The Keppels

30th May to 6 June, 2021

Seven days after leaving Burnett Heads John and I arrived at Keppel Bay Marina at Rosslyn Bay, south of Yeppoon. We left Pacific Creek early, around mid-tide still shallow but deep enough to cross the shallow entrance. The walk to the marina office was a bit disturbing as we had to walk past a sunken yacht, mast only out of the water. As usual we got a berth a six-pack away from the ramp to the shore – at least it’s private. We hadn’t spoken to anyone else for six days so why start now.

We did the usual, washing, rubbish, shower and booked lunch into the marina restaurant. The following day we re-provisioned and cleaned the boat. We swapped the jammers through which the jib sheet and halyard ran. That should make life easier. The weather was dreary, overcast with scattered showers. We caught up on paperwork and invoice Seawind for works done. We walked Tallis around the marina precinct.

The food at Waterline, the marina restaurant was excellent as usual and the service was abysmal, also as usual. I think this time they exceeded themselves – five to 20 minutes between menu, water, drink and meal order, drink receipt, getting meal. They even asked us to pay before we finished the meal as the restaurant should be closed! I love a slow meal but this was ridiculous.

Once the sun came out we walked to the fish cooperative and bought some beautiful prawns for lunch. A sea eagle has set up a huge nest on top of one of the lights in the car park.

Back on the boat we watched some sort of emergency unfold two ambulances, one chopper, one police car. Then we saw three different boats pull up at the jetty and from what we could hear on the VHS radio there were three separate emergencies – a stonefish

injury, a stroke and something else.

In the main we fill our fuel tank (275L) by top ups with a jerry can. This time, the tanks were quite empty so we went to the fuel wharf. I was a little reticent as I hate our boat touching any hard surface. Surprisingly we tied up really easily, filled up without problems and were on our way to Great Keppel Island.

There is a thing called the “Keppel Shuffle”. This occurs when the wind or swell changes and you have to up-anchor and move to another bay. We did a little shuffle this visit. Initially we anchored at Leekes Beach on the north where we ran the dog leash-free, had a picnic and a little swim. The following day we had to move to Svendsen’s Bay on the north east corner as the swell had changed.

Back on land, Georgie was starting a new life and she kept in contact with us as she travelled from Alice Springs to the Northern Territory – Barkly Homestead, Mt Isa, Longreach, Roma and finally Brisbane where she moved into Mums old unit.

Time to move north.

Next: Summer Breeze Year 2 Continues