It is still really windy, up to 30 knots during the day, the swell wraps around the headlands making sitting at anchor a jiggly affair, and there are rainy spells, but nothing stops us: we explore ashore, dinghy up rivers and lagoons, snorkel and sail from one anchorage to another and the Keppels do not fail to spin their magic.
The butterflies were everywhere during our walks. The blue ones are Blue Tiger Butterflies, the brown one is a Common Crow Butterfly.
We have been to Humpy and North Keppel Islands so many times with friends, and we always have fun doing the ridge top walks: good exercise, excellent views.
Underwater
Although the water is stirred up, and you might think it is not worth suiting up for a snorkel, you’d better do it because there are wonderful surprises. We have gone to the northern most bay on Great Keppel, where we grabbed a public mooring, snorkelled at low tide and were mesmerised.
It only takes one special find to make your day. Our best sighting was this Nudibranch, called a Spanish Dancer. A type of mollusk, they swim by undulating their bodies which is reminiscent of the undulations of a Spanish Dancer’s red skirt during a flamenco dance!
But there were other nice sights. Phil swam with a turtle, captured a few nice underwater photos much to his delight, and a lesson on editing with Snapseed followed back on Anui to enhance them. This is a free app which you can get on your smart phone. Although not as good as Lightroom for editing on a laptop, it does a reasonable job. Despite the backscatter, we all captured a few pleasing images.
It might not be the Outer Reef, and it might not be exactly calm, but the Keppels never fail to spin their magic and provide lots of great experiences. And sharing these with a friend on board is always special.
Sv-Anui 
Those are excellent shots underwater! Good thing that you have hikes and some explorations. Enjoy my friend! 🙂
Hi HJ, yes you have to make the best of the conditions you get. We are not ones to stay stuck on board if we can help it. Find fun wherever you can is our motto!
Great to see that Phil had a great time at the Keppels and saw some of the delights of our GB Reef
We did the best we could with the weather we had. Back to Rosslyn Bay on Monday!
Yep. See. On one hand we are incredibly envious – the scenery is amazing and we can’t wait to get up there (and love the nudibranch). On the other – I am not swapping my glorious 4 knots at anchor for your 30 – that is just a bit too rough for us to get off and go exploring!!
Hi Trish, yes a quieter anchorage would be good, there is nowhere to get out of the swell in these conditions. But we still get out and about and are having fun.
Great to see you are having fun!
Hi Murray, it is very much overdue, but now everything is working and having Phil on board has been good.
Great to have a post with no equipment failure reports! Loved the Spanish Dancers. That must have been quite special.
I will be doing the Keppels Sept/Oct in Asteroid and really looking forward to revisiting old & exploring new anchorages.
Hi Graham, we have been enjoying life without repairs! The Keppels are great. If you haven’t already, you should try going up the lagoon in the corner of Leakes Beach!