Year 2 – 19th April 2025 –Hummocky Island – Pearl Bay
I woke early as Paul did to a lovely blue-sky morning but little wind. The swell had come round into the bay and we were rolling a little. As two of us were up I got David up and we left about 6.40am and got underway. It was about 65nm to Pearl Bay and the earlier we started the earlier we would get there. We were having to motor and made good progress.
We had breakfast on the hoof and were soon passing Great Keppel Island which looked very nice and had a lighthouse on its Southeastern side. It had some nice sandy beaches and it is a shame we never got to anchor here.
Great Keppel Island lies 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) off the coast from Yeppoon, in the locality of The Keppels in the Shire of Livingstone, Queensland, Australia. It is part of the Capricorn Coast of Central Queensland. It is the largest of the eighteen islands in the Keppel Group, and Great Keppel covers an area of 1308 hectares.
The tropical climate and numerous beaches attract tourists from all points, and the island is visited by more than 50,000 people each year. A range of budget accommodation caters to tourists. There are 17 white-sand beaches and almost the greatest cover of hard coral reefs on the Great Barrier Reef. The coral diversity of the reefs matches that of the Whitsunday Islands and there is clear water most of the year around. The islands were named by Captain James Cook in April 1770 after the then First Lord of the Admiralty, Admiral Augustus Keppel.
We motored on and passed North Keppel and David decided to fish and put out two lines, one on a rod and the other on our 300lb hand reel line. Nothing happened for a while and David went below for a shower. Suddenly the rod ratchet went and I had to grab it and stop the fish taking out more line. However, as I was pulling in the line I saw that we also had a fish on the other line which was the handline. We have never had two fish at the same time before and so I told Paul to get David and between the three of us we pulled in both fish. The fish on the handline was a Spanish Mackerell, which was a reasonable size and the flesh is actually white not dark. The other was a big Albacore Tuna. We filleted both on deck and I went down to sort out the fillets and to reserve what we would have for supper tonight and what we would freeze. It looks like David got some good advice as these lines worked well. We have enough fish for a while and whilst we could have put the lines out again we must fish sustainably and only take what we need.
We motored on in the sunshine and the wind increased a little in the afternoon but only to about 7-8 kts and we decided not to sail as we wanted to get to Pearl Bay at a decent time as it gets dark at 6.00pm. This apparently is the most attractive anchorage on this bit of coast and is part of the mainland. Pearl Bay is an open, 9 km wide, north-east facing bay. Its shoreline is dominated by sandy beaches, separated by small, rocky heads in the south, while extending inland for up to 3 km and rising to 100 m are massive, now vegetated, nested, parabolic dune systems. These dunes were probably emplaced during the Holocene Sea level rise and still stand between 8000 and 5000 years ago. While the dunes extend inland from the main beach, dunes from Port Clinton Beach have in the past cascaded down onto the three southern beaches, and their scarped, 100 m high, densely vegetated slopes now back the beaches. The three beaches are separated by small, rocky headlands. The dune groundwater drains out across the beaches in places, providing a source of clean fresh water. The main Pearl Bay Beach (1319) is 5.1 km long, faces east-south-east and receives waves averaging 0.5 m. These produce a low to moderate gradient high tide beach and a 150 m wide intertidal to low tide bar.
As we approached the coast the scenery looked different in that there were lots of little islands off the coast ( a bit like you see in parts of Thailand or Vietnam) and there were pine type trees which we have not seen for some time. The coast is therefore covered in dark green foliage which sits on top of the sand dune coastline with lots of long sandy beaches. We saw two other yachts going in the same direction and one on AIS (the plotter) which went in and anchored off the beach at Pearl Bay or so it appeared from the plotter. Our route into Pearl Bay was between an island and the mainland and it looked as if it would be well sheltered. We motored on and round some small islands and then came to the narrow channel and went in. There were several boats already here to my surprise, some sailing boats but quite a few motorboats. It is obviously popular.
We found a nice anchor spot and ahead of us and to our right were long sandy beaches with a tree line frame. We decided to go for a swim and got the dinghy down. We had travelled 64.84 nm and we arrived just before 4.00pm. We went to the beach and got out. The water was quite murky but the beach was lovely and we had a walk along it. I think the only way to get to this beach is by boat. Paul had a swim but David and I just paddled a bit as it was not clear enough to snorkel and to see the Nobby Clarks (sharks!!).
It was good to go ashore and we went back to Stormbird for a sundowner and I prepared tuna sushi as a starter and we had the Spanish Mackerell for main with rice and broccoli which was enjoyed by all. We had had a good day, catching two fish and were anchored in a lovely bay. We have to move on tomorrow on our passage to Mackay.
The Picture of the day is the two fish we caught.
Need/Opportunity Year Two
I am in need of more crew from late June to Mid-July. In addition, there is one space from Cairns to Indonesia from mid-July - so if of interest do email me at hine.nick9@gmail.com
In year two I will be going from New Zealand to Sydney and hen up the Eastern Australian Coast, Indonesia and then through Bali, Singapore and on to Thailand to end year two about the end of November 2025.
The blog will continue as we continue the journey. If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog then do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com