Images and Ideas: Cruising from Gladstone to the Gold Coast

We had a bit of a mission; collect the boat from Gladstone and deliver her to the Gold Coast in a couple of weeks. The schedule was accelerated as a result of the accident in the Whitsundays. which led Brian and Meredith to sail from Airlie Beach to Gladstone (instead of Yeppoon to Urangan), and we had expected a trip from Urangan to Moreton Bay.

The stakes were raised further because there were strongish South-East winds for much of the fortnight.

We flew into Gladstone on the Friday Nov 15th and rented a car for 24 hours. This allowed us to do our provisioning and stay out of the hair of Brian and Meredith while they did their clean-up. Another motive was that the trains from the Gold Coast to Brisbane were off on the Saturday for repairs.

But then there was the weather problem.

We decided to hide in the shelter of Facing Island and wait for a chance to make a dash for Rooney Point, on the North West tip of Fraser Island, which would allow us to have sheltered cruising down Platypus Bay and the Great Sandy Strait while the SE winds hopefully blew through and got replaced by something friendly from the North. (We wished!)

After a couple of nights at Facing Island we saw a gap, with slightly less wind and the hint of some backing. So at 7am on Monday November 18th we crept out of the anchorage being very careful not to run aground.

We needed to motor-sail to pass the Outer Rocks at Pancake Creek, but then it became possible to sail, with the hoped-for lift coming through which gave us a lovely fast sail across Hervey Bay to Rooney Point, arriving at about 2 am under a full moon. 120nm in 20 hours.

After a rest, we mosied down Platypus Bay, the sheltered west side of Fraser Island, and spent a night outside Wathumba Creek. A very pretty spot.

Wathumba Creek

Cormorants

Clouds off Wathumba Beach

Then down to Mooan Point on Fraser Island, roughly east of Urangan.

Hot tip: try to put your crab pot so it is under water at low tide. Otherwise the local sea eagle will enjoy the bait!

From Mooan Point down to Garry's Anchorage.

Garry's Anchorage

Weather still pretty unpleasant. Next stop Kauri Creek.

Pretty windy, but we caught a nice mud-crab.

There were signs of cabin-fever developing, so we moved to the Tin Can Bay Inlet for access to a nice foreshore walk.

See the boat ramp up the Teewah Creek

There is a lovely walk along the shore; highly recommended.

The Queensland State Championships for Flying Fifteens was sailing all around us.

Next stop, Pelican Bay to wait for the propitious moment to brave the Wide Bay Bar.

Boats queuing up to cross the Wide Bay Bar

A consensus develops that Tuesday 26th morning at high tide would be a goer.

5am - Lets go!

Inskip Point

George looking brave

See the AIS Virtual Buoys on the chart-plotter

Leaving breakers to starboard as we emerge between the two outermost virtual buoys.

After some motor-sailing to point round Double Island Point, we were able to sail, with the wind giving us a small lift. It was possible to head out a bit around Flinders Reef off Cape Moreton, and Flat Rock, off Point Lookout. As we were a bit further out, we got some help from the East Australian Current (EAC), hence our SOG of 11.7knots which meant that we were not actually flying the kite after dark! 😀

If you want to know where the EAC is at any particular time, the CSIRO provides a link you can add as a layer into Google Earth.