Percy Islands, North of Shoalwater Bay

Victorian Floods, Queensland Shines: It’s a Dog’s Life!

At heart, I’m a bit of a non-conformist and not one to “go by the book”, and I’m sure that this drives bosses and friends to distraction. But this once, I decided to follow protocol to the letter:

“Coast Guard Thirsty Sound, this is a Dog’s Life, a Dog’s Life, a Dog’s Life on channel 81, do you copy” I couldn’t help it, I just wanted to keep saying, “It’s a Dog’s Life”, and it sure was.

Imagine this: you have just pulled up your anchor (and by the way, you can see it crystal clear water, sitting on the sand bottom in 10m of water), pancakes are gently digesting, the mainland of Australia is a long way over the horizon, and you point the nose for a new set of islands. You look back. Behind is the legendary “A Frame” of Middle Percy Island, adorned with literally hundreds of mementos left by yachties over 40 odd years. The A frame is surrounded with coconut palms, and ashore reads a plaque, commemorating the visit by Matthew Flinders over 200 year previous:

“I went into a little cove or basin, into which the height of the surrounding hills gave expectation of finding a run of fresh water. The entrance is little more than wide enough for the oars of a rowing boat; the basin, within side is mostly overrun with the tiresome mangrove, but when the tide is in it is one of the prettiest little paces imaginable”

Indeed it is. Middle Percy, and in fact the whole of the area between Shoalwater Bay and Mackay, is incredible: far better than the Whitsundays if you ask me. But back to the tale.

Within seconds Bill from Coast Guard Thirsty Sound would respond to our call. We’d give him our details, and without fail, in his friendly, but unmistakably Queensland laid back manner he’d tell us to “have a good one”, that if we could “give him a yodel when we got in that’d be much appreciated” and he’d be “listening out for us”. So would begin the sailing part of our day. A day replicated over two unforgettable weeks in July this year.

Our trip began just as the rains which flooded the Gippsland Lakes descended on Victoria. The drive was wonderfully uneventful, punctuated by dinner at the glorious West Dubbo Bowling Club ($10 for home made soup and a roast, with $2 schooners). It was however, a wet drive, which didn’t bode well… A quick shop in Rockhampton, (well half a day), and by the sunset on day 3, we were at Clairview Caravan Park, where our trip proper would begin.

The Shoalwater Bay region has some of the largest tides up the east Coast: up to 6 metres range! This translated to a difference between high and low water of nearly a km of mudflats, so we were as quick as we could launching with the high tide the next morning, also taking advantage of the ebb current to help push us along towards Thirsty Sound. A good breeze sprung up, and with a reefed main, no headsail, (and not to mention the approx 400kg of water, fuel, beer and food!) we were astonished to cover the 15 miles in a little over one and half hours. We estimated that at its peak the tidal flow approached four knots. All this of course, in glorious sunshine, which lasted until we returned home.

Our first anchorage proved somewhat tedious to locate among the mangroves, but eventually we found it, and spent the next two nights there, catching up on some sleep and getting everything more organised on the boat. Again, the tidal range was incredible. The sheer volume of water that is transferred twice a day is nearly beyond comprehension. The mangrove creek we were snugly anchored in would transform itself from a wide, flat expanse to a narrow, steep sided abyss in a matter of hours, only to change back 6 hours later.

On leaving the creek we headed north to the tip of Thirsty Sound and out into the island groups the East. A glorious day sailing took us to Marble Island, our first “real” tropical island. It was great to see the faces of the other yachties, somewhat surprised to see a trailer sailer anchored near beside their 50ft Benetaus. They were not quite sure how we could have got there, given that the next established anchorages were over 100miles to the south, given the Shoalwater Bay Military Training Area closure. I didn’t have the heart to tell a Victorian boat that it only took us 4 days to get where they were from Vic, when it would have taken them a couple of months (and probably another zero on the purchase cost of the boat…)

The next couple of weeks followed a pattern of sailing for a short day (20 to 30 miles) to a new and beautiful island where we generally stayed for a day or two before moving on to a new anchorage. Rather than bore you with the details of each day, perhaps if I describe some highlights.

The Percy Islands. The Percy’s are a group of 3 islands about 80 miles south east of Mackay. They are stunning. For me, one of the key attractions was the fact that you can’t see mainland Australia. The horizon is dotted with islands, but as for the mainland, it’s about a half day sail before it appears over the horizon. This was a wonderful feeling of adventure and solitude, not one typically easily gained in a trailer sailer, but in this case, very easily attainable. Fishing and snorkelling are sensational, the sunsets are amazing, and there is an anchorage for all wind directions. White’s Bay on Middle Percy was my personal favourite. West Bay (as described earlier) is perhaps the prettiest, however it rapidly becomes uncomfortable (at best) as the trade wind picks up, although the boat harbour provides a totally sheltered option if you can cope with the sandflies at dusk.

Hexham Island is a small isolated anchorage, the first available after Shoalwater Bay Military Training Area. The bay is stunning, and the sun setting over the pinnacles of the western shore, replete with an Eagles nest, is quite something.

The clarity of the water was something to behold. It’s the most incredible bright clear blue. You can see the marks left in the sand by the anchor chain as the boat swung on its anchor, you could see the keel from beside the boat. You could see the oyster shells you’ve piffed overboard the night before. All this makes for great snorkelling: and doing so with a sea turtle was a great experience. He/she seemed quite oblivious to me, and just went about its business as I hovered overhead.

Doing all this in a trailer sailer was perhaps the biggest thrill. I’d visited this area in a 34 footer a few years back as part of a much larger trip, and even then we were one of the smaller boats to venture into the region. So taken was I by the place, I vowed to one day return. Many winter nights spend scouring maps convinced me that a trailer sailer was ideally suited to such a trip, and finding out that a good ramp existed at Clairview pretty much sealed the deal. To get to the area in a keelboat is a big undertaking, both in terms of time and commitment: far beyond your average mid year break. But in a trailer boat, we were on the water 72 hours after leaving Vic, and were back home just over two days after returning to the ramp. Another great advantage was the anchorages that became available: had the wind got up, we would have been able to pull the keel up and take the bottom, while keelboats would have rolled horribly as wind and tide argued all night who had the right to do what with which and to whom!

Last and not least, a special mention should go to my wonderful wife Zoe, who agreed to let me go. At time of writing she was 5 months pregnant, and wasn’t up for 5 days of driving and two weeks of living on a boat with a big belly protruding! She did, however, give me her blessings to go without her. I guess it says it all, that as incredible as the trip was, I decided to head home half a week early, so much I missed her.

Some track notes for anyone keen to head up that way

• If you’re planning on heading for the Whitsundays, save yourself the hassle and go here instead! I have spent a total of perhaps 3 months floating around the Whitsundays, and this area beats them on every count.
• The drive up is not hard at all. I’d recommend the Newell and the Leichhardt as the best option, but do be aware that the road quality on the Leichhardt is quite ordinary. The West Dubbo Bowling Club is a real winner with a monster car park and great, cheap meals. After a few schooners it’s a short walk to the amphibious caravan and a good sleep. Just be aware meals close at about 9.00pm (drive time is about 12 or 13 hours from Melbourne, and about 12 to 13 hours from Banana
• Fuel prices vary considerably. Central Queensland and parts of central NSW are the worst. We run on LPG, and found that Goondiwindi, Banana and Rockhampton, to be the best (and nearly only) LPG spots in Qld. In NSW some cheap gas was found in Coonabarabran, Dubbo, and Jerilderie. Prices varied from low 50’s to high 70’s per litre. It was very common to see prices vary by up to 15cpl for gas in the same town, so it’s well worth a quick drive through to save $15 in a single fill.
• Fuel consumption averaged about 32L per 100km on gas, and about 25L per 100km on petrol. Worked out to somewhere around $20 per 100k on gas, or around $1000 for the return trip (this is for a GQ patrol)
• I can highly recommend “Wayne’s World of Meats” in Rockhampton, and not just for its name. His produce is excellent quality and very well priced (eg $16 per kilo for scotch fillet, some of the best steaks I’ve tasted of late). They also do a few smallgoods and are more than happy to vacuum pack. He is located in the main shopping centre in the Northern part of town, which is a great place to stock up. You can’t miss it, it’s just before the Bruce Highway turn off towards Mackay. There are 3 excellent supermarkets, 2 greengrocers, a grog shop and a range of other shops. My BIG advice is to fuel up somewhere with a big car park, and ask the servo if you can leave the boat there. I think I deserve a gold medal for my trailer backing performance after finding a car park was in fact a one way dead end!
• If you’re planning on launching at Clairview, you’ll need a tide of about 4m in Mackay. Make sure you take water on at Rockhampton as they only have tank water at Clairview. The caravan park is great and they didn’t charge us for parking the car and trailer there for two odd weeks
• The nearest coast guard is at Thirsty Sound. They are on VHF 81. Bill is an absolute champ very friendly and happy to help out. Weather is broadcast at 6.15, 11.45 and 16.45 on 81. Also listen out for Mackay Met on 80 about 30 minutes earlier.
• We used two different guidebooks, affectionately referred to as Noel and Allan (Noel Patrick’s Curtis Coast and Allan Lucas’ Cruising the Coral Coast). Both were superb, but for this area Noel had much more detail. I picked each of them up on ebay for about $30 to $40 each (about half the cost of new)
• We consumed about 8L of water per day: in addition to the 100L in the main tank we carried another 100L in 10L drums stashed throughout the boat. On returning to the ramp, we still had about 60L left, but better safe than thirsty: there is no available water on the islands
• Make sure you are well versed in the tides! There are two main areas to be aware of: the height and the flow.
o Make sure you know roughly what level the tide is at when you anchor. If you’re at the top of the tide it might become 5 or 6m shallower at low tide, so don’t anchor in 4m of water…Alternatively, if you’re anchoring at low tide, allow for an additional 20m of scope in your anchor line
o Plan your trip according to the tidal flow. In some spots the flow can reach up to 4 knots, which could either stop the boat, or scoot you along at over 10 knots. Also take into consideration the interplay between wind and tide. 20 knots of wind against a 3-4 knot tide (eg in between islands or at the point of an island) can produce some dramatic results. Tide predictions are available on the BoM site, if you hunt around a bit. Work out when the optimum tides are for your itinerary, then decide the dates you’ll be away, if possible

On a final note, this trip really showed me just how capable boat a TS is. With good planning and careful sailing, so much is possible: not just inland waters and near coastal islands. Get out there and enjoy!