Posted July 9, 2023
about September 12, 2023
After we’d gotten settled in Middle Percy Island’s West Bay, we headed ashore to visit the beach and yacht club. The water became quite clear as we neared the shore, the sand smooth and soft under our feet as we landed.
Below, a few photos of the beach from various times of the day (click any photo to enlarge).
Already we could see that the yacht club, a little A-frame structure, was heavily decorated with tokens people had left to mark their visits there. We made our way up to an entry path bordered with coconut shells and surrounded by palm trees, with a sign identifying the Percy Island Yacht Club. How fitting that two yachties happened to be sitting in front of the club, Rich taking a moment to chat with them while I took photos.
We went inside, surprised to find this place quite a bit larger than it looked from afar. It was absolutely chock full of mementos left by cruisers, made from whatever materials they could find: boat bits, wood, buoys, rocks, etc. All the items stated the boat’s name, the date they visited, and usually where boat was from. Some pieces were slapdash, but other people had put in real effort and made works of art. We wanted to look around and see if we recognized any boat names, but the sheer number of items was overwhelming—there must have been thousands of bits in there. It would take us all day to look through everything!
Aside from all the flotsam and jetsam, we found fire pits and cooking utensils out behind the hut, visitors welcome to use them. A little room inside was stocked with jars of local honey, homemade chutneys and jams, and fresh eggs for sale, the resident family who oversees this place trusting people to pay on the honor system. We also discovered a loft with still more stuff upstairs. Below, a gallery of photos from the yacht club . . .
We hadn’t initially planned on leaving anything, but after seeing all these mementos I couldn’t imagine not doing so. They had a ghostly feel, snapshots from moments in so many lives, frozen in time and going back years. I, too, wanted to freeze this moment in our life and let it join the “ghosts” of the yacht club. Rich agreed, suggesting we use a beautiful flat pearlescent shell we’d recently found. That would be perfect—we could bring it back in before leaving the next morning!
Satisfied we’d properly visited the yacht club, we took a walk to see some of the inland area. A trail angled up into a eucalyptus forest behind the beach. The vegetation was on the dry side, the trees not very tall but really lovely.
One particularly charming area was rather open, the trees widely scattered. Here, bushy ground cover with purple flowers was alight with small yellow butterflies. Crickets provided the soundtrack, chirping even though it was daylight. A flock of rainbow lorikeets alerted us with their squeaky cries as they flew above, and I could hear the sad cawing of the local ravens nearby. It may have felt ghostly in the yacht club, but outside this island was vivid with life.
We continued walking to the “tree house,” a cabin where guests can stay, then caught a view of an inland lagoon before turning back. The walk towards the shore gave us a view of the boats in the bay, a beautiful image through a frame of palm trees. Light cloud cover gave the scene a cozy, dreamy feeling, while the water sparkled in the sunlight that filtered through. By this point I was pretty enchanted with Middle Percy Island and could see why it’s revered in the boating community. Below, photos from our walk . . .
On a final cruiserly note in this cruising mecca: a young man, one of two guys on a small power boat, approached us with a bag in his hand. He said he and his friend had caught too many fish to fit in their freezer; would we like some? Oh my gosh, yes! He gave us the bag with two huge fillets, enough for two meals. What a wonderful treat!
Dinner in hand, it was time to head back to our boat, but part of me wished I could stay and hang out onshore, just soaking in the atmosphere. It had been awhile since I’d felt this way about a place, and I wanted to linger with the feeling.
Once back on the boat, though, it was awfully nice to wash the insect repellent off our legs and sit in the cockpit with a glass of wine. Following that we had a delicious dinner featuring the fresh fish grilled in foil packets with butter, grilled onion and bell pepper, and wasabi mayo served over a bed of rice (this is one of our favorite things to do with freshly-caught fish).
After dinner we went out to the cockpit again to enjoy a beautiful sunset . . .
Later that night, I stepped out to admire the bay in the moonlight. We now were surrounded by nine boats, and it felt good to be back among cruisers even if we didn’t know any of them. Tomorrow we’d be heading on; so I appreciated this moment while I was in it.
Enjoying coffee the next morning, after watching the sun come up from behind the hills, we wrote Legacy’s name on our chosen shell with a felt pen, drilled a hole at the top of it, and used fishing line as a tie (the best we could do as we lacked art supplies).
We headed ashore, first stopping at the guys’ power boat to give them a weather forecast (as there was no phone service/internet here) and a six-pack of Corona beer. Both the forecast and the beer were much appreciated, but then so was the fish we had for dinner and would have again this night. We then headed ashore to the Yacht Club and found a nice spot for our token, leaving it to represent us among the other happy ghosts who reside there.
By the time we got back to our boat, the breeze was starting to pick up. It was time to head to our next destination. While it was sad to hurry off, we had a plan to get to a marina in the city of Mackay before the next period of enhanced trade winds set in. En route we had time for one more stop: a place called Curlew Island. –Cyndi
