Wide Bay Bar ...

Monday 4th September 2017

Wind, thunder, lightning and rain before bed last night – woke to an absolutely calm anchorage this morning – how is that so? It felt like we were going to be blown away last night then with no warning it stops.

We are anchored in Tin Can Bay, just off Norman Point, along with what appears to be a whole city of other boats of all descriptions – some looking like they are just able to remain afloat by sheer good luck!!

An example of one boat anchored near us at Norman Point

We are waiting here until we get a good weather window to hop across the “Bar” and continue south.

The Wide Bay Bar apparently is one of the top 10 worst bar crossings in the world, and we are understandably a little apprehensive having never crossed a bar of any sort before – let alone one as infamous as this.

We do all the right things though, we go into the Coastguard office and get our copy of the Notices to Mariners with the latest waypoints for us to follow, if we deviate from the route set out by these waypoints we could be in trouble. These waypoints we enter into our chartplotter as well as isailor on the ipad, and also onto our paper chart – backup, backup, backup. We are also told the best time to leave is around 2hrs before high tide with a light swell. Looks like Monday is the day, especially as we will also have winds from a northerly direction to take us down towards Mooloolaba and Brisbane.

So with a few days to kill we spend time at the library – (time to organise our taxes) – and the libraries have great free wifi for us to use to our advantage. We also do the laundry and get groceries, even sneak into the local caravan park showers and put some colour through my hair!! A huge bonus here in Tin Can Bay is a place called "The Snack Shack" - the best deal for fish and chips we have found anywhere - fish, chips and salad under $10 - and super delicious!! We had lunches and dinner here the whole of our stay.

Cute snuggle sack completed !!

We have recently placed ads looking for an interested couple to sail with us to New Zealand, it is too far for us to do this length trip on our own so have turned to the internet for help and a couple would mean always two people on watch allowing the other two sleep and relax time with no hassles over cabin space, (SOL having a spare double cabin and a spare single). We have two months before our anticipated departure from Australia and have decided at this stage that we will sally forth from Coffs Harbour – all the ducks lining up that is, and the journey should take us 7 to 10 days. So, the ads are placed – now we just await responses – strangely enough the bulk of the response comes from singles in far flung places – we have had interest from Germany, Greece, Spain to name a few.

Had a message from Grace the other day – “Mum, Charli (her neighbour) and Ash just had a baby boy, can you knit it something???”  So, got the knitting needles clacking away and have a cute wee baby sleeping sack ready to post – woo hoo, how clever am I??? Took a few days but it was fun – especially as we have had no luck with the fishing lately so haven’t even bothered to throw the line out – best change that attitude, Mrs Docker, can’t expect fish to jump on the line if it is not baited and in the water, can you.

As well, with time on our side we made a cute little mat for just outside the cockpit door from rope - pretty flash we think...

Well, Monday dawned calm and clear, we watched as the flotilla of waiting yachts commenced the bar crossing and joined in, having followed all the “P’s” we should be right (Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance) …. And we were – the bar crossing went without a hitch – in fact it could almost be termed a doddle and we were soon sailing along with a good wind down to Mooloolaba.

Sadly, our good luck fell away somewhere between Double Island Point and Noosa Heads as that is when Otto, our (obviously not so) trustworthy Auto Pilot decided to throw a massive tantrum and cease working which meant we had to hand steer for 6 hours, not a big deal but having gotten used to Otto taking the helm it was a bit of a change. With the wind behind us we were flying along and reached our top speed so far – 15.8knots boat speed !!! woooo!!!!!

Entering the harbour at Mooloolaba was actually more hairy than crossing the bar – the wind was now between 20 and 25kn and blowing straight in the entrance, the steering was really heavy – like the rudders were jammed – the tide was almost low and there was about a 2metre swell – it took about 7 seconds only to get in – but seven seconds of hell. The daylight was fast fading as we dropped our anchor in the crowded area allocated past the marina, for boats to anchor. We would look at the steering tomorrow – right now another "bar" needed to be dealt with – we sat and enjoyed a nice glass of red.

Great Sandy Straits ...

Dinner for days!!!

Wednesday 23^rd August

Yes – they do still exist – fish I am talking about. As a farewell to Hervey Bay we today landed two very nice sized Spotted Mackerel. Cleaned and in the freezer we have about ten fish meals – yum, yum, yum.

We spent the next few days down anchored outside the Kingfisher Eco Resort, a really great place for visiting boaters as you can dinghy ashore, and with the blessing of the staff, can use the pool (they even gave us towels) and the showers. They payoff I suppose is that you could be expected to also utilise the restaurant and bar facilities as well – maybe???

We walked all around the resort and environs – going up to Dundonga Creek and the Northern Lookout one day and then south to McKenzies Jetty and the WW2 Commando School the next. McKenzies Jetty is a ruin now – but was built for the logging trade on Fraser Island around the 1920’s and closed in 1937, not before hundreds of thousands of trees had been removed. 

During the second world war one of Australia’s most famous military commando units – Z Force – trained on Fraser Island, based near the ruins of McKenzies Jetty. A story we heard was the men were required to canoe up to Maryborough and plant explosive charges – unseen – and if they were seen they had to complete the task again until they had achieved this goal – the distance to Maryborough is about 25 nautical miles – a nautical mile is nearly 2 kilometres so it would have been a hell of a challenge.

Visiting the wreck of the Palmer in Deep Creek

Next beautiful anchorage was between two creeks at South White Cliffs – Ceratodus Creek and Deep Creek, both having a resident wreck - the Ceratodus and the Palmer, both rusting hulks remain totally visible and inviting a closer look so we dinghied over. Originally built in Scotland in 1898 the Ceratodus was used to carry sand in the Great Sandy Straits back in the 1940’s – the fine white sand highly prized for iron casting. Not far up Deep Creek lie the remains of the Palmer, back in the day the Palmer plied the coast as a sugar steamer. Deep Creek may have been a deep creek once, but now is shallow and mangrove encroach from both sides as we puttered up to the wreck. We have become so used to the crystal clear waters that we have been anchoring in for the last few months it is going to be a shock when that changes.

So, south to Garry’s Anchorage – very calm water, secluded even though there were another dozen or so boats spread out along the narrow waterway. Then down to Pelican Bay, just inside the Wide Bay Bar and Inskip Point.

A lovely anchorage, Garry's Anchorage, Great Sandy Straits

“oh, you must go to Pelican Bay, it’s a lovely place to anchor, one of my favourites” said a lady on a bus in Urangan one day.  We dinghied ashore and walked around from almost Rainbow Beach to Inskip Point climbing through the incredibly soft sand on the dunes and walking along the really windswept shore, seeing the many 4WD vehicles lining up to catch the barge to Fraser Island and getting our first look at “The Bar” the very notorious bar at the southern entrance of the Great Sandy Straits.

*note to self – do not believe all you hear from random ladies on the bus – it was a terrible anchorage - oh, it was sheltered for sure but getting in and out was not for the fainthearted - the water was filthy, with thick black oozy mud, probably would be a good place in a storm – once you got the anchor set in that mud it wasn’t going to be moving any time soon. But we were not anticipating a storm so thankfully we unplugged our anchor from the thick black goo and left on the high tide next morning. Next stop Tin Can Bay.

Life is Good...

What a wonderful life we lead.

It is hard to believe that just 4 months have passed since we drove out the gate of Melrose and flew up to Townsville to SOL. In that time, we have sailed up to the Palm Islands, back down to Magnetic Islands, to the Whitsundays, Scawfell, Brampton, Percy, the Keppel’s, out to Lady Musgrave, down to Hervey Bay and many other stops between – and this is just the start of our journey. There is so much to see and do and we are just touching the surface.

Up close and personal !!

We were joined for 5 more days of fabulous Hervey Bay whale watching the next weekend

by Helen (an old friend of 25 years) and her partner, Andrew – and the whale shows just keep on getting better – I think they are beginning to recognise SOL and so are becoming more curious about us and venturing even closer, one came almost within touching distance!!! More fishing was done – not terribly successfully, maybe the fish are recognising us as well and keeping away!! We had a superb time and when we dropped them back at Urangan on the following Wednesday they both said it was the best and most amazing experience they’d ever had.

Lilly's cabin all ready

Thursday, we entered the Great Sandy Straits Marina – we had a berth here for the night as Dolly and Lilly were coming up, flying to Brisbane from Adelaide their plane didn’t get in until 8pm so we had hired a car to pick them up – we wouldn’t get back to the boat until midnight. Phil had told Jamie he was unable to come as work was too busy at the moment. Jamie and I had had a great time getting Lilly’s cabin ready for her – the way grandparents do – and all was set. Arriving at the airport we found a good vantage spot to watch passengers disembark from the plane – I was in a good spot to watch Jamie’s face as Phil came through the door - we had kept that secret well!!

With the weather not expected to be so good for the next few days, by midday we were headed out into the bay, spotting a few pods of whales on our way to where we had figured would be an ideal place to sit out some windy days. We entered Lagoon Anchorage – or Wathumba Creek, an interesting place with an even more interesting entrance – zigzagging through some very shallow water just before the high tide and easing our way up the creek (me nervously eyeing the depth sounder as the water beneath our hulls got less and less) to a spot where at the low tide the creek dries out and SOL would be left sitting on a sandbank, we’d never beached her before, and although we knew that with her style of hulls she should just sit flat and comfortable on the soft sandy bottom it was a huge relief to find that that is exactly what she did!!

Although it was cool for Hervey Bay (it was way warmer than Adelaide right now) – what’s the first thing an excited 4yr old want to do when we are anchored?? Swim of course!! So, it was on with the togs and over the back (with a rope tied to her life jacket so she didn’t float away) – this was her idea of the perfect holiday. Also on her agenda was a dinghy ride.

We spent the next three nights in the lagoon - with Lilly paddling in the shallows around SOL as the tide went out. We walked along the sandbanks and marvelled at the millions of blue soldier crabs that appeared as the water receded, and how they dug their holes by turning around in circles churning up those perfectly round little balls of sand which they left on the surface in amazing patterns as they disappeared to safety below.

A pelican, a map of Australia and a seahorse made in the sand by the little crabs

Crossing the ridge separating us from the main part of the bay and walking along the beach with the wind flicking the sand up with such force it stung your arms and legs we were very happy we had found the calm of the lagoon where it was comfortable enough to take Lil out for rides in the dinghy – out there it sure wasn’t!!

Some hours were spent setting up the Delorme InReach – a satellite tracking system which tracks us and sends a message with our position. The children had put in and gotten one of these rather expensive little technological beauties for Jamie and my birthdays. Now they could know where we were no matter where we were, it would be especially useful when we crossed the Tasman and went further afield.

Dolly in her "hammock"

We spent many hours casting lines off the back of the boat – with not a lot of success, but much fun and laughter, Dolly caught a stingray and we hooked some small fish, (and the anchor more than once) most of which we put back, keeping the biggest for dinner one night – nothing beats fresh fish.

Captain Lilly takes the helm

Monday morning the wind had dropped and we eased our way out of the lagoon into the bay for some serious whale watching before having to go back to the Great Sandy Straits Marina for the night as Phil, Dolly and Lilly had to leave for Adelaide again.

Time flies when you’re having fun – and the sadly last few days sure flew by.