Out of the Wilderness

Just finished reading “South” which is Shackelton’s account of his 3rd expedition to the Antarctic. We’ve decided not to go there, ‘cause (as I write this) it’s wet and cold enough up here.

The plan for a 4 day easy trip to Mackay got blown out of the water.

Left Port Clinton on the Sunday morning (which it isn’t anything to write about other than its a wide bay and a safe anchorage) and motored around the corner to a place called Pearl Bay for breakfast – a lovely small bay, ringed by islands. It was secluded, sheltered, scenic, and serene. The sun was out so we hit the beach and came across a stranger and offered a lift back to her boat, called “As If” (their next one will be called “Whatever”). Ruth, Pete and Brandy their 16yr old dog have been living aboard for 3 years, having caravanned around the country for about 6 years previously, with Ruth working as a Remote Area Nurse and the captain learning how to fish (gotta love that arrangement).

Their immediate plans coincided with ours, namely get into Island Head Creek on a rising tide and overnight there as Pearl Bay would not have been comfortable - the swell and wind were forecast to pick up. So we followed them out and had a great 2hr sail around into Island Head Creek – the crew taking control and handled the 20kts+ as though she had been sailing for over 5 months. (This could prove to be a dangerous turn of events, as the boat can only have one captain). “As If” led us up the creek for about 3 miles and we came into a small deep inlet – very remote, lots of mangroves and no service on the gizmos. Given the forecast, we figured we would be here for a bit – in fact we were there for 5 days.

Did some fishing, which we are not very good at, although Pete tried to impart some of his fishing knowledge. The two captains went into a muddy creek at low tide and grabbed some live bait via a casting net. We picked up the respective crews and proceeded to fish…we scored one little something or other and they got 10 things that looked like bream. They gave us 5 for dinner, we gave them…. thanks.

A couple of other boats arrived Monday afternoon, the crews we had met earlier. Easy Rider and Christmas Beetle – the latter so named because as he was building it, christmas beetles kept landing in the resin, and getting tired of picking them out, Tim simply left them in and sanded them smooth.

It’s now Wednesday and the weather is….crap. Cool, wet and strong winds. The forecast (get it from As If” as they have big aerials for their stuff) says that the winds and swell should ease Friday and continue to do so, enabling us to leave for Mackay then. It’ll take at least one overnight (Percy Islands) and probably another somewhere between the two, so at this stage, should be there on Monday, a couple of days to organize stuff and then off to Airlie and the islands.

The police and fisheries gave us a visit this morning – we’re 55miles north of civilization and the conditions would have been not real pleasant to get here. We were checked for safety gear by the police and the fisheries wanted to know if we had caught anything – he obviously hadn’t heard I can’t fish. QLD have a multitude of different zones allowing all, some or no fishing and you need to have the maps which show those areas. When we saw their boat in Yeppoon (75ft power thing), I thought ‘what a great job’, but when they said they were returning today in this weather, I thought otherwise.

Our food is Ok for another week or so – especially if we keep being given fish - and the only thing that will drive us out of here is lack of fresh water and alcohol. I’m not too concerned with the wind (20-25kts downwind is OK), but rather the combination of sea/swell, which would make any island anchorage between here and Mackay very unpleasant to overnight in. We’ll wait and see what tomorrow’s forecast tells us – its good that the high tides are in the morning, enabling an easy departure from here.

The day goes quickly…it’s amazing how not doing a lot takes up so much time – after the police visit, Pete did a book swap run around the boats, the crew slept and the captain kept watch.

Thursday opened fine and sunny, so (most of the boats) headed for the river mouth to find a beach and get off the boat. It started out a lovely day and Pete grabbed some oysters off the rocks and I drank my last Melbourne. Typical for QLD (I don’t know where they got the slogan perfect one day etc etc), it started to pour while we were on the beach – we couldn’t wait to get back in the boat and a hot shower.

The original plan was to anchor there overnight and head off early Friday with Easy Rider and the Beetle , but it wasn’t pleasant, so we went back up the creek with “As If”. Friday dawned clear and cool, so with a quick check of the forecast from Capt Pete, we headed for the Percy Islands, which are about 70nm south west of Mackay. 8hrs later we were dropping anchor in Blunt Bay and it looked pretty secure. By the time we had celebrated our success -firstly finding the place, and then having a seemingly peaceful anchorage - the tide started to bring a small swell into the back of the boat, which was pointing into the wind. The end result was that the captain couldn’t sleep, so the crew was woken up and on a night with a full moon, we headed for Mackay – about 10-12 hrs away. The original plan to stop at another island went out the window after 7nights on the boat. The crew wasn’t happy (must have been a bad oyster), but we arrived in Mackay after only 9+ hrs making great time (god bless Mr Diesel).

At last the weather is OK, with light winds and some sun – hopefully a promise of things to come. The boat remains solid and comfortable, with strangers commenting on its lines and looks and the crew wanting to cash in on the positive sentiment.