As we motored free of the encircling reef of Lady Musgrave, Destiny picked up a 15-knot wind abeam and just flew. She loves this point of sail. We love this point of sail; it is a smooth and fast ride for us. We comfortably reached 8 – 9 knots and sped toward our next destination of Pancake Creek.
Well, crikey! At just about 11:00 AM, the wind began to slack, slowing us to less than 4 knots. Ha ha, as Frank says: BOHICA! Bend Over Here It comes Again! On came the motor as we sallied forth. Pancake Creek is a riverbed that offers safe harbor and good holding; however, the Lucas Guide mentions that the tide differential is approximately 2 ½ - 3 meters. We were settled in by 1:00, had a bite of lunch and then at around 3:00 PM (30 minutes after low tide), Paul and Glor picked us up in their dinghy for a visit to shore and a walk along the shoreline. The tide was quite far out, so we dragged the dinghy far up onto nearly to the beach and set the anchor into the sand before trekking off. By the time we had walked 15 minutes we looked back toward the dinghy to note that the anchor was already well under water. Our exploratory hike didn't last much beyond about 45 minutes before we were wading back out to the dinghy. Good grief, we knew there was a big tide wash but didn't realize it rushed in this fast. We returned to Scallywag for sundowners and then back to Destiny for an early dinner, because we had another 5:15 AM wake up call to look forward to.
April 22nd, anchors aweigh 6 AM. NO WIND today. The seas are as calm as a mountain lake. Destination: Cape Capricorn. As we neared Gladstone, which unfortunately doesn't even rate a paragraph in the Lonely Planet guide, we spotted dozens of tanker ships resting on the hook outside the entrance to the harbor. What I do know (which is not much) is Gladstone is a large shipping port that is not a venue for private yachts. In fact we would have to apply for a permit to even enter there. We passed on by and at around 11:00 AM, The Scallys called on the VHF wondering if we should just push on to Hummocky Island, bypassing Cape Capricorn altogether.
There was plenty of daylight, and if we push ourselves a bit further we can afford the time to spend a couple of days on Great Keppel's pretty sandy beach get away. We voted "Yes", and so onward we roam. I got fidgety which for me leads to boredom that generally inspires me to DO SOMETHING. That something ended up being chocolate chip cookie baking. I baked two dozen and froze the rest of my dough. Then I made a dilly dip and cut up vegetables for our sundowner tonight. As soon as we dropped the hook, Paul radioed to ask what time is Happy Hour. Well, it's 4:00, naturally! We enjoyed another beautiful sunset commenting on how fortunate we have been to enjoy this lovely weather for the last couple of weeks. The days are very warm, but the nights offer cloudless star-filled skies and a cool tropical breeze. This particular anchorage is very rolly but we were so tired it didn't matter. By 8:30 we were both falling asleep.
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| Hummocky Island |
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