Slow Travelling

After that lovely rainbow off Kingfisher Bay Resort (could not find that elusive pot of gold that some speak of) we headed across Hervey Bay to Bundaberg.

Considering it is suppose to be the place to see whales we thought we might see some, but no. The wind was up a little and the swell not very kind, but it was an overcast day and the sailing happened without incident. We arrived to the warm welcome of some RPAYC members who were there already, waiting to take our lines. We spent 2 nights at Port Bundaberg to refuel and reprovision.

We set off to Pancake Creek yesterday, the wind was reasonable, but the swell and seas making for a very lumpy passage and a little queasiness, but at least nothing compared to the chuckiness that occurred between Coffs Harbour and Southport. The weather however was not enjoyable, the rain poured down on us regularly and the wind was astern (coming from right behind us) the whole trip making it hard to get a nice sail trim. All this made it, as one of my crazy sailing instructors once said, a sport for babies: big smiles and wet bums, although I’m not sure that there was too much smiling going on, especially from the anchoring committee (yours truly) who after a few nervous moments when we nudged yet another sand bar and was then anchoring in the torrential rain.

We are at Pancake Creek for the day today. We went across to the drying sand bar this morning and met some of the local wildlife and hope to build sandcastles this afternoon.

We have well and truly caught up with two friends and we will all set off for the Keppel Islands tomorrow.

So since you last heard from us we have sailed from Southport to Mooloolaba over night on Sunday night, which was a nice bit of sailing to start with but then as we have been accustomed to, the wind died in the middle of the night and we had to turn on the engine again. We arrived at Mooloolaba mid morning to find a dredge stuck in the channel and a few boats waiting to get through, so after a bit of a wait and a few nervous moments as we picked our way through the channel, hoping for enough depth under the keel we made it into the Harbour. We do love the advice provided by Queensland Maritime on approaching the channel: “Mariners are advised to take caution, always ensure that you have adequate water under you boat.” Well, ummmm der.

We spent a couple of nights in the marina to do the usual re-provision, laundry, refuel and enjoy a nice long hot shower, as well as tasting the fresh fish from the Fish Co-op. Our only hiccup was that Sophie doesn’t like wearing a hat and showed her distaste by throwing her hat over board in blustery conditions well out of reach, which then dutifully sunk to the bottom off B arm in the marina, so we also went hat shopping, this time for a hat with a string.

We set off from Mooloolaba on Wednesday night for Wide Bay Bar, as this notorious bar is best crossed in the early morning on a rising tide. We had only 50 nautical miles to cover and had a lovely sail up the coast for the majority of the night, which was much more pleasant without the noise and smell of the diesel engine. We arrived at Double Island point in time to anchor for a spot of breakfast and to regain our composure for the bar crossing; which in the end we managed with out too much hassle, as the conditions were right and we followed the directions of how to cross from Coast Guard Tin Can Bay to a tee.

We anchored for the night at Garry’s Anchorage, which is on the west side of Fraser Island near Lake Garry. It was a very quite still anchorage and a pleasant night sleep was had by all.

Friday morning we set off for the next treacherous part to our journey, crossing Sheridan Flats. There is a good reason that it is called ‘Flats’ as it is very shallow, thankfully our boat has a 1.7m draught and there was a 3m high tide, as there were places there where there was only tide height below us. It is also very disconcerting seeing water all around that looks deep enough and knowing from the charts that there is only a very small margin for error in the narrow channels through. But we made it through without any dramas and anchored off Kingfisher Bay Resort for the evening.

After an unplanned but pleasant week in Coffs Harbour the weather improved enough for us to leave on Thursday morning, so we promptly left close behind another yacht Escape Pod with Peter and Nicole onboard.

We leapfrogged with them all night but it did provide some comfort knowing that we weren’t the only ones out there dodging trawlers and tankers!

We saw a sea turtle, cruising the EAC; another whale and quite a few dolphins. For the twitchers amongst you we have also seen sea gulls (boring!), a few albatross or maybe they were shearwaters (not sure as Jo is still twitcher in training) and possibly an Australasian Gannet or two… hmmm, next time we will have to have the bird book closer at hand.

After arriving in Southport we anchored in what is just known as “Bum’s Bay” (due to all the ‘Bums’ that use to anchor there permanently; until they put a time limit on length of stay) behind the Seaworld Resort, exhausted but keen to get off the boat for a night we prettied ourselves up as best we could and went out to a lovely dinner at the casino with Jo’s Uncle Ray and Aunty Diane.

We did try today to make our way up the Broadwater thinking we might take the inside route to Mooloolaba but after hearing a yacht call Marine Rescue yesterday to report that they had become stuck hard in shallow water mid channel near Jacobs Well, we ourselves only got as far as Jacobs Well before also touching bottom. Fearing this might be the case we had approached very slowly and were able to reverse off. We tried again 4 or 5 times to find enough water but despite being sure we were in the channel we kept hitting even though there is supposed to be at least a 2m of water and we only draw 1.65. With a low tide expected in an hour we made the decision to turn around and head back to Bum’s Bay.

Tomorrow we will leave for Mooloolaba via the big blue to try and make up some lost time.

Cruising……..that is the art of travelling and seeing places by way of boat, has been a dream of ours for some years. We both sail, we have read books, heard stories and talked to people who had been out there and done it. For us however it was basically just a what if…….a one day wouldn’t it be cool if we did……..

Well in the last year we sold our apartment and had a baby……. and then one night after a glass, or maybe two of bad to average red wine, I started thinking. What if we just gave it a go…….

Our boat Iolanthe was in need of some love before we left, with most jobs now complete dare I say it I think we are as ready as we will ever be to leave.