July – August 2020: Hervey Bay to Port Clinton to The Percy Isles

The forecast for our sail to Bundaberg hardly resembled the conditions at sea.  Up to 38 knots SW hammered us for most of the trip, but we made into the safety of the Burnett River to rest overnight.

A brief stop at Cape Capricorn, then on to Svendson’s Beach at Great Keppel Island, where we met old and new friends: Kathamaria, Bona Fide, Skellum, Sea Legges, Sofia and Double Barrel.  Sundowners on the beach again, at last and finally saw 2 whales breaching off the eastern beach.

With storms and strong winds forecast we tucked in to Port Clinton as there was no military action at present.  We were surprised to see Fisheries launch their big rib at the ramp, but they came over for a chat and then were going out to check the Green Zones for illegal fishing.  Port Clinton is a very pretty area with great bird life and coastal heaths.

Once the weather cleared we made a stopover in Pearl Bay followed by friends on Jigsaw and Koza.  Next morning brought an unusually calm entrance into Island Head Creek, where we stayed for a week, catching up with Cat Magic and enjoying fishing and sewing.  When more strong SE winds were forecast we moved to a more sheltered area before we could set off for the Percy Isles.  Island Head Creek has a spectacular mixture of wildflowers, rugged cliffs, mangroves, wide sandy beaches and huge sandspits at low tides.

 

After an early morning start we had a great sail downwind with the current to Middle Percy, and opted to anchor in West Bay, even though it can be quite rolly on change of tide.

Our old embroidered Heatwave sign still hangs in the A-frame, aka The Percy Island Yacht Club on the beach.  At last a perfect warm, sunny day so we kayaked in to the beach and hiked over to Rescue Bay.  Two big hills to traverse through forest depleted by too many feral goats that are still pruning all the vegetation to death, but boronias were out in flower and a few birds were calling.

By the time we paddled back to the boat a pod of whales had cruised in and were lolling around Pine Islet.  By evening there were 19 boats anchored in West Bay so we opted out of sundowners for social distance purposes.