June 2021
With a week of good weather and perfect winds ahead we were ready to leave the Town of 1770 behind and set sail to the Keppel Island group. Having spent over a week in 1770 we were ready to leave and find some clear water to go snorkelling in. However the day we left we had two choices for tide, midday and midnight. The midnight tide was the higher of the two but would mean taking on the bar in the dark and due to the time of month there would also be no moon. So we made the decision, after watching the bar cam all morning, to leave on the midday tide. Leaving through the bar was a little nerve wrecking, we knew in theory that we had plenty of water and couldn’t see any breaking waves. But the waves were still large and standing as they rolled over the bar. This caused the depth sounder on occasion to drop to 2.5m when we descended into a trough which meant at times there would have been less then a meter below our keel. However we stressed for nothing with no problems and within 10 minutes had cleared the bar and were setting sail.
That day we had decided to only go as far as Pancake Creek which was just under 15nm away. For the first time in a while we had a day of perfect winds and so as soon as the bar was behind us the engine was turned off and we had a very peaceful sail to the anchorage in Pancake Creek. We dropped anchor around mid-afternoon off the first beach we came to which was about half a mile from the entrance of the river. Since we had arrived with a few hours of daylight to spare we decided to have a fish off the back deck to see if there was anything interesting in these waters hoping for better luck then we’d had at our last anchorage. To our complete surprise and utter delight we were getting bites as soon as the hooks touched the water. Although once again we didn’t catch anything of much interest pulling up small undersized Tuskfish, which we had to throw back, and bait sized Whiptails.
Unfortunately we didn’t hang around Pancake Creek long, weighing anchor at first light the following morning to continue on our way to Keppel Island. That day we were aiming for an anchorage behind Cape Capricorn, 43nm away. Once again we had the perfect wind and so as soon as we were clear of the river entrance, which thankfully wasn’t a bar, we were able to turn the engine off and sail downwind under a second reefed main and jib. That day we were flying along regularly seeing speeds above 5kts on the GPS, keeping pace with many other yachts and passing through a minefield of anchored cargo ships awaiting entrance into Gladstone. With such good speeds we made it into the anchorage at Cape Capricorn several hours early, dropping anchor an hour before the sun dipped below the horizon.
The anchorage off Cape Capricorn was quite beautiful however it offered little protection from the incoming swell meaning we had a very rolly nights sleep and were glad to be weighing anchor early the next morning. That day was set to be our last sail before reaching Keppel Island which was now only 30nm away. So wanting to be in early and sick of the rolly anchorage we left on sunrise aiming for Great Keppel Island however our run of perfect winds was set to end. That day we had dark overcast skies which all morning were threatening to rain at any moment. The oppressive nature of these clouds also meant that we were cursed with light and fluky winds meaning we spent a good portion of that trip motoring. However this worked in our favour as since the motor was going and providing ample power we were able to have the radar on. This was quite handy for seeing the approaching squalls as they lit the radar yellow as they approached from seaward. It was when we were about an hour away from the anchorage that we got caught in our first squall unable to avoid it as it went for miles in either direction and was tracking straight for us. Thankfully it only brought heavy rain and a slight increase of wind but on the downside it caused visibility to drop to less then a mile as the rain created a white out all around us. On the bright side when that passed we were greeted with the beautiful sight of Great Keppel Island emerging from the rain and lit up with sunshine. By now it was early afternoon and we were completely dripping wet from the rain squall so we decided to drop anchor at the first available spot we came to which happened to be off Fishermans Beach on the western side of the island. Unfortunately this was another rolly anchorage as the swell wrapped around the headland and caught us beam on.
The following day sick of the swell and set to get a wind change that afternoon we decided to weigh anchor and move to the northern side of the island. This involved motoring through the passage between Middle and Great Keppel Island and then passing the popular Leeke’s Beach. From there we decided to anchor off the seemingly quiet Second Beach which was where we stayed for the next three nights. The day we arrived we had amazing weather and clear skies so we were keen to get ashore and find some reef to snorkel on. However while scoping out the perfect spot to swim the weather turned cold and cloudy before we managed to find anything good. So instead of swimming we enjoyed a short walk ashore up the local mangrove creek and motored around the nearby headlands in our dingy. We were amazed by the amount of marine life we passed by including many stingrays big and small, a couple of turtles, a small reef shark and even possibly a couple of small manta rays.
On a second day anchored off Keppel Island we decided it was a good day to head ashore and attempt the walk up Mount Wyndham which towered over us at 175m tall. Leaving early in the morning with a packed lunch we headed off into the Keppel Island scrub. The track to Mount Wyndham was easy to follow as it was along an old 4WD road which thankfully had good signs at each of the intersections. It took us about an hour to reach the peak due to the several stops along the way to marvel at the amazing views. From the top of Mt Wyndham we could see all the way to Cape Capricorn and all the islands in between. We also had stunning views of all the hidden bays tucked away along the southern side of the island. Once at the peak we spent some time at the top enjoying morning tea and marvelling at the view. However eventually we had to leave and meandered our way down the other side of the mountain back to the beach were we had started from, passing an old homestead and a shy herd of wild goats along the way.
The following day we decided to have a day on the boat completing a few jobs and getting Allagai ready for sea. A few weeks ago we had broken one of the skegs off the bottom of our little hard dingy so the main job of the day was to get it fixed as since then we had been using the inflatable. Unfortunately it was one of those jobs that you start and it ends up uncovering many more along the way. So we ended up spending a couple of days giving the dingy a little much needed love, removing the flaky paint, bogging some dents and finally adding the new skeg.
It was on the second day we finally glued and screwed on the new skeg and decided while waiting for it to dry we would go ashore. We had heard that there was a nice snorkelling spot on the western side of the island off Shelving Beach. However that day the wind wasn’t optimal to take the Allagai around so instead we decided to pack the snorkelling gear into our bags and head ashore and walk to the spot.
It ended up being a nearly 4km walk and took us just under an hour to get there. But the walk was well worth it for the swim. The water was a beautiful blue colour and absolutely crystal clear giving us about 10m’s of visibility. The reef around Shelving Bay was full of fish swimming and hiding amongst the coral. We even saw a turtle nestled in the reef eating weed or algae off the top of some of the coral. We spent about an hour in the water before feeling the cold and deciding to come in. But once out the water we quickly warmed up, enjoying a hot cuppa on the beach before heading back to Allagai. Although instead of taking the trail inland over the hill back to our beach we decided to walk along the foreshore. This caused the walk back to the boat to be about a kilometre longer but was much easier then having to climb the hill and allowed us to see more of the island. This was set to be our last night on Keppel Island as the following day we had decided it was time to leave with the aim to reach Percy Island.
