Trip back to The Gold Coast - Tin Can Bay to Hope Island

Day 21 - Saturday 13th August

0430 hrs - awoke to a frosty and foggy morning as you can see from above - Russell wakes half an hour later and enjoys toast and coffee while we ponder when to leave - As I said in the last blog, the high tide at the Wide Bay Bar is at 0400hrs and we have about a 2 hour grace period before the run out tides starts to make a safe crossing, and as it is a 1-1.5 hour run from here we decided to get going asap.

But just before we leave, last evening whilst enjoying a sundowner or 2, these snub nosed dolphin, that are hand fed down at the restaurant, started playing around Fete. These beautiful creatures swum around for around an hour before disappearing again - a good omen I think for tomorrows trip down to Mooloolaba.

Map courtesy of "Images

of Tin Can Bay" on

the web.

We set off in darkness down Snapper creek, logged onto Coast Guard and headed down to the bar. I was a bit apprehensive as to what might happen due to all of the problems we have had this trip, but its too late now as we are off on the 80 odd nautical mile trip to our next destination.

0645hrs - The bar was a little lumpy as you can see from the pic above as we made our way down the Mad Mile to way Point 2 before turning NE and heading out of the bar proper.

0815hrs - Finally out thru the bar with no problems and turned to a direct heading for Wolf Rock and Double Island Point before we finally head south for the 63nm trek to Mooloolaba this evening.

Heading South with Headsail & Mizzen up and

Double Island Point in the background

Out past Double Island point the breeze had been on our nose up until now and a good breeze came in from the E/NE, so Russell hoisted the Headsail and Mizzen and we are now travelling at over 6 knots. I gotta say, Fete really sits perfectly on this type of passage runs and handles the swell very comfortably.
So far so good - Checked the stern gland and coupling and all's good.

We spent the day just cruising down the coast and as you can see from the clip above. At one stage we passed close to Peregrine Beach, approx. 5 K's south of Noosa, where my daughter lives. I called her and she came down to see us sail by, but didn't get any pics as she had to get home and get to work.

 Dusk set in fast and it was getting cold so we couldn't wait to get back into the Mooloolah River behind Point Cartwright and drop the anchor for a good nights sleep.
A strong wind warning was out for tomorrow with seas of 2.5-3 meters outside, so we decided to stay close to the shoreline and head down to Moreton Bay via Caloundra and then onto Peel Is for the night.

Heading south - Pt Cartwright in the background

Day 22 - Sunday 14th August

0700hrs - Awoke to slightly overcast day and headed out past Pt Cartwright and started down the coast towards Caloundra.
The wind had turned south and was directly on our nose so Russell decided to raise the Headsail and steer a direct course for Cape Moreton. Seas were lumpy so we headed for the N/E Channel on the lee-side of the Cape to go down past Tangalooma.  Once in the lee of the island, we dropped the sails and ran under engine down to the resort where we would spend the night.

 Once again this stretch of the trip took us thru the main shipping channel from Brisbane and as you can see here, we had to keep a good eye out for trouble but at least it was daylight this time.

It was early when we decided to stop at the Tangalooma Resort, behind the wrecks as we knew it would be a long day tomorrow back to the Gold Coast and we wanted an early start.

Tourists love this Resort as they also hand feed the dolphins at night and as you can see from the pic at left, there are some divers were going out for a sunset snorkel around the wrecks.

Day 23 - Monday 15th August

 0600hrs - awake to cold and blustery day with a 20kn southerly hitting us. We are heading for the Gold Coast so we upped the anchor and headed out to the channel.
The wind is so strong that even under motor we are stalled on 0.3 - 0.4 of a knot as we are against a run out tide. Eventually we passed the changeover point and started to make good headway.



1100hrs the wind and current change and up went the headsail and we are flying at around 6-8 knots on a heading of 180 deg and straight for the marker to the Hope Banks as we don't want to get stuck in there.
1300hrs - wind has died but we had a great run across the bay and just by luck we found the marker to the banks which we had sailed well to the west of and closer to the mainland around Raby Bay. Changed course and headed for Peel Island, still little to no wind.

1500hrs - having rounded under Peel Island,  we steered down the southern coastal channel towards another favourite anchorage between McLeay and Karragarra Islands for the night as it is just a short 4 hour hop from there back to home base.
The following morning we cleared the mooring around 0800hrs and headed off and just as Russell Predicted, arrived at the berth in hope Island marina at 1230hrs.

For those of you who will inevitably asked me the result to Problem #5 - the tender? Well upon arrival home it was taken to the Zodiac Repair shop and is now back on Fete as good as  new - (Problem #5 - Fixed).

Well now that the trip is over and I have had time to reflect, I am well pleased with the trip as it was always going to be a shake-down cruise to see what else Fete needed before we attempt other more adventurous challenges.

I have learnt a lot more about Her, especially from Mark and his crew at Tin Can Bay, but the most important lesson that I learnt was that boats are NOT meant to sit idle in marinas or elsewhere, but must be used and enjoyed and that's exactly what I intend to do.

So until next time, as always . . .

Cheers from Fete & Me