With the new year, we reflect and we dream. Oh good morning
from Middle Percy.
Yes we dream.
But turning those dreams into reality is something else.
On this episode we meet two Aussies who've escaped the rat race and call this Great Barrier Reef island home.
We feel like we're on a deserted island like something out of lost.
This is a magic spot so strap yourselves in. Let's do this!
We've just sailed our home Tucana up the east coast of Australia, and have just made it to the
Great Barrier Reef marine park and today we're anchoring off a place called Middle Percy Island,
the largest of three in the Percy Group. We've been living on board our floating home for about
seven weeks now but could you live here on this isolated island forever? This is Robin and Annie
and they live off grid with their pet bird Bushie.
And this is their backyard away from civilization. And nestled in the mangroves is their boat
they built from scratch.
We'll introduce you shortly but first let's take you to shore.
We've anchored up at West Bay and we're going to show you around the yacht club
which was actually built in the 1970s mainly by passing yachtsmen and women.
It's the most interesting we have ever seen, what do you think? It's visited by boaties far
and wide and covered in hundreds of homemade signs and nautical memorabilia.
Well we've just arrived to Middle Percy. We're just gonna go for a walk and then we're gonna show you this yacht club.
As we walked around the island spanning 2000 hectares we actually bumped into the
only two residents on Middle Percy, but before we introduce you though i need to set the scene
because there are no shops here. There are no doctors or traffic lights. In fact this
is pretty much the only place on the entire island where you get phone reception.
It's how you make a phone call you got to put your head in there and then you can talk to people from far away places.
You gotta take your hat off. Hello.
And when it comes to wildlife, well there are plenty of slithery snakes
and thousands of butterflies. They're called Blue Tiger. They're everywhere. And then there are wild
goats that were introduced by the Admiralty in the late 1800s as food for crews of sailing
ships. And there are spiders, so don't forget to duck. Crazy that's it is that a Golden orb?
Taking into account the outback critters, the vast amount of space, the absolutely spectacular beaches
and the odd yachty who swings past, could you live here? It's a different pace but according
to the leaseholders Robin and Annie, there is always something to do. Whether it be renovating
or gardening or attending to the beehives. We actually bumped into them while on our walk
and they told us how the drought was taking a toll on their fresh water supply over the winter.
We've had none so we're getting really really... the water we have to be very very careful about.
So watering the gardens. The gardens like you clay. It's just rock, yeah. They have no neighbors, instead
a pet bird bushie, they found him as a baby.
He was all little like a little coconut but he had no feathers on his neck. We thought because he's a baby
anyway we rang up vets, rang up everyone and they said oh yeah you know just feed...
because at the time we knew nothing about birds
by four months they should be fully feathered and by um six months fly away
by this stage we're thinking no he's losing more feathers than gaining em,
and then we had a vet sail through and he said the first sign which is what he had as a baby
as a little it's the dark feathers and the dark feathers, we thought it was our dirty hands,
so we were bathing him, we were bathing him! Thinking we'd get it but what it is
that's their sign it's a stress thing and it's a spore that they pick up in the nest. Oh wow.
So he would have had that from a baby but if he was on the mainland and taken to a vet they
would put him down. So he just lives in the homestead.
Don't do that.
And this is their boat they were talking about it's an 80-foot catch called Joshua.
They built it from the ground up.
The history of this island is just incredible.
In more recent times an Englishman, Andy Martin moved here in the 1960s and stayed for 32 years.
The Hicklings family who were sailors also spent 12 years as hunter-gatherers
even building the roundhouse from scratch.
As you walk around the island you wonder
what would it take to pack up everything and move here? Could we live like the Hicklings and
raise a family here? And what would it be like to never go back to civilization as we know it?
and do we really need to walk on man-made footpaths to be happy?
Wow, very squidgy.
It's extraordinary. Extraordinary.
I think the most striking feature of the island is the white sand and the line of coconut palms on the West Bay beach.
Back at the A-frame Robin and Annie sell produce they harvest here. Money is left in
an honesty box and we buy honey and eggs as we're running low on fresh supplies.
Back on board we realize it's been a while since we've been to a supermarket.
We haven't provisioned for about 10 days so having to start to use all the long life stuff. So we're getting
creative in the kitchen.
We can use the eggs that we got from Middle Percy, the wild chicken eggs!
And it looks like I have a helper. I just have to film this and have a record of you in a kitchen
because this is the first time you've been in here for three, three months, and.. I made ravioli and I
made you a tea. But we're making fresh bread. First time. And over here I'm making pancakes all right
I need to make sure that they are okay though. I'm gonna do the test.
The test. Egg edition.
First fill a glass of water.
Place in a raw egg
and if it sinks it's good to eat.
Alright, I hope we don't get salmonella.
You just crack them straight in? That's what it said to do.
Straight in? It said.
I don't think they're the best pancakes. It was your first go. It was my first go we can only get
better from here. Recipes never turn out just right in the first go.
Oh thanks babe.
Can you keep pancake batter in the fridge and then use the batter the following day?
or is it better to just cook all the batter
and then eat cooked pancakes the following day?
I've decided just to keep eating them.
What do you think about this?
Yeah it's good. While baking the bread John and I plan to
make a message in a bottle to leave at the yacht club, aka the Percy Hilton.
All right, I think i've got everything we need.
What a stunning morning.
You see boaties who visit usually leave their mark by hanging a memento,
a piece of memorabilia in the two-story A-frame.
Plaques display the names of crew members and the date.
You could literally spend hours here just reading the notes and the names of boats that have been here before us.
This one has been you since 1981. Keith Hill and Jo Hill from the USA.
It's a tradition that's been happening for decades since the 1970s.
What are you going to write?
Okay, what are we writing? You got a mosquito flying around your head.
So. What do I write? There once a girl named Kristina.
Why did we embark.... Who was really quite the dreamer.
Why did we embark on this? She quit her job. Handed back her fob.
I know what you can do while we're here can you burn that on the side?
You're going to set fire to the hut.
What are you grateful for?
Coffee. Honestly.
Fresh milk. Look at that how good is that? Oh that looks good!
Oh hang on....
you already screwed it up. Have I? Yeah it's terrible. Oh no.
Can you fix it? Because i thought. Oh you do it. Yes, this is great. Okay that was lucky.
Making memories, a moment in time.
It'll unfold with time.
Our next job was to find a spot to hang our sentimental contribution. In the note John wrote
something about turning lemons into lemonade, in reference to coronavirus and the lockdowns
and turning this past year into something special and memorable.
I love it. I love your knots.
And as the sun went down, the sailboats a silhouette in the distance, us sailors gathered for
sundowners. A drink as we said goodbye to another day because tomorrow we're off to a new location.
So we are just motoring to the other side of Middle Percy** at the moment because the winds
are changing direction. They're going to be heading from the north north west so on the other side of
Middle Percy it's protected, so we've just found ourselves a really beautiful little secluded beach
and we're going to anchor up. This morning we also caught some garfish.
I caught one garfish, John caught four but one got away. That's right we've got dinner tonight. Yum.
Better get my shoes on to anchor up.
On the other side of the island protected from the swell we felt extremely isolated as there
were just four yachts anchored and not a human in sight.
No one here on this beach except for us.
It reminded me of this quote I had read recently...
It's kind of like one of those pitch me moments when you think about life
and you think about work. I don't know stopping your career and and making that call to quit
and leaving it all behind and then in this moment realizing that it was the right thing to do,
to have this one year break and just explore and see our backyard. You know a lot of the states here
in Australia are disconnected from each other so we're feeling really lucky and blessed to be
here right now. We are in our element, we feel pretty happy that we can share this with you
guys and I hope it feels like you're here with us too and I really hope these videos are a bit
of escape for you guys as well and that you feel like you're enjoying it with us and experiencing it with us.
Just behind us are the most insane sand dunes.
You know when I look at those sand dunes what i think of? What do you think of when you look at those sand dunes?
The ability to be able to surf down them. There's just one problem.
We don't have anything to slide down them.
I'm just saying there are sand dunes there yeah and I think this would make the perfect
board. What is that? I don't know I found it in the garage? Do you think it's important? No it's just a
plank of wood. Well I think we just take one of the doors off the door frame, because it's just
a plank wood. No but can we please use this?
Yeah and I'll take one of the doors off. This is this goes in the lazarette no one sees it.
What does it do? It stops people from being able to access the...
um... It stops the fenders from getting stuck in their steering mechanism.
Yeah but they're not there now. If they're not there now then it's unnecessary we don't need them.
Yeah we don't need doors either, really do we? I want to go sand duning. Can we please go stand duning?
John was not only concerned about the conservation aspect but the environment too and understandably.
Rubbish litters these pristine Great Barrier Reef islands, despite being a UNESCO site.
There's a sign about rubbish right on the beach...
There was plastic everywhere, big and small.
But we didn't meet a group of environmentalists on this trip.
They're volunteering to clean up these islands.
We met them in the A-frame while making our message in a bottle.
Good morning. Morning! Morning how are you?
Good, you're doing your sign? What's your boat called? Oh I'm, we're just sort of collecting marine debris so.
Ah I thought that's what you guys might have been doing that's cool. We're out here from Airlie Beach.
Is that all from there. Oh yes. Wow so do you go along the beach and pick it up or?
Yeah yeah. That's amazing. That's actually sad too.
It is yeah it's amazing how much is out there it's a real eye-opener. Wow.
We'll take it back and count it and and weigh it.
Oh good on you guys for doing that, that's good. That's really amazing, we should start doing a bit of that too.
Yeah I saw someone post something about like
saying like if every cruiser took a couple of garbage bags and just picked up some stuff each
time they stopped.
You know I was real concerned about our the next generation yeah plastic it never breaks down it breaks up
yeah, it breaks up to smaller pieces. And then it's hard to get rid of.
We can't eat a fish out there. Well now's the time to do something about it isn't it?
Yeah that's right anyway enjoy the rest of your... Yeah cool, cheers, you too.
John and I were so amazed and so inspired so we approached them and we got talking and we actually
exchanged numbers and in a couple of weeks you have to watch this upcoming episode,
Liz from Whitsunday Sailing takes me on board her tall ship to go coral monitoring.
So incredible, so make sure you subscribe so you don't miss that upcoming episode.
So it is our last night here on Middle Percy. I'm really sad to be leaving this island we've had
such an incredible time. I will never forget the moment we stepped off on the beach and walked into
that yacht club, gosh all the memorabilia, all the sailors and the people who have come here before us
and all that history. It was so touching to be able to leave also our mark there, leave a
little piece of Tucana on this island. It's our little mark in history. We hope you enjoyed this
episode. Thank you so much for watching and your support always. Especially to our Patrons.
And if you're new here make sure you hit that subscribe button. Thanks for being part of the crew.
Oh that one has a little bit of milk in it!