Mooloolaba to Brisbane…(via the Tangalooma Shipwrecks)
Mooloolaba is the heart of the Sunshine Coast and where we anchor Arete up the river near the bridge is a perfect spot; it’s protected from the winds & swell, easy access to town, with a new public jetty to lock up the dingy when you go ashore. Ray and Tracy invited us up to their home for lunch Thursday afternoon. Ray is building a 44ft Easy Catamaran and I know it’s going to be amazing. They live in a lush tropical setting on three acres up in the mountains, looks like Maui Hawaii to me. We met Ray and Tracy two years ago in The Whitsunday’s and we always contact them when we are in Mooloolaba.
That night I set the alarm clock to wake me at 11:30pm, high tide, it was pitch black but we brought up the anchor and motored Arete up onto the beach, I jumped off the bow and walked the anchor up the sand a few meters. Went back to bed and woke at 4:45am with Arete sitting on the beach; High and Dry..at low tide...I got busy with a scrapper, first knocking off all the barnacles and other stuff that had grown under the waterline. I also replaced the anodes on the rudders and removed some slimy stains that all boats get…about 9:00am the tide was back in enough to float Arete off the beach and we returned to the anchorage out in the middle of the channel. I was quite pleased with my efforts and Arete looked great. I was rewarded when Hiroko cooked Banana Pancakes for breakfast…
I’d been in contact with a few of my yachtie mates from The Garden Point Mooring in the Brisbane River during the week and they planned a weekend trip to the Tangalooma Shipwrecks so at 5:00am we were bringing up the anchor and headed south into Moreton Bay. Arriving at the wrecks about noon it was very busy as it being a weekend and school holidays but we able to drop the pick near “Lava” and later “Thula Moma” arrived so it was great to catch up with my Brisbane neighbors…The following day “Mingles” arrived and we all enjoyed the weekend of fun in the sun, swimming, snorkeling, paddling the kayaks around and throwing the Frisbee on the beach. That night the wind picked up and swung around to the NW this bringing a big swell and making it very uncomfortable. No worries as we were headed up the Brisbane River in the morning. Our final sail of the trip was great, a broad reach across the bay and catching the incoming tide up the river 13 nautical miles from the Brisbane Bar to our mooring at The Garden Point. It’s 34 miles from the wrecks to our mooring so the trip ended about 2:00pm. Almost 2000 nautical miles now were are back where we started about 5 &1/2 months ago...
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Gladstone to Mooloolaba…
Monday Dec.3rd we woke to a beautiful morning in Graham Creek, birdsongs and blue skies….Drinking my first cup of mango tea of the day I saw about a half dozen Dolphins doing what they always do; eating fish and playing around…This group had a couple very young ones, ( just babies) swimming right next to mom. That’s a nice way to start the day!!!
After we had breakfast and enjoyed the Dolphin show the tide began to ebb so we weighed anchor and went downstream with the tidal flow…An hour or two later we called into Gladstone Harbor Control to notify them of Areté entering their piloting area. A huge coal carrying cargo ship had run aground two days before in that storm. We’d heard them on the radio giving “a notice to all mariners” requiring all vessels to check in with harbor control before entering their area…Tying off in Gladstone Marina was a dream as we were given the end of the finger so it was easy even with the 20 knots of
Southeasterly breeze on the nose…Walking to the marina office I saw Peter and Ruth of “As If”, our neighbors at the Mackay Marina. That evening we all went out for dinner at the Port Curtis Sailing Club. I wore long pants and shoes, for first time in a long long time…
We enjoyed two productive days in Gladstone Marina, the cheapest on the East Coast at $20.00 a night…I changed the oil in the outboards, bought some fishing tackle at “Tackle World” and Hiroko enjoyed a couple days in town, shopping and doing stuff like that…
Wednesday Dec. 5th we had North by Northeast winds 10~15 knots with afternoon sea breezes so we headed out with the tide and sailed in light winds to Pancake Creek 36 miles south. Buddy sailing with “As if” we were able to take photos of each others yachts at full sail, something I’ve wanted to do since I painted, re-lettered, and added the black pirate headsail. A near perfect day on the water, I’d of liked a bit more wind but ya can’t have it all…I caught another shark and was trying to get my lure back when he went nuts and broke the wire leader and swam away with my $20. hard bodied Halco lure…
Thursday Dec. 6th we were up at 4:30am and had the anchor up and away by 5:00am with seven yachts headed out of Pancake Creek, another great day sailing, light winds so we needed to run the motors off and on as it’s 65 miles to Bundaberg and I needed to get there before they closed to get the propane tank filled, or no cooking…Trolling an assortment of lures at different speeds I went fishless again, but I guess that’s why it’s called fishing not catching, isn’t it? Again we had dolphins visiting us a few times during the 12 hours it took to reach the port of Bundaberg in the Burnett River…We spent the next day on anchor we needed a few things and I wanted to get the navigational system working again on the computer. I spent most of the day loading and re-loading “Captain” and “Max Sea 7” but it was unsuccessful…O~well we can do without for a while, I guess…
Friday Dec 8th Areté sailed across Hervey Bay and anchored up near Rooney’s Point again I trailed different lures at a variety of speeds but no fish, one huge strike but he was off as fast as he was on….52 nautical miles and another fine day on the water. That night Hiroko made a Japanese dinner and Peter and Ruth joined us, too bad the wind died down right at sunset allowing the bugs to attack, we ate dinner with a couple candles and two mosquito coils burning in near darkness…Good fun though, not much you can do about nature sometimes…the following morning the ocean was flat and glassy as it is when there is no wind at all so we motored along Frazer Island and bang…fish on !!!
This was the first fish I’ve caught when motoring so it was a lot different that trying to bring them in at 6 knots...Hiroko dropped the speed to idle and I landed my first Spanish Mackerel; it was a beauty too at 128cm long ( 4 feet 4 inches in the USA)…( see photo to right )
About noon the sea breeze came up and up went the sails…This being a Sunday afternoon in Hervey Bay there were lots of boats on the water, as it should be, you don’t get days much nicer than that one…Hervey Bay and the Great Sandy Straights are known for sandbars and Pete found one but was able to back up and get right off using his two powerful diesel motors. That’s the exact reason I wanted that navigation software working on the computer…We did make it to the anchorage in front of the Kingfisher Resort 35 miles for the day and we had fresh fish for dinner on “As if”…I gave away lots of fish as we had way more than we could eat and “Saba” ( mackerel in Japanese is good eating!)..
Monday Dec.10th at 6:30am saw us waving farwell and happy holidays to Peter and Ruth as they will spend Christmas and New Years in Hervey Bay and we motor~sailed south through “The Great Sandy Straights” within 30 minutes we were in 2.5 feet of water and looking for the channel…I let a few of my favorite vocabulary words go and eventually we got back in the channel and deeper water…We’d timed it to go up on the flooding tide and through the really shallow parts at high water and then use the ebbing tide to push us through…It worked just like I’d planned and that’s always a nice feeling…We needed fuel, as the following day was the Wide Bay Bar and the long haul to Mooloolaba 65+ miles. The only place to get fuel is Tin Can Bay and that’s also really shallow at low tide so we picked our way up there and as it was just about dry in places we were able to buy some really expensive fuel,…what can ya do when that’s the only place to buy fuel…I paid $108.00 for three 5 gallon jerry cans of fuel at the fuel dock!!!
"glad I don’t own a stink boat"!!!
Tuesday Dec.11th This is the day I’ve been thinking about for weeks, it’s the day to cross the Wide Bay Bar and then around Double Island Point and on down to Mooloolaba…( See Wide Bay Bar photo to right )
The weather forecast said a Southeasterly change will come through on Wednesday at 20 knots so getting to Mooloolaba will be huge!..Of course I didn’t sleep at all the night before as I just can’t stop thinking about everything and playing the different scenarios in my mind…That night the wind was blowing hard and about midnight a thunderstorm brought some great lightning and an hour of rain but after that the winds were calm and this helped to ease my mind knowing that the swell would be a little lighter in the morning crossing “The Bar!”…At 4:40am I couldn’t take it any longer and got up to go over the sail plans for the day…
We were the third catamaran to cross the Wide Bay Bar that morning with a fancy Schionning Catamaran following us through...The bar was kind and gentle that morning, but it’s always a thrill…We went wide around Wolf Rock and Double Island Point setting a course South by Southeast for Mooloolaba…Full sail in light winds at about 5.5 knots of boat speed…Hiroko got out her sheet music and was singing the jazz classics she loves so much, soon a group of Dolphins came to play in Areté’s bow wake…They just love to show off and I would too if I could swim like that! They did spins, jumps and twirls. ..they stalled and let their back fin rest aginst the hulls of Areté then pushed off and raced ahead with bursts of speed you couldn’t imagine…It was the longest show we’ve had on the entire voyage and they were talking to each other too…Of course I was talking to them as I always do…Nice to have friends like that visit once in a while…Later Hiroko was going over the many photos she took most of them just after they went back underwater…She thought maybe her singing attracted them? Not sure but I asked her to keep on singing…I’m glad they aren’t fooled by my trolling lures as it would crush me to catch one of them but they are really smart and they know what’s real fish and what’s a lure…good on ‘em…
Mooloolaba is perfect for a cruising yachtie, it’s got everything ya need or want within walking distance. We are hoping this Southeasterly breeze comes a around to the East or NE and then it’s back to Bris~Vegas.
Monday Dec.3rd we woke to a beautiful morning in Graham Creek, birdsongs and blue skies….Drinking my first cup of mango tea of the day I saw about a half dozen Dolphins doing what they always do; eating fish and playing around…This group had a couple very young ones, ( just babies) swimming right next to mom. That’s a nice way to start the day!!!
After we had breakfast and enjoyed the Dolphin show the tide began to ebb so we weighed anchor and went downstream with the tidal flow…An hour or two later we called into Gladstone Harbor Control to notify them of Areté entering their piloting area. A huge coal carrying cargo ship had run aground two days before in that storm. We’d heard them on the radio giving “a notice to all mariners” requiring all vessels to check in with harbor control before entering their area…Tying off in Gladstone Marina was a dream as we were given the end of the finger so it was easy even with the 20 knots of
Southeasterly breeze on the nose…Walking to the marina office I saw Peter and Ruth of “As If”, our neighbors at the Mackay Marina. That evening we all went out for dinner at the Port Curtis Sailing Club. I wore long pants and shoes, for first time in a long long time…
We enjoyed two productive days in Gladstone Marina, the cheapest on the East Coast at $20.00 a night…I changed the oil in the outboards, bought some fishing tackle at “Tackle World” and Hiroko enjoyed a couple days in town, shopping and doing stuff like that…
Wednesday Dec. 5th we had North by Northeast winds 10~15 knots with afternoon sea breezes so we headed out with the tide and sailed in light winds to Pancake Creek 36 miles south. Buddy sailing with “As if” we were able to take photos of each others yachts at full sail, something I’ve wanted to do since I painted, re-lettered, and added the black pirate headsail. A near perfect day on the water, I’d of liked a bit more wind but ya can’t have it all…I caught another shark and was trying to get my lure back when he went nuts and broke the wire leader and swam away with my $20. hard bodied Halco lure…
Thursday Dec. 6th we were up at 4:30am and had the anchor up and away by 5:00am with seven yachts headed out of Pancake Creek, another great day sailing, light winds so we needed to run the motors off and on as it’s 65 miles to Bundaberg and I needed to get there before they closed to get the propane tank filled, or no cooking…Trolling an assortment of lures at different speeds I went fishless again, but I guess that’s why it’s called fishing not catching, isn’t it? Again we had dolphins visiting us a few times during the 12 hours it took to reach the port of Bundaberg in the Burnett River…We spent the next day on anchor we needed a few things and I wanted to get the navigational system working again on the computer. I spent most of the day loading and re-loading “Captain” and “Max Sea 7” but it was unsuccessful…O~well we can do without for a while, I guess…
Friday Dec 8th Areté sailed across Hervey Bay and anchored up near Rooney’s Point again I trailed different lures at a variety of speeds but no fish, one huge strike but he was off as fast as he was on….52 nautical miles and another fine day on the water. That night Hiroko made a Japanese dinner and Peter and Ruth joined us, too bad the wind died down right at sunset allowing the bugs to attack, we ate dinner with a couple candles and two mosquito coils burning in near darkness…Good fun though, not much you can do about nature sometimes…the following morning the ocean was flat and glassy as it is when there is no wind at all so we motored along Frazer Island and bang…fish on !!!
This was the first fish I’ve caught when motoring so it was a lot different that trying to bring them in at 6 knots...Hiroko dropped the speed to idle and I landed my first Spanish Mackerel; it was a beauty too at 128cm long ( 4 feet 4 inches in the USA)…( see photo to right )
About noon the sea breeze came up and up went the sails…This being a Sunday afternoon in Hervey Bay there were lots of boats on the water, as it should be, you don’t get days much nicer than that one…Hervey Bay and the Great Sandy Straights are known for sandbars and Pete found one but was able to back up and get right off using his two powerful diesel motors. That’s the exact reason I wanted that navigation software working on the computer…We did make it to the anchorage in front of the Kingfisher Resort 35 miles for the day and we had fresh fish for dinner on “As if”…I gave away lots of fish as we had way more than we could eat and “Saba” ( mackerel in Japanese is good eating!)..
Monday Dec.10th at 6:30am saw us waving farwell and happy holidays to Peter and Ruth as they will spend Christmas and New Years in Hervey Bay and we motor~sailed south through “The Great Sandy Straights” within 30 minutes we were in 2.5 feet of water and looking for the channel…I let a few of my favorite vocabulary words go and eventually we got back in the channel and deeper water…We’d timed it to go up on the flooding tide and through the really shallow parts at high water and then use the ebbing tide to push us through…It worked just like I’d planned and that’s always a nice feeling…We needed fuel, as the following day was the Wide Bay Bar and the long haul to Mooloolaba 65+ miles. The only place to get fuel is Tin Can Bay and that’s also really shallow at low tide so we picked our way up there and as it was just about dry in places we were able to buy some really expensive fuel,…what can ya do when that’s the only place to buy fuel…I paid $108.00 for three 5 gallon jerry cans of fuel at the fuel dock!!!
"glad I don’t own a stink boat"!!!
Tuesday Dec.11th This is the day I’ve been thinking about for weeks, it’s the day to cross the Wide Bay Bar and then around Double Island Point and on down to Mooloolaba…( See Wide Bay Bar photo to right )
The weather forecast said a Southeasterly change will come through on Wednesday at 20 knots so getting to Mooloolaba will be huge!..Of course I didn’t sleep at all the night before as I just can’t stop thinking about everything and playing the different scenarios in my mind…That night the wind was blowing hard and about midnight a thunderstorm brought some great lightning and an hour of rain but after that the winds were calm and this helped to ease my mind knowing that the swell would be a little lighter in the morning crossing “The Bar!”…At 4:40am I couldn’t take it any longer and got up to go over the sail plans for the day…
We were the third catamaran to cross the Wide Bay Bar that morning with a fancy Schionning Catamaran following us through...The bar was kind and gentle that morning, but it’s always a thrill…We went wide around Wolf Rock and Double Island Point setting a course South by Southeast for Mooloolaba…Full sail in light winds at about 5.5 knots of boat speed…Hiroko got out her sheet music and was singing the jazz classics she loves so much, soon a group of Dolphins came to play in Areté’s bow wake…They just love to show off and I would too if I could swim like that! They did spins, jumps and twirls. ..they stalled and let their back fin rest aginst the hulls of Areté then pushed off and raced ahead with bursts of speed you couldn’t imagine…It was the longest show we’ve had on the entire voyage and they were talking to each other too…Of course I was talking to them as I always do…Nice to have friends like that visit once in a while…Later Hiroko was going over the many photos she took most of them just after they went back underwater…She thought maybe her singing attracted them? Not sure but I asked her to keep on singing…I’m glad they aren’t fooled by my trolling lures as it would crush me to catch one of them but they are really smart and they know what’s real fish and what’s a lure…good on ‘em…
Mooloolaba is perfect for a cruising yachtie, it’s got everything ya need or want within walking distance. We are hoping this Southeasterly breeze comes a around to the East or NE and then it’s back to Bris~Vegas.
Monday, December 3, 2007
Port Clinton to Gladstone
One of my favorite Jimmy Buffet songs is “One Particular Harbor” and Port Clinton has become that “one particular harbor” for me of this trip…
At 5:00am the 29th of November. We had the anchor up and we were headed out between Black Rock and Round Island.
I went out wide hoping to avoid the considerable tidal disturbance around Cape Manifold and after watching “Finding Nemo” in Mackay, I wanted to find that “Great Australian Current” that they took to Sydney to look for Nemo…I was trolling three lures looking for Nemo’s big brothers…The first strike of the day was a big Mahi Mahi, that hit the pink squid and had a great first run, I’d tightened the drag and was starting to bring him back when he jumped out of the water did a little tail walk to let me know who he was and then spit the hook and swam away…An hour later I landed a shark and got my 6 inch Halco spoon back and released him…Then somewhere between Cape Manifold and Corio Bay I caught a 112cm Cobia / Kingfish ( that’s about 3and ½ feet back in the USA)…At the same time I’m trying to bring him aboard the other reel starts screaming, fish on !!!
After landing the Cobia I go over to the starboard side and put the game rod into the Gimble belt and started to try and get back some of the line he’s been running out…
I fought this fish a long time,…finally getting him close to the back of the boat and I identified him as another Cobia even bigger than the one we have aboard already…This fish was so strong and my arms were really burning…eventually he spit the hook and swam to his freedom.
He won and I felt as if I were just a sparring partner. As he swam away I felt proud of him and wished him well… He was a great fish!!!…We already had landed a huge fish, I’ve caught Cobia before and know they are great eating and we’ll have enough fish filets to give everyone some when we arrive at The Great Keppel Island…later that day…
About 3:00pm we entered Rosslyn Bay Marina to get fuel and water and take out a week’s trash…going into marinas scares me a bit, as this is where many accidents happen…Hiroko and I are both gaining confidence in the skills and the finer points needed in this lifestyle. Well,.. we got in, tied off and fueled up and away without any dramas.
Full of fuel and water we motored straight into the wind seven miles across Keppel Bay to anchor off the beach with the resort, between the three catamarans we sailed out of Port Clinton with 12 hours earlier…I dropped the dingy and delivered fresh fish to Doug off the catamaran “Rise Shine” and John off a 39ft Easy Catamaran “Gaiya” and then to have a beer with Craig and Paul on “A Vos Sante” a Perry 43 Catamaran…Paul invited us for dinner and I went back to get Hiroko, we’ve never been aboard a million dollar catamaran before and it was quite an evening. I’d been on the radio earlier in the day with Lance and Tricia of the catamaran “Euphoria” and told them I had fresh fish for them so they joined us for a great meal and conversations on A Vos Sante..We had the fish cooked two different ways and scalloped potatoes…Paul is a mad fisherman like myself and after my stories of the day fishing I’d just had he wanted to know about the magical pink squid lures I make, so I went back got the gear and showed him the secret and made him up a Super #1 Pink Squid Lure as a gift…
That night when we got back aboard Areté I open my log book; 53 nautical miles,12 hours, four chances with the fish, landed two, released one, two long distance calls to my Dad to tell him about the fishing, It was another one of my best days and O~yes it was a Thursjay!!!
Friday the last day of November, (the 38th day of the trip South)...I followed “Rise Shine” and “Gaiya” across Kepple Bay and into “The Narrows”...the passage between Curtis Island and mainland Australia, this is a passage that must crossed (the cattle crossing) at just the top of the tide or it dries out …These guys had it timed to perfection so we went in with the flooding tide, crossed at the top of the tide and came out the other side with the ebbing tide pulling us through…They both sailed on into the Gladstone Marina and we pulled into Graham Creek and anchored a couple miles upstream off the mangroves. I put the crab pots out at low tide about sunset…
At about 4:00am it started to rain very hard and it rained for 12 hours straight,…It rained like mad, like something you’ve never seem, well probably not but, being on a boat you are a very captive audience… We caught lots of rainwater for the solar shower. Played backgammon and dominos and drank lots of tea watching the storm.
Sunday was pretty sunny with a few showers, just swinging on anchor in a huge estuary creek with mangroves, lots of birds, fish, crabs and many flying insects…The winds are up over 20 knots out of the SE (a strong wind warning again) so I’d rather hang out here than in a marina…Though I know Hiroko thinks differently so Monday we’ll motor into the Gladstone Marina, check the internet and take care of a few things waiting on some Northerly winds to blow us south…
One of my favorite Jimmy Buffet songs is “One Particular Harbor” and Port Clinton has become that “one particular harbor” for me of this trip…
At 5:00am the 29th of November. We had the anchor up and we were headed out between Black Rock and Round Island.
I went out wide hoping to avoid the considerable tidal disturbance around Cape Manifold and after watching “Finding Nemo” in Mackay, I wanted to find that “Great Australian Current” that they took to Sydney to look for Nemo…I was trolling three lures looking for Nemo’s big brothers…The first strike of the day was a big Mahi Mahi, that hit the pink squid and had a great first run, I’d tightened the drag and was starting to bring him back when he jumped out of the water did a little tail walk to let me know who he was and then spit the hook and swam away…An hour later I landed a shark and got my 6 inch Halco spoon back and released him…Then somewhere between Cape Manifold and Corio Bay I caught a 112cm Cobia / Kingfish ( that’s about 3and ½ feet back in the USA)…At the same time I’m trying to bring him aboard the other reel starts screaming, fish on !!!
After landing the Cobia I go over to the starboard side and put the game rod into the Gimble belt and started to try and get back some of the line he’s been running out…
I fought this fish a long time,…finally getting him close to the back of the boat and I identified him as another Cobia even bigger than the one we have aboard already…This fish was so strong and my arms were really burning…eventually he spit the hook and swam to his freedom.
He won and I felt as if I were just a sparring partner. As he swam away I felt proud of him and wished him well… He was a great fish!!!…We already had landed a huge fish, I’ve caught Cobia before and know they are great eating and we’ll have enough fish filets to give everyone some when we arrive at The Great Keppel Island…later that day…
About 3:00pm we entered Rosslyn Bay Marina to get fuel and water and take out a week’s trash…going into marinas scares me a bit, as this is where many accidents happen…Hiroko and I are both gaining confidence in the skills and the finer points needed in this lifestyle. Well,.. we got in, tied off and fueled up and away without any dramas.
Full of fuel and water we motored straight into the wind seven miles across Keppel Bay to anchor off the beach with the resort, between the three catamarans we sailed out of Port Clinton with 12 hours earlier…I dropped the dingy and delivered fresh fish to Doug off the catamaran “Rise Shine” and John off a 39ft Easy Catamaran “Gaiya” and then to have a beer with Craig and Paul on “A Vos Sante” a Perry 43 Catamaran…Paul invited us for dinner and I went back to get Hiroko, we’ve never been aboard a million dollar catamaran before and it was quite an evening. I’d been on the radio earlier in the day with Lance and Tricia of the catamaran “Euphoria” and told them I had fresh fish for them so they joined us for a great meal and conversations on A Vos Sante..We had the fish cooked two different ways and scalloped potatoes…Paul is a mad fisherman like myself and after my stories of the day fishing I’d just had he wanted to know about the magical pink squid lures I make, so I went back got the gear and showed him the secret and made him up a Super #1 Pink Squid Lure as a gift…
That night when we got back aboard Areté I open my log book; 53 nautical miles,12 hours, four chances with the fish, landed two, released one, two long distance calls to my Dad to tell him about the fishing, It was another one of my best days and O~yes it was a Thursjay!!!
Friday the last day of November, (the 38th day of the trip South)...I followed “Rise Shine” and “Gaiya” across Kepple Bay and into “The Narrows”...the passage between Curtis Island and mainland Australia, this is a passage that must crossed (the cattle crossing) at just the top of the tide or it dries out …These guys had it timed to perfection so we went in with the flooding tide, crossed at the top of the tide and came out the other side with the ebbing tide pulling us through…They both sailed on into the Gladstone Marina and we pulled into Graham Creek and anchored a couple miles upstream off the mangroves. I put the crab pots out at low tide about sunset…
At about 4:00am it started to rain very hard and it rained for 12 hours straight,…It rained like mad, like something you’ve never seem, well probably not but, being on a boat you are a very captive audience… We caught lots of rainwater for the solar shower. Played backgammon and dominos and drank lots of tea watching the storm.
Sunday was pretty sunny with a few showers, just swinging on anchor in a huge estuary creek with mangroves, lots of birds, fish, crabs and many flying insects…The winds are up over 20 knots out of the SE (a strong wind warning again) so I’d rather hang out here than in a marina…Though I know Hiroko thinks differently so Monday we’ll motor into the Gladstone Marina, check the internet and take care of a few things waiting on some Northerly winds to blow us south…
Mackay Marina to Port Clinton
Sixteen days in the Mackay Marina, we saw lots of rain, Strong SE winds everyday caused by the cyclone up North and finally the Mackay Weather forecast was East by Northeast winds for the next couple days before another low comes through….The marina was a buzz of activity as everyone seemed to be sailing South the following morning…We had made many new friends on the W row of the catamaran berths. Hiroko’s birthday party two nights before was attended by Peter and Ruth of “AS If” ; Lightwave 35ft Catamaran & Warren and Glenda of “Catamaran Imagine” and Christian and Gina of “Caesura” a NZ monohull (who we know from the Garden Point mooring in Brisbane)…
Thursday Nov 22nd I was up well before first light, I can’t sleep when I get excited and I knew it would be a big day….at about 5:00am boats of all sizes and shapes were heading out of the marina…as Areté left the calm waters of the marina out around the breakwater putting the red beacon off our starboard beam and pointing Areté into the wind causing Areté bows to pitch up and down and the stern to do a curtsy to King Neptune, we are now underway….The early mornings often find light winds as we weaved through the 60 or so cargo ships anchored off Hay Point waiting to load up with coal and sail to ports the world over…When the winds did come up they were SE by East, hard on the nose, we motor sailed just off the wind not able to make much speed with the flooding tide, a running ocean swell leftover from the strong winds of the previous days…We eventually got to Digby Island at 7:30pm that evening…56 nautical miles and none of them easy…We had used a lot more fuel than I’d anticipated …I felt tired and a little dejected.
We had the anchor up and we were away at 5:00am the following morning, the winds calmed down during the night so we had glassy seas…which also means no wind so we motored along at 4 knots alternating motors trying to conserve fuel…the afternoon brought an Easterly sea~breeze I sheeted the headsail back as tight as I could get it, sailing “close hauled” we were able to make a little over 4 knots turning off the motors, we plodded along all day arriving at Hexam Island just 42 miles, at 5:00pm…Now feeling a bit more dejected as the winds haven’t been Northerly at all, a quick check of the fuel tanks this only makes me feel more helpless, there is no place to get fuel between Mackay and Yeppoon…the bright spot is I know the other yacht in the anchorage a Bavaria 38ft sloop, Greg called on the radio and invited us to follow him out at 3:30am…
There are a few rock islands around this anchorage which cause considerable tidal irregularities on the full flooding tides…3:30am was slack tide…
So day three out of Mackay started at 3:00am the moon was just setting when we got up and it was very dark soon after,…following Greg’s running lights we safely cleared the rock outcroppings, set sails and waited for the sunrise…again light Easterly winds saw us sailing close hauled tight on the wind and with the flooding tide coming out of “Strong Tide Pass” near Cape Townshend we were doing 1 knot over the land though sailing along at 4~5 knots…with one motor running…ahhhh we tried two tacks and four hours later were nearly in the same spot…of course the tides change every 6 hours so by mid day things were progressing much better,… the weather forecast was for 20knots of afternoon seabreeze so we knew the full moon was just a night away, so the moon would be up before sunset and we decided to push on another 40 or 50 miles to reach the Keppel Islands before the low comes through bringing strong SE winds for who knows how many days. This would make our longest day yet well over 100 miles, expecting to sail into the moonlight arriving about 10:00pm with nearly a full moon…
“Without risk, there is no adventure” as Sir Chay Blyth once said …A few miles North of Cape Manifold I was noticing the strong tidal pull, and trying to just pinch it enough to get around the cape and after that the wind angle would be much better to sail close reached to the Kepples…Right about then a SE change came roaring through at well over 30 knots and we got belted hard!!! Pulling Areté straight into the wind (Irons) , sails flapping like crazy, no steering, the seas became real steep and sloppy immediately , we dropped the motors, furled in the headsail just before it beat itself to death, got the mainsail down and turned around heading back to the safe anchorage of Port Clinton…The two yachts just ahead of us made the same decision and soon many boats were headed into the only anchorage open in the Shoalwater Bay Military training area…They were having some kind of live firing drills and all other anchorages were closed to private vessels. That night at anchor in Port Clinton (it sounds like it’s some port but it’s just a huge estuary system of mudflats, mangroves, a couple beaches, no development what so ever)
I watched the moon rise and came up with a great idea…Tomorrow was the full moon and most of those boats were headed south like us and we all might be here for a few days waiting on a weather window…
Sunday November 25th, I woke up with a plan, I grabbed a bunch of Areté boat cards and wrote “Full Moon Party on Areté..” Then launched the dingy and went around and invited everyone to join us for sundowners and watch the moon rise on Areté, I also said if they wanted to dress up like pirates they would not be the only ones as Hiroko and I are Peace Pirates…
That evening saw six dingys tied behind Areté, 11 people, from 6 different yachts, all different walks of life, 6 different countries but all of them deep down were pirates too!
Two guitar players provided the Jimmy Buffet songs and as the moon rose we sang
“A pirate looks at 50” …”Yes, I am a pirate,… two hundred years too late,… the cannons don’t thunder,… there’s nothing to plunder,… I’m an over forty victim of fate”
The party was a smashing success; we made 9 new friends and felt it was one of my best days!!! ( to see party photos, scroll down past all the text at bottom of page...)
Monday November 26th The wind was blowing hard from the SE when I woke up feeling like Tarzan after such a great evening…Enjoying an evening like that, getting to meet people and entertain on my yacht was a big part of the desire to move to Australia and buy a catamaran…’Cause those were the kind of people we came here to meet…
That evening Alan and Mary invited us for sundowners aboard “Investigator” their 56 foot Crouther catamaran…Alan is a shipwright and spent his working years building boats and the Investigator П must be one of the nicest catamarans in Australia. It had everything you could imagine, pure class just like the owners…Joining us onboard that evening was John and Gale from “Crystal Voyager” a 36ft Roberts monohull, and Allan Hays of the 30ft monohull “Dolphina” He’d sailed over from NZ a few months ago in a single hander race with 20 other yachts…Another great evening of sailing stories and boat talk…It’s often said “it’s not the destination but the journey that you remember” but it’s the people you meet that make it truly magic…Another highlight of the day was the weather report that a North/Easterly breeze was headed this way in a couple days...Yahooo!
Tuesday November 27th (Day #4 at Port Clinton) The Rockhampton Meteorological Agency read the weather at 5:20am saying 20 knot SE winds but Thursday the northerly should come through…that afternoon we were invited over to the “Crystal Voyager” to see how they get internet access even at Port Clinton..(the middle of nowhere, about 50 miles from civilization, as the crow flies) John and Gale are transplanted New Zealanders now Aussies and have just finished four years in Airlie Beach of the Whitsundays. John had 10 liters of unleaded fuel he could spare so we traded for a bottle of Bundaberg Rum and I threw in a 1.5ltr bottle of Areté Ginger Beer to sweeten the deal…They were pleased with the deal and the added 10 liters of fuel would give us much more confidence as our fuel was now very low…That evening I caught and released a Shovelnose Shark…I don’t eat sharks and hope they will show me the same respect…well that’s the idea anyways..
Wednesday November 28th was the fifth and final day in Port Clinton, (now my favorite place we’ve been!!) Late in the afternoon three catamarans arrived I knew two of them one from the Duck Pond in Townsville and Craig off the Easy Catamaran “CasaraCruzin” helping a friend sail his Perry 43 back to the Gold Coast. We’d met Craig and his wife Sara on our first trip North two years ago and have seem them in many different places between here and Brisbane, both on and off the water..
Sixteen days in the Mackay Marina, we saw lots of rain, Strong SE winds everyday caused by the cyclone up North and finally the Mackay Weather forecast was East by Northeast winds for the next couple days before another low comes through….The marina was a buzz of activity as everyone seemed to be sailing South the following morning…We had made many new friends on the W row of the catamaran berths. Hiroko’s birthday party two nights before was attended by Peter and Ruth of “AS If” ; Lightwave 35ft Catamaran & Warren and Glenda of “Catamaran Imagine” and Christian and Gina of “Caesura” a NZ monohull (who we know from the Garden Point mooring in Brisbane)…
Thursday Nov 22nd I was up well before first light, I can’t sleep when I get excited and I knew it would be a big day….at about 5:00am boats of all sizes and shapes were heading out of the marina…as Areté left the calm waters of the marina out around the breakwater putting the red beacon off our starboard beam and pointing Areté into the wind causing Areté bows to pitch up and down and the stern to do a curtsy to King Neptune, we are now underway….The early mornings often find light winds as we weaved through the 60 or so cargo ships anchored off Hay Point waiting to load up with coal and sail to ports the world over…When the winds did come up they were SE by East, hard on the nose, we motor sailed just off the wind not able to make much speed with the flooding tide, a running ocean swell leftover from the strong winds of the previous days…We eventually got to Digby Island at 7:30pm that evening…56 nautical miles and none of them easy…We had used a lot more fuel than I’d anticipated …I felt tired and a little dejected.
We had the anchor up and we were away at 5:00am the following morning, the winds calmed down during the night so we had glassy seas…which also means no wind so we motored along at 4 knots alternating motors trying to conserve fuel…the afternoon brought an Easterly sea~breeze I sheeted the headsail back as tight as I could get it, sailing “close hauled” we were able to make a little over 4 knots turning off the motors, we plodded along all day arriving at Hexam Island just 42 miles, at 5:00pm…Now feeling a bit more dejected as the winds haven’t been Northerly at all, a quick check of the fuel tanks this only makes me feel more helpless, there is no place to get fuel between Mackay and Yeppoon…the bright spot is I know the other yacht in the anchorage a Bavaria 38ft sloop, Greg called on the radio and invited us to follow him out at 3:30am…
There are a few rock islands around this anchorage which cause considerable tidal irregularities on the full flooding tides…3:30am was slack tide…
So day three out of Mackay started at 3:00am the moon was just setting when we got up and it was very dark soon after,…following Greg’s running lights we safely cleared the rock outcroppings, set sails and waited for the sunrise…again light Easterly winds saw us sailing close hauled tight on the wind and with the flooding tide coming out of “Strong Tide Pass” near Cape Townshend we were doing 1 knot over the land though sailing along at 4~5 knots…with one motor running…ahhhh we tried two tacks and four hours later were nearly in the same spot…of course the tides change every 6 hours so by mid day things were progressing much better,… the weather forecast was for 20knots of afternoon seabreeze so we knew the full moon was just a night away, so the moon would be up before sunset and we decided to push on another 40 or 50 miles to reach the Keppel Islands before the low comes through bringing strong SE winds for who knows how many days. This would make our longest day yet well over 100 miles, expecting to sail into the moonlight arriving about 10:00pm with nearly a full moon…
“Without risk, there is no adventure” as Sir Chay Blyth once said …A few miles North of Cape Manifold I was noticing the strong tidal pull, and trying to just pinch it enough to get around the cape and after that the wind angle would be much better to sail close reached to the Kepples…Right about then a SE change came roaring through at well over 30 knots and we got belted hard!!! Pulling Areté straight into the wind (Irons) , sails flapping like crazy, no steering, the seas became real steep and sloppy immediately , we dropped the motors, furled in the headsail just before it beat itself to death, got the mainsail down and turned around heading back to the safe anchorage of Port Clinton…The two yachts just ahead of us made the same decision and soon many boats were headed into the only anchorage open in the Shoalwater Bay Military training area…They were having some kind of live firing drills and all other anchorages were closed to private vessels. That night at anchor in Port Clinton (it sounds like it’s some port but it’s just a huge estuary system of mudflats, mangroves, a couple beaches, no development what so ever)
I watched the moon rise and came up with a great idea…Tomorrow was the full moon and most of those boats were headed south like us and we all might be here for a few days waiting on a weather window…
Sunday November 25th, I woke up with a plan, I grabbed a bunch of Areté boat cards and wrote “Full Moon Party on Areté..” Then launched the dingy and went around and invited everyone to join us for sundowners and watch the moon rise on Areté, I also said if they wanted to dress up like pirates they would not be the only ones as Hiroko and I are Peace Pirates…
That evening saw six dingys tied behind Areté, 11 people, from 6 different yachts, all different walks of life, 6 different countries but all of them deep down were pirates too!
Two guitar players provided the Jimmy Buffet songs and as the moon rose we sang
“A pirate looks at 50” …”Yes, I am a pirate,… two hundred years too late,… the cannons don’t thunder,… there’s nothing to plunder,… I’m an over forty victim of fate”
The party was a smashing success; we made 9 new friends and felt it was one of my best days!!! ( to see party photos, scroll down past all the text at bottom of page...)
Monday November 26th The wind was blowing hard from the SE when I woke up feeling like Tarzan after such a great evening…Enjoying an evening like that, getting to meet people and entertain on my yacht was a big part of the desire to move to Australia and buy a catamaran…’Cause those were the kind of people we came here to meet…
That evening Alan and Mary invited us for sundowners aboard “Investigator” their 56 foot Crouther catamaran…Alan is a shipwright and spent his working years building boats and the Investigator П must be one of the nicest catamarans in Australia. It had everything you could imagine, pure class just like the owners…Joining us onboard that evening was John and Gale from “Crystal Voyager” a 36ft Roberts monohull, and Allan Hays of the 30ft monohull “Dolphina” He’d sailed over from NZ a few months ago in a single hander race with 20 other yachts…Another great evening of sailing stories and boat talk…It’s often said “it’s not the destination but the journey that you remember” but it’s the people you meet that make it truly magic…Another highlight of the day was the weather report that a North/Easterly breeze was headed this way in a couple days...Yahooo!
Tuesday November 27th (Day #4 at Port Clinton) The Rockhampton Meteorological Agency read the weather at 5:20am saying 20 knot SE winds but Thursday the northerly should come through…that afternoon we were invited over to the “Crystal Voyager” to see how they get internet access even at Port Clinton..(the middle of nowhere, about 50 miles from civilization, as the crow flies) John and Gale are transplanted New Zealanders now Aussies and have just finished four years in Airlie Beach of the Whitsundays. John had 10 liters of unleaded fuel he could spare so we traded for a bottle of Bundaberg Rum and I threw in a 1.5ltr bottle of Areté Ginger Beer to sweeten the deal…They were pleased with the deal and the added 10 liters of fuel would give us much more confidence as our fuel was now very low…That evening I caught and released a Shovelnose Shark…I don’t eat sharks and hope they will show me the same respect…well that’s the idea anyways..
Wednesday November 28th was the fifth and final day in Port Clinton, (now my favorite place we’ve been!!) Late in the afternoon three catamarans arrived I knew two of them one from the Duck Pond in Townsville and Craig off the Easy Catamaran “CasaraCruzin” helping a friend sail his Perry 43 back to the Gold Coast. We’d met Craig and his wife Sara on our first trip North two years ago and have seem them in many different places between here and Brisbane, both on and off the water..
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