Well Mark and Fiona have done a great job of documenting yesterday’s activities, and both got some great photos as we spent the day cruising over to Great Keppel Island.<\/p>\n
It was a fantastic day, and everyone was thoroughly exhausted by the end. Gracie II is a great boat, A twin hull catamaran, with two big nets at the front to sit on and a big cabin, ensuring we were more than comfortable. As we left the harbour, there was a small swell of half a metre, but otherwise it was smooth sailing. We motored over to keppel as the wind was not quite strong enough for sailing. The kids were all great with only Jess and Emma feeling a little sick. I suspect though that Jess was putting it on as she wanted one of the sea sick lollipops that Kate got for her kids… hehe, no luck here Jess, but we gave her a Kwell (motions sickness tablet) anyway and the sickness almost instantly disappeared! Sorry Jess, kwells don’t work that fast, you are supposed to take them 30 mins before getting on the boat!<\/p>\n
Poor little Emma on the other hand maybe wasn’t putting it on, sending a load of burly over the front of the boat as we pulled into the bay. At least she got it over the side and not in the boat! She seemed a little more comfortable afterwards.<\/p>\n
We arrived at Monkey beach on Keppel island and anchored about 150-200m from the shore. The reef was about 50m further out, or we had the option of being ferried by dinghy to play on the beach. As usual, I was gear on and straight into that water! Was an effort to get the kids sorted, masks and fins (not flippers) then we finally got them into the water with a noodle under their arms. Didn’t last long, Mark thinks it was the cold water, but from where I was the girls were struggling with haveing no teeth to keep their snorkels in!!! the first mouthfull of water and they were out and back on the boat. Before Aunty Kate was even in the water, they were out!!<\/p>\n
Anthony (the skipper) said he would drop them on the beach. Poor Kate was going to miss out on the snorkelling, so I simply took the decision out of her hands, racing the boat as I snorkelled to shore. I won, but man were my legs sore afterwards!!! So it was Mattie, Emma, Clare, Tara and Jess on the shore, while Zac, Fiona, Mark and Kate all went off to explore the reef. Now the problem with swimming in was my hat and sunglasses were back on the boat \ud83d\ude41 squinting as the sun reflected off this beautiful white sand, I asked Anthony if on his next trip over he could grab it for me.<\/p>\n
Didn’t have to wait too long as about 15 minutes later, Anthony motored back to shore with Mark and Kate and to my relief, my hat and sunglasses \ud83d\ude42 We were joined about 10 mins later by Fiona and Zac. Apparently the reef wasn’t too much to see. We have all been spoiled by some amazing reefs, so we set pretty high expectations. Instead we filled the time before lunch playing in the sand and collecting shells. Jess and I took a walk up the beach and over the bluff to have a look at Long beach on the other side, but it was very blowy, so we only had a look from the bluff and headed back down. We had the beach more or less to ourselves, with the exception of what looked to be a group of school kids. As Jess and I passed them on the path to the bluff, I realised they were a group of school girls, all about 15 or 16 in bikinis with only two male teachers!!! What the? Seemed a little strange to me… Anyway, they were up one end of the beach and we were at the other, so we had the place to ourselves. Sorry Judith, no Morton sand castles here, although I did consider it.<\/p>\n
Instead, I put my snorkelling stuff back on and headed for the boat, as I got close, I swam under the boat, resurfaced on the otherside and made for the reef. Now I didn’t think it was that boring. Sure I have seen better, but if you duck dived down and got a bit closer you found some big fish hiding under the coral. Not a lot of colour, but still worth a look. I even saw Dory from finding Nemo… No Nemo though \ud83d\ude41 I spent about 10 mins on the reef before I saw the dinghy heading back to the shore and so made my way back to the boat for lunch.<\/p>\n
Anthony and Vicki (Anthony’s wife and crew aboard Gracie II) had cooked up snags on the BBQ, with prawns, ham and cheese and salads. Jess was straight into the prawns of course, but unfortunately they were raw and turns out she only likes them cooked. No problem as Fi was more than happy to have hers. After lunch, one of the other kids on the boat wanted to jump off for a quick swim before we left, so he leapt off into the water. Being a bit hot and egged on by my loving boy, I though I would do the same. So I put my sunglasses in my hat, pulled my tanktop off, climbed over the rail and dived from the front of the boat to cheers from Zac.<\/p>\n
Water was beautiful and a dip was just what I needed to cool off. Anthony announced it was time to pull anchor, so I made my way back to the family at the front of the boat. Clare, ever being the ratbag she is and always stealing my hat saw the perfect opportunity. She snatched my hat up as I went to grab it, throwing it on her head and proudly announcing “I have Uncle Craig’s hat!” “Nooooooo Clare” I screamed as my sun glasses dropped straight through the crack in the boom nets and plonked into 3m deep water!!!!<\/p>\n
“Oh No!!”<\/p>\n
I quickly grabbed my mask snorkel and fins (which I had just packed away) and leapt off the back of the boat. Luckily it was a sandy bottom and in one move I was able to dive under, fin to the bottom and return to the surface triumphant with sunglasses in hand. Back on the boat though, the damage was done. Uncle Craig had growled at Clare who was now buried in Kate’s arms crying. I picked Clare up in a huge bear hug, and eventually managed to coax her back to being friends. Oh well, all was good in the end.<\/p>\n
With the wind blowing from the north now, the second snorkelling spot was no good, so Anthony took us around the island to the old resort. Most of it is closed and fenced off and inaccessible. Anthony again did loads to the shore in the dinghy, but that seemed too easy for me and I dived again from the front and raced the dinghy to shore. Was a little harder this time without fins, and about 10m from the beach I still couldn’t stand straight in the water! Must be a good drop off here! I beat the dinghy again, but then again I got a good head start. That being said, I decided I would take the dinghy ride on the way back as I am not as young as I used to be… yes you can read that as very unfit!!<\/p>\n
We wandered around a little before finding the massive Shark’s mouth (photos Mark has already posted), then just had a play on the beach. Wasn’t long before Anthony was back, and he asked us to pose for a Facebook photo. Will try to find the link… Here you go:<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/Sail-Capricornia\/190027444383673<\/a><\/p>\n Great comment Anthony, although not sure who the delightful kids were??? <\/p>\n Anyway, back on the boat again, we had time for a few more jumps off the front, Zac and Mattie joined me this time (good on ya boys) before we set off under full sail this time to head back to the Mariner. What a way to end a great day, was so relaxing and peaceful with the motors off gliding through the waves. Most people couldn’t help but fall asleep on the boom nets in the setting sun. Had a great day on the water, and both Anthony and Vicki were fantastic hosts. If you ever get up this way, I can certainly recommend getting out on Gracie II with Sail Capricornia.<\/p>\n Back on shore we made headed back to the van for showers and some “Cheese O’Clock” time before everyone headed to bed early totally exhausted.<\/p>\n Who knows what we will do today, our last in Yeppoon before heading further North, but either way it is going to be a hot one. For the first time the mercury will go over 30 degrees, a welcome change for us travelling Melburnians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Well Mark and Fiona have done a great job of documenting yesterday’s activities, and both got some great photos as we spent the day cruising over to Great Keppel Island. It was a fantastic day, and everyone was thoroughly exhausted by the end. Gracie II is a great boat, A twin hull catamaran, with two … Continue reading