By Fi
Rosslyn Bay is a few kilometres south of Yeppoon and offered us a week of yummy coffees from the marina cafe, big dog beach walks, swimming paddle boarding and a free courtesy car to use so we could provision for our next adventure. We also took some time to knock off a couple of jobs, such as winch maintenance, preventer setup, and general cleaning. After a week of this (plus a massage) we both felt ready to get back out there and see some more of our beautiful country. So with a fully stocked up boat, we tracked direct for Great Keppel Island.
We left at high tide one sunny morning, as we realised there was the distinct possibility of us touching the bottom leaving the marina, as at low tide in our marina berth, our keel was about 50cm in the sand. Great Keppel is only a 2 hour sail east from Rosslyn Bay, however as the wind was on the nose (again) we were close hauled, heeled over, and tacking over there. Monitoring a few of the shoals in the bay outside of the marina, we eventually reached the pass between Myall Island and Middle Keppel Island, again tacking our way through this pass and looking at our targeted anchorage coming closer and closer.
Reading the cruising guides, and having a good understanding of the weather forecast for the next few days (and also hearing from some friends) we elected to sail to the anchorage on Great Keppel called Leekes Beach. It was gorgeous. When we got there the water seemed so shallow because it is crystal clear and so it was a little disconcerting choosing where to anchor. As it were, we had a good 5-6m under us and anchored happily. We are the second boat from the left and most often the smallest boat in the anchorage.
It wasn’t long before our friends stopped by and invited us to play finska on the beach! Its a fun game not unlike a cross between bowling and boules. We watched the sun set whilst playing and having a few sundowners, and Bernie was able to run around and make everyone laugh. He made a new friend called Mouse.
The next day we were keen to get back to the beach to go for a proper explore, so out came the paddleboards and the three of us paddled over to the beach. I was stunned at the clarity of the water and spent a good time floating around and trying to coax the dog in to join me. We wandered up the beach and Bernie was busy at the high tide line eating… something… After a few hours of this, and some sandwiches and beers (for us), we headed back to the boat and grabbed the dingy for a bit of a blurt up to a creek we found. We managed to weave our way into the creek and discovered and old shearing shed, tonnes of stingrays and crabs, heaps of fish and the salt flats which were just inland from our anchorage.
Our friends had left for another anchorage so we had family dinner on Addictive and a good sleep – AFTER cleaning up Bernie’s projectile vomit! The holding in this anchorage is great, in hard sand, and the weather forecast was good, so we did actually manage some sleep.
More walks and adventures were to be had the next day! We knew the old resort was on the west side of the island (do you remember ‘”Get wrecked on Keppel?”) so we walked down the beach towards the headland that looked down the west side. It certainly looked a little less rolly than we were experiencing, but alas likely too shallow so we decided to stay put for another night. It was about then we saw our friends on Bushytales coming back around the island. As we walked back, we saw they had chosen to anchor at Svenson’s beach which is the cove a little further east from where we were. We saw a few more people move there too, and soon had a message saying it was a lot less rolly. We decided to go back to Addictive and pack a few things to move. It was at this point Adrian had the idea to maybe catch some fish for dinner, so I rigged the handline, popped on some old leftover fish and boom, 4 excellent sized whiting for our dinner later!
We upped anchor after that, and headed over towards Svensen’s beach and found a good spot right on the 2m contour on the chart. Perfect. Sundowners on Bushytales were had, and after a far less rolly night, and more blissful sleep, the next day we were ferried back to Bushytales for an adventure to the resort! Here is Adrian on our walk around the headland right before we decided to up anchor. Look how crystal clear the water is!
The resort really had its hey day in the 80s and 90s, and now is left in ruin as you can see here (cyclone fences and “Keep Out” signs abound). We had a little look around, and it was a little sad to see the broken windows and filled in pool. There are still shops and cafes on the island, so we enjoyed some coffee, before heading out in the dingy to do some snorkelling. There is a green zone just off the beach, so we saw heaps of sting rays and really healthy sized fish which was really good to see. The snorkelling certainly got our appetite going, and burgers and beer were on the menu, before heading back to the anchorage where we were happy to see Addictive still swinging in the breeze.
There is a picnic area at Svenson’s beach which is maintained by yachties that visit, and when we returned from our resort adventures, we noticed about 10 dingys there and a right party going on. We decided that we had had enough excitement for the day, however, and got ferried back to Addictive. We also had to start the pack up as we were planning to leave the next day. The boat in the picture is our dear friends on Bushytales who took us out for such an awesome day!
I REALLY didn’t want to leave Keppel. The dog is allowed to run around, the water is warm and clear, the sun was out, I was swimming and snorkelling and paddle boarding, we had friends there and I had found a couple of coconuts, plus caught some fish. I wanted to stay longer, but we had already stayed slightly longer than we planned, and we knew that the next night the wind was going to pick up and cause everything out there to be very uncomfortable.
So the following day, after a relaxing morning, we headed back down wind towards Rossyln bay again and our booked berth at the marina. It was a rolly sail, but downwind this time which was nice. The wind did indeed pickup over the next couple of days (even now its still a little hectic) with the Rossyln Bay monitoring station clocking 26 knots. We also have some other friends who arrived and said they were out at Keppel in it and it was horrible. So we were pretty happy with our decision. See – we’re learning!!! Here’s Bernie happily pooped at the dog beach near the Rosslyn Bay marina.
So whats the plan from here? Well we don’t want to just stay at the marina, even though I got to make friends with this turtle. However, the winds and tides to go north aren’t conducive to comfortable nights on anchor at the next set of islands, although we would definitely have good sailing weather to get there. So rather than sail north, and potentially have rolly, scary, windy and BIG tidal anchorages to contend with for a week, we’ve decided we’ll go see if we can retrieve my lost heart from Great Keppel Island for a few days, then head up further north.
