Turtlally Lady Musgrave

Sens de la Vie at Lady Musgrave Island

 After leaving Roslyn Bay Marina we did radio logs to Coast Guard for our passage to Pancake Creek.

Shortly after setting the sails we were contacted by Coast Guard in regard to being a part of Search Recovery and Retrieval, for vessels travelling in this area particularly around the Cape of Capricorn where significant debris had been sighted. We would pass this Cape on our way to Pancake creek. 

We were instructed to change to Recovery Mission Control radio channel operating out of Gladstone for monitoring and instruction in search and retrieval protocols for debris including human remains. I have become reasonably confident in Radio transmissions but this was new territory for me.  It is not an easy task out to sea to pick up anything in big swells but we prepared for search with binoculars and GPS coordinates log and  retrieval drill with boat hooks, tarp and other equipment.  Listening to the radio channel was very sombre with many local boats supporting the families of the lost seaman by searching in particular for human remains.

Debris was found by other vessels and some debris was found in Pancake Creek. Such a significant maritime accident with the loss of lives and our thoughts go out to the families of these young men.

Sailing on sunset to Pancake Creek

We reached Pancake creek in the evening as it was a difficult day sailing, tired and exhausted from another day in big seas but thankful for  the calm anchorage.

I spy a lonely little coconut Tree

Pancake creek is one of my favourite places and it has coconut trees and sandy beaches.

At sunrise we departed for Lady Musgrave as we needed to be there by 2pm to negotiate the small channel which you need sun overhead to spot the coral bommies.

Greeting Turtle

We anchored close to the island cay and relaxed on the beautiful crystal clear blue waters greeted by a turtle and a sea snake .

Lady Musgrave as we approached the coral channel

Lady Musgrave is a favorite of mine and I kept thinking about my girls some 20 years ago when we took them to the island on another yacht for a couple of days.

Particularly Tanya who would not eat anything out of the sea after her visit to the island until she was 21 years old, having experienced the wonderful coral gardens and the Turtles laying their eggs. Jacqui my youngest has fond memories riding on the back of turtles.

On this visit I had the wonderful experience of swimming and snorkeling with the Turtles, amazing.

My Walrus Outfit

It was magical, in the mornings with my morning cuppa I was greeted by turtles and a display of Mantra Rays doing flying breaches and aerobatic displays  into the air.

The bird life is abundant, fishing is fantastic and my count now is 13 to Capt Teza 3, but who’s counting.

Terry found the plug

A LongTom I caught and let go

Sunny warm days, beautiful sunsets, great snorkelling and walks on the island.

Lee Fordes homemade Jam and Freshly baked scones

Terry checking the hull and wing keel

I went for a deep-water dive in the coral gardens which are large boomies in deep surrounding waters. This required me to somehow get back on the tender without a foot hold. Terry fixed a rope foot hold but that did not help much.

I did my “I am a walrus beaching impression”  using my legs to propel me on board the tender that seem to work although I am sure for any onlookers it would have been a hilarious sight. I did not care I was pleased that I could handle the deep-water currents and with my efforts of strength to haul myself into a floating tender in 20ft of water. The black moving shapes on the bottom of the sea on the coral drop offs still freak me out so that is always good motivation to get back onboard.

We explored the outer coral rim and just when I was about to dive in I spotted a shark.  Not a reef shark which I have no real concern about swimming with but a bloody big shark.  

I spy a dark moving shaddow

Bronze Whaler Shark over 3.5 mts Long

We followed it in the tender and it was longer than our tender so it was over 3,5 meters long.  We identified it as a bronze whaler.

Turtle coming ashore to Nest

A sunset picnic and cocktails on the island gave us opportunity to watch the turtles come ashore to nest and lay eggs.

The 4 days at Lady Musgrave was truly magical, totally relaxing and wonderful moments  being in such a pristine coral cay which certainly made up for being blown out of the Percy islands early than we had planned.

Capt Teza and I are truly grateful for reasonably good weather conditions to be out in the middle of the ocean on a coral cay.  Wish we could have stayed longer but forecast not favourable and we need to make passage home.

Loved it and will return again next year.

Percy Islands, Island Head Creek ,Port Clinton to Roslyn Bay.

 

Wild weather blew us out of the Percy Islands and continued to dictate our destination passages.  The seas were very rough with huge swells, rogue waves and winds up to 25 knots.  It was about this time that we got communication of the Trawler sinking off 1770 and the loss of 6 young seaman. Such a tragedy that shook us to the core as we negotiated huge seas to get to safe waters. 

Reminding us that the sea has a power that can never be underestimated no matter how good your seamanship or how well your vessel is equipped.

My blogs I write of wonderful scenery and great experiences to those who are interested in our adventures but the reality is that it’s not always Cocktails at sunsets, fishing and relaxing. Indeed  our yachts name Sens de la Vie(the meaning of Life) has given Terry and I much dialogue of discussion.

“what the hell are we doing owning a yacht and sailing around in this big ocean, we must be crazy”

It ends with us both agreeing we are a bit crazy but we kind of like it that way.

It takes hard work  being constantly vigilant for our safety, charts, plotting, weather, tides, sail trimming, anchoring and passage planning as well as maintaining the safety and working order of the yacht to get us to our destinations.

Certainly, the good days sailing out weigh the bad and I am convinced that life is best enjoyed by understanding and accepting the bad days and rejoice in the good days.

You need to experience all the ups and downs……………..that’s Life.

It’s like this…………………Metaphorically speaking. If you witness a beautiful sunset over the ocean you are amazed and in awe, the next day another beautiful sunset and its wonderful, the next day another beautiful sunset, great and this goes on for the whole week by which time the glorious sunset you witness gets a casual “oh that’s nice”.  Having beautiful sunsets everyday becomes somewhat expected and ordinary.

You need the not so expected and out of the ordinary. A storm, a rainy day and not so great a moment to really appreciate joyous and amazing moments and to recognise what is important and meaningful in your life. To have the ups you must have the downs.

So our passage took us to Island Head Creek where we did not get much comfort from swells and wind, we moved onto Port Clinton which gave us some comfort for a sleep even though we still had to get up to do anchor checks.

To add to our big days on the sea we developed electrical problems and a broken pump.

It must be said that despite the big seas the scenery of the ocean and our anchorages are beautiful and we a very thankful to get to experience all that is about sailing the Queensland coast in areas less travelled by most.

Keppel Bay

WE headed for Roslyn Bay and stayed a couple of days. I was thankful to be in port as weather conditions of storms and big swells meant that we were safe and comfortable in port.

Storms at Keppel

We would be at marina until we could get the parts needed and contact our Marine Electrician on the Gold Coast for assistance. At this point Capt Teza had lost all his good humour. We had a pump on board that Terry used to keep our fridges and freezer operational but it was oversized and we nursed our refrigeration condensers with care until the marine suppliers opened up on the Monday.

The job got done with some problem solving by Capt Teza and some serious and robust discussion with our Electrician. By passing the ubeaut new inverter that cost a fortune and a transformer and we got our batteries charging properly.

I cancelled the Hitman on our Electrician that Terry had ordered, and our electrician has accepted that he now owns the expensive invertor and he will uninstall it when we get back to the coast and sort out the mess of redundant cabling and electrical components and professionally finish the job to the original scope required.

As for the pump we managed to purchase a pump that is different than our normal pumps in the it is a diaphragm Pump, so our boat has this little heart beat for our fridge and freezers.  Capt Teza says “I can do emergency heart bypass with this pump and I Have the jumper leads to start you up again”.  Such a resourceful man my husband.

Heart Pump

We stocked up, did washing, scrubbed the boat and decided that embark to get 4 days at Lady Musgrave if the weather and sea conditions are favourable.

I left my Bra at Percy's

Big Seas and Storms on Horizon

I left my Bra at Percy’s

Well not really my bra although perhaps the residents of Percy Islands could have made some use of my bra as a wind turbine energy device with my cup size.

My quest to craft a coconut bra for Sophie (see previous blog) has had a minor setback.  It would not really be a quest if I simply had to anchor off a remote island and pluck a coconut. I left the half crafted coconuts to make the bra at Middle Percy awaiting to be sanded and polished, very sad and disappointing.

We had to leave the Percy Group of Islands in a hurry,  the bad weather conditions and with no suitable anchorage to the prevailing wind and swells to shelter and anchor in relative safety.

This was a necessary decision to seek shelter and safety in clam waters of Island Head Creek some 50 nautical miles away and await a change in weather.  This decision was made after a very tiring night been on watch and in awful conditions under anchor.  We were anchored very close to a fringing reef and it can be very disturbing when you hear the waves crashing over the reef.  A the big swell puts a lot of pressure on the anchor. In such a small Coral Fringed bay with lots of bommies we only have a small time to react if we come off anchor before we hit the reef.

Crazy Capt Teza- Loving the Big Sail

We left early knowing our journey of 50 miles was going to be arduous against big seas, some waves hit the 5 metre mark  but we managed to have a good sail with an easterly wind. Sens de la Vie performed well under these conditions and whilst the heart was pumping with adrenalin I was pleased that I did not experience any heart stress or anxiety.  Got a good cardio workout even managed to get soup cooked in the galley but not without more bruising. Arrived tired at Island Head Creek at 3pm to the comfort of no swell and sheltered sandy bay.

Wind is still howling at Island Head Creek and you can hear the big seas crashing on the entry headland.

Big Sail day

Trying to beat the storms

A Lone Coconut Tree at Island Head Creek

MY quest for a Coconut Bra for Sophie the Trumpet Lady (see previous post) continues but indeed this may be more of a quest than I first envisioned chiefly as not many isolated islands under the management of National Parks and the environment Govt Depts. have coconut trees left on them.  Govt departments in control and management of these environments have de-nude some islands of coconut trees deeming them not to be native Australian flora.  Many arguments from lessee and land owners adjacent to National park controlled areas of islands have resulted in some groves remaining with debates “part of our heritage of early colonial settlement” or “tourism draw cards” and so forth. It would not be a tropical island without the odd coconut palm on its shore line.

Some say Torres strait islanders also planted coconuts as sustainable food source on their sea faring journey’s up and down the coast many centuries ago. Certainly, the coconut tree provides a lot of uses such as fuel, shelter and food.  Indeed, some coconut groves have just evolved from coconuts floated onto to shorelines naturally.  Compromises have been made by landholders and lessee’s of some of these islands, so don’t be surprised on your next visit to the islands you see little signs on the coconut trees with warnings about falling coconuts. I suspect that debating over environmental issues has been replaced by liability arguments over the past 10 years.

Certainly, walking under coconut trees can be dangerous as the coconut does not make a sound when it dislodges from its branches only a loud thud as it hits the ground. I personally experienced this in the Solomon’s with a near miss of a falling coconut.

Cutting our time short in the Percy Island group and with A layover for a couple of days in Island Head Creek means that we will change our sailing passage now to accommodate the Keppel Islands , Heron Island and Lady Musgrave weather permitting and with favorable winds.

Entering the calm waters of Island Head Creek Bay

Fish Guts & Burley- Tuesday 16th October

Blunt Bay North East Percy Island

After exploring Middle Percy Island and looking at the weather coming in from the south we spent a lazy afternoon back on the yacht doing a few chores and some fishing.

Fishing at Sunset at Middle Percy 

 As the night progressed the swell increased in the bay and we were rocking and rolling.  I got up at dawn having not slept much and decided to fish.  Caught some more bone fish which is really great sport fish and looks like a king whiting but with only one dorsal.  The fish as per its name is full of bones and flesh not good eating.  My bait was depleting so I decided to use some salami as fish love the smell of garlic.  With great effort I landed a 3ft long Pilot fish (sucker fish) Pelagic species known as Remora – that attach themselves to large sharks, mantra rays, whales and sometimes boats. The aborigines used to use these fish to catch turtles. They would tether the Remora so when they attached themselves to a turtle they would retrieve the Remora and the sought after Turtle.

I must say my balance has improved as I managed to wrangle this monster on board using the fish net holding on to the rod and balancing precariously on the stern of a very rocky boat.

Ugliest fish with a big sucker plate on its head, what the hell am I going to do with this.  The captain still sleeping I awoke him for assistance and grabbed my Fish Identity book.  Remoras are not a fish that would be commonly caught and their intimidating appearance would put most people off eating.  My book said Remoras have a high-quality fillet, so I am up for the challenge on how to fillet this fish with an anatomy I am not familiar with but they look similar to a shark.

I decided to stop fishing chiefly as it was getting more rocky by the minute but my thoughts were that whatever The Remora Fish was attached to must be still hanging about and the last thing I would want to have launching onto the stern platform is a shark.

With a fair amount of gusto I managed to kill, de-head , gut and fillet this fish.  Alas with my head down over the bait board on the back of a very rocky boat………..enormous amounts of innards which included internal suckers like an octopus tentacle,  I succumbed to feeling a bit nauseated and sea sick. A first for this trip.

Leaving West Bay Middle Percy

 The swells in the bay had increased in timing and size to a point that it was dangerous and too uncomfortable to stay on anchor.

We made the choice to move to another Island on the North Side of Middle Percy to Blunt Bay to wait out till conditions changed and then return back to Middle Percy Island when favourable to finish my craft challenge of a Coconut Bra and continue our time relaxing in this small paradise haven.

The Passage to the Percy North East Island the conditions worsened We got soaked and it was a rough ride but the scenery on the north face of Middle Percy Island is spectacular with sheer cliffs that you can safely sail close to as the drop is 40 meters deep water.

North Face of Middle Percy

North Face Middle Percy Weather Rolling In

We sailed into Blunt Bay under the Nose of the Sphinx head like shape of the island.  Actually 2 islands called North East Percy Islands attached by a rocky headland that covers at high tide. The bay was calm and we anchored just off the coral reef.

I baked the Capt Teza scones as I promised if he found smooth water this would be his treat.

Weather Rolling In Blunt Bay

2 Islands of North East Percy Islands Blunt Bay

 We rested the afternoon and I did more Fishing.

The score is Leonie 7 Fish, Teza NIL.

Some of my Fish-  Me 7 Teza NIL

Caught a sweet lip and 3 Blue Tusk fish all whilst sipping on a martini. A good day.

In the evening we taste tested the Remora and Sweet Lip and The Remora fillet was very good.

The next day we explored the Coral Reef of Blunt Bay in the afternoon at low tide, Capt Teza foraged for oysters and I enjoyed wading around the half-submerged fringes of the reef. Enjoying the sound of hundreds of crabs clicking to warn of danger, small fish shoals and some larger creatures such as the what I think was a spotted Wobbegong shark, and stingrays.

Look closely in the seaweed

Gentle approaches to exploring rock pools and coral reefs means that you can view these creatures up close and personal. Remaining still for a period of time and just look in detail whilst nature goes about its business unaware and undisturbed by your presence. It is a challenge sometimes to be still in the water when odd shapes are darting around you like stingrays and small reef sharks and feisty little crabs having a go at your toes.  

Be still and observe

Whats the moving dark patch in the water- It is a shoal of baby fish

                                                             Truly a great experience on this uninhabited island that rarely has boats drop anchor due to the nature of the coral reef and coral bomies in the bay.

Sea Cucumbers 

Calm of the Bay before the storms Hit