Wednesday
After the uncomfortably rolly night we picked up anchor at 0700 and motored around to Fisherman’s Bay which was much better.
Great Keppel Island is a gorgeous island but the days of being a thriving holiday destination have passed. The once busy tourist resort now resembles a ghost town when compared to its former popularity.
The resort was bought by Sydney Tower Holdings in 2006 but then the developer closed its doors two years later. In 2012 the company had planned to turn the resort into a $600 million business including shops, a marina, golf courses, accommodation, and a casino. The company could not come to an agreement with the State Government regarding the casino licence so the development did not go ahead. Unfortunately, some parts of the site are derelict and remain an eyesore.
Making the most of the lovely weather we went for a walk along Fisherman’s Beach. We noticed a tinny that had been destroyed by fire just beyond the high tide mark on the beach. When speaking to the owner of a café he said that the accident happened 3 weeks ago. A father and his 13 year old daughter were in the tinny when the daughter started preparing dinner on the butane stove. Unfortunately, a momentary lapse in concentration by the father who was decanting fuel into the boats fuel tank caused the boat to catch fire. Thankfully both father and daughter escaped serious injuries although the daughter was flown to Brisbane hospital with burns to her legs.
We walked up the surrounding cliff and followed the path to Monkey Beach which has a great reef for snorkelling at low tide and then onto Long Beach and back via a lookout.
Thursday
The wind was predicted to fall to less than 10 knots so we made an executive decision to swap Georgie’s school day from Thursday to Saturday to make the most of a good day. At 0800 Mark and Georgie motored around in the dinghy to Monkey Beach, while Lucy and I took the walking track. We set up our beach shelter with chairs and sat back to enjoy the serenity. At 1000 hours two of the big tourist fast cats from Yeppoon arrived with school children from Ballina who were on a weeks camp with a stopover at Monkey Bay for a day. It was a great day for the kids with them splitting into 3 groups to go snorkelling, drifting in a glass bottom boat over the coral and beach combing. When the tide had dropped, we put on our wetsuits and joined the crowd snorkelling on the reef. It was a great day!
The wind was due to pick up to 25 knots from the south-east around midnight. We decided that we’d stay put in the hope that the fetch wasn’t too bad. But at 2130 the wind picked up from the south west and the fetch was causing Escapade to snatch at the anchor chain. Mark was concerned that the anchor could drag with the repeated motion, so we pulled up the anchor and motored back around to Svendsons Bay for rest of the night.
Friday
The forecast for the next 3 days was for strong winds and 3+ metre seas so we took the opportunity to motor across to Yeppoon and booked into the Keppel Bay Marina for a few days. Mark had organised for our internet router to be mailed to the Yeppoon Post Office and was ready to be collected.