever since we swamped the original dinghy in 2017 I have always been extremely careful with tides and small waves, but for whatever reason this day I forgot all about that lesson and did, well, nothing and just plopped the dinghy on the beach. The beaches here are quite steep and the tides are huge. So, long story short I was scooping water out of the dinghy for 30 minutes before we could get back to the boat. So fun, especially after having no sleep the night before and only wanting to go home and go to bed.

Today we met up with Mum & Dad again and while they looked after the kids, Vanja and I did some more washing and internet stuff. Can you believe we had another shocker with the dinghy today? Silly question really. We thought we'd try the dinghy dock at the Whitsunday Sailing Club instead of filling our dinghy with water at the beach again. So we headed over that way to tie it up. Clearly every other sailor in town had the same idea as it was absolutely packed with dinghies. There were at least 3 rows of dinghies out from the jetty, but only on one side, since the other side is reserved for boat ramp patrons. Anyway, being new to the area we weren't sure of the etiquette so we just dropped the dinghy at the edge of the water and put the anchor out. Oh how we misjudged the tide again. It must be huge, as when we return I had to wade out to the boat with water up to my stomach. I would've swam but the water is really gross with a sludgy mud kind of bottom that stirs up into the water with any movement. There was also the fact that there were a nice group of onlookers watching what I was doing, probably having a good laugh… along with Vanja. I just took my shirt off and left my non-swimming shorts on and went and fetched it. Pretty embarrassing. Anyway, another lesson learnt.