I have just returned home after being away for a bit over 3 weeks. Two of the three weeks was spent helping deliver Spirited 1 from Hamilton Island to Sydney. The last week in Sydney with John and Vic and a quickly maturing Maddie and a catch up Dim and Sue for the Geelong v Collingwood footie final.
On board Spirited 1 for the leg between HI and Brisbane was Darryl (owner), Mark, Jac and Kerrie (Darryl's sister). Kerrie left us in Brisbane and Andrew joined the crew for the leg to Port Stevens, leaving Darryl, Mark, Jac and me to do the short hop down to Sydney to complete the trip.
Highlights of the trip included stopovers at; Great Keppel Island, Middle Percy Island, Lady Musgrave Island, all within the Great Barrier Reef. Other stops included Redcliff, to allow Darryl to catch up with family and a small work commitment then weather forced stops at Yamba and Port Stevens (where Darryl's wife Deb joined us for a couple of days)
We had many whale and dolphin sightings. Andrew put together a short video with the dolphins here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuRdpwSGpp0&noredirect=1
Middle Percy Island was our first stop on our way down from Hamilton Island. It is a continental island inside the Great Barrier Reef with a very interesting history of occupation and farming. See
http://thecoastalpassage.com/hicklings_storytcp6.html Of particular interest to yachtsmen is an A frame built by Andy Martin and where passing yachtsmen have left mementos of their stay. Such mementos are charming and range from old sea boots to elegantly carved pieces of timber with boat names and dates. We left a t-shirt with boat name and crew names.
We walked to the homestead where Cate, Ernst and Stev hosted us to coffee, tea and home made lemonade. What a treat hearing about the island's history.
Sunset form our anchorage at Middle Percy Island.
Our next stop was Great Keppel island, just off the coast from Yapoon. The pic is of our day anchorage off the islands' only restaurant. Great Keppel used to boast an extensive island resort. This has been closed and wire fence enclosed for 3 years now and is in disrepair and overgrown. About 20 people live permanently on the island and backpacker lodgings are still available.
Leaving Middle Percy Island and on our way to Great Keppel Island we were treated to a fabulous sunset.
Lady Musgrave Island off the starboard bow. It is really a coral atoll. It is located at the southern most end of the great Barrier Reef. 3 miles in diameter, the sand bottomed lagoon is surrounded by a coral barrier. It can cut up pretty rough at high tide when the sea is up. We were fortunate to have no sea and no wind making our stay a delight. The island has heaps of wild life, birds, turtles, rays and colourful reef fish. Its on my bucket lit to be there when the turtles are hatching.
Resting up at Lady Musgrave
A nice yellow fin tuna which fed 8 at Tangalooma, when Darryl's mom, daughter and son in law joined us for lunch.
Camera ran out of battery at this stage, so no more pics. But memories include, lots of whale sightings, a stop over at Yamba and Port Stevens. Lots of dolphins too.
