Hanse 400e

Hanse 400e

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Keswick / St Bees Islands

Wednesday 16th September 2015

After a very restful night at Brampton, we awake to glassy seas and little to no wind. 


Wilparina anchored at sunrise at Brampton Island


As agreed we pulled up anchor at 8 am, to head off to our next destination, Keswick and St Bees Islands. Whilst the passage between Brampton and Carlisle Islands is not navigable, there is quite a deep passage between the islands of Keswick and St Bees. We aim to anchor/moor in that passage.


Koonya and Wilparina motoring to Keswick / St Bees in very light conditions


The wind never got to 10 knots and was mostly around 5 and we were heading straight into it. The distance we needed to cover was 14 nm, so we motored all the way and were there in just over 2 hours.


Connie Bay on the Northern tip of Keswick Island, just before the channel entrance


Wilparina motoring down Egremont Passage between Keswick and St Bees en route to Horsehoe Bay

There are 6 moorings at Horseshoe Bay on the Keswick side of  the passage that are apparently privately owned and can be rented for a fee.  We took up the 3 remaining moorings which were very hard to tie on to as most of the light rope pick up lines with floats were missing. Nevertheless we managed to get a rope onto the huge mooring lines and secured our boats. We were unable to contact the mooring owners, so will see what happens.

As we were here early, I decided to put a line in the water and see if we could get some fish. The fish were plentiful and mostly undersized, with the exception of one large fish that we could not identify and eventually let go. It was a good few hours entertainment and I landed over 20 fish.


Previously unidentified, I now know this is a Short Finned Batfish. It was around 450mm long and almost as high and very meaty, but are only average eating


When lunch was ready, I put the rod away. After lunch we put the dinghy in the water,  and motored across to a nice beach on St Bees Island for a swim negotiating the strong current through the passage on the way over and back.



Keswick is reasonably developed with around 20 houses, a small airstrip, and plans for a future marina. St Bees on the other hand, has less development, mainly concentrated in Homestead Bay.


Looking across the channel from St Bees towards the airstrip on Keswick


The girls on shore at St Bees


View to the Southern end of the Passage from St Bees


Back on our boats we had a shower and plan to eat on Wilparina tonight. It is Steve’s birthday, so a celebration is in order. Carole has baked a cake,  and a BBQ is planned.

A Nolex 25, trailer sailer “Top Shelf” arrived this afternoon and took up the last remaining mooring (vacated a little earlier). We invited them over to join us all for sundowners on Wilparina. They were a nice couple, Steve and Denise, off on a bit of an adventure through the Whitsundays, having put the boat in thewater at Mackay a few days ago.They have not had the boat long and are relatively new to sailing, so should be in for some interesting times.


The birthday dinner went down very well, as did the cake . 





Tomorrow we are off to Mackay and back into reliable internet service.

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