Leaving Rum City

Finally got out of Bundaberg on a weather window Thursday 6th after 3 frustrating weeks of very brisk south easterlies. Having said that, we were able to take the boat out of the water and have it's bum scrubbed, antifouled and prop speeded, not to mention a prop repitch. Alternator issues appear largely resolved although we still await delivery of the high output replacement. Hoping that catches up with us in Mackay later this month. In line with our ambition to visit as many wineries as possible we hired a car and drove to Childers (hippie central) where  a winery called Hill of Promise showed us a passable Shiraz. I don't believe QLD is well known for wineries - with good reason. The only other"winery" tried to trick us into tasting their "Prize Winning" fruit wines.We backed out slowly.

Had a nice sail out of the Burnett tp Pancake Creek with the wind up our ginger. We "poled out" the headsail (Col) and tooled along at 7-8 kts. Picked up a little tuna along the way (too small to photograph) and rounded Bustard head mid arvo. Entered Pancake Creek "by the leads" (Col) and anchored uneventfully. It was still blowing hard but holding was good so no dragging problems.

Launched the dinghy next day and headed across to the beach area from where we hiked up the hill to the Bustard Head lighthouse via Aircraft Beach lookout.  Nice spot Pancake Creek and a few of the locals turned up in their tinnies for a spot of camping and fishing. It's just north of Agnes Water and the Town of 1770 so a popular spot for the locals.

Wind showed signs of abating so we "weighed anchor" (Col) at 0730 on the 9th and made for Gladstone Marina. About 30 miles so we motored all the way and performed a battery monitoring exercise. All worked as it should so should

be OK from here on (touch wood). So now we're in Gladstone where we reprovisioned and fueled up ready to depart for the first of our islands - Great Keppel tomorrow. We chickened out on navigating the narrows between Curtis Island and the mainland because of the floods in the Fitzroy which has likely filled the Narrows and Keppel Bay with all manner of rubbish. We'll tackle that on the way home.

So, from here to Great Keppel, then onto Port Clinton, Pearl Bay, Island Head Creek and the Percys. From there we will head to the Whitsundays (possibly via Mackay) so if any of you ever wanted to sail that area give us a hoy and we'll see what can be arranged.

Keeping an eye on TC Cook all the while!

Sally continues to attract the midgies - almost like she's an anode for me. I get the odd bite but she takes  to excess! Stocking up on the DEET.