August 11 – 30, 2022
(Posted December 9, 2022)
Soon after we arrived in Gladstone, I began working on a plan for cruising the coast of Queensland as we made our way north. Before arriving here, I’d already learned a few things about area’s the “big-gun” cruising destination: The Whitsunday Islands, located about 250 miles to the north.
It seems the Whitsundays get pretty crowded during their peak season, June through September, when droves of Australian yachties head north to join the regular parade of charter boats that cruise the area. This results in crowded anchorages and marinas, not something we wanted to experience. And we were already hearing that this year’s season had not only been extra crowded but relentlessly breezy due to enhanced trade winds.
In some ways, it made us feel better to hear about this difficult season. We’d planned to arrive in Australia in June, but had that happened we would have been right there in the crowded, windy conditions when we got to the Whitsundays. Getting to Australia later than planned was looking to be one of those situations where an apparent misfortune turns out to be a stroke of luck.
At this point I decided we should take our time heading up that way, hoping that by arriving in the Whitsundays later in the season we’d have better weather and fewer boats. On the downside, we’d also be cruising the rest of the coast later in the season, putting us unnervingly close to cyclone season. For the time being, I decided to focus on immediate issues and save other worries for their appropriate times.
So, the first decision was where to go from Gladstone. I had my trusty Alan Lucas guidebook, Cruising the Coral Coast, an excellent brochure-booklet the Gladstone marina had given us with a good overview of nearby islands, another guidebook called 100 Magic Miles for when we got to the Whitsundays, and an out-of-print book lent to us by a friend for cruising this area of the coast, known as the Curtis Coast. I also had a Fodor’s Travel Guide to make sure we didn’t miss any must-sees on land, and of course The Rectangle of All Knowledge (aka my computer when connected to the internet).
Initially, I had a heck of a time making decisions about where to head first and what to pass by. The closest cruising area off Gladstone was known as the Capricorn group, made up of small islands and reefs.
Everything initially looked tempting, but I ended up taking a pass on these places for various reasons such as these:
1. Lady Musgrave Island: Actually an anchorage south of the Capricorn Group. It’s inside a reef with beautiful blue water, good snorkeling, turtles galore, and to top it off, a very pretty island. What’s not to like about that? Unfortunately for us to go, we’d have to wait for a period of very calm weather not only to motor 60-plus miles southeast, but then to enjoy the rather-exposed reef anchorage. We just couldn’t afford to take the time to do this.
2. Fitzroy Reef: Would it worth going 50-miles out of our way to visit a pretty reef when we’d just visited spectacular reefs in New Caledonia? Maybe if we were visiting other islands nearby, but otherwise no.
3. Heron Island and its resort, on my To-See list, certainly welcomes day trippers who travel over by ferry. But come to find out they do not welcome yachties who arrive on their own boats. Well who needs those poo-poo heads anyway. 🙁
4. North West Island had some shark attacks, including a fatal one on a young park ranger. Scary. Even if we didn’t go in the water, just looking at photos of the island gave me a foreboding feeling.
5. Wistari Reef looked nice but was located between poo-poo-head Heron Island and hungry-shark North West Island. No thanks. I find Aussies have a tendency when, after a shark attack, to believe the shark stays only at that one place where the attack happened! But I’ve seen enough Shark Week to know that sharks can cross oceans; so making their way amid neighboring islands, reefs and bays would not be an issue for them.
There were a few other small islands around this area, but without visiting the bigger draws on the above list, I decided they wouldn’t be worth going to see for themselves. So it was an overall “No” for the Capricorn Islands.
The next cruising area to consider lay about 40 miles to the north: The Keppel Island group, specifically the much-revered Great Keppel Island, considered a must-do by Aussie cruisers.
By the time I’d finally settled on a plan, it looked like Great Keppel Island would be our first stop, but a windy period was forecast soon after we’d arrive there. Could we duck into the nearby Keppel Bay Marina when that happened? Yes, it seems cruisers do this all the time!
I would eventually learn that marinas on the Queensland coast see a rather constant flow of boats migrating north for the winter and south for the summer. While there are islands and anchorages along the way, many of them are quite swell-prone during enhanced wind conditions. It doesn’t do much good to be protected from the prevailing wind if one is uncomfortably rolling around in the swell.
Then of course, there’s always the lure of laundry facilities and re-provisioning in towns and cities along the coast (virtually every marina north of Gladstone has courtesy cars just for this purpose). Alan Lucas calls this “The Coral Coast,” but I think “The Migration Coast” could also be an appropriate name as yachts of all types are consistently on the move here.
During the 2 1/2 weeks we spent pulling ourselves together and figuring out our plan, we felt very much at home in what I came to think of as “The Oasis.” We weren’t actually on an island where our marina was, but it sure felt like one as we had to cross a bridge to get to the adjacent city of Gladstone.
What a striking difference between the nearest area of Gladstone, which felt rather hot, dry, and deserted as most eateries were only open for dinner. Crossing the bridge into the park, however, meant entry into a world of large shady trees, green grass, flowering plants, abundant bird life, and people who were there enjoying themselves with picnics, refreshments at the cafe, dog walking, or watching their kids play in the covered playground.
Aside from occasional shuttle bus trips to the center of the city (much busier and more active than the area of the city closest to the park), we did have occasion to exit the Oasis on foot, walking across the bridge to visit the nearby seafood market or yacht club, or walk further afield to a liquor store or market. We also walked to stores with boating supplies, including one place where Rich had a part made. But every time we returned from these outings, I’d breath a sigh of relief as we crossed the bridge back into the park.
Below, a few photos of our “oasis” (click on any photo to enlarge) . .
And a few photos of the Gladstone Marina, our home sweet home . . .
–Cyndi
