17th November we anchored in West Bay on Middle Percy Island.  Beautiful bay  long sandy beach, palm trees and an 'A' frame shed ashore where all the yachties can congregate, BBQ. and leave their yacht name.  We left an old Royal Cruising Club Burgee with Aqualuna written on it.  Not sure how long it will last before the moths get at it.  Quite a few Catamarans (the favoured form of sailing around here) in the Bay.    The next afternoon we did a long uphill walk through the bush to the Homestead. Spotted lots of wild goat, cockatoos and parrots.   The Island is on lease hold to an English lady who's uncle originally had it before he died.  Before that, up until the 1960s it was owned by the White Family who ran it as a sheep station and started the idea of a shed where the visiting yachties could congregate and put up burgees and signs of their yachts.   Goats seem to have taken over from sheep and occasionally they have a gathering at the A frame for goat stew, but we had missed it as it happened the night before we arrived.  One of the Cat owners from ,Endless Summer' came over to ask us if we had an up to date weather report, but we only had what we had downloaded two days before, both VHF and wifi were impossible to pick up there.  He invited us over for drinks to his Cat' so we all gathered on board having decided the beach was far too full of sandflies in the evening.  It was a bring your own so armed with 8 beers  and a bottle of wine + a bag of peanuts.  One of the other chaps on board was the caretaker of the island, a German guy but very Australian and not a hint of a German accent left.  Lots of chat and far too much to drink.  

19th November up early and upped anchor at 6.a.m.  Headed out into very choppy seas with a SE wind blowing, so had to tack our way to our next destination, not comfortable at all.  One of the fishing lines ran inevitably just as I had finished on the loo dashed up on deck, Jonathan had the rod with most of line whizzing out.  Brought Aqualuna up into wind to slow her down and helped Jonathan bring in a 10lb Blue Fin Tuna.  Having just settled the yacht back onto course we heard a clunk and noticed the anchor chain running.........Jonathan tried to stop it using the switch by the wheel but as soon as he took his finger off it started off again!  He had to go up forward, meanwhile I had to keep my finger on the switch to keep the anchor from running out at the same time as bring Aqualuna back up into wind to slow her down again........Eventually Jonathan decided it was a short in the anchor switch up on deck by the anchor winch so cut the wires to that so it did not keep overriding the switch at the wheel, it worked and we were able to bring it back in again  Fortunately only 10 meters had gone out it could have been the lot and gone as it was only by chance we noticed it running in the heavy seas.

Our next stop and much looked forward to  that day, was Island Head Creek, it is part of the military zone and there is active firing this week within the bay but the creek is still safe to anchor in.  Quite sheltered tucked in off another very long beach.  We are at the end of a huge penninsular that mostly belongs to the military so is undeveloped and full of forest, stunning.  No swimming at all though, you could walk on the jelly fish there are so many and there are said to be crocodiles around, so not really worth the risk!  On our walk this morning along the beach we saw a few turtles swimming in quite close, not sure if this is a beach they use for nesting, no sign of turtle tracks, just dead jellyfish.  On shore is an upside down motor catamaran, there is a small motor boat here with some guys on board who are trying to salvage it, it is quite a wreck and no real value in it.  A local boat, badly built and filled up by the stern as soon as any waves built up and sunk, but has been floated ashore while the 'salvage chaps' try to retrieve what they can, don't think they are a professional salvage team though and Jonathan is having great fun watching them and full of criticism as they go about trying to get if off the beach.  They seem to be very casual about it and not up early to get the very low tied to sort it out first, They have been digging sand from under it (it is about 30' long) but as the tide comes back in the sand will be swept back under.  They are now trying to pull it off the beach but using just the dingy, it is providing some entertainment and keeping Captain Lyne very amused.  Eventually they used the mother ship 'Adori' which managed to get itself in the way of other anchored yachts in the process, they eventually managed to get the cat hull to float upside down and put it on a tow behind them, when we awoke at 6am this morning they were gone and had left tons of debris on the beach including acid batteries, nails in wood, plastic, old chairs etc. they didn't even bother ot put in in a pile above the tide line to be dealt with later.  We think they are just amateur 'salvage' guys doing a weekend night owl job from Mackay City Council as they all had those jackets on with MCC.  When asked if they were salvaging for the owner some of the other yachties were told to mind their own business.  The beach did look beautiful when we arrived but terrible when we left.