Sunday 29th June - Coral Sea Marina

With the Meades onboard, and most of the jobs done there wasn’t too much to do before we set off.
Showers, breakfast, coffee (the essentials), and then a quick boat brief.

We dropped lines ourselves and headed out of the harbour.

There was still a good 15knt SE wind blowing, which made for a fun (for Justin and I) sail across to the top of Hook Island.

We dropped sail around Stonehaven, and motored around the top and picked up a mooring on the eastern side of Butterfly Bay.

The kids were keen for a swim, so we just tied the swim mat off the back for them.

Kristie, Scarlett and I jumped in the tender and went around the middle of Butterfly Bay for a snorkel.
It was ok (Scarlett really loved it) and around that headland in the middle was the best bit.

We had picked up a mooring next to some friends we’d met on Great Keppel Island.
We invited them over for the usual sip’s ‘n dips, but only Ollie and Kiya ended up coming over.
She was super excited to visit and play with 4 kids we had on board!
Good to catch up with Ollie as well,

Monday 30th

Raining this morning.

We were just sitting around when Ollie & Daph came over in their tender to tell us they’d seen Manta’s hanging around their boat.
They were off to go get in the water with them.

Queue the quickest donning of wetsuits on the trip so far. Two tender trips to get our lot across and in the water.
There were 4 mantas at the start, but by the end there were just two swimming around us in circles.
We started on the eastern side of the bay, but ended up well past the middle by the end of it.

Back on Lazuli we stayed in our wetsuits and motored across to grab the mooring at Mantaray Bay.
There used to be 2 public moorings, but now there’s only one mooring for larger boats, and 3 or 4 little tender moorings.

We took our swim mat over and tied it onto one of the tender moorings for the kids to sit on to have a break from swimming.
During our last shop we’d ordered a loaf of cheap white bread just for the fish.
The kids (and I) enjoyed throwing the bread in front of (or onto) those in the water to attract the fish!

So many fish around, as well as a few large GT’s and a Maori Wrass.

The kids ended up enticing a fish onto the mat with bread and catching it in the bucket - lots of shouting and laughter ensued!

Here’s a quick video from our swim there (Thanks J)

Olli and Daf were on the way over with their boat and were just about to turn around as there wasn’t a mooring.
We got on the radio and let them know we were off and they could have our mooring.

Grabbed a mooring at Maureen’s.

Went to go for a dive, but realised after getting the tanks set up that we had never filled up after our last dive at Musgrave.

We filled tanks, but by the time we were done it was 4:30 and too late for a dive.

Sip’s ‘n dips instead.

The kids spotted a bunch of wild goats on the beach.

Tuesday 1st July

Was good to wake up to blue skies.

Tested the tanks, and one was at 6ppm, so Kristie dumped the air out of that and then had to refill it.
Tested after at 1ppm.

After two days of dealing with different device time restrictions we’d agreed on 2hr limit. Managed to encourage the kids to do something without them.
They did a joint drawing game where each person got to nominate something different to add to the drawing!

I then took the other 3 adults for a dive. Poor little tender was a bit low in the water with 4 adults and 3 sets of dive gear :(

They dived along the eastern side of the bay. Wasn’t that great, but they did see a Manta Ray (and the accompanying cobia!)
The best bit was right on the point where the coral was nicer.

Back (slowly) to Lazuli and filled the tanks back up.

We were planning to set off to Border Island, so poked our head out past the point and motored to get clear of the rocks before hoisting the sails.
We had 2nd reef and #2 jib out and only been sailing for a minute before we noticed a cat doing odd stuff.
A whole lot of smoke then bellowed from the front - I immediately thought it was on fire, but it dissipated quite quickly.
They’d let off a flare! We had radio contact with another large tourist/sailing yacht that had followed us out around the corner.

We got close to them and then “hove to” in order to talk to them and see what was happening: they had lost steering and had no radio.
They were obviously quite worried, especially in the 1-2m sea close to the rock!

We dropped sails and let them know we’d follow them in and provide any assistance we could offer.
I got on the VHF and ended up talking to Hay Point VTS, and they were starting to talk to VMR Whitsundays.

The skipper eventually got manual steering working and they were making their way around the top of the island.
They let us know that Cumberland Yacht Charters was sending someone out, and I let VTS know the same.

They were obviously keen to pick up a mooring, so we went into Luncheon Bay to see if one was available.
There weren’t any free, so we asked one of the tourist snorkel boats if they could move; however they had 20+ ppl in the water so couldn’t.
They did send one of their tenders over to another cat on a different mooring and asked if they would jump off theirs (and take the snorkeling boats mooring not long after).
The cat was more than happy and quickly jumped off. Kristie played the middle-woman on VHF and coordinated both parties.

With the broken down cat now on a mooring our job was done. The whole saga had taken a bit of time, which meant it was now too late to get back out to Border Island.

We motored around the corner to Stonehaven and grabbed one of the many (there’s more than 20) moorings there.

We got one right up in the corner, quite protected. The kids were keen to have a swim, so tied the mat off and they had a great time.

Kristie and I headed off for a snorkel, but via another boat we’d met at Middle Percy. We’d been keeping an eye on where they were.
We were chatting with them when we noticed a Manta ray on the surface 20m away! Chat done, off for a snorkel :)

This one wasn’t as friendly and did not really want to hang around with us too much.

Once it left us we went back and had a quick snorkel on the finger of reef that extends out near where our mooring was.

Was ok, but nothing special.

Sip’s ‘n dips.

We’ve been enjoying the nights with the top off: dinner and drinks under the stars.

Wednesday 2nd

Motored over to grab a mooring at Black Island (about 1.5nm from where we’d spent the night).

Wetsuits on (except for J who had some time with his book) and took the swim mat over and tied it onto one of the 3 tender moorings.
We had to do two trips, but with us all there we had a drift snorkel along the wall.
Didn’t see any turtles, but lots of fish and coral (the eastern side of Blacks is our favourite snorkeling spot in the Whitsundays).

Once we were all nice and warm it was time to head down to Tongue Bay, on the eastern side of Whitsunday Island.
Motored all the way, with a quick stop/circle for lunch just before we got out through the passage between the islands.

Tongue Bay was pretty full when we got there, and no free moorings. One of the large tourist sailing boats was ferrying their passengers back on so we had a chat with them and they would be off in 15-20min.
We did circles around the other boats while waiting for them.

Once moored up we got ready to head into the beach to walk up to the lookout, and then we planned to head down to Hill Inlet and have some time on the beach there.

The beach was full of people; thankfully they were mostly getting back on their boats!

We did the walk to the lookout, and took the required photos. Wasn’t too busy.

Walked back down to the beach and set up our picnic mats away from everyone else.
Drinks and nibbles, and a good place to launch the drone.

We had perfect weather!

There’s a big shallow section full of stingrays, which we enjoyed walking through and spotting them.

There’s also a big tree for posing on.

DJ Bacon made a quick appearance on the decks on the way off the beach.

Was nearly dark by the time we got back to Lazuli.

Dinner and a long game of Uno after. Kristina won!

Netflix had released The Old Guard #2 today, and J and I were keen to watch it.
Starting at 9:30 after a few drinks probably wasn’t the smartest, but I was up for it.
J got about 1/4 of the way in before taking a quick nap… waking up just in time for the end credits ;)
I enjoyed it.

Thursday 3rd

Breakfast then motored down to Whitehaven Beach, dropped anchor in just over 4m of water.

Early lunch and then geared up for beach time.

We were on the beach for close to 3 hours: cricket, swimming on the mat, walking, snacks etc.

The drone came out again for some good footage of us and Lazuli.

Kristie got our boat name written out in the sand, then time for some photos :)

We’d been keeping an eye on Chalkies, and one or two boats had left. By our count there should have been a free mooring or two.

So back on Lazuli at around 3pm to motor across. There ended up being about 3 or 4 free moorings. We grabbed one close to the reef.
J and I got the fishing rods out, but it wasn’t long before the friendly resident turtle turned up at the back of our boat.
(we had the same thing when we were here 2 years ago!)

I had a bunch of squid offcuts from the monster I’d pulled in at Fitzroy Reef, and had been using that for bait.
Turns out turtles like squid ;)

I had kept all the tentacles, which made a convenient hand feeding option for the turtle. Everyone on board got a chance to feed it.
Once we ran out of that we gave it some of the frozen shop squid bait.. it didn’t seem to mind that either!

With that excitement done it was time to head into the beach. We took in drinks and nibbles, and warm cloths and glow sticks.

Had a great time chilling on the beach.

Once the sun went down the temperature dropped, and out came the glow sticks.

We had a good game of “Frisbee” with a glow stick ring, before it was dance party time!
I’d brought in our bluetooth speaker, and our starlink wifi reached us on the beach :)

Back to the boat for a late (8pm ish) dinner. The highlight being me knocking the table and sending J’s full glass of red wine over the table, the seat cushion, and Jo :(

Friday 4th

6:30am wake up so we could get back to Airlie in time. Quick breakfast, Jo got some more packing done.

We were off by about 7:30. We’d just go out through the bottom of Whitsunday Island when I spotted some whales up ahead.

We stopped the boat and waited to see what they’d do; a little extra bonus for our guests on their trip with us!

Good sail until we got to Hammo, where the wind dropped once we got behind the island.

The wind dropped even more once we got past South Mole. With the wind right behind us, Justin and I got the pole out for the very first time since we’ve had Lazuli.

Didn’t do much for our speed. Eventually had to drop sails and motor the rest of the way.

J skippered us in through the marina entrance and then I took over.

By coincidence we’d pulled into the marina just behind Nauti Kitty. The kids came up and we gave them all a wave.
We knew they were coming in on the 4th, but good timing :)

There is a public pontoon with two berths, but they were both occupied, and another cat was waiting to take the next spot.

We turned around and went back out to anchor in the bay. Tender in and I took Jo and Kristie in with all our rubbish and washing.
The ladies took the rubbish up and put on the load of washing then headed off to grab our shopping from Woolies in their ute.

On the way back I had a chat with one of the boats on the pontoon. They were going to be off in about 20min, so I asked if they could radio us before hand.

I got back to Lazuli, got the tender up and fenders and lines set for the pontoon. J raised the anchor and we headed in.
We got the call from Phoenix that they were 5min away from leaving just as we were coming through the channel outside.

Kristie was waiting for us on the pontoon, and with a light blow-on breeze it was a pretty easy tie up.

Kristie then left us to sort out the boat. The kids helped us unload all the Meade belongings onto the wharf.
J took the kids up to put our washing in the dryer and then onto the lagoon for a swim (all in their cloths) and an icecream!
Thanks J!

I filled up water and did a bit of cleaning before the ladies got back with the shopping.

Stowed that on board.

Craig and Tal (our next guests) turned up around 2:30pm. Quick unload and then they walked off to get a bite to eat.

The Meade’s said their goodbyes and left to make their way back home.

It was great to have them on board Lazuli for the week! Lots of good times.

Tuesday 17th June - Mackay Marina

We had a full day of shopping ahead of us.

Kristie had booked the “Rent a wreck” from the marina, hire car for the day.

We both went up to do the paperwork, and Kristie went off shopping and jobs while I did school with the girls and got in some work.

Kristie went to:

• pick up a new wireless anchor remote
• get her dive prescription lens put in her new mask
• hair
• bottleshop
• Woolies pickup
• Coles (for eggs & sourdough that Woolies was unable to supply)

Back up for lunch - hot chook (seems to be our regular lunch when ever we stop in a marina for shopping).

Once lunch was done, my turn to head off. I had a reasonable list to get through, and Pete from Nauti Kitty needed to visit most of the same places so he tagged along.

• Yamaha yard - I picked up some spectra to replace the furling line on our smaller jib.
• BBQ Galore to pickup a wok.
• BCF - new fish rod and squid light
• Anaconda - picked up some new sailing jackets - mine is probably 15yrs old and in need of replacement.

Got back to the marina after 4:30 or so - dropped the car keys into the box.

Back on the boat to put the shopping away and vacuum seal the meat/ham/salami.

The week ahead:

Dinner onboard.

Wednesday 18th

We had to check out today, but there wasn’t a rush - technically we didn’t have to be out until midnight ;)

Did the usual boat jobs, water, engine checks.

We only had a quick sail across to Keswick, so we didn’t have to leave too early.

I removed the old wireless anchor remote (the buttons on the remote were no longer working).
New remote was easy enough to install. It’s a generic remote (~$100, vs the Lofrans $800 version!). It works!

With the boat ready, we motored over to the fuel dock to top up.
Tied up and put in about 90L of diesel, for 27hrs of motoring since we left Gladstone.

Not the smoothest exit off the fuel dock, and then out into the main harbour to do a few laps while we pulled up fenders and lines and get ready to sail.
We put the mainsail up while in the protection of the harbour (much nicer than doing it in 1-2m swell!).

Our the marina and over to Keswick Island. It was a good 15-20kt SE. One of the crew from a pilot boat that was fueling up at the same time mentioned it was a bit messy out there!
With 2nd reef in, but full head sail out we were making quite good time, 8-10knts.

The seas started to pick up a bit, along with the wind. We had a good 2-3m swell.
It was starting to get a bit wild so pulled in the head sail, and that made things much easier.
Still going along at 7knts or so.

Once we got past the headland of St Bees it calmed down a lot. We dropped the sails and motored around to find somewhere to stop.
The moorings at the bottom of St Bees were bobbing around too much, so went around the corner.
The area just north of the runway was ok. Wind chop but no swell.

Settled in for the night.

Thursday 19th

School and Work.

Eventually we had to get off the boat. The girls were happy onboard so just Kristie and I jumped in the tender.
Tried landing just at the end of the runway, but a “no access / keep out” sign suggested we landed elsewhere.

Went down the end of the bay there the walk across to Connie Bay starts.
Tender up on the beach and walked up and over the headland.
Steep walk up a dirt/grass road.
Kristie scared off a snake with her scream after nearly stepping on it.
It was 600m up the top of the hill, then another 600m down to the beach.

Not much on the beach, but it was nice and calm.
On the way back we spotted Nauti Kitty arriving. Their first impressions of our chosen anchorage wasn’t the best, so they went to check out the other two options off the top of St Bees & Keswick.

Back to the tender, then went across to check out Turtle Beach. Also calm there when your standing on the beach out of the wind, but too much swell coming around from both sides out on the water.
It wasn’t long before Nauti Kitty circled back and dropped anchor where we were.

Back to the boat, we got the girls and went straight across to the beach on St Bees.

We’d told the other boats we’d be heading over, so it wasn’t long until the crew from Margot and Nauti Kitty were on the beach.
Drinks and nibbles and good fun.

Dinner onboard.

Friday 20th

School and Work for the morning.

Dropped Kristie into the beach at the airport. I went back to the boat.

Not long after Kristie stepped foot on the sand, she was approached by airport security.
The were a couple of trainee pilots practicing landings and take offs and the runway (only access to the island) was closed.
About 1/2 an hour later, they were finished with their training and Kristie was able to set off and walk every track on the island - steep tracks, some good views and not too sociable residents.

Late arvo I got a call over the VHF. The caller was checking in just to see if anyone had been trying to contact her.
I let Jess know that it was possibly Kristie as she was off wandering the island.
After some confusion, the caller identified herself as Kristie.
This gave our boat friends (who were listening on VHF) a good chuckle.

James jumped on the VHF call and invited everyone around to Connie Beach for a quick fire.
Kristie had a quick walk down from Horseshoe Bay Lookout to join them.
I couldn’t convince Emma to make the effort for 1/2 an hour, but Kristina was keen to head over for a quick play on the beach with the boys.
Marshmallows on the fire, a 0 beer from James, then back to Lazuli before the sun set.
Kristie got a ride back with James & family so Kristina and I could get back quicker in the rough conditions.
It was a wet tender ride home!

Saturday 21st

Very wet/windy day.

School and work.

Didn’t get off the boat.

Sunday 22nd

Another wet day.

School and work.

Put on the wetsuits and got to Turtle Beach for some shell collecting. Made a quick dash to the trees a couple of times, to hide from squalls coming through.

Got the call late afternoon from Nauti Kitty that the boys were going to watch A Minecraft Movie and invited us to come over.
Got the girls geared up for the tender ride across.

Jess was cooking popcorn - salted and caramel.

Movie was enjoyable - the kids really enjoyed it. Our girls had watch lots of previews and other Youtubes about it and gave a good running commentary!

Monday 23rd

Time to move on today. The wind has been howling the last few days and was supposed to be dropping off today.

We were pulling up anchor the same time as Nauti Kitty. They were off to Scawfell, we were heading north.

We got to Brampton but it was too rolly there, so we kept heading up to Goldsmith. It was much better up there.
We ended up picking up a mooring at the northern end of the bay.
We had occasional small swell wrapping around the top, but manageable.

We were the only boat when we go there, but ended up with 4 other boats in the bay by the time we left.

Tuesday 24th

After a bit of a rolly night I dropped Kristie into the beach for the morning.
Blue skies, warm sand and 2 40cm reef sharks cruising through the bait fish in knee deep water.
Back on the boat I helped the girls with their schooling, then got busy with work.

Picked up Kristie for lunch.

Bit of time on the boat then took the tender ride to check out the snorkeling options and the bay.
Water was cloudy, and not too much of interest to entice us into the water.
Saw a couple of reef sharks swimming around in the shallows.

Got the squid light out, but no squid came along.

Wednesday 25th

School and then motored across to Thomas Island.

It was still really foggy, cloud down to sea level.

Generator on as our batteries were a bit low after a few days or rain and bad weather.
Into the beach to go exploring.

Collected shells, explored the rocks, went for a swim.
Kristie had a quick snorkel. Cloudy water, lots of weed, little bit of coral and a few fish.

First time in a few weeks that we’ve had no wind, calm water & blue skies. So Kristie set off for a SUP.

Thursday 26th

Woke up to blue skies for the first time in a while.
There is a walking track from our side of the beach across to the other side.
The girls geared up for the short trip across to the beach.
On the beach we had to walk up and down a bit to find the start of the track.
The boating app said follow a dry creek bed.. The only creek was quite wet!

I didn’t go quite far enough the first time, and after pushing a little bit further found signs of the track.
Plastic (thongs, oil bottles) etc as trail markers.

Quite a bit of the track was overgrown and had to carry the girls a little bit.

We got to the other side and it was super windy. The girls both declared it wasn’t worth the walk!

Back to the boat and got Lazuli ready to sail across to Shaw.
Given it was still blowing 20knts+, we sailed across on just our #2 jib. Easy downwind sailing at 6-7knts speed.
Got to the end of Shaw and gybed to sail back across into the bay.
There were already half a dozen boats there hiding from the wind.

We motored up to “The Neck” to see if was any better there but turned out worse, a much longer fetch and more swell coming into the bay.
Back down the other end to drop anchor with everyone else.

Lunch.

Very very windy.

Didn’t leave the boat.

Friday 27th

School, no work today (already done this week and next weeks as well!).

With guests coming onboard tomorrow I needed some time to clean up the boat and make room for guests.

I had bought a bunch of down lights when we were at Gladstone and hadn’t had time (or inclination) to install them.
I got them all installed. They are also push button on/off, which will be helpful.

With the wind gusting up to 30knts I ended up with a few straps around the mainsail to lash it down for the night.

Saturday 28th

No particular rush this morning as we don’t have too far to go, and we can’t get into our berth until 12.

It was still windy and overcast.

Breakfast and then getting ready to sail.

Anchor up and got going by 8:45. It didn’t seem as windy or swelly as we expected.

Went with our #2 jib only, the main will still lashed down from the day before. Still going along at 6knts or so.

Until we hit the main Whitsunday passage, and we started fighting the flooding tide heading south :(

Once we dropped to about 4knts it was time to fire up the engine and start motor sailing.

A bit rolly at times, but I called in at around 12:30 to get our assigned berth.
Half an hour later I called on the VHF to give them the 30min heads up, and again called in when we got to the channel markers just outside the marina wall.

We had someone to catch our lines. My first attempt I got the angle wrong, but 2nd time nailed it.

All tied up and secure.

We had a bunch of jobs to do before our first guests turned up:

• Cleaning both bathrooms (and emptying the composting toilet)
• Filling up the water
• Two loads of washing+drying
• Offloading all the rubbish
• Charging batteries (for my squid light!)
• Showering!

Justin, Jo and the kids turned up just after 4pm, and once unloaded Justin took Kristie to collect our Woolies order (and more drinks!).

Back on board was a bit of chaos, bags of cloths, gear, shopping everywhere.

Got it mostly stowed away, and then we walked up to Hogs Breath for dinner. Curley fries FTW.

Kids needed a quick run around in the park to burn off the ice cream.

Tomorrow we’re off exploring the Whitsundays.

We’ll be around here for at least the next month and a half!

Sunday 8th June - Pearl Bay

After a bit of a rolly night it was time to head to the beach for a walk. The girls opted to stay inside, so just Kristie and I for a walk.

There had been maybe 8 or so other boats in Pearl Bay for the night, but by the time our walk was done only us and one other remained.

Back to Lazuli and then up anchor to motor up to Island Head Creek (about 6nm or so north of us).

The wind forecast for today/tonight was to swing around to the north, then north-west, then south-west, with a south-east swell!
There aren’t many places that can provide reasonable protection from that range of wind!
Island Head Creek had been closed for the last week due to some live firing action in the Shoal Water Bay area, but from 8am today it was open.
The guide book we have shows several places to stop, but down the creek at #4 has protection from ALL wind directions - perfect!

There were maybe 5 or so other boats (mostly cats) tucked in close to the norther end not far inside the entrance.
We passed them and kept going.

We had a few attempts at setting the anchor. At one point we dragged up a lump of rock/oysters, and I had to use the boat hook to leaver it off the anchor and back to where it belongs.

Tried our luck at fishing, but as usual nothing happened.

Sushi/sashimi (our Mac Tuna) for dinner. Except for Kristina who won’t eat raw fish ;)

We had a calm night in with the mozzies.

Monday 9th

No School today as we have a big’ish sailing day.

With the winds currently (and still forecast for the rest of the day/night) from the SW, we were looking for options.
Originally we wanted to stay at Hexham Island, but that wouldn’t be too good with SW winds and W swell.

The Duke Islands (Bamborough) were the next option - good anchorage there for the SW.

Before we’d left I got a message from Pete on Nauti Kitty asking where we were heading next and that they were still in the Percys.
Same distance to South Percy as to Bamborough, so off to the Percy’s we go.

I had a morning of meetings, so Kristie kept watch while the autopilot did its thing.

We had good wind and made pretty good time to the island. We came around the Eastern side of South Percy and dropped sails in the calmer waters.

The SW side (other end of the island from us) looked to offer the best protection from the SW winds, so motored across the bay.
Dropped anchor then jumped straight onto another work call. I had to cut it short as our anchor was dragging a little.
Got it reset, and it was then fine for the next two nights.

Nauti Kitty had been over at Middle Percy but were now on the way over to where we were.

As soon as they arrived it was time to head into the beach for a catch-up.

It was great to see Pete and Jess and the two boys again.
We’d last seen them nearly a month ago during our first stop in Gladstone.
They’d been a few steps/stops ahead of us the whole time (yes we’d been stalking them on AIS).

We stayed on the beach for quite a while, and didn’t get back to Lazuli until quite late.
Then had to cook up dinner - Mac Tuna for us (except Kristina).

Tuesday 10th

School and Work.

After a late lunch we got a call from the others that they were going to head for a snorkle/swim/play at the beach.

Geared up and off we went. The snorkeling was ok, nothing compared to Musgrave/Heron. Didn’t last too long.

Pete then offered to take me fishing, so back to the boats to get ready.

We dropped the girls over to Nauti Kitty to play with Sniffy, and we went off. Got a few bites but nothing substantial to keep.

We got the call over the VHF asking how late we’d be, and that Jess was hungry and so were the kids.
By the time we got back she’d cooked fish and rice for them and herself. They then invited Kristie and I over for dinner.
We supplied potatoes (they were out) and they supplied some red throat they’d caught earlier. Delicious fish, and salty fried potatoes were also smashed quickly.

With the wind going more SE, we made a plan to head over to Middle Percy tomorrow.

Wednesday 11th

We figured a bunch of other boats would also have the same idea, so we left reasonably early to move around.

I just had time for a very quick work call before we dropped anchor. There were already quite a few boats there, so we had to stand out a bit (as usual).

Got some more work done, and the girls did school.

Early lunch and then into the beach to check out the A-Frame that Middle Percy is famous for.

The A-Frame has a collection of boating bits and memorabilia left by cruisers over the last 50 or so years.
Contributions range from stubby coolers to t-shirts, blocks of wood with names chiseled out, to intricately carved and polished boards.
Lots of history.

There’s two levels, and every bit is full of memorabilia:

The Nauti Kitty crew were in, and Pete had his coconut pole-saw working overtime to relieve the trees of their goods.
He also chopped them up and offered them around. These were proper nice coconuts - the milk was tasty and the flesh inside was next level.
On their recommendation we tried it with other accompaniments such as honey, pineapple, and soy sauce (in various combinations of each).

We also met a few other boat crews that were in at the beach/hut as well, and invited them all back in for bbq/dinner tonight.

The kids enjoyed a swim/wrestle on the mat, and the water was really quite lovely to swim in.

Pete was off for another fish, so I jumped in with them for a quick trip out. I managed to land a fish, but nothing of note to brag about.

Back to the beach to get the girls and get ready for the night.

Pete and Jess were going to cook some Lamb in their camp oven. We had a bag of frozen carrots, a sweet potato, and some damper to offer (also sausages for the kids).

We had the usual nibbles and drinks, and also got chatting to Marty (current care taker), and Wayne (one of the board members and out there dropping off supplies and helping Marty out).

We also bought some honey. The caretaker sells it there - happy to support them. It’s good bush honey, but the girls don’t like the taste that much (it’s quite different from the processed honey you buy in the supermarkets).

The damper was great, lamb delicious, and the carrots a bit cold (they needed just a bit longer in the fire!).

Also had a chat with some lads up from Port Stephens on their annual reef fishing trip (they’d just spent a few nights out at the Swains on their 5-6m fishing boat).
One of them offered around some fish they’d just caught and cooked. Fresh reef fish is so good.

The girls were also having a sleepover on Nauti Kitty. The other night when we’d been there they’d seen that the boys had a swag on the front and had slept in that.
Emma ended up just sleeping down in one of the cabins, but the Kristina and the two boys slept the night in the swag.

Thursday 12th

We could hear a bit of commotion on NC in the morning, and the kids were up on deck fishing.
One of the boys caught a squid, then Kristina had a go and pulled one in. No ink on any boats.

Pete dropped the girls (and a fresh coffee for me!) over. These boat friends are next level!

Nauti Kitty then left to head over to Curlew Island for the night.

Emma had missed out on a squid over there, so she had a quick go with her rod, but there weren’t any about.

The rest of the morning was school and work.

Bit of rain/drizzle.

I jumped in the tender with my fishing gear to try my luck, but didn’t even get a nibble; I also managed to break my rod after I caught a rock :(

George, from one of the other cats came over and offered a Queenfish he’d caught and couldn’t offload. We happily accepted it (was at least 60cm or so!).
Quick fillet and into the fridge.

Fish for dinner. Not as tasty as the reef fish, but still nice.

Rolly night :(

Friday 13th

No school this morning - we needed to get off the boat.

Kristie had devised a plan of what we could craft to leave behind in the A-Frame.
With the drill, sandpaper, glue, and cord in hand we headed in and setup at the table to make our sign.

We all got to help and do the finger knitting, but Kristie was in charge of gluing/positioning!
The girls collected shells to decorate the rest of the wood.

With the sign done we had a quick swim. Emma did some painting while we were getting wet:

There’s a swing at the A-Frame, and the girls are always up for a swing :)

We were almost ready to leave when another couple walked past and mentioned they’d collected a few passion fruit.
So off we went to see what we could scavenge. We got back to the tender with 9 :)

Early lunch and then onto Digby Island (Nauti Kitty had headed there this morning).

It’s only about 20nm (and I forgot to record the track). We sailed for quite a bit of it, but eventually with the wind and sun dropping we had to use the motor otherwise it’d be dark when we anchored.
As it was, it was about 5pm before we got the anchor down.

Kristie whipped up her asparagus dip, and then we were off to the beach to meet up with the others.

We enjoyed a fire and drinks on the beach.

The others had brought their dinner in, we had to cook it when we got back to Lazuli at around 8pm!
Left over Queenfish for us (Kristina is happy to eat this since I haven’t served it up raw :)

Very rolly (probably the most rolly we’ve had) night - Kristie moved upstairs to sleep on the deck during the night, it was that bad :(

The following is Kristina’s Percy Island Top 5

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At Middle Percy Island there were lots of fun things to do (for me anyways) 
but there were five things that I liked more than others.

My favourite thing was the passion fruit vines that were on the sides of the path. 
I really loved that because passion fruit is so good we we got to pick it ourselves for once instead of buying it.

My second favourite thing was having a sleepover on our friends boat Nauti Kitty. 
I really enjoyed that because it was the first proper sleepover I'd been to plus 
it was with the sniffys who always make me laugh.

The next thing on my list of favourites is the swing that was hanging from the A-frame. 
I was really excited about the swing because I think swinging is so much fun and I haven't done it in over a year.

The fourth thing that I really liked was the fire pit that was out the back of the A-frame.
This meant that we could get warm and make some delicious damper both of which I really liked.

The last thing on my list of favourites was when Mum and Dad decided we were going to do some craft to hang up in the A-frame.
So we did some finger knitting and Mum and Dad glued it on.
Me and Emma also went for a swim to find some shells to glue on as well.

The following is Emma’s Percy Island Top 5

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1. At the A Frame there was a wooden swing. I enjoyed swinging and jumping off it
2. When Kristina, mum and dad were swimming I painted a coconut with water colours.
3. Mum had the idea to finger knit our name Lazuli for the A Frame
4. We had a fire on the beach and I helped mum bake delicious damper
5. Mum, dad and Kristina picked some yummy passion fruit but I stayed behind 
(the passion fruit was a bit sour though).

Saturday 14th

Breakfast then dropped Kristie into the beach and I went back to the boat to get the girls breakfast.

I came back in with Kristina while Emma stayed on Lazuli. We couldn’t find Kristie, and I assumed she was off exploring.
Pete dropped the two boys into the beach and then went back to do some boat jobs.

Kristie turned up - she’d been having a nap on the beach behind a rock.

We (Kristie, Kristina, the two boys, and I) set off exploring around the headland. Good views over the islands to the north/north west.

A quick trip back to Lazuli for lunch and then the kids (and Kristie) had to get ready for the sleepover on the beach.

I dropped the girls back to shore with all their gear, and went back to the boat to get dinner ready.

While I was cooking the beef stir-fry the girls and the other two boys got the fire prepared.

I brought dinner back to the beach in our Billy-Boil (it’s been so handy!). I picked up the camp-oven from Nauti Kitty and went in.

We got the fire going, and Kristie had the kids help her make the damper - we’d run out of lemonade, so had to resort to two of the Bundy Passionfruit cans that Kristina has.

Jess and the kids had brought in some cream and homemade jam to have with the damper. Delicious.

Post damper swing

They’d also had provided the rice for the dinner.

We had fun around the fire, and eventually managed to get the kids in their swag at about 8-8:30pm.

Kristie was sleeping on (and under) a tarp on the beach, with one of our boat cushions and a sleeping bag.

We put the fire out, then left Kristie and the kids on the beach. I went back to Lazuli to do the washing up and watch a bit of tv.

We’d left a handheld VHF on the beach, but thankfully no late night trips were needed :)

Another rolly night for me - I believe the sand was nice and stationary.

The following is Emma’s recount of our time at Digby Island:

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We anchored at Digby Island for two nights.
At sunset we had a fire on the beach.
Kristina, Argie, and Kyan make a fire pit out of rocks and cuttle fish cement.
Mummy made some damper and Jess brought in some cream to put on it when it was ready.
Argie found a rope and a stick then dad used them to make a swing!
I love swings.
We had a sleep over on the beach that night.
All the kids slept in a swag but mum slept under a tarp.

The following is Kristina’s recount of our time at Digby Island:

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When we left the Percys our next stop was Dibgy Island which has been my favourite place so far.
During the day me, the Sniffys and my Mum and Dad went exploring over the rocks.
We had a look in some rock pools and we got a great view from the top of the rocks.
After we got back me and Sniffy started building a fire pit.
At first it was only going to be one layer of rocks but then I put on a second layer.
While I was doing that Sniffy collected some fire wood then started to make a bonfire in the fire pit.
I joined in to make the process go quicker and by the time we had finished Dad had got back from getting lunch.
Our process was worth it as by the end we had made a huge fire that was ready for the night.
Meanwhile Sniffy jr had re-lit one of the fires from last night so we could have some coals for tonight.
After we had all finished those tasks me and the Sniffys made some cuttlefish concrete.
Sniffy jr went up and down the beach collecting all the cuttlefish he could find.
He would then come back and give them to Sniffy who would soak them, crush them up with a rock, 
then mix them with sand in one of the sand castle buckets.
I would then come over, pick them up and reinforce the fire pit with it.
It was getting dark so Dad went to pick up Emma from the boat.
They came back to the beach and Sniffy's parents came just a bit after and with them came the swag.
Another thing we had done was choosing a spot for the swag to go.
We were planning to have a sleepover on the beach and it turned out great.
All of us kids were going to sleep in the swag and our Mum was going to sleep under a tarp.
When every thing was done us kids started to get a bit bored so we started to make a swing out of some rope
that Sniffy had found while looking for fire wood.
Then we bugged the Dads to use the chainsaw on some of the firewood we found for the base.
We then turned it into a swing.

Sunday 15th

I got a message around 6:30 to say that the beach party was awake and after some breakfast.

The kids were happy with the idea of some melted ham and cheese wraps (melted in the fire they had to get going again :)
Cocopops for Kristie and some of the kids as well (the wraps were a little too smoky for some)

We packed up the beach camping and tried to leave the beach in a good state for the next boaties.

Back to the boats and to get ready for setting off.

Nauti Kitty were off to Double Island (we’d looked at that on the map and with the given weather forecast decided it would not be good for us).

We left for Curlew Island. We had to motor out and bash our way south for a bit before we could get the sails up.

I had the 2nd reef in the main, and our smaller head sail out, and we were still hammering along at 9-10knts a lot of the time with apparent wind angle of about 50deg.

We would have had a 1-1.5m swell from the south.

Dropped the sails and went in the western channel. Dropped anchor in a nice calm spot.
We had followed one boat in, and not long after us another two turned up, making it 5 all up.

There was still a bit of swell, but nothing like we’d had the last two days.

Tender down, then Kristie and I went in for a walk on the beach, leaving the girls on their iPads.

Back to Lazuli for lunch, then I dropped Kristie back to the beach while I went back to Lazuli to prep the boat for the sail to Mackay tomorrow.

• Cooked Sausages
• Baked Brownies
• Cut up oranges
• boiled the pasta
• made rice and dinner for tonight.

At about 4pm I took the girls back into the beach for sip’s ‘n dips and dinner on the beach.

We had fun playing on the beach - cricket - throwing/catching - frisbee. On our earlier walk, Kristie and I had found the big rock at the end that people leave shells and other interesting things on.

We took the girls back there, via another group of boaties from two other boats.

Found some more shells, and left them on the rock shelf for others to enjoy.

We wanted to get back to our food before the sun went down!

Walked back down the beach to enjoy dinner with the sun going down (hot dinner thanks to the Billy Boil).

Back to Lazuli.

Monday 16th

Big’ish day sail today - somewhere around 45nm or so to get to Mackay.

We were up early and had ourselves and Lazuli ready for departure not long after 7am. We left via the western channel, and there was a lot of action on the surface, with the seabirds and fish both going nuts all around us.

The wind was more or less SE, and we needed to go NE. Choosing not to go dead down wind we angled into the coast a bit.
Again we had 2nd reef in the main, but full head sail out. We had some fast sailing into the coast, but probably went a bit further off course than desired.
Another boat had left Curlew not long after us, a 50ft X-Yacht, also bound for Mackay.
They ended up getting into the marina about 1.6nm ahead of us. We travelled 50nm, whereas if travelling by Crow it’d be about 43nm.

Dropped sails before we got into the main harbour; after crossing an unexpected “bar” at the entrance we did a few circles while I got the fenders and lines ready.

We had got organised for someone to help us, but with a good 15knt blow-off it wasn’t going to be fun.
I ended up with one foot on the boat next to us keeping Lazuli away from it :(
No damage done, just increased heart rates all around.

We were in the area of the marina for the larger boats.
I noticed a racing boat opposite to us, and realised it was Merit, the Volvo 60 I’d sailed on with Craig two years ago when we helped deliver it from Airlie to Southport.
Michael (the owner) was just leaving, so had a quick catchup/chat with him. Craig (who’ll be on Lazuli in a few weeks) had just recently sailed it up from Brisbane with Michael.

We were still getting settled when we noticed Nauti Kitty had just come around the corner and was heading into a pen just down from us.
Kristie and I walked down to catch their lines. Much less eventful than our entry :)

Kristie walked up to check in, and to get a trolly or two. We had few weeks of rubbish to get rid of, and a few weeks worth of washing to do.

After one trip to drop off the rubbish, we all went up for a shower and to put the washing on.
Good facilities, though showers aren’t as nice as Gladstone Marina, and the washing machines were small.

Back on Lazuli with clean cloths, we walked back up to the marina precinct for dinner.
The sports bar didn’t have any real GF options, so we went to the Deck Steakhouse, which did have lots of options.
Pete and Jess and the boys were their with his mum. We ended up at a table near them and the kids chatted for a bit.
We enjoyed the ribs and a few tasty beverages.

We’ll have tonight and tomorrow night at the marina. We’ve booked the “Rent a Wreck” ($69 to hire one of their cars for the day) for tomorrow as we’ve got lots of shopping / jobs to do.

Pearl Bay to Mackay is about 116nm (or 215km) in a straight line. We’ve made some good progress getting north.