From the Gold Coast to Mooloolaba and beyond…

The inland waterway between the Gold Coast and Moreton Bay has a rather capricious character.

To navigate these waters in a monohull with a 2.2 metre draft you have to play the tides and keep close watch on the depths and the channel markers.

After leaving the tourist-busy Spit you start navigating through the reclaimed luxury waterfront islands.  These islands are shaped, from above, like curved mini-labyrinths, created to allow everyone absolute waterfront.  One mega-mansion we passed, on the rather pretentiously named Sovereign Island, was built across four large blocks.  Sovereign Island is also purportedly the location of several lavish homes belonging to Clive Palmer.

As you head further north, away from the mega-mansions with their jetties and luxury toys, the waterways begin to narrow and twist, and quickly revert to mangrove swamp on either side.  Occasionally you’ll see a white plume against the blue sky from a factory in the distance, or the roof of a warehouse, but the skyline is mostly featureless.  The waterways are a minefield of hidden sandbanks so you have to remain alert.

 

Mary Claire followed close behind us.  They draw the same as us so figured if we could get through, they’d be alright too.

The further away you get from the Gold Coast, the more you become removed from the glitz and glamour.  Beyond Jacobs Well, waterside businesses have hand painted signs and cluttered yards.  ‘Mooring minders’ list at alarming angles.  It feels like a place old boats come to die.

Along with the treacherous shallow areas, you must also pass under powerlines at one point. Tom was concerned he might have to wait until the tide dropped a little before attempting to pass under the lines.  Mary Claire has a mast height of 21m.  The official clearance distance of the lines, allowing for arc distance and tide and everything else, is 20m.  Not much room for error.

We approached the lines first, having a mast height a few metres less than Mary Claire.  We soon realised we could have almost doubled the height of our mast and still had safe distance.  Mary Claire also passed under with oodles of clearance.  Big sigh of relief from Tom and Patricia, I’m sure!  We were glad we didn’t have to wait for the tide to start dropping before attempting the pass, as with it still rising, we had some leeway to get off again if we had run aground.

Beyond the powerlines the waterway opens wider with deep areas but there’s still plenty of shallow sections to avoid.

Pelicans line the sandbanks, beady-eyed sentinels witness to our passing.  Ferries ply the waterways between the sparsely populated islands, and lone fishermen cast lines from their tinnies.  It’s a slower pace up here; placid and serene.

Once through the waterway, we anchored off Peel Island in Horseshoe Bay.  Peel is roughly shaped like a young girl in a long dress that kicks out at the back as she walks.  The gentle fall and curve of the dress from neck to floor forms the bay.  (Not really very horseshoe shaped, if you ask me.) The island is low, and the bay has a long narrow beach.  It’s part of a national park, and there are some basic facilities and a camping area, but you can’t have a camp fire.  Once comfortably anchored, we went for a walk on the beach and investigated the campsite.  Interesting how there’s always evidence of a campfire right next to the ‘no campfire’ signs. Afterwards, we had a pleasant Happy Hour aboard Mary Claire.

On Saturday we weighed anchor and headed to Raby Bay Marina, tucked up in the canals of Raby Bay.  The marina is in a great spot, near a vibrant promenade area with bars and restaurants, a nice park and very close to shops and all amenities.  We were surprised to discover the marina had no laundry, (and you can imagine Jamie’s consternation!) but then it wasn’t really set up for cruising people.  I think most of the berths are owned and used by locals, with few casual berths.  We were right on time for the monthly twilight markets too.  Raby Bay was a great place to catch up with several old friends over some great meals.  It was fabulous to catch up with Colin and Noelene, who moved up from Canberra some years ago and live right on the canals. Col is a keen sailor and is crossing Wide Bay Bar a day before us, taking his boat up to the playground of Harvey Bay for a while, so there’s a chance we may catch up with them again.

We finally tore ourselves away from Raby Bay.  It’s very easy to become settled in a marina, with everything you need right there (even a friend who’ll let you use their washing machine!).  We planned to go over to Moreton Island but the wind was up a little and on the nose, so we found ourselves at Peel Island again for the night.

It pretty much took us the whole day to sail up to Tangalooma on the western side of Moreton Island.  Moreton Island is mostly national park, and is a playground for four-wheel-drivers, being like a mini Fraser Island with long sandy beaches to drive on, many places to camp and some dramatic sand hills.  It’s close to Brisbane and the Gold Coast so easy to access.  You can get your car there by ferry, or you can sail, like us.  On the western side of the island at Tangalooma is a pretty extensive resort as well as some private housing.

There’s the remains of an artificial harbour at Tangalooma, north of the resort.   Some years ago, a bunch of old vessels were scuttled in a line to create an artificial harbour.  When we last anchored here, ten years ago, the vessels were still in pretty good condition, and we’ve got a great photo of the sun setting behind the bucket conveyor of an old dredge.  The harbour was never considered effective.  Time and tide have not been kind to the old steel vessels, and they’re fast rusting away.  The sunset photos may not be as dramatic this time, but we certainly enjoyed watching the day end over the rusting hulks; warm breeze, drinks in hand, enjoying the rewards of another successful day sailing.

Next morning we were away by 8am, heading for Mooloolaba.  Shipping channels lead to and from Brisbane Harbour and they were very busy that day, with various cargo carriers, bulk carriers, car carriers and dredges manoeuvring through the narrow channel, so we certainly tried to stay out of their way.  We were treated to the sight of the US Aircraft Carrier Reagan and an impressive US Destroyer carrying Osprey aircraft (amazing aircraft, worth a Google if you’re interested in that sort of thing) heading out after the Talisman Sabre exercises.

We had a quick chat to the captain of one of the almost-kilometre-long container ships, to make sure he wasn’t going to get in our way as he passed us and the US Destroyer in the narrowest part of the Spitfire Channel.  Ho ho.  But seriously, it’s nice to know there are people keeping a look out of those massive vessels, and we are all just a radio call away.

Mooloolaba!  With plans to make it a Big Jamie Day, we took a berth in the Mooloolaba Marina and went to bed pretty early.  We had a HUGE day at Steve Irwin’s legacy, Australia Zoo.  We were extremely impressed when we went to the zoo ten years ago and not a lot has changed.  The staff are all polite and knowledgeable, many of them roaming the pathways with an animal in hand.  Jamie, who acts like he’s going to get electrocuted if he attempts to pat a cat or dog, ASKED to pat a blue tongue lizard, and a snake!!!  He also remembered seeing the komodo dragons last time, and wanted to see them again.  So maybe he has a thing for reptiles.  He most certainly did not get that from either of his parents.

We were disappointed not to see any elephants this time.  Jamie was lucky enough to hand-feed one last time.  Not sure what happened with them…  Their enclosure is used for Segway tours these days.  We spent the day covering every exhibit in the zoo, and enjoying the many shows.  Always love the bird and croc demonstration in the big Crocoseum. One of the newer exhibits is Bindi’s Island, where you can do a walk-through with the lemurs.   That was a bit of a highlight for me, although Jamie put them in the ‘scary domestic pet’ category and didn’t want a bar of them.  Graeme particularly enjoyed the talk on the giant Aldabran tortortoises, and also enjoyed our time patting and feeding the kangaroos.   The tigers are also very impressive, the young cubs with paws the size of dinnerplates, who, when stretched full length are taller than their handler.  Imagine being that big and being able to run up a post holding on only with your nails.  Jamie has just told me he liked seeing the giraffes, the otters, the kangaroos, and patting the koala and snake.  All in all, a great day.  We covered 15km on foot and came back to the boat exhausted.

The alarm went off today at 0600. Yep, even on holidays we have to get up early sometimes.  And the reason we leapt out of bed this morning? – the good ‘ol Wide Bay Bar.  It is around 55 nautical miles from Mooloolaba to the Wide Bay Bar (bottom of Fraser Island).  We need to arrive at the bar on the latter part of a rising tide, so around 1630.  Giving ourselves an average speed of 5.5 knots (allowing for very light winds and the need to motor at times) we estimate it will take 10 hours to get to the first way-point of the bar.  That means departing Mooloolaba at 0630, with a little time up our sleeves.  So, there’s method to our madness.

It is a lovely day on what is now a glassy sea.  Graeme managed to catch a photo of one of the whales.  Sorry, its blurry, but normally we get the camera out after all the action, so we’re pretty pleased we managed to get this at all.

The Wide Bay Bar is the most notorious bar on the entire east coast of Australia.

And we’re crossing it this afternoon.

See you on the other side.