Women on Boats Explore the Keppels with CruisAbility

Three days, two tropical nights, four women, sailing, snorkelling, socialising, skinny dipping and securite warnings - a recipe for success!

The Crew

Judy from Brisbane was the first to sign up after hearing about CruisAbility from the Women on Boats team. She came with some sailing experience though mostly as crew on board a trailer-sailer with some less than comfortable spousal learning experiences! She had just completed her coastal navigation course and was keen to expand her sailing experience.

Kerrie joined next, also through Women on Boats and having just completed her coastal navigation course (the same one as Judy although they didn’t connect at the course) and brought with her, sailing knowledge learned in Lasers in Turkey: so learning to sail in keel boats in English was her challenge.

To round off the crew Jeanette joined the boat at Great Keppel Island because of work commitments – after a few earlier sailing lessons on Kindred Spirit, she was seeking to reinforce her skills and shake off a few more fears along the way.

My job as skipper and sailing instructor was made easy by the enthusiasm and willingness of the crew and I was keen to help these women achieve their goal of completing the Competent Crew Certificate.

Getting started

Airport pickups can be confusing when you’ve never met the clients but I assured Kerrie and Judy that I’d be able to recognise them easily because sailing women have a special look about them! Luckily they flew into Rockhampton within an hour of each other on Thursday night so we had time for dinner and a chat before we headed to Yeppoon. I could see immediately that there was plenty of common ground - we all fitted into the same vintage – like good wine – lots of life experience – love of the sailing and adventure:  there would be no shortage of conversation on board!

Kerrie and Judy settled in for a night aboard Kindred Spirit in the marina while we did some basic orientation and ensured that last minute supplies could be obtained in the morning. They opted to sleep in the cockpit although they had a rude awakening with some showers which provided an introduction to night watches – and we hadn’t even left the marina!!

Last minute supplies and safety briefings complete, we slipped the lines at 10am heading into a light south easterly. The trip to Great Keppel provided the chance to cover the basic sailing and crewing skills and establish man overboard drills. Anchoring in the bay next to Great Keppel Island resort provided a perfect setting for swimming and lunch before the dinghy and kayak expedition to collect Jeanette from the ferry. I had to drag the girls away from the resort boutique – just too much temptation but luckily we had no credit cards with us!

Building a competent crew

With hot sunny days we planned to do our sailing in the mornings and early evenings and leave the heat of the day for snorkelling and swimming and evenings for revision and theory. So that afternoon after everyone had refreshed themselves in the crystal clear waters we set off for some more sail training. Reefing the main and sailing through all points of sail in the gusty afternoon sea breezes gave the crew a chance to work together and learn a bit more terminology. We finished up anchoring for the evening at Monkey Beach sheltered from the north easterlies and keeping a weather eye out for the possible thunderstorms that were predicted.

The sun and salt takes it toll and although there were grand plans for Gin’s and Tonics before our lovely fresh whiting for dinner, everyone faded quickly feeling the effects of the heat and a bit more physical activity than they were used to. It was a quiet night on board with the weather calm, which provided the rest and time to recover that everyone needed.

After swims and a hearty breakfast we set off for some tacking practice. More team work and learning about leeway while beating through the narrow pass between Middle and Great Keppel Islands provided just the right amount of challenge. We managed to do some more sight seeing and turtle spotting as we sailed around the islands before heading back to our favourite bay. Everyone was getting a chance to swap roles on the helm, lowering and raising the anchor and relaying signals to the helmswoman from the bow. Kindred Spirit has a very efficient manual anchor winch (Handraulic Armstrong brand -  Ed) which was providing everyone with a good workout each time we moved anchorage – better than going to the gym!

Another lunch time break with the tides just right for some great snorkelling – turtles and stingrays, thousands of colourful fish and beautiful coral. Wow, it was hard to stay focused on the sailing – we still had a lot to pack into the day and the weather was looking a bit ominous with some storm clouds brewing in the SW.

Rockhampton Bureau of Meteorology, known locally as Rocky Met, provides a great service in this area giving forecasts 4 times a day, but when we heard them chatting with the local coast guard at an unscheduled time asking about the correct term to get all mariners’ attention, our ears were tuned and the VHF volume turned up. The call came out minutes later “securite securite securite, hello all ships this is Rocky Met with a severe thunderstorm warning. Isolated thunderstorms with SW winds up to 35 knots are approaching the coastal region and may include hail and an intense burst of strong winds with the storm cells…….”

With light NE winds it would be easy to be lulled into believing we were safe but we could see a small storm cell approaching and were tracking its progress while we made our preparations. Better safe than sorry!………Dinghy and kayak were brought up and lashed in place, awning was stowed and decks cleared for action. Second reef was put in the main, just in case and storm tactics discussed while we had a coffee.

We moved Kindred Spirit further out in the bay so that we had more sea room if there was a SW wind shift and dropped the anchor and dug it in for that wind direction with plenty of chain out. We then settled in and watched the activities of other boats – some making a desperate dash back to the harbour with too much sail out and heeling dreadfully in the gusty conditions on the edge of the storm; some making preparations like ourselves; others unaware of the warning and a couple of trailer sailers rafting up and tucked in tight close to the SW shore of the bay which added to the general questioning from the crew. The storm cell safely slid by to the north of us and the whole exercise provided some practical and theoretical learning experiences that I’m sure will stand the crew in good stead if they are faced with similar choices.

Making the most of every moment

With the weather clearing a bit and no time left for our late afternoon sail we settled in for some quick quizzes during sundowners and prepared for dinner and a visitor from a neighbouring yacht Mareva. It turned out to be a beautiful evening and we managed to convince our visitor to take us ashore for a beach walk under the stars – his dinghy was bigger than ours!

This was to be our last night of the trip and it seemed like everyone was keen not to waste a moment – after our visitor left we decided to have a quick dip to refresh and …..well it seemed all too hard to get changed into bathers again……. so the benefits of an all girl crew came into play. We helped each other past our fears of sea monsters and the like and had a refreshing swim off the back of the boat. Although our reassurances about the absences of things that might bite seemed OK whilst on board, everyone stayed close to the boarding ladder – it was definitely just a quick dip!

Last Day

We’d been invited on board Mareva for breakfast of pancakes and with the dinghy securely lashed the kayak and swimming appeared to be the chosen transport. This was a great chance to have a look at a different style of boat and compare rigging and sail plans. The swim back seemed a bit more challenging, I’m not sure if it was the current or the pancakes that made it harder but with some help from our new friend and his dinghy we made it back.

Another friend of the skipper cruised by and made comment about how little work was being done on KS! The crew responded to the challenge, the second reef was shaken out and the anchor was up in record time, we did a little practice short tacking and a sail past in the anchorage to farewell our friends before heading for a final snorkel and lunch stop. A huge turtle was waiting for us at this anchorage and everyone was keen for one last swim with the fishies!

Graduation

It was time to go and the skipper ducked down below to put lunch together with a final instruction for the crew to take us home……there were mild looks of panic that were gradually overcome by a little encouragement and the instruction to “talk it through and plan before you act”. Before I knew it the competent crew had Kindred Spirit underway with the wind on the starboard quarter, a full main and genoa and flat seas. The auto pilot and GPS were brought out as a final graduation present – the crew had earned the right to use them now and it gave us a chance to share a relaxed lunch together during our sail across Keppel Bay.

What next for the Competent Crew?

Judy is planning her next goal and adventure – more sailing in Brisbane and then bringing her daughter up for a 6 day trip on Kindred Spirit next year. Kerrie managed to arrange to do a leg of the journey from Bundaberg to Brisbane on board Mareva so she can gain some more experience. And Jeanette is looking forward to putting her new skills into action when she shares some sailing with her partner on their new boat.

The skipper – well more adventures await with new crews and new challenges on board Kindred Spirit. CruisAbility is about sharing cruising skills so that people can create their own adventures and enjoy what the sailing and cruising life has to offer. What a bonus it is to do all this sailing in fabulous Keppel Bay while getting to know such wonderful people in the process!