Saturday 17th May

We had the boat ready, so at 8am we cast off to head out through the East Channel, destination Heron Island.
Exhale and Bella wouldn’t be far behind us.

We’d timed our Gladstone transits well (NOT!).. We were against the outgoing tide when we first came in, and leaving now against the incoming tide.

The other two boats left via the North Channel, which they both said was easy and really quite pretty.
Our path from the East Channel had us going directly through the fleet of ships waiting/anchored off.
There was lots of checking on Marine Traffic to make sure they weren’t moving!!

We motored all the way, no wind at all.

We trolled most of the way, not fish at all.

We got to Wistari Reef in good time. There were three free moorings. We grabbed the first one.

Tender down, wetsuits on, and in the water for a quick snorkel.

This was what our trip had been about - diving and snorkeling the reefs/islands in Queensland!

The other two boats turned up while we were in the water. We gave them a wave.

No wind, perfect afternoon conditions.

Kristie geared up and got in for a solo night dive.

A pleasant enough dive apart from a very leaky mask.
Turns out there’s a good chunk missing out of the frame the holds the prescription lenses in.
A new mask has now been ordered.

Sunday 18th

Had breakfast then filled tanks. We still had two tanks that were empty from diving in NSW.

We got the dive gear ready, and the plan was to head over to Heron Bommie and dive/snorkel there.

Kenny and Kristie went in first, and had a nice 40min dive - they saw over 20 turtles, a dozen reef sharks and a Manta amongst everything else here.

The girls and I stayed up the top and snorkeled. They lasted about 30min before getting too cold and hopping back in the boat.

Kenny and Nic then took the girls back to their boat (via Lazuli, so they could get changed and grab essentials like iPads!).
Kristie and I enjoyed a very relaxing dive by ourselves.

Back to Lazuli for lunch and filling tanks while the girls were still on Exhale. Kenny and Nic even fed them - thanks heaps guys.

Got the girls back onboard, then took Kristie for an afternoon drift dive along the Wistari Wall (probably ‘Wistari 2’ -> ‘Wistari 1’).

Sunset drinks on Exhale with us and Viv & Russ.

Monday 19th

School and Work.

Early lunch then into Heron to walk around the island and have a swim. We saw a couple of the turtle nesting areas that were roped off for protection.
The NW side, sheltered from the wind, was particularly nice to swim at. Calm and clear water.

We had to wade through the water to get around the corner back to the boat. I carried Emma on my shoulders, whilst Kristie and Kristina had to wade along after me.

In the tender and a bumpy/wet ride back to Lazuli. The wind was up so we weren’t going to be doing much else for the afternoon.

Tuesday 20th

Early school this morning as we needed to be on the island for a tour of the Research Station.
The girls had their wetsuits on for the wet ride across.

We were met at the rotunda at the end of the jetty. A quick walk and a bit of a chat about turtles and some interesting research correlating nest temperature with the resulting sex of the baby turtle.
The station also has a touch pool with a variety of starfish, coral, and sea cucumbers… all for touching!

I enjoyed the fast-paced race to see which starfish could turn itself over after being placed upside down in the tank.

They also had a nice map of dive sites:

We said a very quick hello to Diana as she walked past on her way to go diving. She was on Heron Island for the week teaching a Coral Health Workshop.
We had planned to catch up for sundowners on the beach, however the wind picked up and it wasn’t possible to get back across in the tender.

The following is Emma’s recount of our time at the Research Station:

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We had a tour at the research station on Heron Island.
Our tour guide talked about three turtles before we walked in.
Green sea and logger head turtles nest on the island but hawksbills just visit.
She took us inside and showed us the touch tank. 
My favourite thing in the touch tank was the fluffy coral.  
Its small tentacles made it fluffy.  
Next to the bridge there was some experiments. 
They were trying to learn more about coral bleaching.

Wednesday 21st

Conditions were better this morning. Kristie and I got the dive gear sorted and went across to Heron for another dive.
We tied the tender up to the mooring at (what we think is) Pams Point, and drifted towards Heron Bommie. Lovely dive.

Not long after we got back to Lazuli, Exhale and Bella left for Fitzroy. We still had more diving to do so we weren’t going to head off with them.

School & Work when we got back from our dive.

Filled tanks in the afternoon, and replaced one of Kristie’s reg hoses as it was about to pop.

Thursday 22nd

Early school, then wetsuits on for one last dive/snorkel at Heron Island (back at Heron Bommie).

The girls and I had a snorkel while Kristie did a solo dive.
We had tied up to the moorings to get Kristie in the water; not long after the tour / glass bottom boat came past and asked us not to use their mooring.
There was a fair bit of current, so we ended up doing a bit of a drift snorkel. Drift north, then motor back to the start.
The girls lasted about 30min. I stayed in the water, and eventually Kristie came up.

There was a Manta Ray on one of the bommies, so I snorkeled out to that. I managed to convince Emma to get in and she saw it, but Kristina didn’t.
Emma later explained that the reason she called it “dumb” was that she was cold and hungry.

Back to Lazuli for an early lunch and then to motor to Fitzroy Reef (no wind at all).

I finally managed to catch something on one of the lures I’d been trolling out the back! This time I hooked a 55cm Mackerel Tuna.

I got it in, and it managed to splatter blood everywhere. Got it bled, and then filleted before getting into Fitzroy.

We had an easy passage in through the very narrow channel. Kenny had his drone up and was watching/filming us on the way in.
“in 20m you can turn to port”. Thanks Kenny.

There are only 3 moorings there, and all were taken. We dropped anchor near not far from the others.

They were just off for a snorkel, so we had our tender in the water and wetsuits on pretty quickly.

We loaded up the swim mat and met the others close to the entrance channel. Lots of fun with the mermaid tails, and some snorkeling.

Sips ‘n dips on Exhale. Some tasty G&T’s from Russ, thanks!

Friday 23rd

Early breakfast, then loaded up the tender for Kristie go to diving. We just popped outside the entrance and around the corner.
Easy dive, but not much big stuff there (not surprising when you consider the number of fishing boats that overnight at Fitzroy!).

Exhale & Bella left for Musgrave while Kristie was underwater. We’ll see them tomorrow.

Back to the boat and school for the girls.

Lunch then more time in the water. We took the swim mat to another reef near us, and had lots of fun with mermaid tails.

The wind was predicted to swing about during the night, so with two moorings now free, being on them was going to be better… apart from the mooring ball smacking into your hull in the middle of the night :(

Not long after we’d picked up the mooring, we noticed a turtle was enjoying a good munch on the growth on the mooring line.
More importantly, 3 massive squid were also hanging around it. With possibly the fastest lure change I’ve done, I had a squid lure on and on the first cast hooked one before they swam away.
It squirted out quite a bit of ink when hooked, and on the way in. I thought I was in the clear so I lifted it up to get it in the bucket.
It then unloaded another supercharged jet of ink that went all over our nice white deck, and Kristie (it got her dress and face :(

After much cursing and cleaning, I had the squid ready for eating. Sadly cleaning the deck wasn’t as easy.

Calamari for entrée, and the mac tuna for the main course. Yum. Hope to catch a few more of either of those :)

There were now a dozen other boats in the lagoon for the night. Very popular in these good conditions.

Saturday 24th

We left Fitzroy Reef at 7am with just a slight outgoing tide, heading to Lady Musgrave Island (LMI).
With no wind we had to motor the entire way.

We got to the entrance at about 10:30am, and there was a lot of water rushing out the channel. I wasn’t super keen to go against that.
We grabbed the mooring that’s right at the entrance and decided to wait for slack water at midday. We had tanks to fill, so it wasn’t a waste of time.

By 12:30pm the water had slackened right off, so we cast off the mooring and headed in. The entrance is much wider and deeper than Fitzroy, but still you worry about it!
We were about halfway through the channel when the dive boat from the pontoon shot straight past us at full speed.
Just what you need! Couldn’t see the edge, and the waves were big enough that Emma had to sit down. They are a bunch of clowns.

20 years ago I had first come to Musgrave Island as a Dive Master on Esperance Star. I was so impressed and taken with the place that I vowed that one day I’d come back in my own boat.
Today was that day! I’ve been back and spent some time on the island on other trips, but being here on our own boat was really special.

Exhale and Bella had anchored just to the left/NW of the entrance (pretty much as far away from the island as is possible!).
Their friends where also there, so with plenty of space around them (and it looked magnificent) we dropped anchor there as well.

Kristie and I went for a quick dive in the lagoon. Easy, apart from the end when we ran into a lot of current. Wasn’t expected nor appreciated!

We came back to the boat to get the girls and take them to another spot to give them a go at the scuba thing.
We had borrowed an XS BCD from Chris R, but it was still too big for the girls. I had my ally backplate, so we tried that.
With the harness setup I could get that pretty tight across their shoulders and waist. The plate is still a little big, would be good to have a smaller one.

Kristina didn’t feel that comfortable and did not really get a dive, but Emma had a nice little swim and really loved it.

While on the tender, we got the call over #69 that dinner was going to be on Exhale tonight, 5pm, and all were invited to come and bring something to share.
Another boat, “Sailing Papao” (they spearfish - you can check them out on the socials) were next to Exhale, and had given Kenny a massive slab of Spanish Mackerel.
The beast it came from was probably 1.2m or so, nearly as big as Emma. Everyone else was out of potatoes, so I offered to cook ours up and bring along something.

We got back to Lazuli at about 4pm, and I got the potatoes in the oven pretty quickly, and sorted out downstairs while Kristie filled tanks.

Potatoes came out of the oven and into the Billy Boil with some sun dried tomato pesto.

There was so much food - we didn’t get through all the Mackerel. The steaks took up half a plate each!
Also, plenty of drinks. Russ brought out an unopened bottle Danish schnapps. We finished that bottle.
I had also taken the rest of the Port. We also finished that.

Good times with great people.

Sunday 25th

7am departure for Manata Bommie. We offloaded some dive gear into Kenny’s tender, then the 3 of us (in two tenders) set off.
It’s a good 2NM from where we were anchored to the dive site. It’s a long time in a slow tender (ours isn’t running that well).

I did surface watch when Kenny and Kristie dived. I eventually dropped anchor and managed to get it firmly stuck in some coral.

I had plenty of Manta Rays on the surface with me. After a good drift, I picked the other two up (I’d had to chuck my anchor rope overboard attached to a pool noodle to get later).

We took our tender back to the anchor and fixed it there, and the 3 of us went back to the start of the dive in Kenny’s tender.
We dropped in a little further away from the mark this time.
Kristie and I had an amazing dive. We were lucky enough to see 3 mantas on the top of one of the bommies. So cool.

Otherwise, plenty of fish, sharks, and other critters.
We managed to drift past the abandoned tender anchor. It was easy enough to unhook and send drifting for Kenny to pull up.

We had a slow trip back to Lazuli, only just managing to get in through the outgoing channel!

I did the washing up, and then we set off to go snorkel and a reef walk with the others.

We had a nice snorkel not far from the island, then the tenders all made their way into the beach (avoiding coral and landing boats from the pontoon).

We walked through the island and across to the campsite to explore the reef (it was now low tide).

Saw a bunch of squid in some of the pools at the end, a seahare, and lots of sea cucumbers, crabs and starfish.

We were last back to the tender, and the others were long gone. We headed over to just in front of the pontoon. Jess (from Sailing Papao) had mentioned there was a bit of a turtle cleaning station there.
There were a bunch of turtles, but they all fled when a boat load of snorkelers turned up and jumped in on top of them.

We had a long snorkel, and ended up seeing quite a few turtles after the tourists all left.

Back to Lazuli for a late lunch.

Kristie went off for a SUP, then we filled tanks.

Just sips ‘n dips by ourselves tonight.

The anchorage gets quite rolly at high tide (which were at night while we were there). However, it makes for a nicer morning/day when it’s low tide.

Monday 26th

School.

Wetsuits on as we were going to head into LMI to walk around the island (has to be done on every trip). Girls enjoyed jumping off the boat to cool down.

Quite a few trees down along the eastern corner of the island.

We all had fun exploring and looking for shells and turtle tracks. There were some fresh tracks around the southern side.
We stopped off for a quick cool down in one of the pools by the waters edge.

We had also packed dive gear into the tender, so with the walk done it was back to the turtle cleaning station and tied off to the mooring there
(no day boats today - nobody to interrupt us or move us on :)

Kristina went first, and had nice dive around the bommie. She saw quite a few turtles (some shallow, some down at 6m), and even got to see one with her fingers ;)
(what’s that saying: “Fingers don’t have eyes!” ;)

Emma had a go, but had troubles equalising and was put off. Kristie went to take some photos of Kristina swimming around with her mermaid tail.
I convinced Emma to have another go, and she did really well the 2nd time. She also got to “see” the turtle down at 6m.

With the girls (and Kristie) exhausted from the diving, it was back to Lazuli for a late lunch.

Charlie paddled over, and the girls played lego, roblox, and watched some tv.

I went for a nice SUP around the reef near us. Saw a few reef sharks and plenty of fish.

Back onboard it was time to put away as much gear as possible, ready for the sail/motor tomorrow.

I had the engine on to charge up the batteries a bit, then it dropped into gear and wouldn’t get out of gear!
Bit of a panic (wasn’t looking forward to getting stuck in the lagoon!).

I tried a bunch of things, then called over kenny to help.
Turns out the morse/cables had a hydro lock, and with that released it was back to normal operations.

The following is Kristina’s recount of her dive:

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We had a great time at Musgrave Island and we did so many fun things.
My favourite thing was when our Mum taught us how to do Scuba-diving.  
The first time I tried the belt wasn't tight enough so the tank kept wobbling.
That made it keep flipping and rolling me around.
The next day I tried again and it went way better.
Instead of rolling around my Mum made sure that I was staying the right way round.
Another thing was that I got to pat a turtle who was sitting on the floor and eating some of the seaweed.
I enjoyed it so much that I want to do even more diving when our tanks are full again.

The following is Emma’s recount of her dive:

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Musgrave Island is amazing. At Musgrave I scuba dived for the first time.
On one of our dives we visited the turtle cleaning station.
At the cleaning station, turtles get cleaned by little fish.
We saw a turtle resting on the sand eating sea grass.
We slowly swam down to touch the turtle. 
We couldn't swim fast because we'd use up too much breath and scare the turtle away.
At the end of the dive the water was freezing and each breath I was shivering.
But I had so much fun.

Tuesday 27th

The night before we’d heard over the radio that the others were planning to leave at 7am. They were heading for Gladstone.
We had planned to leave at the same time, but we were going to stop for a snorkel with Mantas on the way, and then head to Pancake Creek for two nights.

So up early, and the others were both off before 6:30am. Lucky we weren’t racing ;)

We left at 7am on the dot, and motored to the mooring just off the island. Quick drop of the tender and over towards Manata Bommie.
Surface conditions were a bit more choppy with the NW winds. We saw one on the surface but couldn’t get to it in the water.
Kristie jumped in to snorkel to see if she could find one (the girls and I stayed in the tender).
Not long after, we saw one underneath us. Kristina got in quickly and saw it, then Kristie came over and she and Emma saw it.
It ended up swimming off pretty quickly.

We were done, back to the boat to rinse off, raise the tender, and head off.

We got the sails up, and initially the wind was ok. However, after 30min or so it dropped off and swung to the W. The best I could aim for was south of 1770 - a long way from where we needed to be.
Sails down, motor on.

Time to work. I had a work meeting from 11-12:30. It was going well until 12pm when Starlink decided we were in the wrong spot (not on land!) and everything dropped out.
An hour or so later when close enough to the land it came back on ok. It’s the first tme we’ve been out of service the entire trip.

Dropped anchor in Pancake Creek just before 4pm. It was only just after low tide, so we couldn’t go much further than the entrance.

With the tide going to rise another 3m, the sandbar protecting us from the northerly swell was going to disappear.
Just before 5pm we pulled up anchor and slow motored further down (we had 1.1m of tide - up from 0.3m low).
The lowest we saw was 2.6m. Definitely could not have got in at low tide.

With the tide up, it’s still a bit rolly, but much better than it would have been further up.

The following is Kristina’s recount of the trip from Arch Cliffs to Bundaberg on Wednesday 7th May:

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When we left Arch Cliffs we needed to make a quick sail over to Bundy.
We were talking over the radio and racing our way along.
Everyone was trying to catch fish, then Kenny caught a big one. That just made everyone else try harder.
Next it was Russell's turn to catch one. 
Then it was ours and we failed.
We may not have caught a fish but it didn't take long to overtake the others despite their 30min head start.
We kept on sailing until we reached the marina and settled in.
When Exhale got to the marina, Charlie came over to our boat for a play.
After everyone was settled in, we all (including 'Nauti Kitty', 'Exhale', ''Bella Amalfi', and us Lazuli) went to a nearby restaurant for dinner.
Us kids had a go at the claw machine and we were very lucky to get fifteen chocolates.

Saturday 10th May

Bit of a lazy morning.

The girls and I found ourselves in the position of having zero presents ready for Mothers Day tomorrow.

There’s a nice little tourist info centre that also has a bunch of reasonable (quality & price) items for sale.

Kristina, Emma and I walked over and after a bit of browsing and after a few discussions on what Mum would and would not like we left the shop with enough for Mum, and the girls each chose a souvenir to purchase with their own money.

There’s also a fishing tackle shop right next door… how convenient.
Much to the girls annoyance, the guys in there were more than happy to talk at length about lures and load me up with enough for a few more attempts at catching something!

Back on the boat for lunch, then we walked around to the HMAS Gladstone to get a tour on there: https://gladstonemaritimemuseum.org.au/

We all really enjoyed the tour and got to go through the entire ship.

We started off at the engine room and where the steering happens:

Then up to the business end:

When they decommissioned it, they had to get rid of all the ammo. They went out to sea and shot it all!
That would have been fun :)
Other than that, it had been used a few times in anger to disable illegal fishing boats.

I wouldn’t mind having a ship with a bridge like this and such good crew to help run her :)

One of the more interactive tours we’ve been on, 100% can recommend.

The following is Emma’s recount of the HMAS Gladstone tour:

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We visited HMAS Gladstone.
It is a navy battle ship but now it's a museum.
When the sailors were on it they called it "Happy Rock" 
and when the sailors were off they called it "Sad Rock".
There was volunteer that took us on a tour inside.
We visited all the rooms and the deck.
I learnt that the flags were letters and numbers.
Something that was cool was the gun.
I got to sit in the seat and hold a bullet.
Me and Kristina had the job of looking for all the black phones inside.

Once the tour was done wes strolled over to Auckland House, a cafe/brewery on the water (my brother had recommended it).
We booked for a late lunch tomorrow for Mothers Day.

I walked back via Woolies to get some supplies for breakfast… about a 6km detour.

Back to the boat for the afternoon.

Sunday 11th May - Mothers Day

Bit of a sleep in, then it was presents for mum:

Followed by pancakes for breakfast:

I got in a load of washing/drying before we got ready to head off for lunch.

20min walk around to lunch. We’d booked in for 1:30pm, but we got there just before 1pm and could get a table straight away.
Food and drinks were excellent. Took a while to get them given how busy it was.

On the walk yesterday we’d met a couple from a boat opposite us at the marina and they had not enjoyed their lunch. Oh well, we did.

We’d brought togs for the girls so they could play in the water/splash park. There were a few other younger kids having fun as well.

I walked back via Woolies… another 5km detour.

Back onboard we got things sorted for a movie night. Nachos for dinner, and we watched “Ella Enchanted” (mum’s request).
Ice cream after dinner.

Monday 12th

School, and started a bit of work.

However, the fridge parts arrived today, and with my Monday meeting cancelled, today was going to be the only day I’d get to head off to the shops.

The marina does a courtesy van that drops you off at various places (leaves the marina at 10:30am) and picks you up at one or two spots at 1:30pm.

I got dropped off at BCF/Bunnings. I had a bit of a list of items to get.

• Filleting table (mounts to our rails) - good for not getting fish guts on the deck!
• Spotlight - our last one had broken.
• Glue - there’s always something that needs gluing.

It’s then a bit of a walk from BCF back to the shopping centre.
I had to get new winter PJ’s for Kristina, and a few scripts from the pharmacy.

Picked up a hot chook for lunch back on the boat.

With round one of shopping done, it was off to Jaycar (about 1.5km or so) to get some new interior lights (the kitchen sink one has been broken for a bit).
The aircon was so nice in there (we have to walk everywhere…mostly) I ended up buying more things.

I got back and fitted the new lights. They’re a drop in replacement, but much brighter and better looking.

Tuesday 13th

School and a full day of work.

Kristie did a walk to the shops & the post office, another 6km return.

Don’t think the girls got off the boat.

Pete and Jess and the boys from Nauti Kitty/Sardinia came over to say hi.

Wednesday 14th

School and work.

Fridge technician turned up to install the freezer.

Kristie and the girls had a turn going shopping via the courtesy van.
I needed a few more things from Bunnings and BCF (fish spike, batteries, electrical goddies, drill bits), and Kristie was keen to get some baskets to help (me) stack things in the freezer.
Another 2.5km walk from Bunnings back to the main shops to visit Woolworths, the pharmacy, bottle shop and Kmart.
Kristina spent some more pocket money and was pleased with her purchase of more lego to add to the collection we already have.

They enjoyed sushi at the shops for lunch (I had very much enjoyed my ice coffee and brownie on Monday!).
With an overflowing trolley, they very much appreciated the lift home on the courtsey bus.

Kristie went for a walk down to the fual dock with 6 jerry cans (4x 20L, a 10L & 5L). They only have Hi-flow diesel, and our boat doesn’t take that.
With a fuel nozzle that didn’t fit into the jerry cans, it was an effort to try and slowly dribble the diesel in. The bowser didn’t appreciate the low flow and repeatedly timed out.
After 3 phone calls to the tackle shop (and a wait each time for someone to walk down and reset the bowser) the guys tuned up with a makeshift funnel (cut off water bottle) which helped speed the process up.

After walking back to the Marina, Kristie called me up for assistance to help get the 115L of desiel back down the ramp to the pontoon.

I decantered 2 jerrys into Lazuli and sent Kristie back to the fuel dock to repeat the process. This time she took our funnel which made things a lot easier.

We’re 100% full now, ready to go exploring!

Ww also needed to dump some old oil, so Kristie set off to the dump point.

Thursday 15th

Kristie got a supply teaching day, so up early to get ready for that (and to submit the online Woolies order) before jumping in a taxi to head to Prep.

My turn to help with school this morning as I was done working for the week.

The fridge guy turned up to install the fridge compressor and check on the freezer (he had to adjust the amount of gas in it).

Out with the old:

In with the new:

I had a long list of jobs that needed doing before we head off, and I got most of them done.

• Emptied our water tanks (2 of the 3 were empty anyway) and refilled them.
• Changed the spark plugs on the tender outboard (long overdue)
• Fitted the filleting table (Kristie had started on it yesterday).
• Rewired some lights in Kristina’s room
• Rewired two lights in my room
• Fixed up some of the headliners that kept coming down…hopefully gorilla grip + sticky velcro dots will solve it??
• Adjusted the vang to the right length (hopefully).
• Pulled out the speed log and depth sounder and gave them a clean. They accumulate growth too quickly.
• Emptied the composting toilet (yay)
• Wiped/cleaned the bathrooms.
• Ran to Jaycar to purchase a 120mm 12V fan to extract the hot air from the space where the freezer compressor is.
• Installed the fan

Out with the old and in with the new:

There’s always a list, but it was handy being in a marina to knock a few jobs off the list (I think I visited the Ship & Sail chandlery at least 5 times during the week).

With school finished Kristie made the 6km walk back home via Woolies to collect a couple of items that we couldn’t get via the online order.

Our Woolies delivery (20 bags worth) turned up as I was making dinner.
Kristie and I got that back to the boat and the girls helped get it onboard.

Now to find a home for everything!

Dinner, then started putting everything away… a few items got rearranged to different spots (hope I remember where I put everything!)

Put a load of washing on after dinner.

Friday 16th

Getting ready to head off.

Woolies had delivered 120g of ham/salami… that won’t last us long. Kristie walked over to Woolies (in the rain) to get more before we head off (and a bunch of other items that got left off the shopping list).
We somehow have managed to head to Woolies eveyday we’ve been in Gladstone Marina and we’re not going to miss that walk when we’ve gone.

We were hoping to get out to Heron, but with the Northerlies we won’t head there.

At 10am we needed to make a decision; Kristie called/chatted to Nic off Exhale as they were on the way in.
Conditions out there were rough, and they didn’t recommend heading out.
Kristie booked another night here at the marina.
With sailing postphoned, it was time for school.

We caught lines for both boats when they came in.
Bella ended up directly opposite us, and Exhale about as far away from us as possible.

The ladies arranged to head to the Yacht Club for dinner at 6pm. Charlie came over to hang out with our girls.

Viv gave me a tour of their lovely Jeanneau, every nice inside and out!

We had quick nibbles and drinks on their boat at 5pm, before walking across for dinner.

They had us out outside down by the water. The girls went and got their own table, and requested their own number for getting their dinner. Love it.

Dinner was great. My Mexican Parmi was massive.

The girls enjoyed a run around in the park…

…and also found a tree to climb.

It started spitting on the way back, but held off on anything solid.

Got the girls in bed, then invited ourselves for drinks with Viv and Russ. Viv had a bottle of red from the nibbles earlier that needed finishing, and I brought over the decanter of Port that Evan & Prue gave us last year.

We had made plans to head to Heron tomorrow. The others needed to fill up and do a few jobs before setting off, but we will head off earlier.

Saturday 3rd May

We had a bit of a bumpy night and morning.

We got some school and work done, before deciding we’d move on rather than head into the beach down here.

We had planned to head to Wathumba Creek as we’d heard good things about it.
Half way there we saw 5 of other yachts at Arch Cliffs, and it looked calm and very pleasant, so we went in and dropped anchor.

We’d only been there half an hour or so when there was some commotion on the beach. It looked like someone was being carried up the beach from a tender.
Not long after the Rescue Helicopter turned up and landed on the beach.

They were there for a while before taking the person back with them.

We had felt it wasn’t right to head to the beach while that was going on, so after the helicopter left we went in for a swim.

We met another couple who were also on the beach: Viv and Russell. They are sailing on a 45ft Jeanneau ‘Bella Amalfi’.
It turns out it was them in their tender that had gone to assist the charter boat and picked up the victim (luckily Viv is a nurse!): a 14hr old girl had an arm and left chopped up badly by the prop from the tender the family were using on their charter boat.
The girl was air lifted to Hervey Bay hospital and had surgery that night.

We invited ourselves to sunset drinks on the beach before they took off.

We enjoyed a nice afternoon on the beach.

There were dingo tracks on the beach:

There’s a freshwater creek to play in, and up the end where the campers were is a rope swing for some fun!

Back to Lazuli to get dry and ready for drinks/nibbles on the beach.

Russ and Viv came over on their tender to tell us there were heading in to the beach.
One of the other boats came over as well to say hi on the way in: Nic and Kenny and their 9yr old daughter Charlie (on a cat ‘Exhale’).
We all went into the beach. Our dip and biscuits couldn’t match the platter Viv produced! The girls had fun playing with Charlie.
We also met George and Smiley who were on a cat and based in Tin Can Bay.

Back to Lazuli in the dark and cooked dinner.

Sunday 4th

Woke up to a rainy morning.

I tried to fix the watermaker. The end of one of the high pressure housings had blown off so I attempted to pull the entire thing out.
Bit of a mess. I got it back in, but no luck as I couldn’t get the pressure above 300psi, and only saltwater was coming out the sample pipe :(

Kenny dropped Charlie over to play with the girls. As I’d pulled downstairs apart, they played upstairs making loom bands.

Lunch then into the beach.

Kenny had pumped up their tube and the girls were super excited to have a go of that. With only a 8hp outboard, it was one kid at a time only!

Bit more of a swim, then up to the rope swing for some more swinging.

Was too wet for sunset drinks on the beach :(

Monday 5th

Labour Day - so no school or work!

We got ready to head into the beach to meet Charlie. A new cat (Nauti Kitty) had turned up so went over to say hi to them.
We had a chat and mentioned we were planning to head into Bundy for supplies as we would soon be out of meat.
They generously offered some of their fresh tuna if we wanted some. Yes please!

It started raining, so we took ourselves and the bag of loot (tuna) back to the fridge.
We’d told Kenny and Nic that’d we’d got tuna, and he suggested (insisted?) that we bring the tuna to their boat and he’d happily make sushi/sashimi for all!
Yes please!

Rain eventually cleared so we got to the beach. We walked up the sandhill and flew our kites from the top.

With the SE winds, up the top was the best/only spot to fly with good wind.

Pete from Nauti Kitty came in with his two boys (7 & 9).

The kids spend ages playing in the creek with the coffee rock.

Back to Lazuli to get ready for lunch. We took our swim mat over as well.
Kenny had whipped up the best sushi I’d ever had. Fresh tuna sashimi as well. Amazing.
Emma smashed the tuna as much as the adults did!

The kids then enjoyed jumping off their boat and playing on the swim mat.

Back to the boat for only a little time before we were back on the beach with everyone for Sips ‘n dips.

Fun times on the beach with everyone, with a lovely sunset over Lazuli.

Kenny got his drone out, and we all gathered for a group photo.

Another late night back to Lazuli for dinner.

Tuesday 6th

Kristie went for a SUP down the fresh water creek.

With our dinner supplies dwindling we had to make firm plans for what we were doing next.

Our fridge had been struggling with the low voltage (with a few days of rain), so we were looking at options to get it fixed.
Our built-in freeze hadn’t been working well since ever and we’d been using dads 40L Engel as a freezer; but if we have guests we’ll be short of space.
I had no luck getting anyone able to look at it in Bundy, but Gladstone was an option.
We had two days of good weather for sailing, so we could manage it.

I booked us into the Marina at Gladstone on Friday, and then booked Bundy for one night on Wednesday; we’d have to anchor overnight somewhere up that way on Thursday.

We then got the invite (via the Party Chanel - VHF #69) to come on over to Nauti Kitty for more sushi/sashimi.
Yes please!

We also took our mat across for lunch, and the 5 kids spent ages jumping off the cat and swimming.

They also spent ages jumping off the front, and then swimming underneath the cat to the back steps/swim mat.

Quick lunch then back to Lazuli for me to work and also confirm our plans and arrange trade visits.

I dropped Kristie and the kids into the beach and they spent ages there.

A dingo had been walking up and down the beach all afternoon.

As soon as Kenny and left to go back to his boat (Jess came in) the dingo started approaching the group and bailing them up and following them into the water.
Kenny jumped on the radio and Russ, Pete, and myself all sped in on tenders to rescue the women and kids.
Pete and Kristie went back into the beach armed with paddles to get the beach toys that had been left when the dingo turned up.

With a big sail tomorrow, everyone (including us) was getting their boats ready and there was no beach gathering.

Wednesday 7th

We had set alarms to get ready for a 6:30am start (as that’s what Kenny and Russ had talked about the day before).

We got up on deck at about 6am to see ‘Exhale’ already off, and ‘Bella Amalfi’ pulling up their anchor.
Without rushing too much we got going and were off at 6:30.

We motored out to the wind and set sail. They waited for us to catch up a bit which was great.
‘Exhale’ was going along nicely until the halyard detached from their main, so they had to take that down and motor on with just the headsail.

Kenny was the first to catch a fish, and then Russ not long after. We got nothing.

We eventually caught up and continued on past them both to head into the marina only a few minutes in front of them.

We got to our berth easily enough with a help from the marina staff. Help catching lines is always appreciated.

As soon as we got our boat tied up we walked down to catch lines for Russ and Viv.

I checked in and paid for the night.

Heading back to our boat we saw Kenny who had discovered they were in the wrong ‘blue’ arm of the marina and had to move. Russ and I went over to catch lines in their new spot.

Kristie called up the IGA who offer a service to come pick you up from the marina and take you back to the IGA, then back to the marina when you’re done. Handy!

I bought some bait with the hope of fishing when we got done tomorrow.

Charlie came over and the girls got stuck into the box of lego.

We got cleaned up met the others at 6pm to walk into Burnett Heads to go the pub for dinner.
It was about a 20min walk. The kids all had fun together, and the adult end of the table had a good laugh and feed.

We talked the publican into getting the courtesy bus going and dropping us all back to the marina. Handy!
The girls (mostly Charlie) proceeded to incriminate themselves in front of the driver in how they could hit the side of the chocolate-money-wasting-machine and get more chocolate out of it.

Said our goodbyes and got ready for the sail tomorrow.

Thursday 8th

With a big day today we were up at 5am for a 6am departure.

We had about 80nm to do to get up towards Pancake Creek or Rodds Bay.

Nauti Kitty followed us out of the river, aiming for the same area. A few other boats left not long after.

The day started with ~10knt SW winds, so good fast reaching and minimal swell/waves.

Eventually the wind swung around to the SE and matched the swell. Downwind sailing is not much fun. Lots of concentration.
I prefer to sail without autopilot when going dead downwind. Hard work but the autopilot can be a little slow to reach to going down waves.

We finally dropped anchor about 4:30pm down at Seven Mile Creek. A good calm anchorage with only one other boat there.

I didn’t have time for fishing before dinner as we’d sat down for a drink to relax after the big day.

With dinner done and the girls in bed I got the fishing gear out. I only had some frozen squid but that’d have to do.
Lots of small nibbles but couldn’t ever land them.
With time about to be done, I put two squid on and a bigger hook, and it wasn’t long before I had a big bite and definitely landed something.
I broke my rod getting it in, and it managed to splatter a bit of blood around the place. A quick photo then back into the water it went.

Then time to clean up and get to bed.

Friday 9th

Another early start, departing at 6am. We had about 4.5hrs to get to the marina.

We put out the headsail and just ran with that for a time before the motor went on (the sail stayed up) to help with going against 2+knts of tide.

Checked into Gladstone VTS (VHF #13) and proceeded into the harbour.

Got into the marina around 11am. Kristie did a few laps while I got lines and fenders ready.
There were two marina staff ready to catch lines, and with a big gap between our marina arm and the other it was an easy approach.

Kristie checked in while I got the boat sorted (shore power, sail bags zipped up, etc).

We had the technician for the fridge turn up and had a look at things. I’ve ordered two new Dometic units to replace the ones on the boat.
He disconnected the freezer one, and it had no gas in it (probably explains why it wasn’t working!).

Kristie had walked off to go do a small shop (bread). She got back just as the girls and I were on the way back to Lazuli after showering.
Amazing facilities at the Gladstone Marina - the best we’ve been to so far on our trip.
We had collected Emma’s new mermaid tail from the marina office - mum had posted it up to us at the marina.

Streak for dinner.

We’ll be here for a week, waiting out the strong winds, but more importantly doing boat jobs (and work!).