Year 2 – 20th April 2025 –Pearl Bay - Middle Percy Island (Percy Islands)
I did not sleep well and woke at about 2.00am and then I must have drifted off again as I was woken at 5.00am when I was rung by two of my daughters!! Sorry Dads they explained!!. I was therefore not going back to sleep after this and so got up and wrote yesterday’s blog. Paul was up about 5.30am and made some tea. I watched the sunrise with a golden glow from the East and as the sun rose the golden colour disappeared, as I wrote the blog. By about 6.00am I thought we might as well get up and go s we had some way to go. We therefore woke David and upped the anchor and headed out of the bay.
Pearl Bay had been a lovely anchorage but we did have some swell in the night. We planned to go about 55 nm to Middle Percy Island – part of the Percy Island Group. The Percy Islands is a group of islands in the Coral Sea off the coast of Queensland, Australia and are primarily known for their natural beauty and historical significance. Middle Percy Island, the largest of the group, is famous for its yachting hub, off-grid living, and conservation efforts. The islands are also a haven for sailors and offer a unique opportunity to experience a tropical paradise.
Seafarers may come ashore, explore, share a BBQ or sundowner with fellow travellers amongst memorabilia of bygone days and leave your memento at the A-frame. Percy’s long-standing history of welcoming visitors has many returning over the years. Visitors who came as children, now come now as adults with their own children or grandchildren, to meet old and new friends while enjoying the A-Frame meeting place.
There was more wind than yesterday so we thought we would motor out of the lee of the islands and try and sail. Once clear we put up the sails and could only make about 4.5-5kts as the wind ranged from 7-10kts. We sailed for about a couple of hours and then decided to motor again as we were not making enough progress to get to Middle Percy Island in good time. It was a lovely day again with little cloud and we skirted the coast admiring the sandy dune hills and beaches. However, our course began to take us further offshore as Middle Percy is some 50nm offshore and so the coastline gradually disappeared.
The water was a little troubled and not at all still. We pushed on and there were lots of small islands dotted around at random. We then heard on the VHF radio that someone had turned on their EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon) – which meant they had a problem/emergency. We could not hear what the boat which had the problem was saying as they were some way away. A Search and Rescue Plane was launched and we later saw this on our chart plotter and so we hope they were ok and were rescued in time.
We continued on our passage and came across a current station which has a symbol on the chart plotter which you can click on and it takes you to the current chart – which shows at any one point in time what direction the current is going in and how strong it is. There are several along this coast as there are two sounds (large bays) which have large and strong flowing tides.
We continued and began to see South Percy Island and Middle Percy Island is beyond that. South Island looked attractive with its sandy beaches, sand cliffs and green and tree lined foliage on the top. We then decided to sail the last few miles and just put out the genoa. We coasted along admiring the scenery and it felt like we were shielded from all the cares and woes in the world. Here we were in our own world visiting these remote islands. It must have been like this when James Cook sailed up this coast in 1770 and has probably not changed much since.
Middle Percy Island was larger and again had sandy beaches and sand dune hills and we were going to what was called West Bay on its west side (The Australians have such inventive names). We had to motor through a narrow channel between Middle Percy Island and another and as we approached the bay we saw a number of other boats here. It was actually a most beautiful bay with a curved sandy beach with palm trees lining the back of it. It had a small inlet on the North end and a curved rocky cliff on the West end. The water looked clean and clear. We motored into the bay and found a good space to anchor in.
We got the dinghy down and went to the beach as we thought it would be good for swimming. The beach had a sort of A framed hut in the middle. We approached this hut and it was the Percy Island Yacht Club!! It was like a shrine to all the yachts that had visited as it had yacht plagues and names of boats from all over the world and all sorts of sailing memorabilia. It was a fantastic place and quite a museum and at the back it had a barbecue. There was an explanatory note inside which stated that this was a place for all sailors to come and enjoy. It had been frequented for years by sailors and was a welcoming site. One fishing boat had been gutting fish and throwing fish debris into the sea. This would of course attract the Nobby Clarks (sharks) so we decided to go right up the other end of the beach to be away from that area for our swim.
The water was clear and as soon as I got in I saw a lot of white/silver fish which were in large shoals. I did not venture to deep to be able to exit should be see any Nobby Clarks. There could also potentially be crocodiles here although we hoped not. We had a good snorkel and once we had had enough we returned to Stormbird and got the deck chairs out on there rear deck. It was lovely sitting in the sun with a light breeze drinking a cold beer. This is the type of perfect situation that sailors dream of and the number of times it is this good is limited. We watched a sea eagle flying over the beach and then suddenly on our starboard side we saw a large dolphin jump right out of the water and dive back. This happened 3-4 times as they must have been fishing. This bay is one where you could spend a number of days exploring and enjoying the peace away from the hustle and bustle.
The sun began to go down so we upped the dinghy on the davits in preparation for an early departure tomorrow. We are off to Mackay which is about 65nm away. David cooked some of the tuna we caught with red cabbage and sweet potato mash which was delicious and very fresh. It was a great environment sitting in the cockpit in the dark with the light in the cockpit on and the little solar lanterns I brought back with me. It had been a good day with good progress made and a fantastic anchor setting. It would be good to stay another day but alas we move on as David has a plane to catch.
The Picture of the day is the view to the beach from where we are anchored.
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