LWH – Week 21 –Cape Upstart – Pancake Ck

Sat 24 Nov – Airlie Beach
20⁰15.031S / 148⁰45.006E
Left at the civilised hour of 5am in daylight! It was blowing quite hard as we came round the Cape. So rugged. Rocky cliffs straight into the ocean. The sea was a dark colour and it was overcast and a bit swelly. But as the day went on the sea settled and turned a lovely blue then went to green as we rounded Gloucester Island. Then we turned off the motor and had a lovely sail all the way down to Airlie Beach. It looked a lovely little town all built up the side of a mountain but so many boats. We could see lots of mooring buoys and it all looked so busy we opted to go next door to Funnel Bay and anchored there around 5.45pm. It was swelly at first but it settled through the night and we had a very comfortable sleep.
Miles: 69 TTT: 3,667

Sun 25 Nov – Scawfell Island
20⁰51.616S / 149⁰35.958E
It was lovely to hear all the birds chirping as we upanchored at 5.30am – a sleep in! We came round into the passage between The Molle Islands and the mainland. The sea was choppy as it was wind against tide but the current was with us so it was all good. The Whitsunday Islands are scrubby tree covered hills with the odd pine trees with beaches dotted here and there. They are not all white sandy beaches with palm trees – not tropical islands. Whitehaven Beach is a beautiful exception with the whitest sand beach you will see. Though some of the resorts have planted lots of palm trees, notably Daydream Island. But the Whitsundays is a pretty place and a great cruising ground. You can anchor off a beach and be on our own or anchor with heaps of other boats in the more popular anchorages. We came between the islands doing up to 7.5kn with the current. The water was turbulent. A sunsail charter boat played chicken with us this morning and then veered behind us at the last minute. He thought it was a huge joke. We were less than impressed. The wind came up and we were pushing in to it and were pleased when we came into Refuge Bay on Scawfell Island. There were six boats already in there. There was a bit of swell coming round and it was very windy. Its a very pretty bay and a turtle surfaced right beside us to welcome us!
Miles: 65 TTT: 3,732nm

Mon 26 Nov – Scawfell
20⁰51.826S / 149⁰35.971E
The wind was supposed to be blowing up today so we decided to stay. We then realised how much we needed a break! All the cats left and the other mono moved in closer and so did we so it is much calmer. There is reef here and it is a 4 metre tide. We watched as the people of one cat used their dinghy (obviously a bigger motor than ours) to tow someone on a water ski. Then they left towing the skier behind their cat till he fell in and then they picked him up and left. The skipper made some bread and the crew finished her book (The Quiet Game – Greg Iles – an excellent read). Cant get over how beautiful the colour of the water is. Before we moved we had the biggest bat fish out the back of the boat. We went ashore in the afternoon and had the beach to ourselves and walked the length of it. There are picnic tables, water tank and loo ashore and camping is allowed. As it turned out the weather looked perfect out there but we do need the rest. There are only the two boats in the entire bay and it is beautiful – so picturesque. The skipper got something huge on his fishing line and he played it for a while but then it bit him off.

Tues 27 Nov – Scawfell
It poured rain in the middle of the night so we got up to put the cockpit sides on and got soaked and just as we got them secure it stopped raining! We awoke to have the whole bay to ourselves. The other boat had gone. Parks & Wildlife came in in a boat and whippersnipped around the camp tables (wonder how many people actually camp to warrant the care). We took Bob around to the other beach and could see the tracks where turtles had gone ashore to lay their eggs – we counted 17 nests. Then a turtle came out of the water about 50 metres in front of us and started going up the beach. We though wow but then she saw us and turned around and went back into the water. We checked out the coral but it seemed to be dead. There was no colour there anyway and we didn’t see too many fish – we weren’t snorkelling, jut looking through the bathoscope. It is so beautiful in this bay. The water is a gorgeous colour. Four dolphins came in close to the boat and swam around. Wonderful to have time out. We hadn’t realised how tired we were. Another beautiful day.

Wed 28 Nov – night sail
We left at 6am and decided to come around the outside of the island to get a better angle of the wind instead of the lee of the island. Always do the latter!! We found ourselves in huge waves as we came around the point – it was like being in a storm without the storm! Lasted over half an hour till we got away from the influence of the island then it settled but there was still a big swell out there. We hadn’t been looking forward to this section of the journey as there are strong currents and big tides courtesy of Shoalwater Bay and Broad Sound where they have tides of up to 8 metres and thats a lot of water to move in and out during the tides. We got to the Percy Islands around 6pm and decided to go through the night. We really wanted this one out of the way. It was pretty rough with wind against tide for a while. At one stage the skipper had to go 25⁰ off course to keep us on course – the current was pushing us. But we had the biggest full moon and we could see everything which was great. We both had to put our jumpers on. We are finding it a big cool (Axel and Elisabeth will think thats pretty funny!)

Thurs 29 Nov – Cape Capricorn
23⁰29.077S / 151⁰13.835E
Its a lovely sunny day as we continue down the coast but there is a big swell out here. We keep trying to get south to get the lighter northerly winds but the further south we go the further south the light northerlies seem to go! Passing the Kepple Islands the seas have settled and its quite pleasant. Lotsa coral spawn in the water – streaks of baby poo yellow! Anchored off lovely Cape Capricorn at 4.30pm. We anchored right in the little bay and had a bit of swell coming round the Cape but we were held stern to it so that was ok but a bigger yacht anchored a bit further out and rolled all over the place and he disappeared a bit later in the evening. We had quite a good night.
Miles: 186 TTT: 3,918

Fri 30 Nov – Pancake Creek
24⁰00.556S / 151⁰44.242E
We left at 5.30am and motor sailed in the sunshine on calm seas. We could see on the AIS that there were around 53 boats in Gladstone Harbour and 27 anchored outside. Thats an amazing number of boats. Had a pleasant run down to Pancake Creek. The wind was starting to get a little stronger when we pulled in and anchored off the little beach at 2pm. We didn’t go all the way in as we want an early start in the morning. Its very calm here and we can see the waves breaking on the sandbar out the front. It was interesting to see the sandbar at low tide as we gave it a nudge and had to reverse off last time we were in here. Well we saw Pancake Creek at spring lows and could see all the sand spits and rocks and then the tide comes in and it all looks so innocent! A big catamaran came in in the dark and anchored behind us. A lovely calm night.
Miles: 44 TTT: 3,962

Well we are going like the clappers to try to get home but at this point in time we are anchored off the Kingfisher Resort at Fraser Island in strong winds which look like blowing for a good part of the week so instead of being home on Wednesday (!) we will be hunkered down here till this weather blows itself out. Disappointing but there you have it and the Great Sandy Straits is probably a good place to get stuck.

Miss you all – cant wait.

Love
Dell and Peter