Coffs Harbour to Queensland

Firstly, we are thrilled with the response to our first blog.  We’ve had so many visitors and views, and some encouraging comments!  Thank you!  Secondly, I’ve had some complaints that it was too long, so I’m sorry about that…

This one will be much shorter.

We went from Coffs to Mooloolaba.
The End.

Too short?  OK, I’ll provide just a little more detail (and even a short video).  Let’s see…

We left off the last blog waiting for a weather window to depart Coffs Harbour.  Thunderstorms were forecast every day, so much so that we wondered if it was some sort of BOM caveat up in these parts to forecast a thunderstorm ‘just in case’.  Nope, turned out they were real, and the Gold Coast got hammered the night before we left.  There was another storm offshore from Coffs, too, so looks like we made the right decision. 

Thursday morning, we awoke to see that the rain clouds had cleared with a sunny day promised.  We did our last-minute bits and pieces and cast off our lines.  We found a rolly sea outside, which we hoped would dissipate as we headed out to sea a bit.  It didn’t.  And there was no wind.  When we tried to put the jib out, it just flapped uselessly until we furled it again. There was a lot of motoring and a lot of rolling, which took quite a bit of getting used to.  No one was seasick, thank goodness; we’re a pretty tough bunch when it comes to that.     And so, it was a long and mostly boring passage, but we did have a few dramas including some big seas and the engine conking out after fuel had been switched to the secondary tank, which hadn’t been used in a while, causing Graeme to have to change the primary fuel filter in the middle of the night to get us going again.

Nothing quite like coming up the coast and seeing the towers of Surfer’s Paradise appear on the north-west horizon.  It was dark but the lights never go out on the Gold Coast, so the towers were lit in all their spangled glory, casting fools-gold glimmers across the sea.  Jamie and I watched the sun come up, a long orange glow along the eastern horizon, which gilded the buildings and flashed off the myriad panes of glass.

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 Jamie actually slept pretty well that night, but did get up a few times to check out the starry starry sky and to make sure the sun was going to come up.  He was MUCH more relaxed. 

We crossed the Seaway on Friday morning, so all up about 23 hours at sea.  We anchored in the chaos of good old Bum’s Bay near Sea World, and no sooner had we settled in than good friends Deb and Loz arrived on shore to welcome us to Sunny Queensland, bearing coffee and hot chocolate.

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We spent the next couple of days in and around the Gold Coast, finding the most pleasant anchorage around the northern side of Wavebreak Island (out of the powerboat wake).  They have a 6-knot speed limit, and the rule is to stay 60m away from moored/anchored vessels.  Well, we think the “weekend warriors” have interpreted the rules differently, doing 60-knots only 6 metres away!  And the sights!  Parasailing, jet skis by the dozens, jetboats doing doughnuts to make the occupants squeal, powerboats with the obligatory bikini bodies on the foredecks, fishing boats full of eskies, ferries, water taxis, party boats complete with blaring music and scantily-clad serving staff, and of course, yachts like us, just looking for a spot to cool the heels before moving on. 

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We went to the Runaway Bay shopping centre by dinghy – it has its own dedicated dinghy wharf, so you can just tie up and walk into a massive shopping centre with all the major retailers.  How novel!

Some of you will recall that in 2013 we joined a rally to the Louisiades (island archipelago in Papua New Guinea).  A few of the old crowd were in the area, so we ended up having an impromptu gathering in a lovely apartment overlooking the Broadwater.  What was supposed to be 6 people swelled to a party of 23.  And what a great night it was, catching up with all the rally folks, and with a mountain of food. 

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On the way back to our boat there was a flurry of fish activity beside the dinghy and a garfish launched itself out of the water and landed under our feet.  Who knew catching fish could be so easy?  With Graeme navigating, it was left to me to reach down and grab the slimy flapping thing and throw it back in the water.

From the Gold Coast, we spent a day making our way up the inland waterways (playing the tides) to Moreton Bay, or more specifically, Raby Bay.  Graeme always enjoys the experience of sailing through these quiet areas, with their flat water, laid back atmosphere and pretty surroundings.  We trolled a line for a while and with our awesome LaserPro fishing lure caught 4 lovely clumps of weed before giving up.

In Raby Bay (Cleveland) we caught up with more friends (Colin and Noelene), and Deb and Loz made their way up so that Loz could run a First Aid refresher course for us on the boat (another requirement of the rally).   I love the Cleveland waterfront.  Lots of great restaurants, bars and coffee shops.  A great place to catch up with people.  We spent one night out in the very shallow bay, a long way from the shore, and the second night anchored in the canal much closer to civilisation.

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Next day, with Graeme feeling the pinch of not being far enough north yet, and weather windows closing, it was off across Moreton Bay in sloppy seas to Tangalooma, the main resort on the western side of Moreton Island.  Years ago, they scuttled a bunch of old barges to form a harbour north of resort, but it didn’t really work.  The rusting steel hulks, whilst providing great photography, fishing and snorkelling opportunities, were considered dangerous, and the signs on them apparently didn’t deter people from climbing on them, so a few years back they laid charges and blew them to bits. Now the harbour really doesn’t work; the swell comes in and makes you rock and roll all night.   We found a relatively calm spot to anchor south of the resort and spent an uneventful night there, although when the tide came in there was plenty of rocking and rolling to be had.  It wouldn’t be Tangalooma without a bit of that!

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Next morning, we tried to get away early, with the seas and winds forecast to increase during the day.  After weighing anchor, Graeme was on the wheel and called out, ‘Can you put the instruments on?’, I replied that they WERE on, but none of the displays were working on the steering hub/pedestal.  The autopilot wasn’t working, and we had no displays for depth or wind.  So I took the helm and navigated out past the shoal towards the shipping channel, whilst Grae tried to work out what was going on.  After a while, with lots of things unscrewed, opened, tested and laying in disarray, he still hadn’t solved the problem of power to the autopilot, so we returned to our spot from the night before and re-anchored.  A short time later, Graeme had pulled apart the panel on the pedestal and discovered a slightly loose plug, which must have jiggled it’s away out of the socket due to some vibration caused by the prop. (We think we might have a barnacle or something causing the prop to be unbalanced at high speeds).  Graeme, Electronics Detective Extraordinaire, solves the mystery!

Anchors aweigh!  A rolly, messy, annoying day across Moreton Bay and up to Mooloolaba, with plenty of squalls and some bucketing rain to keep it interesting.  We set a cracking pace, but unfortunately, we can’t give the sails any credit for that!

Now we’re tucked up in Mooloolaba Marina.  Jamie was thrilled to be reacquainted with the Dexter washers and dryers (exactly as he remembered) and we spent a bit of time doing washing yesterday.  Also, a walk into town and back along the boardwalk.  Lovely!

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Now, we’re just waiting for an opportunity to cross the notorious Wide Bay Bar.  Although the universe is conspiring against us again, and it looks like we may have to go AROUND Fraser Island this time…