Day 31, Tania's B'day and we leave Garry's

We are on our way! woooohooooooooooo! Heading for Kingfisher Bay resort, only 15 miles up the channel, but a world away from where we are. The weather has improved wind wise, however we are sill getting some rain. As we arrive at Kingfisher Bay resort, the sun comes out. Things are looking up and the forecast is for a week of sun.


Also, Happy B'day to Tania.xxxx

This cake was made by Jo. Great effort Jo and thanx again.
We dined at the resort and had fantastic pizza. A great time was had by all.
Its gemini season thou and we still have 3 more birthdays to look forward to in the next few weeks.

Day 30, Garrys again

This is another day at Garrys's anchorage.
Thats all i want to say about that!
Only upshot...........watched season 1 of "Deadwood"
FANTASTIC series about the wild west.

Days 26 to 29, Still at Gary's

We are bunkered in!
The weather has finally turned to shit. Queensland....beautiful one day, pissing down the next!
We shouldn't complain, cos its been a great run with the weather and we are quite happy to take it here. We are in a very secure spot.
Only issues, nothing here. No shops!
On the shore we have a sign, a very small shelter and a set of picnic tables.
Supplies are getting low on the boat as well. No more bread, very little milk, low water, zero hot water, however morale is still quite good.
Tania and Hayden have not been outside the boat in the last 2 days. Small signs of cabin fever are showing. For as long as I can keep power up to Hayden's cave, he will survive.

A room with a view.


These shots taken when the rain dies. We had an empty 10ltr bucket on deck and it has filled in 6 hours. The rain today has not stopped once. Winds are scooting over the top of us most of the time, but reaching 49kts in the trees above us. Seas are on the rise on the outside of Fraser and tipped to hit the 7m mark. So, what have we got to complain about........nothing!
Hopefully there is a small break in the weather on Saturday or Sunday and we plan on making the dash up to Kingfisher bay resort. Their general store is going to get a serious work over. If not, we have enough 2min noodles to last a week. No complaints from Hayden regarding this.....but I aint that keen!

Day 25, Inskip to Garry's anchorage

Another HUGE sail of 12 miles at a cracking pace. (3-4kts)
Very scenic run keeping Fraser island close to starboard. A keen lookout was maintained as the water was shallow if out of the channel. We didn't have any trouble with depth and it was worth all the effort to come up the inside of Fraser.
Those pesky cats leed the way.


Garry's anchorage.
Grab the rid and let's go to shore.
It wasn't long before we had our first dingo sighting, but Hayden wouldn't go to shore to give it a pat.


Come on little one........lets catch some fish.




Mission acomplished. Enough fish to feed a small kitten. But at least I caught one dad!

Day 24, Tin Can Bay to Inskip Pt

Most of the day was spent in Tin Can bay. A nice little sleepy town with a cool pace. Not much doing here, except a relaxing time. Tania and Hayden had a nice little stroll up to IGA to get bread and milk, whilst I headed down to the marina in the dingy to get a bit of fuel and gas. A very pretty marina with more action here than anywhere else in town. Plenty of boats hauled out with repairs and work happening to them. We pulled up the anchor shortly after luch and sailed up to Inskip point, which was about 7 miles nth. Lucky for the run out tide as the breeze was very light. A cracking pace of 2-3kts was enough to get us there in time to set again for the night and also take in a bit of fishing. You will notice there are no fish shots! (ummmmm....maybe they are heading north as well and we will catch them up there.)

Dolphin feeding at Tin Can Bay. The closest we can get to seeing fish. (the dolphin food)


The marina and fishing boats.

Hayden, just hanging around.

Day 23, Double Is Pt to Tin Can Bay

Pull up the pick, point the boat north and head for Wide Bay Bar. Unfortunately, its not that type of bar. Instead, one of the most interesting bar crossings we will do on this entire trip.

Info was gathered from the coast guard in respect to using GPS way points in place of the leads. The bar had changed a bit so we were giving a point further north than usual to maintain enough depth under the boat. Lat and long was checked 38 times as we had 4 way points to navigate our way in. First, we run from our starting point heading directly into the beach for approx 1.5 miles, with waves breaking to our north and south. When we hit our next way point, we turn left and run along a gutter, with waves breaking along the beach to our inside and waves continuously breaking outside of us. This leg is known as the "mad mile" and with reason. Dave steered Echo Beach in first, closely followed by Dorado and ourselves. There was a good level of excitment with little fear, as all went to perfect script. We got picked up by a few good rollers but never had white water on us. Europa plowed in behaving beautifully.

A relieved Tania after the bar crossing quite happy to take the wheel.

A familar site to those who have ventured over to Fraser island via 4wd.

The 9 mile run up to Tin Can bay was very scenic and also time to unwind from the bar excitement. Chatter between boats was leading to finding that other type of bar at Tin Can bay yacht club. A XXXX gold was looking good.

The pace was to dye off a bit now, as we are going to spend approximately a week up the Sandy Straits between Fraser Is and the mainland.

Day 22, Mooloolaba to Double Island Point

We departed Mooloolaba at 9am with Double Island point our overnight anchorage. Rumor has it that this is one of the most uncomfortable achorages on the east coast with swells wrapping aroung the point and putting the boat side on, giving you the rolls all night. This wasn't the case at all, with a stern anchor set keeping the stern of the boat into the small swells. The conditions were good with a light SE breeze and seas approx 1-1.5m. This is exactly what we needed to cross the bar the next day. If time permitted and we could guarantee the good conditions, Double island pt would actually be an interesting place to stay for a few days.

The sail up was a mixed bag, with the breeze shifting from SW to SE and also building to 18kts and by the afternoon, going well E and easing off. We carried the asso for a few hours and had speeds of up to 9.5kts. Our heading was 030 at times, however we needed to be going 355. We dropped the kite and gybed back into the coast. It was a very scenic sail past Noosa and the coast north.

Another crappy sunset. How many more of these can we take?

Dorado anchored just in front of us at Double Island point.

Days 15 to 21, Mooloolaba

Down town Mooloolaba.
Sun, beaches and beer. A great combination of all.
If we need to define "marina'n it up" it's what we did at Mooloolaba. Happy as can be in a place like this. Easy walk (150m) to the beaches shown below and the hustle and bustle of town only an easy 10 min walk along the boardwalk. Doing the shopping at Kawana was a fun digny ride up the canals past some spectacular homes and boats.
As it also shows.......more fab weather. we couldn't be any luckier!


Sand, sun and water with a twist of carnival action.

STATE OF ORIGIN NIGHT!

Footy night was enjoyed by all on the poop deck of Echo Beach. 2 climates were encountered that night, 1 for those parked under the awning (Tania, Hayden, Jo, Russell and Maria) of a cold night and a second climate of "bloody freezing" for Dave and myself pushed out the back back back of the deck with no cover. Lucky both of us are tough, sporting dooners, beenies, jackets, trackie dacs and not to forget, 1 lap dog each. Its time to get north soon.

Postcard shots.

"Happy dayz" (artie fartie Tania shots) Don't tell her they look good!

Day 14, Heading for Mooloolaba

Off to an early start. Up at 12.15am getting ready for a 1am departure. 92 miles to Mooloolaba around the outside of Stradbroke and Moreton island. We need a bit of water under us to enter Mooloolaba and daylight hours, so not much of a choice. Echo Beach and Dorado left yesterday to do the inside run up past Tiplers and Tangalooma. Not an option for us as we draw to much water.
There was a fair amount of moonlight, however a few clouds as well which blocked it out at times. The breeze came up at around 2.30 am reaching 20kts from the NW. We were just off Jumpin Pin at this stage and was also surprised to get a call from Dave to see how we were going. He was anchored just on the inside of Jumpin Pin and was experiencing similar conditions. Phone reception out here.....who would have thought.
The morning was to bring a new day of weather agsin. Winds eased and the sails put away. Time to burn a bit of fossil fuel or we will be out here for weeks.

The water is as blue as blue gets and the ocean a lake. When in "shallow" water of 15m the bottom was as plain as day. This photo doesn't capture how blue it was, but gives some idea.

Cape Moreton. What a surprise. I didn't expect too much of here and was quite surprised how much was here. Big hills with trees, long sand dunes and a few houses as well. Happy to have come this way.

Little Giligan after a chuck session. 2.5m seas, 25kts, no problems doing find a word. Calm and glassie, a different story in this case. Unfortunately, this requires a demotion back to swab!

Cape Moreton lighthouse.

Days 10 to 13 Southport

Taking in some more R and R at Southport. Who would have thought that we would be happy to hang around here......not I.
Dave and I had a crazy adventure to Whitworths on the buses with the locals being scared and curious of us..........so very weird! Echo Beach still experiencing electrical issues so we decide to have a stay at Southport Yacht club for a night to do some serious battery charging for all of us, as Max and Coco are not permitted at the marina. (Fuller's dogs)
Lots of walking and shopping down in Surfers as it seems to be lash out time when in port.

Sunny Bum Bay. Great place.....funny name. Weather has been as good as it gets again. As warm as 25 degrees with little breeze.

Dreamworld adventure

Tania, Hayden, Amy and Jim are off to Dreamworld.

After an easy bus ride they are into it. Rides, rides and more rides. Who will be the first to drop and who will be the last one standing.

Yep......u guessed it. Tania out early and Hayden still going. One more ride everyone.........