November 26 – December 1, 2006

We left early in the morning for Mooloolaba, some 55 miles away from the Wide Bay Bar.  After a slightly bumpy bar crossing, our stomachs settled and we had a great spinnaker run.  We settled at anchor in the Mooloolah River and began a week of shopping, laundry, and internet café visits.  We were also able to catch up with Steve and Betty from “JAMS” who we had last seen at Newport Waterways Marina in Scarborough in January 2006.  Dan and Alice were anchored in the river as well and we had a nice sundowner session on JAMS.

Anchoring in the Mooloolah River, in “the pond” as the locals call it, is an experience when there are high winds.  There are a lot of boats at anchor, and many of them do not have people living aboard which means that they are left untended for the most part.  This is somewhat worrisome, as we never know how well the boats next to us are hooked.  We actually saw a boat in a different place from the evening before, one morning when we woke up.  Sure enough, one night just after dark, a storm blew up with a strong wind shift and all of the boats started to swing wildly.  At first we were okay but Mary looked out a few moments later and told Paul that there was something weird with the two boats up ahead.  It turns out that a monohull sailboat (occupied) was right up against a fishing trawler (unoccupied).  We considered this a dangerous situation, as the potential for the two boats to drag down upon us was great.  Paul quickly jumped into the dinghy and went over to the skipper of the sailboat who informed Paul that he was going to try and set a second anchor.  He said that he would be okay so Paul came back to our boat.  We decided to haul anchor and move to another location, especially as a large catamaran had come in that day and anchored too close to us (we felt).  Unfortunately, the pond is very shallow and our options were not numerous.  We actually set the anchor three more times in the dark until we were finally satisfied that we were out of harms way.  Imagine our surprise in the morning when we awoke and saw a big yellow sign right near us that said that anchoring was prohibited in that part of the river.  So, right after breakfast we hauled anchor again and resettled in the pond away from the troublesome boats of earlier.

December 2 - 5, 2006

We left Mooloolaba early on Saturday and travelled to Tangalooma in Moreton Bay, a place that we had really enjoyed in 2005.  As it was a weekend, there were lots of boats anchored beside the Tangalooma wrecks but we did manage to secure one of the favoured spots.  There were high wind warnings for most of the time we were at Tangalooma and, of course, we had to have some drama.  One day, after we had been by ourselves for a couple of days, a small monohull came in beside us and that evening, after dark we were surprised to find another larger monohull had anchored even closer to us.  An hour later, we heard the sound of chain being raised and Paul went out on deck, only to see the second monohull slowly going by us within two feet away.  Scary moment!  Mary immediately started both engines and Paul got ready to try and fend off the boat if it came any closer.  There was only one man on deck on the monohull but he seemed to be talking to someone below decks.  The man finally managed to get his boat away from us and he hauled up his anchor and resettled further away.

We learned the next morning from our friends on the ham radio net that they call Tangalooma the “bumper cars” anchorage.  We can testify to that!

December 6, 2006

The next day we went just a bit further south on Moreton Island to Kunangai, or the Sandhills.  This place has fond memories for us as we spent a few days here last year with our daughter Jennifer and her friend Pia from Germany.  We only spent one night alone in this calm anchorage as the winds were good for getting further south in the Broadwater.  We had a tentative deadline to be in Yamba by December 13th as Bob and Julia were driving down on December 15th to stay aboard. 

December 7 – 11, 2006

We used rising tide to slowly go through the Broadwater, which is the inside passage by North and South Stradbroke Islands.  The alternative is to go outside of the islands and go down the coast in the ocean.  We spent five days in the Broadwater enjoying the scenery and Paul catching some flathead.  The winds were out of the southeast the entire time and we were awaiting a northerly change to make the overnight jump to Yamba. 

On Monday, December 11, we travelled the last two hours to the Gold Coast Seaway exit and anchored for the afternoon and evening.  The wind was out of the northeast this day and only for about 24 hours.  As we had 100 miles to travel and the fourth hour of the rising tide at the Seaway bar would be at 2200h and the fourth hour of the rising tide is the best time to cross the bar at Yamba, we decided to go overnight in order to arrive in the morning.  We left at 2100h and had a very lumpy ride out of the Seaway exit and for the first three or four hours of the trip.  The seas finally calmed down and we had an unbelievably fast ride south.  We had a 2-3 knot current in our favour for the entire ride.  At 0400h Mary informed Paul that 10 – 11 knots was too fast as we would arrive at Iluka/Yamba at low tide and we needed a rising tide to get into the anchorage at Iluka.  So, we furled the jib and reefed the mainsail in order to slow down to 8 knots and we were still almost going too fast.  Mary went to sleep for a few hours and awoke to Paul letting the reefs out of the mainsail as the wind had lessened considerably and we had slowed down too much.  Not only had the wind lessened in strength, we noticed that the forecasted wind shift to southerlies had happened much earlier than anticipated.  We now had wind on the nose.  We travelled the last few hours with one engine running and the jib and mainsail and landed safely in Iluka/Yamba at 1200h on Tuesday, December 12.

December 12, 2006

So here we sit at Yamba/Iluka, awaiting the arrival of Bob and Julia who will stay aboard for a few days.  The plan is to explore the meandering Clarence River, which has several small towns, including one called Maclean, which calls itself Australia’s Scottish town.