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| Ian finishing the last details of preparing Aquarius 1 for the trip the day before we were to set off from Hope Island Marina. |
For some time a mate of mine, Ian Waymouth, affectionately known to all by his nickname "Russell", had been inviting me to do a sail with him up the Coast of Queensland to the picturesque little port of Tin Can Bay - the gateway to the Sandy Straits and the Hervey Bay region.
He had been working on his boat, Aquarius 1, since retiring approx a year ago and now it was ready to go, so this is a little "In-Between" tale of that adventure.
0100 hrs - Awoke to blustery and rainy conditions and it didn't look good for the morning.
0630 hrs - still awake so decided to call Ian (Russell) to discuss the weather. We both checked seabreeze.com.au and BOM to ascertain the situation as the route inside Moreton Bay up to Moreton Is looked good. It was decided to have a go for it and to get as much distance up thru the bay as possible instead of the outside route.
ETD would be approx 0830 hrs.
0930 hrs - finally left the marina and headed out to the Coomera River.
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| Hope Island Marina in the background as we motored out to the Coomera River |
The journey down to the mouth of the River and into the Broadwater was expected to take approx 1-1.5hrs.
As we passed familiar sights on the River, like Sanctuary Cove and the other Marinas, I reflected how long I would be away and what this journey would be like, especially going thru the notorious Fraser Island Bar - We will soon see I guess.
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| Assegai at her home in Sanctuary Cove |
It was on this stretch of river Six months ago when I moved Fete up to her new mooring at Hope Island Marina that I saw this vessel at left, for the 1st time, in a long, long time.
She was built by some good friends, namely Jay Meyer and Capt (Muddie) Edwards and was launched way back in 1992 and just seeing her there bought back good memories of the times we shared chasing Black Marlin up on the Ribbon Reefs and bottom bouncing in many other locations. The memories are some of my fondest and I'm sure Jay, Muddy and Dana will concur.
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| "Sassy" heading up the Coomera River |
The next Hour and a half was a leisurely motor down the river passing some familiar sights and some not so familiar like the 70 footer (?) "Sassy".
She was most likely heading up to the Marina Precinct for some haul-out work but I am only surmising.
The day was turning out splendidly and as we were running with the current it was not long before we reached the junction of the river and the Broadwater.
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| Ian at the helm after I took the corner to close and ran aground. |
1000 hrs - I spoke too soon - as we exited the Coomera River and turned north into the main channel, I chose to cut the corner a little as there appeared to be plenty of water but that was not to be the case as I ended up running aground.
Ian was pretty good about it and took over and after a 10 minutes or so had us on the way again.
Thankfully it was a rising tide which helped.
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| A sad sight! Only the masts showing on what was someone's dream... |
1230 hrs - Turning up at the northern end of the Broadwater into the channel to Jacobs well, we again cut the corner to fine and ended up on the sand. 15 mins and a cold beverage later we were free and headed up to Jacobs Well only to see this pic at left. I couldn't help but wonder what had happened to her?????
1530 hrs - We had reached Karragarra Island Channel between it and Macleay Island to our northern side and decided that we would stay here. After securing the boat and tidying up, we relaxed with a couple of "Sundowners" as you can see in the pics at left.
I had never anchored here before and found that it was quite serene until the passenger ferries started to arrive dropping people off after a long days work over on the mainland in Brisbane.
I settled back and waited for the sunset as Ian started to prepare a delicious meal of steak, mashed potatoes greens and sweet potato.
1750 hrs - What a way to end the day - a delightful sunset, a couple of beers and a great meal. Really looking forward to tomorrow.
0645 hrs - Awoke to brilliant sunrise as you can see from this pic at left. Had a "Cup of Breakfast" (Coffee) and got the boat ready for the day ahead.
0830 hrs - hoisted anchor and headed off around the bottom of Macleay and up into Moreton Bay. Destination for today we hope will be Mooloolaba on the Sunshine Coast.
1200 hrs - Still little wind - we have been averaging 2-2.5 knots all morning. At this rate we will not make Mooloolaba but more likely Tangalooma Resort on Moreton Island.
1500 hrs - It was slow progress so we decided to have a couple of pre-sundowner Sundowners as you can see here.
1630 hrs Arrived at the Tangalooma and proceeded up to the wrecks to look for an anchorage.
1700 hrs - having secured Aquarius 1 we settled down and relaxed and watched the sun set. This mooring is notorious in westerly winds for dragging the anchor so Ian positioned us well away from the other boats for safety reasons.
2000 hrs - After a great meal and a couple of beverages we settled in for a good nights sleep to get ready for tomorrow.
2330 hrs - the wind had increased to around 20 knots and we were awoken by a terrible noise. Once on deck we saw that we had swung too close to the shoreline. Ian had about 30m of chain out and this proved too much, so we re-positioned further out and went back below but neither he nor I got much sleep for the rest of the night.
0130 hrs - Awoken by Ian as he had concerns that we had dragged again - Not so it seems!!! Wind had increased to 20-25 knots and everything was banging and clanging on topsides.
0630 hrs - Awoke to fine morning wind winds abating to around 15-20knots. 2 of the yachts have already left when we got up topside.
Ian (Russell) decides to head off and head for Mooloolaba today.
1130 hrs - Passed out of Spitfire Channel (the main shipping channel) and headed for the North-East Channel. Wind was 20-25knots with some gusts of 30+ knots as indicated by the anemometer in the bulkhead.
After transiting the N/E Channel we turned onto a course of 278 deg for a direct line to Caloundra. At left we sailed along comfortably taking in the scenery of the Glass House Mountains and looking for whales but none came in to say hello.
1800 hrs - After a few sundowners at the Yacht Club, we headed off down the road to the local Fishermans Co-Op for a great meal and then back to berth A15 for a good nights sleep. The wind for tomorrow is predicted to be 20-30 Knots from S, SE & SW with 3m seas.
(Pic courtesy of "Images of Mooloolaba" on the web).
0830 hrs - Went back to Fisherman's Co-OP for breakfast - Great meal and coffee and its only 50m from the Marina. Put a call thru to the Coast Guard and on their say so we decided to stay another nite and head off between 0300-0400 in the morning.
0930 hrs - Met Mike & Heather at the shower block. Mike & Heather are a couple of yachties from our old stomping ground the SYC (Southport Yacht Club). They had been on holidays for 10 days and had sailed up to Mooloolaba, but were heading back the next day so we decided to catch up later for a drink.
Whilst having dinner, Trevor McMillan, a brother of one of my mate's from Main Beach, Dave McMillan, arrived and so we shared a couple more drinks. It was a good nite but we had to go at 2000 hrs.
Day 5: Friday August 2nd
0300 hrs - The iPhone alarm wakes us up for the long day ahead. We have a "Cup of Breakfast" and get ready as it is 60 nm from here to the Wide Bay bar.
0400 hrs - Let go of the lines and headed out into the river. Russell decided to raise the Main so as we wouldn't have to do it outside.
0430 hrs - Cleared the heads and headed NNE for 25 minutes until we had truly cleared the bar and then set a heading of 356 deg for the long haul up to Double Island Point.
Wind ESE - ESW @ 5-10knots.
(These last 2 Pics courtesy of "Images of Mooloolaba" on the web).
0930 hrs - we had been sailing for the last 5 hours but the wind is slight and what there is of it is coming from every direction on the compass, so it was decided to start the engine and motor for a while.
1000 hrs - Here at left we believe was either Sunshine or Sunrise Beach just south of Noosa. It was here that we saw our 1st whale which appeared to be a calf and was approx 4 meters off the Port side heading south(?) past us.
At left is Noosa heads and the start of Laguna Bay as we passed on our way up the Cooloola Coast to Double Island point and then thru the bar to Tin can bay.
It has been a magnificent day all except the wind...
The swell has been 2.5-3m all day.
Going by the GPS we have sailed too close to the shoreline and therefore we will need to steer more north to get to way point #1 as it has been decided to cross the bar this afternoon.
With the course adjusted, we headed off to the 1st waypoint. Once we had made the position, we turned to a heading of 286 deg for the 2nd waypoint.
On drawing closer to this mark we noticed that there was surf breaking on both sides of the mark. Luckily a Grand Banks from Brisbane was coming thru at around 10 knots so we radioed him that we would follow him thru.
The setting sun was directly in our eyes and as you can see from the above pic, the bar was a wash of troubled waters and the sounds coming from below decks was like a baboon had got loose and was throwing everything at the bulkheads.
1630 hrs - We finally crossed into calm waters as you can see from the pic at left - the bottom of Fraser Island to the left and the Inskip Point Ferry area on the right.
The pics here at left and right is where we are headed for the night, in behind the lee of Inskip Point and out of harms way.
At last we had dropped the pick and moored with some other boats at a beautiful little spot called Pelican Bay at the top of Tin Can Bay Inlet.
After a couple of sundowners and a light meal we were soon asleep. Tomorrow we will head down the Inlet to Tin Can Bay Marina.
Day 6: Saturday August 3rd
0630 hrs - Awoke, had a cup of breakfast and and surveyed our surroundings. We were eager to get going as neither of us had been down this inlet before, but we had both been here by car many years earlier individually. What a magnificent sight to wake up to!!!
0800 hrs - Finally entered Snapper Creek and got our first sighting of Tin Can Bay. It was a good trip down the Inlet and only took us an hour and a half to reach this point.
While we were there we heard that some of the locals were a bit upset about the owners of the restaurant charging everyone $10 to feed the Dolphins, (see pic at left) but later we found out that it was more a government thing to try and protect them as well as helping to pay for the food.
1045 hrs - decided to go for a walk to the Yacht Club and Barnacles just to have a look around and to find somewhere to have dinner later.
At left is a mate of mine Grip (Ross Wright) who is currently living on his boat in the Mary River and had volunteered to come down to Tin Can Bay and pick me up and take me back to Maryborough to the train station.
We all had a great nite and I just wanted to thank Grip for his kindness and the hangover.
This was how Grip and I left Russell - checking the weather and the charts for his foray into the Sandy Straits.
I have to say that Russell called us 3 times from when we left to when we arrived at the station - I think he was missing the mateship or he was still hungover like us.
Now that we have finished the story of the trip, I have decided to include the rest of the photos that we took on this little journey...
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| Departing Hope Island marina @ the helm of "Aquarius 1" |
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| Ian 1st morning with Assegai in the background |
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| Coomera River |
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| Macleay Islands Ferry terminal |
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| Macleay mooring for a lovely ketch |
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| Glorious sight coming into sunset |
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| Sunset Macleay Island - day one... |
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| Above & below -Sunset, Night #2 behind the wrecks at Tangalooma Resort |
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| Leaving Moreton Is & entering the North East Channel - on way to Mooloolaba - 3rd day |
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| Sunset in Pelican Bay - top end of Tin Can Bay Inlet |
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| Just another Sundowner - Someone has to do it!!! |
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| Poverty point - Tin Can Bay |
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