Passage - Burnett Heads to Brisbane, Queensland

2nd to 14th February, 2021

After waiting four months to have the starboard motor replaced, we were keen to get moving. We up-anchored from our spot in the Burnett River around 6.30 and were out with sails up around an hour later. It was a beautiful day. The wind looked favourable so we decided to sail directly to the top of Fraser Island. Pretty soon though, the water turned glassy – no wind – so we motor-sailed much of the 40 nautical miles (8 hours at an average of 5 nm per hours) and got in on dark.

Fraser Island to Pelican Bay
The anchorage at Moon Point was great until sundown when the mossies moved in. Luckily, they left when the wild storm started. We didn’t sleep much so the next day moved on to South White Cliffs in the Great Sandy Strait where we could get a lot more protection. This area has really strong tides which we

struggled against. Tallis loves South White Cliffs where there are massive sand bars he can run around on without a leash pretending to be a miniature dingo.

An experienced boatie told us that when you buy a boat, new or used, there are lots of problems in the first two years then the following 8 years are good. With this in mind we decided to name boat issues as “exercises in acceptance”. So, it wasn’t a surprise when we experienced an exercise in acceptance. The wind speed instrument wasn’t working. That may not seem like much of a problem it’s either windy or not. It isn’t for intuitive sailors like John but I need to know the wind direction to point the boat or put-up the sails. The anchor counter also stopped working, the outboard tender stopped working again and the anchor light wouldn’t work if the TV was on. All fun. Lucky we had a spare outboard.

The sailing objective was to sail behind Fraser Island to the Wide Bay Bar to go south. Specific conditions are required to cross the Bar – the wind needs to be low, the swell low and the tide two hours from high tide. At this stage the conditions weren’t great and there was a swell related to a cyclone off the coast.

We moved to Garry’s Anchorage, known for lots of mossies but this time not many and nice and flat. We kept in contact with the Coast Guard about conditions.

Edging closer to the bar we anchored at Pelican Bay which is the bay behind Inskip Point which is opposite to Fraser Island. This channel is quite shallow with continuously shifting sand. Waves come at you from every direction even when conditions are a little bit off. I dread it. We caught up with a few other boaties in the bay. Pseudorca was our neighbour at Burnett Heads Marina.

The Coastguard told us the swell would be about 1 metre and other conditions good to cross at 4.30 am. Four other boats were planning to cross. There is a sense of travellers starting off a great adventure.

We set the new waypoints on the navigation system and watched millions of flying foxes cross to Fraser Island as we prepared for our early start.

Pelican Bay to Mooloolaba – Bar to Bar
Awake at 4 am we readied the boat and were off by 4.30. We got to the bar by 5.30. The 1-metre waves were 2 – 3 metres and coming from all directions. John looked like he was having fun. I wasn’t. He told me all was OK and the boat was performing well. By 6.30 am we were through. John wouldn’t let me have a glass of wine. I was happy to go without the glass.

Out of the bar sea pretty good 1-2 m swell so we decided to go all the way to Mooloolaba which was another 50 nm or 10 hours – a long

way but possible to arrive in daylight hours. The wind came up in the afternoon and we were a little concerned as the entrance to the river is a bit complicated. You need to sail parallel to the beach which means the waves are coming from the side. Then when you get to the breakwater opening you turn a sharp right dodging the paddleboarders, jet skis, motor boats and surfers. It is also very shallow and the dredger which is always there blocks off a quarter of the available space.

The Coast Guard weren’t any help with advice. One must enter on a rising tide. The question was, keeping in mind the deteriorating weather predicted the following day: should we go on to Brisbane which would require an overnight or risk the entrance. In the end the Mooloolaba bar was easy.

Avoiding the notorious Duck Pond anchorage where boats are known to drag, we anchored further on river near the Nicklin Way bridge. Apart from some light traffic noise we are surrounded by luxury mansions and parks. John and I take a desperate Tallis to the park, he has a pee, we have a drink. We are in bed by 9pm

John and I spent the next few days relaxing whilst the bad weather passed, sleeping in, eating, and walking. We had another exercise of acceptance when the starter motor wouldn’t start or hold a charge. Whilst it was possible to override this system and use the emergency start, we never want to put to sea with a known problem. We were able to arrange a new battery and prepared for another battle with the manufacturers regarding warranty.

The following day we moved to the Mooloolaba Marina for some R&R. We got an outer pen, three or four turns before the ramp to the

shore. If you didn’t count them when returning to the boat you would end up on the wrong finger and wonder where your boat was. In fact, we ran into our friends from Carpe Vendum this way.

Poor Tallis had a little incident after I tied him to a pole while I was doing the laundry at the marina. He got bitten on the paw by an ant and was very distressed. Silly me put some anti-histamine cream on it then a VERY secure bandage to stop him licking it. Of course, he wouldn’t even try to walk and was very dramatic standing up then dropping down and other similar performances. It is very difficult to cut a bandage off a biting, wriggling, tiny dog’s foot.

We had a nice lunch at James Squire, a scenic afternoon walk then prepared for the passage back to Brisbane.

Mooloolaba to Brisbane
Only 30 nm to go to end our slightly disrupted first northern sailing season. There were lots of water craft including 8 anchored container ships waiting to get into the Brisbane port and one annoying lone kayaker out a sea and hidden by the swell of the waves.

We had a lovely sail most of the way to Bribie Island where we anchored off Bongaree township off the main beach and jetty. John and I took Tallis ashore for his afternoon constitutional and walked along the foreshore. It was a little challenging getting the tender into shore as there was massive amounts sea-grass. For the rest of the evening I was on high alert trying to hear a dugong – no luck but there were dolphins.

Our final passage into Brisbane was fun. There was lots of craft on

the water as it was the weekend. With 15 knot easterlies we had a wonderful sail averaging seven to eight knots the whole way. At the leads into Manly Harbour we had to sail through a couple of races which was exciting. We were berthed quite close to the spot we had earlier on in the year. We saw our old sailing buddies from Temptress and No Regrets soon after tying up. Again, we were in bed really early.

Whilst we were returning to Brisbane my mother had had a fall and it looked like she might need more support than previously. My brother picked us up and we went to his place then to visit mum at Redlands Hospital.

Next: Mini Tour South-East Queensland