Wednesday
After a rolly night at anchor at Great Keppel Island we departed at 0700 with a south easterly wind of 10-15 knots and a 0.5 metre swell and 0.5 metre sea. It was an overcast day with wind and rain squalls passing over us intermittently. At one stage a squall hit with a 180 degree wind shift causing the genoa to back forcing Escapade to turn 90 degrees in an instant. We quickly altered course downwind, furled in the genoa and then reset the genoa once the wind settled down again. As we neared Island Head Creek the sea became confused, it was a rough ride into the entrance of the creek.
Georgie had admitted defeat on trying to handle her sea sickness without taking some sort of medication. While we were at Yeppoon we spoke to a pharmacist who suggested that we try Phenergan. Abbey on SV-2getherII who was also prone to sea sickness suggested Scopolamine cream that you rub behind an ear. The cream was used and recommended by competitive sailors from the Sydney to Hobart Yacht race. First up we tried the Phenergan which worked a treat and Georgie had a successful trip.
We arrived at 1530 and anchored alongside 10 other vessels inside the creek.
Thursday
Since we began our adventure on December 26th, 2020 we have been keeping a lookout for the perfect anchorage. We have 10 pre-requisites for this mythical location: –
- Secure all weather anchorage
- Sandy beach
- Calm anchorage
- Warm water (20+ degrees)
- Clear water (5+ metres)
- Reef with colourful coral and fish
- Dog friendly
- Good fishing
- Walking Tracks
- Internet coverage
To date we have been privileged to find some truly gorgeous locations, but none that have ticked all boxes…yet.
Early in the afternoon, Mark was fishing, Georgie was reading, and I was making some bread when we heard a call on channel 16 that a yacht had run aground coming into the creek. After a few minutes no one else had replied so Mark made a call to assist. Mark and Georgie motored up to the grounded yacht in the dinghy. It was a 50-foot monohull with a 3 metre keel. The owner invited Mark and Georgie onboard. Mark using his IPad and the Navionics App was able to show the owner where he had missed the channel. The tide was on the way up, but the owner was pretty keen to get off straight away if possible so he asked his daughter (in her 20’s) to climb out on the boom while Mark used the tender and spinnaker halyard to heel the yacht over enabling it to gently motor off the sand bank. The owner took the vessel back out to the entrance of the channel and using Mark’s IPad navigated safely into the creek. Good deed for the day!
Friday
It was a warm day with no wind. Taking advantage of the calm conditions we took the drone ashore to get some photos of the anchorage.
Island Head creek was a lovely anchorage but there was no mobile/internet coverage. This made it difficult when submitting Georgie’s school work, getting weather reports and checking emails, text and phone messages. At each anchorage you usually come across someone who knows if there is a particular spot (a Telstra rock or seat) where you may be able to get reception. At Island Head Creek we had to take a 5 minute dinghy ride to the beach and then a scramble up a rocky outcrop to a specific rock painted with a big white X where, if you were lucky, you might get 1 bar of 3G reception. It was amusing to watch as fellow cruisers would go to the allocated spot and then stand like the statue of liberty trying to get reception.
At 1600 each afternoon, everyone (including their dogs) would congregate on the beach, light a fire and catch up on daily activities, weather, sailing stories and future destinations. It was a great way to get to know people and have social interaction. Georgie wanted to take some potatoes and damper to cook on the fire, so she set about preparing the food on her own. She par-boiled the potatoes then scooped the centre out placing the spoonful in a separate bowl where she added butter, spring onions, salt & pepper and cheese, she mixed all the ingredients together and placed a spoonful back into the centre of each potato, wrapped them in alfoil. We also had desert as she made damper and placed a spoonful in pieces of aluminium foil ready to be cooked on the coals and eaten with butter and jam. Both recipes came from her cooking class at school from last year.
Saturday
Whilst scanning the shoreline with the binoculars Mark noticed what looked like a turtle on the shore. So we all jumped in the dinghy and went over to investigate. We were in for a rude surprise as the turtle was on the mud flats which meant trudging through knee deep mud. We managed to get close enough to see that it was still alive and able to move its legs, but we could not help him get back into the water as the added weight would have made us sink further into the mud. We left the turtle in peace and hoped that when the tide came up it would get itself off again. We checked later in the day and it had gone YAY!
Sunday
A number of boats left the anchorage today, but we decided to hold out for the better weather that was forecast for tomorrow. This would mean that when we arrived at our next anchorage that did not offer a lot of wind protection, we would not be rolling.
There were a few of us that planned to leave tomorrow so we decided to have a BBQ which would be a late lunch, early dinner on the beach.