Island Head Creek~Middle Percy Island~Mackay Marina

Island Head Creek ~ Digby Island; The Beverly Group ~ Mackay Marina

Three days of heavy clouds, winds gusting at 30 knots and an off and on drizzle can wear on ya a bit. I’d been crabbing on the incoming tides, trolling for fish with the hand-line behind the dingy and using my catch for crab bait…No luck again with the elusive but very tasty Mud Crabs…Good fun though, going out in the dingy getting soaked with spray when the wind kicked up, checking the crab pots and trolling a grey squid…The weather broadcasts on VHF were so broken up we’d hear about half what was said leaving us with more questions after the broadcast than not knowing. There was talk of gale force winds and 3+ meter swells in the Capricorn Channel, but where and when???
Tuesday the 21st of August after listening to Katie on Rocky Met Channel #21VHF but again more missed than heard we decided to head out of the secure anchorage and sail the 30 miles North to Hexham Island. The 10:10 weather forecast said 20 to 25 knots South by Southwest though we never saw it much above 15 knots? Our wind was very much out of the West making bumpy seas and keeping our speed about 5 knots over the water. No fish at that speed, I’ve learned from experience I need about 7 knots of boat speed to catch Tuna on Pink Squid, a little slower for the Mackerel with the big spoons on the hand-lines but that’s not nearly as much fun. As we approached the pass between Alnwick and Hexham Islands we had another whale show with some jumps and tail (fluke) waves, of course none of these were caught on film…The anchor was down mid afternoon as we had the anchorage all to ourselves sharing it with schools of fish jumping, about sunset as I tossed lures at them and drank home brews. A waxing gibbous moon lit up the bay making the white sand on the beach almost glow as it reflected the light, yes this is why I wanted to sail North….
Wednesday August 22 was perfect weather wise, minus the wind…sailing downwind with all the sails up barely making 3 knots, tried the spinnaker sail again and when we were putting it up we got buzzed by the Australian Coastwatch Customs airplane.. He called on the VHF radio and wanted my rego # , last port of call, etc…
With the lack of wind it makes for a calm sea meaning we could anchor in West Bay of the Middle Percy Island. This anchorage is famous for the A-frame hut build on the beach many years ago that cruising boats have been hanging signs or memorabilia from their boats for decades.
We visited on our way North in 2005 but didn’t know about the tradition, later at the most Northern point of our voyage I found a perfect piece of driftwood for our sign, to be hung the next visit to the Percy Islands…We arrived to find one other catamaran in West Bay, dropped the dingy into the water and went ashore to hang our sign. Walking past a coconut tree a coconut fell; Bang! That sure seemed like an omen for Hiroko to have fresh coconut. As I fought with the husk the miggie flies found Hiroko ( as they always do…) After seeing many signs from yachts and yachties we’ve met, we returned to Areté for sundowners and Hiroko applied some Japanese cream to her multiple bug bites…I escaped un scathed…I played Jackson Brown CD and dolphins appeared chasing schools of baitfish around the bay.
The other thing West Bay is famous for is being a uncomfortable anchorage in developed wind or swell. Well the following afternoon the wind did develop and brought with it a 1.5 ~ 2 meter swell …Now it’s too late in the day to sail for Digby Island 22 nautical miles away so we’ll just roll out a bit more anchor chain and hunker down till first light tomorrow. Wow what a wild night. wind whipping up a frothy sea, Areté was as uncomfortable as I’ve experienced in the three years of living onboard. She held tight and it didn’t take any persuasion at all to convince my wife to sail out of there the next morning…
Friday August 24th was not a day you’d want to be on the ocean, but just about anywhere was better than staying there…We furled out just a little bit of headsail and motor-sailed into a rough, sloppy sea…Overcast with clouds sailing buy, going every which way and the wind coming from just the direction we wanted to go….Slogging along, waves crashing under and alongside the boat, even with the motors I couldn’t get more than 4 knots of speed so the 24 mile trip took all day. Digby Island is part of the Beverly Group of the Northumberland Islands. Nice anchorage, tucked in behind three other islands and a few huge rocks which you could also count as an islands, gives it almost a lagoon setting. As the full moon is three days away on the 28th and this section of the coast having the biggest tides of all Queensland, we’ve got 5 meter tides now and at low tide lots of rocks are exposed so Hiroko can get fresh oysters again….If we can get the dingy ashore with that swell breaking on the beach? The wind was continuing to blow and blow and blow…
”It was so windy it would blow a dog off his chain” Weather Mackay was consistent with the forecast 20~25 knot wind with a 2~3 meter SE swell Sat, Sun, Mon, Tues…
We enjoyed three days relaxing onboard, I’d take the dingy out cruising around the bay but never got it ashore the shorebreak making landing nearly impossible…
Sunday August 26th we had a Humpback Whale and her calf spend four hours near us at our anchorage. They were mostly just floating side by side, my guess is that the mother was breast feeding which probably takes a few hours for that size animal? They left a little before sunset and were last seen splashing and waving with their tails, goodbye…
Monday the 27th with the weather forecast stuck like Groundhogs Day at 20~25 knots till whenever? We decided to sail for Mackay 46 miles away. As I’ve said nearing the full moon the tides were over 5 meters twice a day …this means strong currents between and around islands, causing overfalls, eddies and strange seas, add to that huge swells, whitecaps on every wave and O`ya the wind gusting and then a little bit of consistency before the next gust…Whoooosshhh …we sailed with just a little headsail furled out, I’d noticed a few of the days out at Digby Island the wind started off blowing hard in the morning and then picked up in the afternoon. Not knowing how much worse it might get sure keeps ya on your toes watching the clouds and hoping and praying it will calm down a bit…It did calm down a bit about lunchtime and I got out my fishing gear , put a bit more sail up and Bang! Caught another Tuna !!!! Hiroko went to work on it with the Japanese Houcho and soon it was just some perfect dark red filets that would cost an absolute fortune in Tokyo.
We arrived in Mackay Marina about 4:30pm wound our way through a maze of pontoons and fingers to find T-43 our allocated berth; a portside tie up, bow in. Damn, seeing so many million dollar boats made Areté feel small. We weren’t even tied up properly before a guy with an Easy Catamaran like mine came over to say G~day, and invited us over to see his cat Bad Habits, a fine vessel with every accessory imaginable. Hiroko is always impressed with boats with watermakers, washing machines, and large freezers. I was just tired after 10 hours at sea and the thought of a hot land shower was overwhelming. The marina office was closed but they had left us a key so Hiroko had her first land shower in 22 days and only the third one since leaving Brisbane 37 days and 665 miles ago…Tomorrow we’ll fly to Tokyo for Michiko’s wedding ( Hiroko’s little sister) it should be something special!
A week in Ol’ Edo and returning to sail out of the Mackay Marina and into the Whitsunday Islands.