Great Keppel Island

We spent our time in Yeppoon maintaining the boat and also making excursions into Yeppoon and Rockhampton. The marina isn’t too bad but it is quite isolated. Fortunately they do have a courtesy car that we can book in advance and drive ourselves into Yeppoon to the local supermarket. This was particularly useful, as the winds kept blowing so strongly that we weren’t able to leave the marina… The courtesy car was also necessary, as we were expecting Jo’s friend Dee to stay with us for the week, and we needed to stock up with food and drink!

After a week on the boat, Dee left us today, and before she left, she was persuaded to write an entry for the blog. This is what she wrote.

I leave Mike and Jo today feeling refreshed and re-energised after what one could describe as a ‘real holiday’ shared with good friends. During the past week I have learned many things:

1. That a sundowner is a gin and tonic consumed while watching the sunset.

2. Mike is an extremely agile man who moves like lightning when asked for a sick bucket.

3.And that I must continue to keep buying tattslotto tickets so one day I may change my lifestyle to that of Mike and Jo!

I arrived last Sunday and spent my first night at Rosslyn Bay marina. The next morning we sailed to Svendsen’s beach on Great Keppel Island and anchored overlooking beautiful sandy beaches, going ashore to explore and sunbake. It was on this second night that I disgraced myself after sundowners on the rolling boat. As a result, I was made very comfortable in the cockpit and fell asleep under the stars. Thoughts flooded my mind as to how I was going to spend the next five nights aboard without offending my hosts!

Thankfully there was a wind shift the next day which reduced the swell and presented perfect conditions for the remainder of the week. The following day were off on an overland adventure to find Great Keppel Resort. Not knowing how far away this was, we packed water, chocolate, muesli bars, compass and other safety equipment. Jo went through the checklist before boarding the dinghy: water-check, food-check, camera-check, fuel in outboard-check. My senses were tingling as we boarded the dinghy and headed for the next beach, about 600 metres away. 500 meters from shore the outboard ran out of fuel!!!

I learned what a fabulous rower Mike is - Olympic standard – given that he had two people on board, battling headwinds, and how patient a man he is with two pack seat drivers full of helpful suggestions as to where he should go, and what he should do… The tank refilled from the boat, we made it to shore and set off into unknown territory, only to come across a ‘resort clad’ family with small children who informed us that just over the hill was the 4-star resort we were looking for.

The view from the top of the hill was magnificent: green/blue water, clean sandy beaches, neighbouring islands, and Meander floating at anchor in the midst of it all…The resort was pleasant, but the meals didn’t measure up to Jo’s cooking, and, as we walked back to the boat, thoughts of Jo’s chilli prawns came to mind…

The view across
Svendsen's beach

Svendsen’s beach was a great anchorage for SE winds, but when they moved to NE, it was time to move, so we headed back to the resort and anchored the boat off shore there for most of the rest of the week.. This was a very relaxing time, as we snorkelled, dined in the restaurants land, and lay around on the beach (we even sneaked a spa in the resort’s pool area: Jo).

The intrepid
snorkellers

Dee earning her
keep, polishing
the bell

Thank you so much, Mike and Jo, for the special memories I hold of our time together.

And now Jo:

Dee took us out for dinner at the resort restaurant one eveining where we drank Domaine Chandon and ate from the buffet. We did lots and lots of laughing…which we had done the whole time she was here.

Dee was our first live aboard visitor since our departure from Geelong and what a pleasure it was to have her onboard. We weren’t sure how it would go but we set up the spare cabin (previously being used as our storage area) and she plus her belongings fitted in really well. I was amazed that she only brought a small over night bag for a whole week but it was like a scene from Mary Poppins every day there would be a new outfit appearing from this tiny receptacle.

Yesterday as a grand finale we did a circumnavigation of Great Keppel, stopping off at a reef where Dee and I snorkelled, while Mike followed us around in the dinghy. This afternoon Dee flew off from the island, but not before persuading the pilot to make a pass over the anchorage so that she could take pictures of Meander.

A fantastic week was had by all and now we are looking forward to our next lot of visitors (but they will have a lot to live up to!!)