Passage: Great Keppel Island to Gladstone

1st to 14th October, 2021
Great Keppel Island: Since we started sailing people always ask us what place we like best on the Queensland coast. That is an impossible question (like who is your favorite child) but Great Keppel Island is definitely in the Top 3. There are beaches on every side of the island – they are all beautiful with crystal clear water and shining white sand.

Yesterday when John and I arrived at Long Beach on Great Keppel we had a beach party invitation before the day was out. It’s a very social place. All the yachties love it. During our stay we met up with old and new friends at regular sundowner sessions and visited the resort a couple of times.

Early in our stay we found out that a concert we were going to in Brisbane later on in the year had been postponed due to Covid. This was great news as we were able to spend more time on and around the island.

John and I had a great week doing the usual stuff like eating exciting little creations created in our galley and lunch at the resort, a bit of outside boat work like scrubbing the waterline of marine growth and

watching the coming and goings in the bay. We got a little competitive playing backgammon and a little energetic taking some walks along the beach – Tallis really enjoyed this. The little fellow used to love Great Keppel as much as us - it’s a dog friendly place

Each beach on the island provides protection different winds. When you have to move to another beach due to changing winds it’s called “doing the Keppel Shuffle”. This time we only shuffled once after waking up to find 54 of the 60 boats had moved from Long to Fisherman’s Beach. It was a bit of a shock to see only 6 boats in the bay and sure enough we checked the weather report to find that a south easterly was expected.

The Visitors: We were very excited to hear that Fleur and Matt (the Landlubber) from Alice Springs were travelling through Yeppoon with

their new caravan and we would be able to catch up. We motored the 10nm to Keppel Bay Marina at Rosslyn Bay south of Yeppoon.

Fleur and Matt arrived in the afternoon ready to stay the night on the boat. We were a bit worried about Matt as he said he would probably get seasick even though we were tied up to a jetty. That night we ate at Beaches – the food there is always beautiful as they source their vegetables, fruit and meat from their own farm.

The following day we went and checked out the new caravan – very impressive – and then went on a sightseeing drive checking out Emu Park, Yeppoon, the old Iwasaki Resort and nearby Bangalee Beach. We lunched overlooking Causeway Lake and had a terrifying drive up a hill overlooking the bay (never let anyone know you are scared of heights).

Back at the marina we managed sunset drinks at the sailing club. Matt returned to his van alone after dinner. Fleur stayed with us as we were better company.

Our guests left the following day after a big beach walk, a swim and lunch at the Waterline restaurant. We were exhausted with all the activity (these young ones!) and went to bed really early.

Yeppoon to Gladstone: It was time to head south again so we left the marina and headed south to Graham Creek via The Narrows. It took around 6 hours to motor through the narrow channels between Curtis Island and the mainland. You have to time the tides to cross a really shallow spot where cattle cross at low tide. It's always a bit disconcerting to see how close the mangroves are to the channel.

We spent a day at Graham Creek waiting for some high winds to subside. At night you could see the glow from the gas flares at the Santos gas facility around the bend from where we were anchored. Tomorrow, we will sail past some of the mining infrastructure and book into the Gladstone Marina – our first time so looking forward to a new place to check out.

Next: Passage: Gladstone to Burnett Heads