OP
OP
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2012
- Messages
- 4,279
- Location
- Australia
- Vessel Name
- Insequent
- Vessel Make
- Ocean Alexander 50 Mk I
I'll update my travels in case anyone is wondering where to stopover in the area. After rolling around for one night at Great Keppel, and with weather forecasts being unfavourable for anchoring out on the reef, I went into Keppel Bay Marina for a couple of nights. Its the second swell direction that gets you!
With shopping completed I saw a weather window to get down to Pancake Creek before the swell became tiresome. This would mean skipping Heron Island and Fitzroy Reef, but I did not want to stay any longer in the marina or be rolled around in the Keppel's! There were big storms further south, and with 3-5m swells off Moreton Island it was still messy where I was, and not going to get better for a week or so.
Pancake Creek anchorage was busy, with up to 20 boats. There are new public moorings; Two in the outer anchorage and 4 in the inner anchorage, with 24 hour time limits. They were an unusual size (15m) compared to other public mooring I found on the trip. Most boats stayed for 4 0r 5 days, like me. There was little wind, but the residual swell from the southern storms lingered.
With swell tolerable (1-1.5m) and light winds I went east out to Lady Musgrave. It now has 9 public moorings. The 2 x 10m ones were not occupied, but the others were seldom free for long. The 24 hour limit, was not often adhered to! I had 4 perfect days in the lagoon, was up the NE corner by myself mostly. Almost glassed-out water surface, very clear water and large numbers of turtles around the place.
I decide to take the short hop to Lady Elliot Island at sunrise, hoping to pick up one of the two new public moorings. With no lagoon and water depths of 20m exposed to current anchoring there is OK but not all that pleasant. Both moorings were occupied by sailing cats, and they had been there at least one night. I asked what time they were leaving and they said the following day. So much for 24 hour limits! One of the resort's boat skippers called me on VHF and suggested where I could anchor in sand and indicated that I was welcome to visit, have a meal etc. Just check-in at reception when I landed. In the event I did not do this. But I did a bit of snorkelling and I have to say it is excellent there.
So just one night, and raised anchor at first light. I went down to Wathumba Creek area of Fraser Island, but as weather was again not co-operating (brisk NW so a lee shore) I went into Urangan for another marina stay. This time 4 nights so I could have dinner with one of my daughters, who is living and working in Hervey Bay. My twins and I share a common birthday, and for the first time Emily was not with us. She and her partner had flown to Melbourne for a Taylor Swift concert (of all things!)
Birthday dinner completed it was time to go back to Wathumba Creek for a few days. I took the RIB far upstream, into the tannin-coloured water. It became very shallow although I had a rising tide so was not concerned. What did prompt me to turn around was being almost lifted off the boat by large numbers of hungry mosquitos!
I left Wathumba a few hours before high tide, and managed to get all the way to Garry's anchorage. I rode the flood tide to Boonlye Point where the tide direction changes and then caught the ebb tide down to Garry's anchorage. I had a minimum of 1kn assist the whole time! Hight tide is best for the Boonlye area as the water depths may well be too shallow at low tide, particularly as there is no real channel, just widely spaced lateral buoys showing the slightly deeper parts of a wide waterway.
From Garry's I went down to the entrance of Tin Can Bay inlet, ready to cross the Wide Bay Bar the following day. By raising anchor at 4:15am I was able to get to the bar itself a little after 5 am, not long after sunrise and have an easy crossing with light NE winds. With such an early start I by-passed Mooloolaba and went straight into Moreton Bay using the NE Channel. The NE had picked up to 20 kn in the early afternoon, but by then I was riding the flood tide and the 1.5m swell from behind was not an issue.
I went down the bay to Peel Island to hide from the strengthening N winds. Peel had about 70 boats already, but it was easy to sit at the back of them a bit further off the beach. I stayed a few days because there was a heat wave in Brisbane and Peel is always at least 5°C cooler!
With shopping completed I saw a weather window to get down to Pancake Creek before the swell became tiresome. This would mean skipping Heron Island and Fitzroy Reef, but I did not want to stay any longer in the marina or be rolled around in the Keppel's! There were big storms further south, and with 3-5m swells off Moreton Island it was still messy where I was, and not going to get better for a week or so.
Pancake Creek anchorage was busy, with up to 20 boats. There are new public moorings; Two in the outer anchorage and 4 in the inner anchorage, with 24 hour time limits. They were an unusual size (15m) compared to other public mooring I found on the trip. Most boats stayed for 4 0r 5 days, like me. There was little wind, but the residual swell from the southern storms lingered.
With swell tolerable (1-1.5m) and light winds I went east out to Lady Musgrave. It now has 9 public moorings. The 2 x 10m ones were not occupied, but the others were seldom free for long. The 24 hour limit, was not often adhered to! I had 4 perfect days in the lagoon, was up the NE corner by myself mostly. Almost glassed-out water surface, very clear water and large numbers of turtles around the place.
I decide to take the short hop to Lady Elliot Island at sunrise, hoping to pick up one of the two new public moorings. With no lagoon and water depths of 20m exposed to current anchoring there is OK but not all that pleasant. Both moorings were occupied by sailing cats, and they had been there at least one night. I asked what time they were leaving and they said the following day. So much for 24 hour limits! One of the resort's boat skippers called me on VHF and suggested where I could anchor in sand and indicated that I was welcome to visit, have a meal etc. Just check-in at reception when I landed. In the event I did not do this. But I did a bit of snorkelling and I have to say it is excellent there.
So just one night, and raised anchor at first light. I went down to Wathumba Creek area of Fraser Island, but as weather was again not co-operating (brisk NW so a lee shore) I went into Urangan for another marina stay. This time 4 nights so I could have dinner with one of my daughters, who is living and working in Hervey Bay. My twins and I share a common birthday, and for the first time Emily was not with us. She and her partner had flown to Melbourne for a Taylor Swift concert (of all things!)
Birthday dinner completed it was time to go back to Wathumba Creek for a few days. I took the RIB far upstream, into the tannin-coloured water. It became very shallow although I had a rising tide so was not concerned. What did prompt me to turn around was being almost lifted off the boat by large numbers of hungry mosquitos!
I left Wathumba a few hours before high tide, and managed to get all the way to Garry's anchorage. I rode the flood tide to Boonlye Point where the tide direction changes and then caught the ebb tide down to Garry's anchorage. I had a minimum of 1kn assist the whole time! Hight tide is best for the Boonlye area as the water depths may well be too shallow at low tide, particularly as there is no real channel, just widely spaced lateral buoys showing the slightly deeper parts of a wide waterway.
From Garry's I went down to the entrance of Tin Can Bay inlet, ready to cross the Wide Bay Bar the following day. By raising anchor at 4:15am I was able to get to the bar itself a little after 5 am, not long after sunrise and have an easy crossing with light NE winds. With such an early start I by-passed Mooloolaba and went straight into Moreton Bay using the NE Channel. The NE had picked up to 20 kn in the early afternoon, but by then I was riding the flood tide and the 1.5m swell from behind was not an issue.
I went down the bay to Peel Island to hide from the strengthening N winds. Peel had about 70 boats already, but it was easy to sit at the back of them a bit further off the beach. I stayed a few days because there was a heat wave in Brisbane and Peel is always at least 5°C cooler!
