Day 173-176 - Great Keppel Island.

Wednesday 4th June

School and work in the morning.

Early lunch, then into the beach with our swimming mat.

Kristie, Kristina and I walked up to the end of Leekes Beach to check out the headland/lagoon at the end. (Emma stayed and played in the sand).
A nice long walk, some good shells found.

Nic and Kenny were heading off for a snorkle, and dropped Charlee on the beach with Emma just before we got back to them.

The girls enjoyed a bit of time in the water and playing in the sand.

And some beach cricket with both girls:

Back to Lazuli to get dry and changed ready to come back for sips ‘n dips on the beach with everyone else.

A good spread of food as usual with Viv & Russ, Nic & Kenny, and Jana & Sebastian (a new boat Kristie stalked on FB - they have 4 kids!).

Back to Lazuli in the dark - our new solar sensor light works very well :)

Thursday 5th

School and Work.

We’d organised to have dinner on the beach over at Svendsons tonight, so we moved Lazuli over that side so we didn’t have as far to tender
(it was also a little bit more out of the wind). The other boats stayed where they were.

We had an early lunch then went into the beach for a swim.

The other two tenders and crew were on the beach. A quick chat with them before they all went back to their boats.

Water was a bit cool, but still got wet!

Back to Lazuli to get dry (and for a tiny bit more work), and then get prepared for an afternoon on the beach.

We met the others on the beach at about 3:30pm and got ready for the night. We ended up with 5 boats and 9 kids!
The kids all had a great time playing in the sand, running around and exploring the bush.

There’s a permanent fire area set up on the beach, with gazebo, table & chairs and a selection of cooking equipment.
They also have a stack of pre-cut firewood to help yourself too.

With the fire going it was time to bust out some food and drinks.

Usual platter:

• cheese
• chips
• olives
• asparagus dip

Kristie and the girls made some damper, and we got that cooking.

Sweet potatoes went in the fire wrapped in foil.

Marshmallows came out before dark. The kids enjoyed finding and sharpening sticks (our usual forks are still in the camper trailer!)

Always opportunities for sunset photos over the water.

There was a big grill to put over the fire, so we had

• fish
• chicken
• pumpkin
• more chicken
• steak
• cauliflower

There was also a salad. Plenty of food for everyone to share and enjoy!

More wine/cider, then the schnapps came out again (thanks Russ, very tasty!), and we alternated between that and the bottle of Port I brought along.

Gradually the others left until it was just the four of us with Viv and Russ, enjoying the fire on the beach.

What a great night.

Managed to find Lazuli without too much trouble :)

The following is Emma’s recount of our time on the beach:

At the Great Keppels we had a fire on the beach.
There already an area set up which made things a lot easier.
We had five boats of friends of boats with us.
In those five boats there was nine kids and that, equals CHAOS!
We build a giant sand fortress in a race against the tide.
We build it for baby Mia, but she wasn't allowed out of the carrier so we basically built it for nothing!
We found and cleaned some stick for cooking marshmallows and sausages over the fire.
I helped mum make damper and Kristina helped me stir.
The damper took a while to cook but it was delicious when it was ready.

The following is Kristina’s recount of our time on the beach:

Last night we went to Svendsons beach with out boat friends.
We started off with just four boats and that was fun but then another boat came and it had two more kids.
There were nine kids, lots of sand and lots more chaos.
All us kids (except for the two toddlers) started working on four Baby.
It was a giant sand castle that was hollow on the inside. 
It had walls and a big moat surrounding it.
Fort Baby was about two meters long and wide and we called it Fort Baby because it was for the two toddlers.
Although neither of them were allowed in so we made it Charlee/Fake Donald Trumps grave.

Friday 6th

Bella and Exhale left early to head around to Fishermans Bay.

We had school and work so didn’t move too early.

We figured we’d just move back to Leekes Beach and walk across to the resort (we needed an Ice Cream and to find an Echidna).

With Lazuli moved, we had a lunch then got ready to head into the beach. Jana & Sebastian and the 4 kids joined us for the walk.

We had to walk a bit back down the beach, then along the track up to the 1st Lookout (which has seen better days!).

Bit of an up hill walk, but once there it was easy down.

Walked to the pub on the corner.

One of the other kids had climbed up a few of the coconut trees and pulled down a collection which the kids carried down the road.

They set up and with the help of their trusty pocket knife had them opened up ok.

We got our ice creams and walked back to meet the others who’d stopped outside the resort.

We all tried the coconut water:

…some less impressed than others!

With twilight fast approaching we had to head back down the beach to walk over the headland.

Kristie came across an Echidna just on the top of the beach by the cabins. We all came back for some photos.
It was completely un-phased by any of us.

A quick stop for a swing along the beach on the way back:

The walk up the headland was ok. There’s a rope on the other side to help get down.

Some lovely sunset photos on the beach.

By the time we got back to our tender there were some fairly decent waves breaking on the beach! Didn’t look like a nice comfortable night.

We got back on and called across to Russ to check out what it was like there… still a bit of a roll but didn’t sound as bad as what we had here.

Quick anchor up, and we were off before the sun could set.

Most of Fisherman’s bay is a bit too shallow for us, so we were out just a bit behind the others.
Rolly, but not as bad as the other side.

The following is Emma’s recount of the walk we did:

We went on a walk at the Great Keppel Island.
We waited for our friends on Leekes Beach.
When they arrived we started to walk along the sandy beach.
At first the path was rocky and sandy, and then it got steep.
When we got to the top the rocks turned into bitumen which made it easier to walk.
At the bottom on the other side, there were some coconut trees.
Yoshi climbed the coconut trees and tossed coconuts down.
Malo cut them open with his pocket knife so we could drink the milk!
I didn't like the taste but the others did.
We also bought some ice creams because we have a boat rule that we get an ice cream every place we visit.
We started to walk back then we saw an echidna.
The echidna was trying to find something to eat.
We stood still and the echidna walked 3cm away from my foot.
We named it Bobirina!

The following is Kristina’s recount of the walk we did:

On Friday we did a walk at Leekes Beach. 
We beat our friends to the beach so we pulled our tender up and waited for them.
While we were waiting some other kids that we hadn't seen before (apparently they were on Keppel Island before got there)
came to the beach.
Mum and Dad did a bit of talking with their Dad and at the end out newest friends said they were going to tender over to the other side of the Island.
They left then some of our other friends came over.
(We have so many boat friends that it's getting hard to keep track of them.)
Since they got there we started walking up the beach.
We all found the start of the walk. 
The first bit was lovely, with soft dirt beneath our feet and lush trees above our head.
Then the trees got thinner and the dirt turned to gravel.
Emma started complaining about the fact that it was getting steeper.
None of us liked that bit but the rest of us kept it to ourselves.
After a bit the gravel turned into pavement and we were back under lush trees.
We got to the resort and we noticed all the coconut trees that were full of coconuts.
Yoshi was the first one to react, shimming upt the side of a tree.
It took him a couple tries but he managed to get down two big coconuts before coming back down the tree.
We continued walking and found thw shops, a good spot to sit near the shops and two small coconut trees.
This time both Yoshi and Malo climbed up.
One of the coconuts go me on the head but it didn't hurt too much.
After the boys had collected eleven coconuts Malo decided it was time to opn them with their own personal pocket knives.
Neither me nor Emma liked the coconut water but what we did like 
was the Ice creams we got to obey the rule we have on Lazuli: We must have at least one ice cream each place we go.
This was Mum and Dads way of bribing us onto the boat.
We were heading back along a different path then Mum told us she found one of the echidnas.
We came over to see it then she showed me where our new friends from earlier were.
I ran over to get them because they were just about to leave. 
I told them but although they didn't believe me they came anyways.
Amy, Yoshi, and Malo had seen an echidna last time they were here and Amy named it Bob.
This one was a different colour so we named it Boblina.
OVer all it was a good day and I'm glad that we went on the walk.

Saturday 7th

We had a reasonably big day today - about 45nm to get up to Pearl Bay. We’ve heard it’s nice.

With breakfast done and the boat ready, we dropped the tender so we could offload our rubbish to the bins at the beach.
We’ll be a bit more remote the next week or so with no option to drop rubbish anywhere.

We said our goodbyes to Exhale and Bella, they’re hanging around there a bit longer while we have to head north a bit quicker.
It’s been great travelling with them the last month (we met them the start of May at Fraser Island). Hope to see them again in the Whitsundays!

Motored out and around the islands. No wind sadly :(
Once out of the green zones the lures went in - one on my rod, another on the hand line the girls had given me last year (and I’d yet to catch anything on it).

We’d probably been motoring for an hour or so when my reel went nuts. We slowed down and tried to reel it in.
It put up a great fight, especially when it got close to Lazuli.

I got it to the surface, and with Kristie’s help got it in the net and onboard. I managed to get it across the other side before it splattered too much blood.

It was a 65cm Mackerel Tuna. A bit bigger than the last one I got that was 55cm.

Just as I’d got it off the hook and in the bucket I noticed the lure on the hand reel had hooked up another fish and was dragging it along the surface at high speed!
Glove back on, and started the lengthy process of bringing in the hand line.
The fish wasn’t fighting at all which did make it easier, no way I could have pulled in the last one by hand!
Again, got it close to the side and Kristie scooped it up. Another Mac Tuna, just a bit smaller than the first one.

Gave them time to bleed, then started the process of filleting and cleaning up. Got quite a haul of meat out of both.

Dinner sorted for a couple of nights.

The wind came up eventually (to maybe 10knts) so we put the sails up and enjoyed a nice 30min sail before having to drop them again.

Motored the rest of the way in to Pearl Bay.

Tried to find a less rolly spot, but not too many options for us.

Anchor down, and then cleaned up and put the infill back on.

Dinner.