After a series of early starts, ever since we left Kauri Creek really, I thought I deserved a lie-in today… However, “luck” would have it otherwise.

Around 7am there was a knocking on the hull. A person looking rather ‘the worse for wear’ peered at me over the transom, with his greeting followed immediately by “you wouldn’t happen to have a 16mm socket spanner, by any chance, would you?”

My first reaction was to deny ownership of any tools, because handing over my sole socket spanner, extension and 16mm socket could only have one outcome: loss of the tools. However, I took pity on my fellow mariner and handed him the wrench, but only after tying a lanyard on and encouraging him to tie the other end to himself. His response? “Ah, no worries mate, that won’t be necessary, I’m working in the boat’s engine room, not outside.” This did nothing for my fear that he was going to lose it out of the dinghy while paddling between his boat and mine, but hey, I tried…

Anyway, about an hour later my new friend returned, with wrench, restoring my faith in humanity. I invited him aboard for a coffee (“don’t mind if I do”) and gently prodded him for his story.

Appears he’s bought a (rather nice looking) 10m motor cruiser in the vicinity of Brisbane several weeks before, and was now trying to ferry it to his home base in Townsville. Along the way he managed to get washed up on the beach at the Wide Bay Bar when both engines failed as he was crossing the bar in the middle of the night. A long repair followed at Tin Can Bay. Subsequently he managed to lose a propellor on the way to Keppel Bay (another delay) and now he was stuck at Pearl Bay with a duff alternator (ergo the need to borrow the wrench).

He had engaged a commercial skipper who was now helping him, but still refused to motor at night because he knew that “there are people like myself who go fishing of a night without showing any lights…”.

The most priceless snippet was that his last name was “Luck”! “Just call me Lucky…” he said!

We had a lovely peaceful day at anchor, snorkelling, sunbathing and re-charging our batteries for the next leg.

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…