Having arrived in Mooloolaba late on Thursday night, and with "What" leaving the next day, I settled into the Duck Pond, (Mooloolah River), for what would be only 12 days before the next leg of this long awaited northern journey.
During this time I wanted to catch up with my daughter, Kristian, and a couple of other friends that live here, prior to heading further north.
Kristian and I had lunch at the Surf Club whilst Rae Blanchard(???), Sheree's sister and John Nant joined us for lunch at Hogs Breath Café. Pity I didn't take any pics but I can do that on the way back.
Above and left will give you Fete's position in relation to the land and facilities in the River - very close to everything . . . but a couple of days later the Dept of Transport (Marine) came by to say that I was outside the designated anchorage and I would have to move further into the Duck Pond. As I tried to start the motor, the starter motor played up and I couldn't move - this also happened at Tangalooma which What fixed temporarily. Anyhow to cut a long story short, $750 later a new starter motor was installed and off we went as instructed.
Sunset in our new anchorage. Today I also heard from some old friends, Robert & Trish Budd who warned that their weather app,
Windytv, was showing that a Cyclone was starting to form out into the Pacific and that I should take care and keep a watch on the system.
Monday 27th March:
The crew for the next leg arrived today, Ian (Grumpy) Knight and Shelly.
Once on board & settled in, we discussed the Cyclone (Debbie) that had formed N/W of Townsville and decided that as it hadn't crossed the coast yet we had a small window to get up thru the Wide Bay Bar and in behind Fraser Island for some protection. So a night sail was planned for that night leaving at approx. 1800hrs.
So as the sunset that night, we raised the anchor and headed down to Mooloolah River towards the mouth and got set for the next 12 hours at sea.
As we exited the bar, another Cruise liner was anchored just offshore and was preparing to leave as we passed her and raised the headsail and headed north.
The trip was uneventful until we were approx. 2nm south of Double Is Point. All of a sudden a line of lights appeared across the front of us. It turned out to be trawlers fishing the grounds so we proceeded carefully to avoid getting in their way.
Once passed the trawlers we realised that we were 2 hrs too early to cross the WBB so we took a northerly route before turning back to our original waypoint and heading for the bar.
We crossed the bar and headed up the inside of Fraser Is to Garry's Anchorage for a well earned rest. That night we sat down to a roast lamb and watched this amazing sunset.
The next morning we heard that "Debbie" had crossed the coastline around Airlie Beach/Hamilton Is and caused a lot of damage. Wide Bay Coast Guard advised us that we had a window of 24 hours to get to Urangan before the destructive winds reached the area. In addition, Bob & Deb Rafter, managers of the Great Sandy Straits Marina, rang to say that if we didn't get in today we most likely wouldn't make it due to the worsening conditions.
We set off around 0800hrs and headed for Sheridan Flats, (The narrows & shallowest part of the Sandy Straits). The water was calm and the tide was with us most of the way but little to no wind as you can see below . . .
It rained intermittently all the way up the Straits but we were making good time and looked to be ahead of our projected 1500hrs ETA at the Marina.
After passing Turkey Is & Kingfisher Bay Resort, we rounded the top of Big Woody Island and sited the top of Hervey Bay (Pialba) and knew that we only had a couple of nm's to go to safety. Weather was still calm but we knew from listening to the radio that this was the calm before the storm.
Safely moored in the marina, you couldn't believe that we were expecting a "Blow". The remnants of "Cyclone Debbie" was due within the next 12 hours. Having squared Fete away, we all went and had hot showers, followed by a lovely meal at Café Balaena, one of the superb quayside restaurants here at the marina, and went home for an early night.
The next day Grumpy and Shelly headed off back to the Gold Coast as he was worried about his boat, Outward Bound II, back at the SYC as this aftermath which was about to hit us, was then expected to carry on down to Brisbane and the Gold & Sunshine Coasts.
That first night, after returning from the restaurant, we noticed the tide height. We knew there was a 3.4m tide expected, but with the storm surge, the tide was enormous as you can see here - Amazing!!!
The next night we copped the storm. Fete was rocked all over the place as we were hit with winds of 72 knots (140 kmph).
Jan, a lady 2 berths over from where I was moored said that she had recorded winds of 54kn on her wind instruments.
All in all it was a sleepless night.
I have decided to stay here in Urangan for a month to let the weather and rivers settle down before continuing on again.
Here at left is the wind gauge from another boat here in the marina which a mate (Grip) Ross Wright put on his FB page just to show how strong it really was within the marina itself.
It is now been nine days since the blow and the weather has not really abated as yet. We are still getting 20-30kn winds with some stronger gusts although it hasn't been raining much and I have had time to explore the region in some detail . . . more about that in another blog.
Well that's about all for this blog, but I will continue to write them for each stage of the trip . . . so until then...
Cheers as always!!!
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