GOING NORTH - UP THE QUEENSLAND EAST COAST

May 20-28, 2014

We left our berth at East Coast Marina in Manly, AU at 1000 hrs on Tuesday May 20th for Abell Point Marina located at Airlie Beach - 650 nm North.  The wind was light from the SE at less that 10 kts but we were able to sail slowly out of Moreton Bay.  By 1330 hrs the wind has petered out so we had to start motoring.  The Ship channel leading into Brisbane is over 30 nm and winds its way around many shoals.  The flood and ebb tides run quite strongly - 3-4 kts in places.  It's important to use them to advantage.  The flood sets south and the ebb goes north.  Since we're going North, we used the ebb to advantage.

Our first destination was The Great Sandy Strait with an entrance at Wide Bay Bar.  It's about 80 nm up the Coral Coast and offers a calm-water passage of Fraser Island rather than the sea passage outside.  Wide Bay Bar (28-48.5' S x 153-07.7' E) is called the "Mad Mile" because it has sand shoals on both sides of the entrance channel that has waves constantly breaking over them.  There is a direction light and leads but a flood tide should be used to cut down on  the turbulence.  It's quite disconcerting to be navigating through the entrance with big waves crashing all around.  The way we navigate these restricted channels is that Phyllis is at the helm and I am using a navigational charting program, charts and eyeball to confirm that we are in the channel.  I give the helm orders to Phyllis:  She is becoming a very good helmswoman.  We have added a new navigational program on our Ipad so that she can see everything unfolding at the helm and I have the main laptop with another navigational program running below.  This seems to work out fine as we have wiggled through many narrow places.

Once inside the Great Sandy Strait, there are many places to anchor in perfectly calm and protected conditions.  We chose "Gray's Anchorage"  (25-37.9' S x 152-58.3' E) as out first night's stop.  In order to exit the Great Sandy Strait into Hervey Bay in the North, a flood tide has to be used that is a little more than the draft of the boat.  Our draft is 6' so we look for at least 7' of underwater clearance.  The flood tide for the day was at 1630 hrs with 8.5 ft over Boonlye Pt - the shallowest part of the strait.  We departed Gary's Anchorage at 1345 and slowly motored the 8 miles to Boonlye point.  In Australia, many of the river bars have to be negotiated using tides as there just issn't enough water to get over them.  Once over the bar there is enough water to accommodate the draft. There are some river bars that dry out at Spring Tides so timing the Tides is crucial to getting over them.

Anyway, after crossing over Boonlye Pt and Sheridan Flats, we found a snug anchorage at White Sand Cliffs (25-31.7' S x 152-57.9' E).  Most of these anchorages are quite scenic and offer the possibility to explore creeks and places ashore.  Fraser's Island is the largest sandy island in the world but is heavily forested.  It is a World Heritage Site and very beautiful along the western shore.  One could spend weeks exploring all that is offered by the National Park Service.  Our goal was to continue north so we weighed anchor the following morning and headed for Bundaberg (24-45.4' S x 152-29.0' E) which is about 30 nm north of the Fairway Buoy at the northern entrance of the Great Sandy Strait.  We had motored quite a bit so I wanted to top up on fuel and water.  Bundaberg is a major port on the Coral Coast and is famous for its rum.  It is an area where sugar cane is king so vessels from other parts of the South Pacific call to load sugar and rum.  Disgracefully, in the not too distant past, it used "blackbirding" and slavery to work the cane fields.  South Pacific Islanders were enticed and kidnapped from their villages and taken to the Queesland Coast to perform those tasks which enriched their white masters.  The Queenslanders were a ruthless lot and looked upon the aborigines and darker skinned peoples as less than human.  The "white only" Australian policy persisted right up into the 1970's.  Looking at the racial makeup of Australia today, it hard to believe how quickly that was reversed once the doors were opened to SE Asian and Pacific Island immigration.

Bundaberg was a quick stop.  We fueled and took on water and left within an hour.  Our next destination was Pancake Creek (24-00.6' S x 151-44.2' E) about 60 nm North of Bundaberg.  We arrived on Monday May 26th and dropped anchor at 1230 hrs in a very lovely creek that is sheltered from the prevailing E-SE winds.  I am composing this as we sit here on anchor.  We will sail today for either Hummocky Is (23-24.0' S x 151-09.4' E) or Great Keppel Island (23-09.8' S x 150-57.1' E).  The islands are part of the Capricorn Group and we are now beginning to enter the Great Barrier Reef System which continues another 800 nm up the coast to Thursday Is.  Hummocky is about 48 nm from us and Great Keppel Reef some 67 nm.  We will make another overnight sail and choose one or the other.  After this, most of the sailing will be done during the day and anchoring at night.  Our goal is to be at Abell Point Marina at Airlie Beach (20-15.8' S x 148-42.7' E) by June 10th.  We have plenty of time to visit many of the islands in the Great Barrier Reef before getting there.  Will update as time and internet availability allow.