What Do We Want? Northerlies! When Do We Want ‘Em? Now! | Rolling Our Way South

So I believe we were in paradise last time I left you… I am still so stoked just thinking about those places. As much as we wanted to stay, the winds would not allow it so we had to duck back around the other side of Brampton Island.

It is certainly a very nice place on the northern side of the island but I think we lasted a whole 2 days before we got itchy feet and decided we gotta go! The original plan was to actually wait here until we had some northerlies forecast…….

Yeah… that didn’t happen.

So throwing caution to the wind (Ha! Get it??) We left on an easterly forecast with the chance of it turning more north in the afternoon. In the wee hours of the morning we set off with no real plan as to where we were going.

Just aim the boat south and figure it out later.

We sailed a bit, napped a bit, motor sailed a bit, altered course about a million times… then…….

FISH ON!!!!

The trouble was, this particular fish didn’t actually realise he was on.

This donkey of a tuna was just cruisin’ with the boat. It wasn’t until Nathan had reeled him in close that the fish realised he should try and make a run for it. And boy did he!

We were hooting along with good ol’ Rei the autopilot taking care of things while Nathan held on to the line for dear life. Luckily my captain managed to stay in the boat and said tuna was successfully landed.

Now I think about it, maybe the fish just caught sight of this crazy ass face and tried to run away!

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Middle Percy Island became our destination. It was really our best option for the strong easterly winds to come in the next few days.

Just because it was our best option though, doesn’t mean it was a good one!

Ohhhh boy were we in for some rolly nights.

Even though we were sea sick the whole time at anchor, I still love this place! White sand beach, crazy jungle island and clear water. Just lovely.

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We caught up with a friend of a friend who had since bought a boat (what a crazy small world!) and tried to relax and play between the strong winds.

The A-frame looked like an inviting place to sleep after the first night of rolling.

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I guess the upside to us rolling around is that the captain managed to find a tiny wave!

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It wasn’t the most comfortable stay but it wasn’t all bad either so after a good dose of coconut trees it was time for us to move on.

Hoist the main, we’re outta here!

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We spent a quick overnighter at Hexham Island. Would you believe it was even more rolly than the Percy’s? We weren’t kidding ourselves. We know it’s a bloody rolly place. But it was so much worse than we imagined. You don’t exactly wake up refreshed after bracing yourself all night.

BUT. There is always a banger sunset and we did get this beauty of a spangled emperor…. so…. win some, lose some?

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As you can probably tell we couldn’t have got away from there fast enough. We motor-sailed as quick as we could into some undesirable seas aiming for the shelter of Pearl Bay.

It was so flat it felt like we were in a marina! We almost cried from happiness. In fact maybe we did cry. We were so tired it seems like a likely possibility.

Waking up as fresh as a daisies we had Great Keppel Island in our sights.

How can two days be so different??

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The Keppels are always such a welcome sight. We had a couple of days just chilling and of course had a couple of sneaky guests.

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Because we are wanting to be back on the Sunshine Coast in early November we semi rushed back to Keppel Bay. Now it is time for a quick re-provision and fuel top up because we are waiting for a weather window to visit the Bunker Group. That is my must-see destination on our way south so hopefully the weather co-operates.

Spoiler alert. It does! And yep, it’s amazing!

Until next time.

Xx