Yeppoon - Gladstone 3/11 - 11/11

The leafy gardens surrounding the Keppel Bay Marina .

Our time at the friendly Keppel Bay Marina started on a high note. We had arrived from Great Keppel Island with sumptuous timing, considering the wind and rain forecast for the next day was some hours away, leaving balmy conditions outdoor for the Barbecue – Bistro put on for marine souls good and true, compliments of the management. News of the event had spread, however and the catering for the event was stretched to the limit, with a few participants, we felt, having thin links to the sea! We had a fine night, in particular re-connecting with Paul and Cathy off Jemima, and their friends Steve and Dulcie. Paul was facing difficult times, having to leave the next day with bereavement in the family, but Cathy was a beacon of effervescence, with a smile to light up the night. Dulcie, also from PNG had recently arrived in Australia with Steve, having met whilst he was on managerial duties in Port Moresby. With good food and warmth of company, it was one of those times when it got late quickly.

After a washout the following day when an inch of rain fell on the Marina, Friday dawned clearer and Brian the mechanic was on, board early to complete the 50hr service on the new motor, including an alignment of the drive shaft. Brian obviously knows his spanners, and ultimately we found out that at $110 per hour, his professional services come at some cost! A brain surgeon would have been cheaper, muttered one of our crew!

The friendly Capricorn Coast Cruising Club

Keppel Bay Marina provides an excellent service where marina clients can book a courtesy car for a couple of hours to head for nearby Yeppoon for reprovisioning. Cathy joined us on this jaunt and it was great to spend some more time with her. She has been in Australia for many years, and her trip back to PNG with David was the first time that she had re-connected with family for a very long time. Later, courtesy of Cathy, we had a look at Jemima, an Oceanic ’46 with excellent pedigree. Back on board, the latest weather suggested that the SE might soften in the morning enough for us to make a dash to Hummocky Island some 20nm away. Sue and Tremain off Kool Sid had praised this anchorage which sits on a twin “hummocky” island just a few miles north of the better known Cape Capricorn. As Hummocky would be a new stopover for us, we thought that it was worth investigating. From Yeppoon, craft like ours making south can take the seaward passage to Hummocky and then to Cape Capricorn just beyond, before making across the broad approach to the port of Gladstone with Bustard Head, the Town of 1770, and ultimately, to Bundaberg on Hervey Bay. There is another and unique alternative to the “Cape Cap” route, involving negotiating the sheltered waterway known as “the Narrows”, and when the wind is hard from the SE, this route grows in its attractiveness.

A disappointing retreat from Hummocky Island.

Our passage to Hummocky the next day started promisingly, but became harder as we went as the Sou-Easter piped in, smack on our bow. Closing on the anchorage in the early afternoon with another yacht ahead, we noticed a tidal rip with standing waves sweeping through the bay where we would want to anchor so the effort to get to Hummocky Island was clearly wasted, and the wind swept seas ahead to Cape Capricorn looked equally untenable. Our original plan was to head for The Narrows to the west, after a night stopover at Hummocky, but now with Hummocky a scratching, we had time to bear away and make for the legendary Narrows, prior to sunset.

The mangove lined waterway .. "The Narrows"

The “Narrows” is a thin tidal waterway separating Curtis Island from the mainland, with the opening to the south leading to the industrial port of Gladstone, and the northern exit leading to Yeppoon. Being some 25nm by12nm in size, Curtis Island is a large chunk of land nestling along the Qld coast, with the probing finger of Cape Capricorn spearing into the Capricorn Channel in the east. Lined with mangroves for its greater part, waters from both “ends” meet at the legendary Cattle Crossing, which dries at low tide permitting, for a time, the passage of bovines to and from the pastures on Curtis, whilst at high tide there is sufficient depth for a keelboat such as ours to scrape through, provided all of the crew breathe in! This is the first time that we have plied a waterway that is shared, alternately, with ruminate quadrupeds! From colonial times local users of this waterway have adroitly worked the tides to further both their marine and landed needs, although for newcomers like us, the benefits of the passage came with the fear of a stranding on a falling tide, and a longer than planned stay in the vicinity! Detailed tidal information, advice in cruising guides, and the benefits of on-board chart-plotter technology, gave us a pinch of confidence in planning this passage, although lingering concerns about the waterway would last until we were “through”.

The muddy waters on approach to the Narrows.

In an hour or two from Hummocky Island, we had closed the entrance to The Narrows at Sea Hill Point on Keppel Bay, but long before this we were aware that we were entering a very different environment indeed. Nearing this point, the sea had turned a clay colour, reminding us of our first broad water foray in our first yacht, the wonderful 26’ “trailerable” Crystal Voyager. We had sailed from Goolwa near the mouth of the Murray, and on entering Lake Alexandrina abeam of Point Sturt the lake horizon ahead met the azure of a summer sky in an unbroken line. It was our first open-water navigation challenge, and we fondly recall how first the trees on Nalpa Station became evident and the chiselled shape of Pomanda Island at the entrance to the Murray, confirmed that we were on course. This voyage probably sowed the seeds of our current odyssey and in the cockpit of Calista we recalled with great fondness weekends where we would sail the 40nm to Wellington across Lake Alexandrina, dine at the local Pub, and make our way home to the Goolwa Regatta Yacht Club on the Sunday. At the time we had no idea what we were getting ourselves in to. Now, the low form of Curtis Island to port, and the dun colour of the water, from the mighty Fitzroy River that exits nearby, reminded us uncannily of the Lower Lakes in SA. At sea there is ample time for reflection.

Could this be Lake Alexandrina?!

Our plan for traversing The Narrows, involved us entering the Keppel Bay end, heading up the waterway for a few miles and anchoring overnight in Badger Creek, before making for the Cattle Crossing on the rising morning tide. With a tide nearing 4 metres in the offing, and us drawing under 1.8m, we felt it would be ok to get through. Settling in Badger Creek in late afternoon in a tranquil mangrove lined setting, had us contemplating “sundowners” in the back cockpit until squadrons of mosquitos honed in on us, driving us below. Cookie has been a match for these airborne fiends, as before leaving home she had constructed flexible flyscreens for our main hatch and our main cabin hatch, above, out of screen cloth and the clever use of marine lead rope. In Badger Creek, these wonderfully creative devices earned their keep, and the “mozzies” had met their match.

Another magic sunset... Badger Creek.

Next day our plan involved making for the Cattle Crossing with an hour or so of rising tide to run, using the navigation leads and markers to guide us through. When the iconic cattle yards drew abeam we had 1.8 feet under our keel, and soon, with the passage broadening, we were through. In no time at all, it seemed, the outline of huge ships at wharves ahead, and the towers and gantries of port infrastructure, confirmed that we had reached Gladstone. Our passage through The Narrows, apart from delivering us from a beating off Cape Capricorn, had been a fascinating interlude, so different from all of the other experiences on our journey. As a postscript, we hear that with the discovery of Natural Gas on Curtis Island, a bridge across the Cattle Crossing may be in the offing, and if this eventuates, passage by yachts like Calista may become a thing of the past. We are so glad that we experienced The Narrows, this time around.

The Cattle Crossing with water!

Safely through negotiating the maze of beacons.

There were a number of good things about being in Gladstone, apart from gaining shelter from the Sou-Easters that would not go away! For one, at under $30/night, a pen at the Gladstone Marina, was the most economical that we have found on the coast. Then after lengthy negotiations with underwriters, came the email news that almost all of the cost of installing the new motor would be met by the insurers. This was welcome news because in order to leave Townsville, with a new motor below, we had been forced to finance the total installation plus costs (over $25,000), ourselves. We simply could not wait for the insurance process to undertake its unknown period of gestation. With the great help of Rosshaven Marine, and a pinch of subterfuge, we were done, dusted, and on our way, with the insurers believing that the motor was still in a box in the workshop. Now the ordeal was over and the money was in the bank. The other thing about being in Gladstone was the opportunity to investigate another destination, because we have found all ports to be different and the sense of land based “discovery” has added greatly to our seaborne experiences.

Enroute to the Gladstone Marine past busy shipping wharves.

Ashore, however, we found that downtown Gladstone had not much to offer. A new shopping precinct on the outskirts seems to have sapped lifeblood from Gladstone Central, and although we had looked forward to a meal and convivialities at the Gladstone Yacht Club, we found that as in some other prime locations, a club leasing a prime vantage point to a restaurateur results in elevated, white napkin prices, beyond the expectation of cruisers. The other annoying trait is that of a price of a main course being inflated, if you enjoy a salad, and maybe a sauce to embellish your meal. With free press button barbecues in a fine marina-side setting, and excellent fish available at the local co-operative, we left the Yacht Club minus our patronage.

The local chef cooked up a storm....wouldn't get food like that at the Yacht Club !

Great restaurant with garden and water views!

With the ever nagging Sou-Easter still bearing its teeth, a layup of a few days was inevitable, so we hired a car in order to head for the nearby locations of 1770, and Agnes Waters, and the much anticipated prospect of making it to Bundaberg to see our wonderful friends Audrey and Fred Green. With the weather being so uncertain, we were not sure if a stopover in Bundaberg would be possible, and we were so keen to see Audrey and Fred before heading south.

Our racey hire car.

If downtown Gladstone was a disappointment, then the twin locales of 1770, and Agnes Waters, just south of Bustard Head, were an absolute highlight. Good friend from home Mary-Alice Ballantine, having a charming “Queenslander” set in wooded acreage just out of 1770, had long extolled the virtues of the region, and once we were there we could see how easy it would be to come under its spell. “MA” was right! What at a delight the locale is, with its natural setting of wilderness and waterways being complimented by the first surf to be seen on the coast south of the Barrier Reef. We could have easily spent days, not just hours here, and our impression was not dimmed by the showers that had come in with the Sou-Easters.

Mary-Alices' beautiful Queenslander on 40 acres of scrub. It's for sale so let us know if you're interested.

At last a surf beach... pity it was so wet & cloudy.

Heading south to Bundaberg added another dimension to our day with Audrey and Fred being so welcoming and us being so keen to hear of their reminiscences of their voyages in Coorong around Australia, and around the world. Hearing of our motor-less journey across the Coral Sea saw Fred smile wistfully and share that when he had embarked on his solo voyage from Fremantle to South Africa, he had discovered that his motor was defunct, just one day out into the Indian Ocean. He made landfall across the ocean and somehow found his way into ports under sail alone. His remarkable story again had us putting our own experience in perspective.

Fred in his studio with his great water colour of the Coorong.

Then when we asked about traversing the notorious Wide Bay Bar, that we would soon face in Calista, Fred and Audrey shared an experience in Coorong when with winds and seas in turmoil they faced the bar from outside, following a hard slog up the East Coast. They simply had to get into shelter behind Fraser Island and Fred resolved to use his immense skill as a surf-boat “sweep”, and his innate ability to “read” surf to find a way through the maelstrom. With Audrey sent below and the washboards in (Fred believed that if Coorong was upended in the surf, he had built her with the strength needed to wash Audrey, and yacht ashore!), and himself stripped to surf-boat attire (he reasoned that, if necessary, he could swim in through the surf like he had done in big seas off the Goolwa coast), he examined the backs of the breaking waves to pick the best way in. Then with Coorong in a new guise as a 34’ surfboat, he picked his moment and plunged on through the roaring surf to safety. Just like that! Ashore they discovered that the “Bar” was “closed” due to the conditions; closed that is to all bar the remarkable Fred and Audrey Green. There was much to think about as we made our way back to Gladstone to plan our next leg, heading south in the direction of Fraser Island and the Wide Bay Bar. We had decided to get away early the next day to take advantage of the morning tide.

Auckland Creek .. The Gladstone Marine entrance is at top left.