Yeppoon

Thursday 15^th June 2017

After a good nights sleep at the marina, it is another stunning day. As seems to be normal at the moment there was a reasonable breeze up until around 11am, when it dropped to light conditions.

One of our gas bottles ran out as we were making our coffee, so I took it up to the office to be refilled, and bought some nylon rope from the chandlery to make a new anchor chain snubber. The gas refill for a 2.5kg bottle was $24 !!!. I let them know I had never paid that much for a refill anywhere and at Southport it was $12. The guy on the desk was sympathetic and told me to email him with my feedback, so he could pass it on to management, which I did.

Whilst I was at the marina office I booked the marina courtesy car, for a 2 hour block from 12.30pm to 2.30 pm. It is a great service which is free and very necessary given the remoteness of the marina from the town of Yeppoon.

I wandered around to the next marina leg to see if anyone was onboard Kite Runner, a Hanse 430 that we met up with 2 years ago when we sailed up here. No-one was on board but the boat was open, and I ran into Phil Jobe, the owner, coming down the walkway as I was heading back to Mica . We both have plans for today and tonight so plan to catch up tomorrow afternoon. It sounds like their departure plans and hours coincide for leaving here on Saturday, so we may sail in company to Pearl Bay.

Kite Runner

Deciding to get all of the chores out of the way this morning, I then  put our jerry cans on the trolley and headed off to the nearby service station to get 40 litres of diesel for our back yup supply, whilst Carole did a bit of cleaning on the boat.

Marina Office Grounds

Prince Alfred Boats Novae (catamaran),  Isabella and Southern Belle (below)

We had an hour before our booking for the courtesy car, so walked around to the Keppel Bay Fisherman’s market to check out the local seafood. We ended up buying some frozen green tiger prawns, and may go back tomorrow to get some fish.

At 12.30pm, the courtesy car, a well used Barina, was perfect for our needs, a trip into Yeppoon to get some supplies. We went to Keppel Bay Plaza, where the first point of call was the pharmacy, so Carole could stock up on all products that stopped midges from biting, and other products to ease the itching when they did. It was then off to Coles Supermarket, mainly to get fresh fruit and vegetables.

On the way back to the marina, we stopped at the Keppel Bay Sailing Club on the beach for lunch. Service was a bit slow and it was a bit of a rush to get back to the marina within our 2 hour allotted time slot.

Tonight we had dinner with the Prince Alfred Yachts, Southern Belle, Novae, Isabella and a late arrival this afternoon, Jacks Back. Dinner was at the Waterline Restaurant at the marina, and was the official rendezvous dinner for this port. Good food and good company in a very nice setting.