Not much to report on this leg. We left Lady Musgrave mid-morning on the ebb tide and made good miles downwind. Reached Keppel Bay around 6am the next morning and tied up at the end of Red Arm, waiting for the Marina office to open.

The staff at Keppel Bay Marina are always friendly and helpful and it is a real pleasure to stop there. We were offered the use of their courtesy car, which helped tremendously with re-provisioning.

We bought a kilo of prawns from the Rosslyn Bay fish market, added a large bag of chips and aeoli from the marina restaurant (this is becoming an institution!) and set off around 2pm for Pearl Bay.

We motor-sailed quite a bit, but all in all it was pretty uneventful and we dropped anchor in Pearl Bay around 9pm.

An early start again this morning, but I don’t mind. The sunrise watch is always the best time on the boat for me. After a brisk sail in the fresh south-easter, we made Lady Musgrave mid-afternoon.

Alan Lucas gives Lady Musgrave a bit of a scary write up in his book, pointing out that it can be a thoroughly uncomfortable anchorage in a fully developed trade wind. Our visit this time was certainly not the best we’ve had, with the south-easter gusting over 20 knots a lot of the time. Our ground tackle is pretty conservatively sized, so I wasn’t too aprehenisive, but I still kept the handheld GPS next to me all night with the anchor drag alarm activated. We were also confined to the boat because rowing the inflatable “fish hunter” in that kind of breeze just was not sensible.

Oh well, a bit disappointing for the crew, who had not been to Lady Musgrave before, but we decided to head off for Keppel Bay the next day.

A perfect day…

I got up at 4am, weighed anchor and motored up the Ship Channel to get into Hervey Bay. The south-easterly started picking up while I was still in the channel and I made sail and stopped the diesel; bliss…

The kettle soon boiled and a mug of strong coffee and an “Ouma” rusk kept me company as the sun came up. The crew started emerging from their various bunks in drips and drabs after 8am.

As we set course for Rooney Point we came on to the wind, which was now a steady 20 knots, and soon I took two reefs in the main. We raced across Hervey Bay and dropped anchor inside Rooney Point not long after midday. The video says it all…

By the time we dropped anchor in Kauri Creek I was brain dead. It was about 1AM after a long day of downwind sailing and crossing the Wide Bay Bar in the dark was nerve wracking to say the least. So we motored up the creek and I knew full well we would not be able to get out at low tide the next morning… still…

I got up at 6AM, and started motoring down the creek. As one would expect, we were soon stuck in the mud. Just as advertised, we only had five feet of water, and we needed six… So, we turned off the engine and made breakfast! Two hours later we motored out without any problem whatsoever.

The passage up the Strait was uneventful, requiring concentration, timing and a reliable engine. At about 4PM we anchored off Kingfisher Resort for a peaceful night.