South to Gold Coast (17th November)
We had a fairly quick trip down to the Boat Works at the Gold Coast which is where Sally is going to summer up in the hard stand area.
We departed from Low Isles on the 12th October and did an overnight passage down to the Breakwater Marina in Townsville where we had a quick turn around which involved some laundry, provisioning and a gave Sally a good wash as it had been many weeks since our last marina stop over. After our two night Townsville stop-over we are on the road again for a shortish overnight trip down to the Whitsundays. We arrived at the Stonehaven anchorage early in the morning of the 16th October and enjoyed a leisurely day on board.
As we are lucky enough to have northerly breezes we decided to hang out around the Whitsundays for a few days visiting many anchorages that we don't normally get to. We stopped at Turtle Bay which is on the southern end of Whitsunday Is, then over to Lindeman Island where we went and explored the long ago deserted resort which is looking a little worse for wear but hopefully with some prospects to be re-developed. Our next stop was at Dinghy Bay on Brampton Island before heading into Mackay for a week to sit out the SE change.
We didn't get to stop in at Mackay on the way up so was really interesting to see how things have changed since our last visit in 2014. We also fueled up Sally at what is probably the best fuel wharf on the Queensland Coast. During our stay we hired a car and did lots of exploring and also got to enjoy some great kiting on the sand bars just south of the Pioneer River.
Eventually the SE stopped blowing and the journey south continued on the 27th October arriving at Great Keppel Island on the 28th and again had to sit out the week waiting for the next weather window. We didn't waste our time at GKI and enjoyed our week stopover exploring much of the island which is blessed with great walking tracks and some of the best beaches on the coast. We also enjoyed several hamburgers & Coronas for lunch at the local take away after a busy morning of hiking and followed by a much needed swim off the back of the boat. The anchorage was definitely busy and looked like a small city of an evening with all the anchor lights - think we counted up to 35 boats at anchor one evening.
The last part of the trip south ended up a bit of a blur as the aim was to get down to The Boat Works around the middle of November for the big end of season pack up before Sally is hauled out.
We ended up leaving GKI on the 4th November, had a quick pit stop at Urangan on the morning of the 5th to put in a bit more diesel and then down to South White Cliffs for the evening. We went through the Sandy Strait shallows on the 6th and down to Inskip Point for an early departure on the 7th to go through the Wide Bay Bar and down to Peel Island late that evening. The 8th saw us travel down to Jacobs Well where we spent the night and again another early start on the 9th to get through the Gold Coast shallows. As we ended up with an extra day up our sleeves we treated ourselves to a night at Sanctuary Cove which is life but not as we know it but did enjoy a nice meal off the boat before completing out trip up the Coomera River to Boat Works and have spent the past week cleaning, polishing, waxing, packing and all things need to get Sally for her summer sojourn.
She is getting hauled tomorrow morning (18th November) and we will be flying home on the 21st November.
Details of our 2019 season:
We will be back in April 2020 to continue the adventure although our cruising life is coming to an end soon with Mustang Sally going onto the market next year.
We departed from Low Isles on the 12th October and did an overnight passage down to the Breakwater Marina in Townsville where we had a quick turn around which involved some laundry, provisioning and a gave Sally a good wash as it had been many weeks since our last marina stop over. After our two night Townsville stop-over we are on the road again for a shortish overnight trip down to the Whitsundays. We arrived at the Stonehaven anchorage early in the morning of the 16th October and enjoyed a leisurely day on board.
As we are lucky enough to have northerly breezes we decided to hang out around the Whitsundays for a few days visiting many anchorages that we don't normally get to. We stopped at Turtle Bay which is on the southern end of Whitsunday Is, then over to Lindeman Island where we went and explored the long ago deserted resort which is looking a little worse for wear but hopefully with some prospects to be re-developed. Our next stop was at Dinghy Bay on Brampton Island before heading into Mackay for a week to sit out the SE change.
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| Lindman Island Resort - not looking its best |
We didn't get to stop in at Mackay on the way up so was really interesting to see how things have changed since our last visit in 2014. We also fueled up Sally at what is probably the best fuel wharf on the Queensland Coast. During our stay we hired a car and did lots of exploring and also got to enjoy some great kiting on the sand bars just south of the Pioneer River.
Eventually the SE stopped blowing and the journey south continued on the 27th October arriving at Great Keppel Island on the 28th and again had to sit out the week waiting for the next weather window. We didn't waste our time at GKI and enjoyed our week stopover exploring much of the island which is blessed with great walking tracks and some of the best beaches on the coast. We also enjoyed several hamburgers & Coronas for lunch at the local take away after a busy morning of hiking and followed by a much needed swim off the back of the boat. The anchorage was definitely busy and looked like a small city of an evening with all the anchor lights - think we counted up to 35 boats at anchor one evening.
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| GKI Homestead |
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| One of the many beaches at Great Keppel |
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| Anchorage at Great Keppel |
The last part of the trip south ended up a bit of a blur as the aim was to get down to The Boat Works around the middle of November for the big end of season pack up before Sally is hauled out.
We ended up leaving GKI on the 4th November, had a quick pit stop at Urangan on the morning of the 5th to put in a bit more diesel and then down to South White Cliffs for the evening. We went through the Sandy Strait shallows on the 6th and down to Inskip Point for an early departure on the 7th to go through the Wide Bay Bar and down to Peel Island late that evening. The 8th saw us travel down to Jacobs Well where we spent the night and again another early start on the 9th to get through the Gold Coast shallows. As we ended up with an extra day up our sleeves we treated ourselves to a night at Sanctuary Cove which is life but not as we know it but did enjoy a nice meal off the boat before completing out trip up the Coomera River to Boat Works and have spent the past week cleaning, polishing, waxing, packing and all things need to get Sally for her summer sojourn.
She is getting hauled tomorrow morning (18th November) and we will be flying home on the 21st November.
Details of our 2019 season:
- 2382NM travelled
- 297hrs on the main motor
- ~ 10hrs on the genset
- ~ 600ltrs of diesel
- ~ 60ltrs of ULP
We will be back in April 2020 to continue the adventure although our cruising life is coming to an end soon with Mustang Sally going onto the market next year.
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| Sally's Summer Home |
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