Back for more Pancake

The trick from here is choosing moments when the wind turns northerly to steal a little territory back towards Brisbane - in between the usual bouts of beach and boat paradise. We've just stolen second base and have been enjoying a pleasant few days in Pancake Creek under somewhat less cyclonic conditions than last time.

We had an overnight stopover and beers at Hummocky Island before and leaving the Keppels with a crack of dawn departure.

Farewelled the tropics as we rounded Cape Capricorn.

Phone connectivity has been very come and go but we do try to keep up with world events. In deference to the passing of the Queen (and my Mum's cumquat marmalade) Jean has started dressing up as Paddington Bear.

Perfect conditions for laundry day.

And wildlife encounters! (We snorkeled at the little patch of reef at the mouth of Pancake Creek.)

Dinghy trips to explore the creek and Rodds Peninsula.

Still pushing the limits on how small a fish can be caught on a relatively big lure 

Fish

There are national parks mooring buoys scattered around the Keppels that make it easy to step out your back door to go dive a nearby reef.

We've spent the last few days at Secret Beach and Shelving Beach (with an intervening trip back to Leeke's Beach to get away from one of those mooring buoys that was banging on the side of our boat at 9 o'clock at night). Secret Beach is not a secret to anyone witth a boat or the local tour operators but it does have some nice coral.

Change of plan... back to Leeke's.

For some of the other type of fish research...

And on to Shelving Beach.

And back home.

Rosslyn Bay to NKI Mazie Bay

New outboard works a treat.

A turtle right there next to us in the marina.!!!

Back to one of our favourites, Considine Bay on North Keppel.

Catch of the day - ceviche. 

Anchored in Pumpkin passage, surrounded by North Keppel, Pumpkin and Sloping islands.

Pied oystercatcher leave their eggs in the sand dunes.

This cod was too small, but so photogenic.

That's our anchor chain, not stretched out on the ocean floor, as GG swings with the changing  tide and wind.

Back to the Keppels

Stopover in Pearl Bay as we headed south.

We encountered lots of Mugga mugga (humpback whales), totem of the Woppaburra people, on the trip to Konomie (North Keppel Island).

Attempts to revive the dinghy outboard have been in vain.

We wanted to upgrade the outboard anyway so we've put off returning to the relative civilisation of Yeppoon until our new one arrives.

Stocks on Georgie Girl are getting low though after four weeks.

We have ninety empty beer cans on board and no full ones. Jean in particular has been quite the creative chef - catering to my birthday and other festive occasions (like Mondays) with minimal ingredients.

Super-star that she is...

Cruising without an outboard has had quite an effect on the incoming supply of fresh fish too. There was a fascinating ball of bait fish gyrating around the boat whilst we were anchored off the ironically named Fisherman's Beach.

Occasionally we've been seeing big tuna (or something) hoeing down the bait fish so I thought I'd try casting a metal slug at them. And yep, sure enough - I caught a bait fish (not the plan).

Undeterred I redeployed it as live bait in the belief that something big and tasty awaited.

Half right. Suckering sucker-fish.

Those of you who have been following the tragicomedy that is the Georgie Girl fishing show would recall last episode found us retrieving a bream from higher up in the tree branches than you would normally expect to find a fish.

Well this was different.

In the period of disillusionment where I was coming to terms with the fact that I had not been battling a wahoo for the last half hour but rather a remora, and Jean was coming to terms with the landing net, the stinking thing (the fish not Jean) attached itself and by proxy me and my fishing line to the bottom of the boat. Any amount of cursing and line waggling failed to de-suction the thing but eventually it decided it needed to get on with its life even if we didn't - so it made a plunge for freedom... into the net.

From there it was only five further minutes of remora dental work with the pliers before I could let the bloody thing go and all three of us could return to whatever we were doing before - which come to think of it was not much for any of the parties involved.

Onwards and upwards. Same neck of the woods - Shelving and Monkey beaches are two more beautiful jewels in the multifaceted GKI crown.

Some nice walks and nice swims. Tomorrow we are braving a strong wind warning to return to Rosslyn Bay to pick up my long awaited birthday present in the shape of an outboard motor.

And ninety full cans of beer.