After a busy year, Rob and I finally took some time out to enjoy some time on Cloudy Bay, our catamaran. After years of power boating in Canada, I never imagined we would become sailors, but after a few trips out with friends on their boats, I fell in love with the peacefulness of it. Here’s just a little taste of what it’s like.
Rob brought Cloudy Bay home from the Gold Coast in early November but we’ve mostly just been spending a night or two on her at a time, and often those short trips had a specific purpose (i.e., fixing, cleaning, or improving things). So we decided to set aside a decent chunk of time and really settle in and get comfortable. Rob has been sailing a few years now, but it is all still very new to me, so three or so weeks of cruising seemed a great opportunity for learning.
We spent the first two days at Long Beach at Great Keppel Island (or Woppa Woppa which is its traditional name), one of the many islands just off the coast of Yeppoon. We had a gorgeous sail with beautiful blue skies, perfect winds, and fairly calm seas. Rob is keen to see me comfortable at the helm and reading all the gauges so I took over the captain’s chair on the way over while he managed the sails. After all that concentration, I was happy to enjoy a bit of champagne when we arrived to celebrate the first day of vacation.
We spent the first evening enjoying some dinner with our friends, Vicki and Anthony, who also have a catamaran. They headed back home to Yeppoon in morning while we spent another perfect day at the island. I started my day enjoying a glorious sunrise (which Rob of course didn’t see), followed by a morning coffee on the deck with a book, and then some paddle boarding. The water was calm enough I even managed to stand up on the board (without falling in!). It was a super relaxing day!
The next day we started our trek north with a full day sail (about 50 nautical miles) to a place called Pearl Bay. It was another beautiful day for sailing with a gorgeous sunset to finish off the evening.
Pearl Bay is quite large and surrounded by tree lined hills. The hills are really high which help break the wind so it makes it a nice spot to anchor. The bay is part of the Shoalwater Bay training area for the military so at certain times of the year, it is not possible to anchor there and no matter what time of year, you can’t go beyond the beach into the trees when you go to land. The beach is massive so Rob and I would take the tender to shore for a nice long walk most days. On other days, I would paddle across and walk on my own.
We had initially planned to stay just 2 or 3 nights at Pearl Bay but there was big blow (high winds) predicted so we decided to just stay put an extra day or so because we were good and protected there. It was such a pretty spot, I didn’t mind the extra time there at all. I busied myself making a flower arrangement for our lounge, complete with shells from the beach for the vase.
We also kept busy enjoying all the marine life. The one afternoon, we noticed whales outside the entrance to the Bay, breaching and slapping their tales. They were pretty far away but the cool part was the noise. We’d see one of them breach, and then a few seconds later, we’d hear a low, loud ‘poof’ as the sound finally reached us.
As we moved into sunset each evening, there was also heaps of little fish leaping for their lives across the surface of the water. They were everywhere! Rob got a few really cool shots of the circling hawks swooping down to grab a meal. The bay also had plenty of turtles and heaps of dugongs. Dugongs are quite similar to manatees and feed off the sea grass (there was lots in the bay). We didn’t manage a decent picture of any, but enjoyed watching them travel through the Bay each day.
After a few perfect days at Pearl Bay, we set out for the Dukes, a group of three private islands, complete with a small airport and a huge cattle station. The skies were dark and gloomy when we left and the rain eventually meant pulling out the windbreakers, but after the rain passed, we were treated to an incredible rainbow. For the first time in my life, I saw a full rainbow, with each end entering the sea beside us. It was too close for me to get a picture of the full thing, but I still took a picture of each side. The colours were super vibrant and there was even a second, slightly less visible rainbow, right above it. So cool! Sadly, there was no pot of gold so I won’t be retiring to a life on the water quite yet!
After a few hours, the skies cleared and we pulled into the Dukes under perfect conditions. We dropped anchor at Hunter Island and unlike Pearl Bay, it was pretty wide open there so you truly felt like you were in the middle of the sea. We didn’t see much sea life there but enjoyed beautiful sunsets both nights.
We caught a few cool pics of the moon while at Hunter too. In the first picture, the bright star next to the moon is actually Venus.
After two nights at Hunter, it was time to move on. Our next stop was Percy Islands which are about 130km off the coast of MacKay, so pretty remote. It was a perfect sail across, complete with whale sightings which made me super happy.
We stayed in West Bay at Middle Percy and it ended up being our favourite spot of the trip. West Bay is known for an old A-frame, nicknamed the Percy Yacht Club. Here’s what it looks like from the outside.
In addition to the A-frame, there is a tree house and also the main house where the different caretakers of the island stay. The caretakers are volunteers who not only keep up the A-frame and homes, but also manage the gardens, goats, and even make honey. The island is truly in the middle of nowhere so other than getting supplies from time to time from someone coming from the mainland, they need to be as self sufficient as possible.
The A-frame has been around since the early 60s and since that time, people have been filling the A-frame up with signs for their boat, often adding more years to the sign for each return visit. Rob had grabbed a piece of wood just before leaving home and spent time while we waited out the winds in Pearl Bay crafting our sign for Cloudy Bay.
On the day we arrived, we spotted a makeshift cabana from the boat which looked like a great spot to sit…so great in fact, it seemed like the spot was in use for hours. Well, it turns out, what we thought were people were actually car seats, so we decided to enjoy a picnic with a view for a few hours one day.
The evenings at Middle Percy were also incredible with some pretty glorious sunsets. They just seemed to go on forever! And once the sun went down, we had a clear view of the moon and Venus. As the moon moved closer to the horizon, it would become more and more red. I wasn’t able to get a picture, but on one of the nights, it was a Cheshire moon with the points of the crescent pointing upwards. For a few moments, as it dipped down to the horizon, only the points were visible. I’ve never seen that before so I was quite fascinated.
After four or so days at Middle Percy, it was time to start making our way back south with a return trip to Hunter Island. The water was super calm on the way there so I spent most of trip on the front deck just enjoying the sights along the way. When we arrived, I made sure to fit in a paddle before the sun started to set. Shortly after, our friends Phil and Doiya arrived. They were in the area and heading south after seven weeks of cruising so they met up with us at Hunter and we enjoyed a sunset, dinner, and lots of laughs on Cloudy Bay for the evening.
The next day was another glass out so we ended up motor sailing to our next destination, Delcomyn island, alongside Phil and Doiya. Having the right winds to be able to anchor at Delcomyn is pretty rare so I’m glad we got to experience it. It’s just a small cove surrounded with high rock walls so you are able to hear to water crashing against the rocks all night – so peaceful! The only downside is that the way the water travels through Delcomyn means rubbish gets trapped on the beach, and since it’s pretty isolated and not that well known, there haven’t been enough clean up efforts there to clear it.
The next day Phil and Doiya were heading back home to Yeppoon. We had initially thought we would wait another day or two before starting the trek back, but the winds were going the right direction so we decided to travel alongside them while we could travel under sail. We were definitely not the only ones and felt a bit like we were being followed when we looked behind us and saw the trail of boats also making their way south.
After a full day of sailing, Rob and I ended up at North Keppel which is just off the coast of Yeppoon. I’d never been to that island so it was nice to experience it. On one of the mornings, we went for a walk on the beach, and saw heaps of sting rays cruising through the clear shallows and trying to burrow their way in the sand to hide themselves. We tried to get a picture but it just didn’t capture how clearly we could see them and how many there were around us.
After two days at North Keppel, we headed back across Great Keppel so we could tuck in to a familiar location before the winds picked up again. Rob had to put a jumper on for the first time during our trip as the storm came in. We were lucky overall with the weather across the whole trip so we really couldn’t complain about a bit of stormy weather in the final day or two. The contrasting colours of the stormy skies and turquoise waters were actually a bit mesmerising.
After just over three weeks, it was time for us to head for home and back to the mainland. Across the 3 weeks, we covered 255 nautical miles (You can see our journey in the little video Rob made below). The time went by way too fast! Fortunately, the Keppels are close so we can get some sailing in a few times a month, but I am already counting down to our next cruising adventure where we can completely unplug from the world for weeks at time.