a little slice of heaven

We’ve visited Yellow Patch a few times over the years.  It is a special place and it never disappoints even in 20+ knot howling winds and this time we had it all to ourselves!

There’s lots of photos in this post but this photo particularly captures the essence of this unique place.  Yellow Patch really is a little slice of heaven.

We had been watching the weather forecasts with a great deal of interest when we were at Great Keppel Island.  We wanted to visit Yellow Patch which was only 24 nm south, on Curtis Island and we also wanted to hop down the Southern Reef islands to Lady Musgrave Island, before returning ‘home’ to Boatworks. We always want it all!  There was definitely no reef window in sight as there were strong southerly winds on the horizon (for bloody days).  So the question … where do we hide from these strong southerlies??

Yellow Patch!

We found a very small window to get in to Yellow Patch before the strong southerlies arrived.  A high tide is needed to cross the sand flats to get in (and the same to get out) and we needed the right wind to even get there from Yeppoon. With a rare SW breeze and a 4 pm high tide, we left Yeppoon.  I think a few friends thought we were a tad crazy but we knew it would be protected from the approaching strong southerlies and what a place to be ‘stuck’. We had our tracks from previous visits, along with our satellite program to guide us in, so it was ‘on’.

This drone photo shows two possible entries, but it’s the channel on the eastern side (RHS in photo) that we always enter.

Yellow Patch is a such a visually stunning anchorage.  The long yellow sand hill runs along the southern end of the anchorage. The meandering creeks run deep in to the inlet and the sand flats that uncover with the falling tide make for so many sweeping vistas. A photographer’s dream!

Our first few days were a little less blowy up high so I did get the drone up a few times. There were a few nerves after my experience back at Monkey Beach and as the wind outside built I was reluctant to keep flying. Mind you, a walk up to the top of the sandhill sufficed nicely for that ‘bird’s eye view’ shot.

Climbing the sand hill at different times of the tide is well worth it. Along with the sand flats changing with the tide, there are also sculptural sand formations along the hill’s ridge.

We had the anchorage all to ourselves! It can only be reached by boat, but no boats??

Here’s a slideshow of some aerial views …

We did have big tides which meant we had to watch our depth at low tide.  I think we moved three times looking for deeper water.

Crabs, birds, dolphins, fish, yabbies and rays … there’s plenty of wildlife in Yellow Patch. We even had a very large (and I think, old) dolphin feeding on the water’s edge at the base of the sandhill one afternoon. It was a rather boisterous feeding session with lots of splashing and noise.

On one of our previous visits to Yellow Patch we met fisher-people-extraordinaire Glennis and Russell from Lionfish Safari. They taught us how to catch whiting. So we gave it a go. We revisited the exact same sandflat way deep in the estuary, to pump for bait, yabbies (we call them one-armed bandits in Vic). Our trusty sand pump must be over 35 years old now. It has sailed with us on every boat we’ve owned and we can even remember who gave it to us. Pumping for those yabbies was almost as difficult as catching the fish we decided. The yabbies were few and far between. We then revisited the same sand gutter and we caught four good sized whiting.  Dinner!  We just had to remember how to fillet them.

Our plan was to stay two nights in Yellow Patch but the southerlies were still howling outside, yet we were in such calm water, so we decided to stay on. We had some phone reception and internet to monitor the winds and keep in touch with other yachties. There was so much to do, so we stayed five nights.

Not a bad backdrop to write my blog post!

We have crept only slightly further south.  Those strong southerlies are still blowing so we are catching up on some washing and provisioning at the Gladstone Marina, like all the other boats hiding from these winds. The marina is booked out!