Day 177-185 - Percy Islands - Digby Island - Curlew Island.

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

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

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:

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:

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.