Gypsy Cruising

27 September

Great Keppel Island to Curtis Island

Last night was comfortable enough in the anchorage.  I’m still focussed on combining each day’s tidal and updated weather information to produce the best plan to get us to Bundaberg.  A new possibility presented itself this morning, that is to leave today and travel to the inside of Curtis Island, then to travel through “The Narrows” into Gladstone.  Based on the latest forecasts, that will minimise the distances we have to travel in single day hops and allow us to use northerly winds for the longer passages that we can’t avoid.  I made a quick visit to Nirvana’s Kitchen to discuss my plans with Leon where, very happily, Nirvana offered me a rather lovely chocolate milkshake.  So nice to have a big enough freezer to keep icecream.

So, it turned out that rather than having a full day of leisure on Great Keppel we agreed to leave immediately and cover the short 25 miles to just inside the passage between Curtis Island and the mainland.  This little leg had us crossing the Tropic of Capricorn, so I’ve now technically left the tropics behind me.  Somewhat strangely, the water around this part of Curtis Island is chocolate brown, presumably from the mud washed down by a couple of large rivers emptying out into the coast here.  Such a contrast from the water in our anchorage last night, which was so clear we could see down through five meters to individual starfish and sea cucumbers sitting on the bottom.  I made a point of getting a photograph of the chart plotter as we crossed the line (at least where it is now, since it’s continually moving northwards).

If my calculations are correct, here's us crossing the Tropic of Capricorn.  This display layout has been my constant companion for the last few months.  Great Keppel Island is clear immediately to our north, with Curtis Island closer to our south east.

The water here at the Tropic of Capricorn is very muddy.  Curtis Island in the background.

Once we’d entered the channel I got to see my first dugong, albeit so briefly.  We also came across the yacht “Synergy” which I’d previously seen and been invited aboard back in Happy Bay in the Whitsundays.  Bill and Margurite had just lifted their anchor to make the same run we were doing, having waited for a good tidal current behind them.  Their Catalina 42 and my extremely similar Catalina 400 sailed side by side for over eight miles to our joint anchorage.  It must have made for a beautiful sight.  Along the way we passed Barker Creek, an offshoot from the main channel.  Barker Creek.  Now that's a name I've not heard in a long time.  

"Synergy" sailing abeam of us down the channel inside Curtis Island - almost indistinguishable from Gypsy Princess

Barker Creek.  Now I guess I know where it is when someone mentions they're "up Barker Creek".

Travelling down the main waterway inside Curtis Island

We found another five boats already at the anchorage, presumably all planning the same passage as us for tomorrow – through The Narrows.

Another sunset at the last anchorage before the serious part of The Narrows begins