A Last Minute Decision to Head Further North

Tuesday 9th June 2015

Hoping for a nice sunny day at Pancake Creek, and a nice sail to Yepoon tomorrow, the early morning check of the weather forecasts showed neither were likely. After a quick early morning call to Mark and Janet, we agreed that we should head North today, as the forecast was deteriorating. There was also a major exodus of boats from Pancake Creek this morning, suggesting they all had the same view.

It was 7.45 am before we had our anchors up and have decided that we will head for Great Keppel Island as an overnight anchorage, and the go on to Rosslyn Bay (Yeppoon) on Wednesday. It is still quite a long trip , around 64 nm, so will be 9 -10 hours, depending on the wind strength and direction.

We start out in about 12 knots  from the SE and both need to charge our batteries, so motor sail initially. We end up making such good time under low revs and mainsails extended in a wind almost dead behind us, that we motor sail all of the way, using very little diesel, and averaging 7.4 knots.

There were some exciting moments around Gladstone with a lot of commercial vessel movements. The AIS did a great job letting us know out relative position with regard to large ships heading in what seemed to be a collision course with us. A quick reference to their course and speed vs ours showed that we would cross them by several hundred metres before they reached us.

We cross the ship's line with plenty of room, Koonya is less sure and changes course to go behind

We continued to make good progress throughout the day and arrived at the anchorage at Great Keppel at just after 5pm, in daylight. We were astounded at the number of boats anchored here, presumably finding a place to sit out the next few days of strong winds and high seas.

Along the way we passed Cape Capricorn 

and Hummocky Island

It is not the best anchorage, as the SE swell comes around the corner of the island and there is a reasonable amount of rock and roll. However, it is reasonably protected from a heavy SE weather system.

Another great sunset

We plan to head across to the Rosslyn Bay Marina tomorrow and sit out the poor weather there.

Janet and Mark joined us on Mica tonight for a roast lamb dinner which was greatly appreciated by all, and I am sure we will all sleep well tonight.

The boat rolled all over the place all night as the wind howled throughout the evening. Not the best nights sleep so far.