Today marks four weeks underway and it has been a week since we last posted on this blog. The week has been rather busy, but now that we have arrived in Mooloolaba, we are catching up with everything – emails, laundry, shopping etc.
Last Monday was spent sorting out admin, re-vittling and motoring back to Bum’s Bay near the Gold Coast seaway. After doing a long walk along the spit, we motored up the Broadwater to pick up a mooring at Paradise Point, conveniently close to Danie and Esme Maritz’s house.
We haven’t seen them for quite a while, so their visit for sundowners on board, turned into dinner and a very late night. This was repeated the following night at their place to return the compliment. Having recovered, we decided to take the route North, inside South and North Stradbroke Islands to Moreton Bay.
There are a number of channels between a maze of islands and mangrove forests, so we took the main channel which we thought could accommodate Esprit’s 2.20m draft. Early in the piece we struck the sand bank shoals off Woogoompah island and had to spend an hour waiting for the tide to reach it’s maximum level, to get through.
Watching the shoals for an hour!
The channels, although well marked, silt up and is not for the faint hearted deep draft boat sailor. We eventually entered Moreton Bay in the South and motored in a strong Northerly into the lee of Peel Island where we put down the anchor at 4pm. This was a welcome stop followed by a few calming whisky’s.
The beach on Peel Island
The following morning dawned beautifully with a light wind and we had a long walk on the southern shores of the island. We were amazed by the thousands of blue crabs scurrying along the low water mark as we walked past.
Annie to the left, crabs to the right
Moreton Bay is a huge stretch of water with many shoals and sandbanks – not an easy place to sail. We nevertheless hoisted the sails and gingerly worked our way around the channel markers to sail North to Moreton Island. We were tempted to sail up the Brisbane river to the city and the South Bank, but having visited Brisbane many times, decided we would rather see the Tangalooma wrecks off Moreton Island. We anchored behind the wrecks at 3pm.
Tangalooma wrecks
The 300m line of wrecks of 15 harbour work vessels were dumped between 1964-1984 to form an emergency harbour on that side of the bay. Today it is a very popular dive site. “Tight Lines” Schady thought it would be a good spot for fishing, so I rowed the dinghy around the wrecks while she tried to fish. Against the tide and wind, the going was slow.
Dirk’s ” Slow mo fishing charters”
There was a beautiful sunset whilst we BBQ’d some lamb chops and vegies on the Baby Q, washed down with Cab Sav.
Tangalooma sunset
Saturday dawned clear and sunny with zero wind, so the 54 hp Yanmar was started, for a 6 hour journey, following the shipping channels out of Moreton Bay, past Caloundra to Mooloolaba. On the way, we passed the Glasshouse mountains inland and arrived in Mooloolaba at 2:30pm to anchor.
Glasshouse mountains
Today we will explore Mooloolaba, which is a pretty coastal centre and visit the laundromat, supermarket and bottle shop. During the four weeks of our trip we have tied up in marina’s for four nights at a cost of $40/night.
Well, the storm lasted for well on 30 hours – torrential rain and wild winds. After midnight last night, the wind abated and we woke up to a sunny day this morning – the wind have shifted 180 degrees to the West. The water in the marina is a muddy brown from the run off upstream.
Today
The superyacht berths offer exclusivity, which Esprit could get used to!
I say!
Having filled up the diesel tank on Friday and being holed up all day yesterday, I had the opportunity to look at Esprit’s fuel consumption.
We have sailed and motored about 1,000km in the last 3 weeks and used 129.15l of diesel @ $1.33/l at SYC = $171.77. The 129.15l was consumed over 47.2 hours of motoring at about 2,000 rpm. This means the 54 hp Yanmar engine consumes 2.73l/h, costing us $3.63/h. We do about 6-7 knots/h so the cost per nautical mile is about 60c/nm. Eat your hearts out stinkboats!
I also pulled out the angle grinder this morning to cut the spinnaker pole down from 5.5m to 4.9m to clear the forestay. Drilled out the pop rivets and managed to line up the holes for the pole fitting, using s/s self tappers. Why didn’t you lend me your spare pop rivet gun Malcolm?
Our last post from Byron Bay showed a photo of huge Cumulus clouds rolling in from the East. This was a precursor to an East Coast low developing right here.
Clouds rolling in over Byron Bay
When the wind turned East, we realised that it was time to get to Tweed Heads or the Gold Coast Seaway to get to shelter. We sailed through a number of squalls on the way.
On with the wet weather gear.
Tweed Heads bar was a mess of breaking waves, so we pushed on to the Gold Coast, occasionally getting a view of the high rise buildings, between squalls.
Surfers Paradise skyline
After passing some of Australia’s tallest apartment buildings we motored into the manmade Gold Coast Seaway to put down an anchor in Bum’s Bay for Thursday night.
Gold Coast living
On Friday our computers delivered the following alert:
NSW Severe Weather Warning: Damaging Winds & Heavy Rain
Source: Bureau of Meteorology
for DAMAGING WINDS, HEAVY RAINFALL, ABNORMALLY HIGH TIDES and DAMAGING SURF
For people in the Northern Rivers, Mid North Coast, Hunter, Metropolitan, Illawarra, South Coast, Central Tablelands, Northern Tablelands and parts of the Southern Tablelands and North West Slopes and Plains Forecast Districts.
Issued at 12:10 pm Friday, 3 June 2016.
SEVERE WEATHER FOR EASTERN NEW SOUTH WALES
An east coast low is forecast to develop off the southern Queensland or northern New South Wales coast late Saturday, and then expected to move southward on Sunday.
DAMAGING WINDS from the NORTHEAST, averaging 60 to 65 km/h with peak gusts in excess of 90 km/h are possible from Saturday afternoon through to Sunday along much of the coast.
Winds are expected to ease and turn northwesterly in the far north early Sunday.
HEAVY RAIN which may lead to FLASH FLOODING is possible in the north Saturday afternoon and over the remainder late Saturday or early Sunday.
Weekend rainfall totals of 80 to 150 mm are likely for much of the area with localised falls between 200 to 300 mm.
ABNORMALLY HIGH TIDES which may cause sea water flooding of low lying areas are possible.
Annie made a few calls to the various marinas close to us and secured a berth at the Southport Yacht Club for two nights. Esprit looked somewhat lost in the superyacht berth allocated to her, but we made sure we she was well tied up. By 5 pm the first wind and rains hit us, just as Marty and Sue who we had invited to dinner, arrived in their dinghy. They managed to get a berth at Mariners Cove Marina next to us.
The rain and the wind was mind boggling, but we had a jolly dinner until they found a short lull in the rain at about 10 pm to motor back to their boat. At about 11 pm we became aware of a persistent cannon like sound near us. On the next marina arm was a yacht busy losing it’s jib as the self furler was unwinding and the wind flogging the sail to pieces. I was looking for a break in the sheets of rain to try and rewind the furler for the absent owner, but this was not to be. Lesson for all yachties: wind your jib sheets at least 5 times around the furled sail in severe winds.
This morning dawned with the sail in shreds and the wind still howling. In the meantime, a bleak Southport is in our stern view. The wind is expected to peak at about 4pm before a Westerly will kick in, bringing sunshine by Monday. A day for catching up with emails and reading, enjoying great coffee from our little Aldi coffee maker!
Time moves on! Since the Clarence river, we have had an excellent sail to Ballina where we have spent 3 nights. Karen visited us on Sunday evening on the boat on her way back from Brisbane where she attended a course.
Kazza
Mike Wiley also joined us for a drink after racing his skiff on the river. Karen treated us to dinner at the local RSL down the road. Monday was a busy day: Our printer’s wifi connection played up, so I walked 5km there and back to Big W to buy a USB printer cable. Annie did 3 loads of washing at the local laundromat. On Tuesday, Annie had her hair done (a girl has to keep up appearances!) while I did a valet on the inside of the boat, from ceilings to floors. We stocked up with provisions at Woolie’s. Karen picked us up late afternoon for a scenic drive to Lismore, stopping enroute at the Bangalow bowlo for a calming drink after her Fittipaldi driving style.
Karen, Annie and 3 of her mates.
Dinner was prepared by her and the 6 guys she shares a beautiful 1895 hospital house with. A lively discussion over much wine about their various medical disciplines followed before she dropped us off at the boat.
At 6:30 today we had to cross the bar at high tide before hoisting the sails at 7:00 for a brisk sail to Byron Bay to the North. We passed Cape Byron, the most easterly tip of Australia at around 11:00 before dropping anchor off the main beach. The clouds rolled in and we have just had a shower.
