Sheltering from SE blow

We've been told by other yachties that you pay for every day of beautiful weather with a week of horrid weather!  Well, we're paying for our magical time at Lady Musgrave now. 

We left Musgrave for Pancake Creek, spent a week there crabbing, fishing, walking and socialising, before the SE blew in.  We made a run for Gladstone and had some rather vigorous sailing, surfing down waves hitting 14.2 knots at one stage - whoooo!  Time to find the brakes!  Would you believe it but the wind died in the shipping channel and we motored for the last 5 miles to the marina.

There we reprovisioned, and, with the strong wind warning still out there and 20-25knots of SE up our tail, left this morning for Pacific Creek, at the northern end of Curtis Island. We made record time through the Narrows arriving off the creek mouth 4 hours after leaving the Gladstone marina!  Entering the creek was a challenge with 28 knots and gusts to 34 knots hitting us in the face, but we bounced our way in and are now securely attached to the bottom off the hut in the creek mouth.  We'll stay here for a few days till the wind eases before making our way to the Keppels.

The crabs caught at Pancake Creek blew us away!



Xhale - our sister-ship and travelling companions - making a run for Gladstone

Magical Lady Musgrave Is

We've just had an excellent week enjoying one of our favorite places, Lady Musgrave Island. The water was crystal clear and though a tad cool, the snorkelling was terrific. Even I got the body wet! 

Greg's 61st birthday wish was to spend his birthday at Lady Musgrave, and that's just what we did!   We got together with our cruising buddies, Neil and Carol on Xhale, and caught up with Sunny Coast friends, Alan and Vicki on Dalliance, for a birthday party on Outahia and lots of wine, rum and food made for a very pleasant evening!

The wind whistled in from the south-west for a couple of days making it a tad uncomfortable, but all in all, a beautiful place to spend some time.

 A beautiful anchorage

 The whales put on an impressive display outside the lagoon.



Even the gulls came to Greg's birthday party!

In cruise mode

We spent a few days in Garrys Anchorage in the Sandy Straits waiting for a blow that didn't quite reach us.  Left there on Friday (3rd June) and meandered our way up the coast to 1770, via Burrum Heads, Elliott Heads and Bundagerg.  We caught up with Neil and Carol on Xhale at Elliott Heads and are now travelling in company with them.  Our quests, John & Marg, left us at Bundaberg.

On the hard at Elliott Heads

Came into Round Hill Creek at 1770 yesterday afternoon and found a spot to anchor amongst the dozens of other boats!  The sunset turned it on for us - absolutely brilliant!  Will stay here for a few days as there's a blow coming later in the week.

This was our welcome from 1770!