On Wednesday, April 2, our last full day in Brisbane, we were picked up by Bob and Julia (who were visiting Bob’s sister in Brisbane) and completed some last minute shopping which was more easily accomplished with a car.  The four of us then met up with Steve and Bettye from Mooloolaba for an enjoyable two-hour lunch.

April 4 - 6, 2008

We said good-bye to the Brisbane River and sailed a short distance to Redcliffe, where we anchored in one of the canals of Newport Waterways.  This is where we met Sonia and Trevor two years ago, and where Mary first paddled with an Australian dragon boat team.  Sure enough, as soon as we arrived, Sonia invited Mary to paddle on Saturday morning.

Sonia and Trevor had expressed an interest in coming aboard for the day passage to Mooloolaba and the weather looked good for Sunday, April 6.  Paul picked up Sonia and Trevor at 0530h by dinghy and we were underway shortly after.

We made it to Mooloolaba at 1500h just as another squall was hitting us.  The entrance to the Mooloolah River has been significantly altered from the strong winds and damaging surf of the past few months.  We had been hearing warnings repeatedly on the VHF Radio about the changed conditions at the mouth of the river.  A sand bar, which used to be outside the entrance breakwall (which allowed for a straightforward entry into the river), has now moved partially across the entrance.  We actually had to go west towards a beach and then make a sharp left turn between a red and green buoy and then a sharp right into the mouth.  Just as we were making the entry through the red and green buoys and preparing to turn right, we saw a big rolling wave coming at us.  Paul managed to successfully get us into the river and up one of the canals to settle at anchor near our friends Steve and Bettye on JAMS.  We enjoyed a wonderful dinner aboard JAMS and then Trevor and Sonia’s daughter drove up from Redcliffe to pick up her parents.

April 7 – 17, 2008

We spent a week in Mooloolaba, enjoying sundowner sessions and dinners aboard either Bella Via or JAMS.  Mary was able to paddle twice with Bettye’s dragon boat team.

Josh informed us that his work commitments in Australia would finish in one week and then he was spending about 10 days near Sydney with Jen Martyniuk and her husband Dom.  Josh and Jen grew up in the same neighbourhood and Jen is very good friends with Josh’s sisters.  Jen Martyniuk is the young woman from our home city, now living near Sydney, who helped us move aboard Bella Via three years ago.  We told Josh not to hesitate if he was interested in spending more time aboard Bella Via.

Sure enough, a few days before we were to leave Mooloolaba, we received word from Josh that he and Jen Martyniuk were both interested in doing the trip to the Wide Bay Bar and Tin Can Bay, thus staying aboard for a few days.

The earliest that Josh and Jen could arrive was Monday, April 14.  That meant that we would leave for Tin Can Bay on Tuesday morning.  The weather forecast was calling for building southeast winds throughout the day after a few days of calm northerlies.  By late afternoon, the seas were to be much higher.  With the northerlies of the past few days though, the Wide Bay Bar would most likely be calm.  We hoped that we would make it safely through the Wide Bay Bar and into the sheltered waters of the Great Sandy Strait before the weather forecast came into play.  Complicating matters was the fact that the optimal time to cross the Wide Bay Bar (4th hour of the rising tide) was 3 p.m. on Tuesday.  So we timed our departure from Mooloolaba to coincide with a 3 p.m. bar arrival.

Because we didn’t know if Jen and Josh would be seasick, we encouraged them to take some Stugeron and this they did.  Even so, Josh soon experienced some queasiness, although, after sleeping for a few hours, he felt much better.

When we reached Double Island Point and were 8 miles from the Wide Bay Bar, Paul called the VMR on the VHF radio and asked for a report on the condition of the bar.  The VMR informed us that their rescue boat had just gone out to check the bar and they would let us know.  Shortly thereafter, we were informed that the bar itself looked good with only a slight swell and no breaking waves across it but that the “Mad Mile” had quite a bit of chop.  As this wasn’t unusual for the Mad Mile, we decided to cross the bar.

We completed all of the safety items associated with crossing a bar (life vests donned, all hands in the cockpit, the companionway door closed) and approached the first of the three waypoints that we had plotted in our electronic chart plotter.  We were surprised to see that the rescue boat stayed out at the first waypoint to watch our passage.  This was not necessary but we welcomed the company.  We crossed the bar without difficulty and as we approached the Mad Mile we could see the bumpy ride ahead.  We felt like we were in a washing machine throughout the mile but we finally settled into the calmer water of the Great Sandy Strait.

We would be dropping Jen and Josh off in Tin Can Bay on the Thursday but we didn’t want to head there just yet.  It was too windy and choppy to stay in the entrance to Pelican Bay where we usually stay after crossing the bar.  We decided to head up the Strait a bit, hoping to find a calm anchorage out of the strong southeasterlies.  We settled for the night near Snout Point but the current was quite strong there and when tide was falling we had a “wind against tide” situation and the boat bobbled quite a bit.

The next morning we decided to head back to Pelican Bay and work our way quite deep into the bay where the water is quite shallow and there is much more protection from the current.  Paul calculated how much water we would have at half-tide falling and sure enough, the shallowest that Mary saw was 5 feet (we need 4 feet to float) along the route.  It is Mary’s practice to press “Mark” on the electronic chart plotter periodically along a new and complicated route, which creates an “X” – this saves our route in and we will follow this back out of the anchorage.

We comfortably settled at anchor and had a very calm afternoon and night in Pelican Bay.

The next morning we traveled to Tin Can Bay on a rising tide and dropped anchor amongst several other boats.  We arranged to meet Bob and Julia on their boat at the marina at noon and we all would go out for lunch.  Jen and Josh were due to leave at 4 p.m. to head back to Sydney.

Ater a great lunch with Bob and Julia, we said good-bye to Jen and Josh, along with an invitation to come back anytime.

April 18 – 24, 2008

On Friday morning, April 18, we decided to go into the marina for a one-night stay.  Our friends, Steve and Bettye from JAMS in Mooloolaba, were driving up to Tin Can Bay on Saturday so that they could stay aboard Bella Via for a few days and we would go out into Platypus Bay.

We had lots of washing, shopping, and boat cleaning to do and this we started as soon as we tied up to a marina berth.  We also had the pleasure of spending more time with Bob and Julia who asked us to dinner that night aboard Kinta.  Unfortunately, Bob and Julia had several commitments during the next week and would be unable to sail to Platypus Bay with us.  Mary and Julia set out early on Saturday morning for the outdoor market for fruits and vegetables and the IGA for other provisions.

Steve and Bettye arrived at 1000h and, after a short coffee session with Bob and Julia, we untied the lines and headed out into the Great Sandy Strait.

We had a great sail to Garry’s Anchorage but encountered a squall just as we were nearing the first of the buoys into the sheltered anchorage.  We carefully and slowly worked our way in and the rain cleared just as we were ready to drop anchor.  We spent a comfortable night and left the next morning to continue up the remainder of the Great Sandy Strait.  Again, we had good winds for sailing and were actually traveling up the coast of Platypus Bay (the northwest end of Fraser Island) by early afternoon.  Just as we were leaving the Great Sandy Strait, we caught a small spotted mackerel, the first fish that we have caught in several months.

We chose to anchor near Whatumba Creek, a place where we had stayed last year with Kinta.  Unfortunately, during the time when tide was rising, we had a swell coming in from the west and it made the anchorage a bit uncomfortable.

Very early in the morning (0500h) we decided to seek less swell and continued traveling up the coast to the very top of Fraser Island, to Rooney Point.  Unfortunately, this proved to be the wrong direction and by the time we got there, the swell was greater and the wind stronger.  We turned right around and headed back the way we came and actually anchored mid-day at Coongull point – the beauty of this anchorage is that we were between shore and a long sandspit that protected us from the swell.  On the way to Coongull, our fishing line on one of the rods “zinged” loudly and we slowed the boat down so that Paul could reel in a fish.  Forty-five minutes later, he finally landed a Big Eye Tuna (very similar to Yellow Fin Tuna), which we feasted on that night.  Delicious!

We had four wonderful days in Platypus Bay with Steve and Bettye.  We walked the beach and looked for seashells.  We went ashore one morning and played Boules (Bocce) with the set that Mary gave Paul for Christmas.

The highlight though of the few days was the successful fishing from the dinghy every afternoon.  Counting the Spotted Mackerel and the Tuna from the two previous days, Paul says that it was his most successful fishing ever.  In two days, he caught three Golden Trevally.  It must have been the good luck of Steve and Bettye, who accompanied Paul in the dinghy.  On the last day at Platypus Bay, just before Paul and Steve and Bettye went fishing, Mary said “Okay, I want another Golden Trevally”.  Two hours later, they came back and said “We didn’t catch one Golden Trevally, we caught two!”.

On Thursday morning, we sailed to Urangan, a distance of only 9 miles, and dropped Steve and Bettye off at a dock so that they could catch a bus ride back to their car at Tin Can Bay Marina.  We said good-bye knowing that we will see them again later this year as we head south to Tasmania.

We continued on across Hervey Bay to Bundaberg and anchored in the late afternoon across from the Port Marina.  Here we will stay for a few days as we have lots of boat projects to complete.