Phil

Calm conditions, motored with outgoing tide. Anchored in 7m water at Burnett Heads anchorage in the mouth of the creek…good holding. Nothing here but protected and thus a good staging point to head north.

Calm. motored up with last of the incoming tide. Good anchorage in front of Bundaberg Social/rowing club just past distillery. Close to the public dinghy dock. Were advised to lock dinghy and not leave unattended on dock after dark due to vandalism. From public dinghy dock it is a few mins walk to cafes and restaurants and an easy 10-15 min walk through town to Coles, Woolworths, Aldi, fresh grocers, Priceline, chemist warehouse, reject shop, target and Kmart…very convenient! Stayed on anchor overnight, good holding and good protection.

Went ashore in the morning and checked out Kingfisher Resort. Headed back to the boat late morning when the wind started to pick up. Immediately heady across to Woody Island. Anchored off the southern end off the island for protection from NW wind. Anchored in 7m of water on sandy bottom - good holding. Strong current and some protection but not overly pleasant. Wouldn’t be comfortable leaving the boat here on anchor unattended and it didn’t look like there was anywhere here to go ashore anyway . Five other boat here sheltering from the wind, like us all moved on first thing the next morning.

Slow trip against the current. Expected current to change at halfway point - Boonlyi Point at high time but there seemed to be at least an hour of overrun which made going slow. Anchored in Kingfisher bay in 9.5m of water in gusty easterly wind. Conditions were a little unpleasant as the current was overpowering the wind. Anchored a way out as is quite shallow with lots of sand banks. Low tide at 3pm and the tide has dropped by around 2.5m. With lots of chain out, if we swung towards shore we would probably be okay but only just. Only 8 knots but quite open here and the wind bullets are a bit annoying.

Went across to the Tin Can Bay Dolphin feeding at 7am. There were four dolphins that came in today, including Ella with her calf which we got to feed. The estuarine Humpback dolphins bring in gifts in exchange for their fish, quite often human rubbish including bottles. Departed the area ahead of high tide travelling with the outgoing tide until be got to the bar. We then headed up the Sandy Strait, lots of water but more than half of what you can see is covering sandbanks. We were supposed to have 6-8knots but at times it got up to 23knots. We were travelling into a NW wind on an incoming tide after passing the bar. Anchored at Gary’s Anchorage in 3.8m of water adjacent to the NP interpretive sign. Well protected and good holding.

Left Anchorage at Rainbow beach at around 12:45pm to time our run to the East Bay Bar at the bottom of Fraser Island. Advice is to cross 2hrs ahead of high tide. As it was going to be a high high tide, we planned to arrive at around 3:30pm To give us enough time to get in and anchor before dark. The bar runs all along the bottom of the island and takes about 40minutes to cross. There are virtual markers that come up on the ais, and lead lights that were bright enough to see during the day. It is very ingenious with the virtual markers marking the entrance and waypoints. Once you have hit either a port of starboard waypoint you will see a solid red lead light. You turn the direction indicated by the virtual marker, as you do this the light starts flashing red and continues to do so until you hit the right course and then it shines white. It is a bit of a crooked course in so there are two different lead lights. When you hit the fourth virtual marker, the first lead light goes back to red and you turn to line up the second one using the same process. There was a lots of swell and breaking waves coming in but the leads were amazing in guiding you in. Upon getting into the channel we headed south to Tin Can bay and after about an hour dropped anchor in 2.7m across from town. There was quite a strong current running but the anchor held well on a muddy bottom.

Trip up from Noosa was wet and windy. SE winds 15-20 knots with 25knots heading around Double Island Point. SE swell of 1.6m. Anchored behind Double Island Point on Rainbow Beach in 4.5m water with a sandy bottom outside the lagoon- good holdin. In heavy rain. Swell was a little uncomfortable overnight but not unbearable. Wind due to swing to north east around lunchtime which will make us very exposed here. Plan to wait here until 1:30pm to time our run to the Wide Bay Bar. High tide is at 7:05pm at ‘Inskip’ and it will be a high high so we plan to get there around 3:30pm to allow us plenty of time to get in and anchor before dark. Recommended crossing is usually 2 hrs ahead of high tide due to a complex series of shallow sandbars outside the entrance but the tide at 3:30pm today will be around the same as it was at high tide at 7am this morning.