LORELEI'S SAILING ADVENTURES
At the end of Part 5 we had an Intense Storm Cell that hit North West Island and left us with no option but to return from the reef to Great Keppel Island
Thursday 8th Feb 2012 we returned to Great Keppel arriving at 9am and anchored at Svenson’s Beach were we slept, cleaned up and relaxed for most of the day.
On Friday we put the kayaks in and explored the area and in particular a creek tucked into the corner of the beach that went along way into the island. We kayaked up and down many of the smaller tributaries and found a small abandoned homestead from the Leek family dating back to the 1930’s.
Well known solo cruising sailor Jill Knight’s immaculate 80 year old restored boat “Cooee” was anchored in the creek.
Saturday morning we tidied the boat ready to depart, said goodbye to Heartbeat and sailed south to Cape Capricorn
Photo courstesy of “Cruising the Curtis Coast
Sunday we awoke to a beau t day and decide to put the RIB in to explore Yellow patch which is a creek only a short boat ride from Cape Cap.
We took our fly rods, morning tea and newly mended crab pots in with us.
Yum! Fresh Muddies for Dinner!!!
Monday we had light winds still so we took the opportunity to take the RIB around the outside of the cape and fish around the rocky headland. We used the new lures Pau l’s brother Rod sent up to him for his birthday.
(They work unreal Roddy – great action with the single hooks…!!!)
As we went around the headland we discovered a fantastic little bay which is exposed to the SE and is probably seldom visited. We had a great fossick on the beach and a swim.
Tuesday turned out to be a slow relaxing day. Pau l fell this morning when putting the tender in and hurt his knee. At first he couldn’t put weight on it but it seemed OK that afternoon, just a little stiff and sore. He was spewing for a while becau se the wind is due in tonight promising 3 days of kiteboarding and he has already sussed out his 3 preferred locations – one being the waves on the bar at the river mouth which has a lot of current and is a bit crocy making Lisa not overly happy about this spot. Lisa made some yummy Turkish Bread for lunch.
Nice Loaves…..
Wednesday – Pau l did kite the mouth to the creek on the incoming tide. The wind was up, the water crystal clear and it was awesome! Lisa stood on the edge of the sandbar and got some fun photos.
That arvo we took the RIB into the little beach at the base of Cape Cap
The views from the lookouts on the way up and from the top were stunning.
The now au tomated and deserted lighthouse.
Ocean one side – Yellow Patch the other…
Thursday. More kiteboarding in the morning. Only this time on a lower tide with bigger swell and decent waves on the bar. Pau l changed to his directional Surfboard and had a great session with perfect cross-shore winds. Lisa took herself off up the beach and found a great little inlet loaded with nipper holes and pumped stacks of nippers for the afternoon fishing session.
That arvo we fished from a sand bank into a small channel for whiting. It was more like fish harvesting with nearly a fish each cast. We only kept the bigger ones and ended up with 18 nice whiting.
Heartbeat arrived into the anchorage at 8pm that night. The girls had left the boat at Yeppon and family friend Jimmy had come onboard for the trip to Brisbane
Saturday morning we walked over the sandhills to the surf beach. Lisa had found a pile of surf club rescue and nipper boards in the corner under a tree so we all grabbed one each and went out for a surf. It was a lot of fun for a few hours. Just proves that there is surf further north than 1770….
That arvo we loaded the sandboards into the RIB and headed around to Yellow Patch to ride the big sand dune. It looked awesome and Hunter was very excited.
We waxed up the boards and took one step onto the sand to climb it and discovered it was hot – damn hot!!! It was steep and super soft like powder and its orange colour made it so hot that even with shoes on it seeped in thru the holes and burnt your feet. Climbing more than 3 steps was impossible so we had to abort. Hunter was not happy!!! Oh well…
Sunday morning we got up at 5am to leave but it was still too windy and rough so we postponed it until the afternoon. Either way we had to go as the E-NE winds were forecast which makes Cape Capricorn
We departed at 2pm that arvo for Lady Musgrave Lagoon and found the going pretty tough. The wind was on the nose, the seas short and sharp and overall pretty uncomfortable. We reefed the sails and tacked down to Gladstone
At 2am we got a scare when we were sailing across the front of about 15 anchored bulk carriers when the one in front of us honked his horn, lifted his anchor and started moving forward straight for us. We were only ½ a mile away and it was collision course. Fortunately he was going into port and slowly turned within a ¼ of a mile from us and headed towards land. It was still too close for that time of night.
We must have done a dozen sail changes and as many tacks that night and Lisa only managed 1.5 hours sleep from 4am to 5:30am.
Just on daybreak the wind died and we motored the rest of the way entering the channel into the lagoon mid morning.
Lady Musgrave from outside the lagoon
Entering the channel
Who put this bommie right in the middle of the channel…??
The view from our anchorage
The water looked blue on the way in and after lunch we loaded the RIB up with the guns and went outside the reef around to the NW side for a spear.
We have been here many times before but never in Summer and we were amazed just how much life there was and how good the viz was. It seemed to be endless and we saw stacks of fish life and swam with Turtles, loads of Big Manta Rays and Dolphins. Lisa was freediving down right thru the middle of the Dolphin pods and they seemed to love the interaction. With the Mantas peak season being in June for this area, we didn’t think we would see any at all so that was a big bonus.
Spearing was great! Pau l speared a Spanish Mackerel and we got some nice Coral Trout. Just before sunset Pau l was diving on some deeper bommies chasing some large but elusive Job Fish when a very large shark turned up. It was not aggressive but beau tiful with glossy skin and well over 3.5m long with a long pointy nose. It wasn’t one of the more common sharks we usually see and after scouring through the shark books we still can’t positively identify it.
That evening after a yummy feed of fresh Spanish we flaked into bed at 8pm – happy but completely stuffed.
Tuesday and it was up again to perfect conditions for more spearing.
For the morning session Pau l got another Spanish and we both went on a trout hunting mission to fill the freezer for the trip south.
For the arvo session we anchored up and burleyed the fish frames from the last two days in the deeper water hoping to lure in some larger pelagics like big Spanish, Wahoo, Tuna and Job Fish. Unfortunately after 2 hours floating down the burley trail, all we got was sharks – and lots of them…
The weather report that night was all over the place with variable winds, a strong southerly due soon and lots of thunder storm activity. So the decision was made to go south to the protection of Fraser Island
Wednesday 7am. No bloody wind. Typical!!! So we take off anyway and motor 5nm east out to the Stuart Shoals to do some trolling before heading south. We dropped a very large Spanish Mackerel that by the look of the teeth marks in the new lure was well over 20kg. Bugger!!!
We took off south to make use of the current assistance for the next 6 hours. Going past Lady Elliot Island
A waterspout heading towards Lady Elliot Island
At 3pm the forecast had changed and late that arvo it was going SE15-20 knots and 20-25 by late evening. That was not forecasted until tomorrow evening! Now it was a race to get in before we got smashed by the southerly. It was like this surreal video game on our chart plotter – only we were in it! We had 45nm to head SE to get to the safety of Platypus Bay on the inside of Fraser Island
With 15 miles to go we passed Breaksea Spit and that gave us some protection from the building swell. By 10pm we had rounded Rooney Point and by midnight we were anchored up at Wathumba Creek at the northern end of the bay. The wind didn’t get over about 18 knots so we felt pretty lucky.
Thursday - Ahhh welcome back to SE QLD and its lovely volatile weather!
We woke at 11am to overcast skies and windy conditions from the due south. The forecast was for SE-E winds and we sat hoping it would turn soon as the anchorage was pretty awful with the south swell and wind.
The 3pm weather forecast was a doozey. S-SE winds - not SE-E winds and also a triple header of severe thunderstorm warning, flood warning (over 200mm of rain) and a strong wind warning. Great!! Additionally the Seabreeze observations had Double Island Point at the southern end of the Island at 38 knots average and gusts to 44 knots all from the SSE. Time to leave – again! We sailed 10nm south with a storm jib up doing 6.5 knots and anchored under the White Cliffs at the southern end of the bay. It was a whole new world here with a calm and dead flat bay with the Cliffs giving us a load of protection. Well at least for now anyway…who knows what tomorrow will bring…
Heartbeat sailing down Platypus Bay
Friday. By 11am it still had not rained much and the skies looked pretty clear so went to the beach for a walk and to explore the small creek at the end of the beach. The creek was fresh water with a dark orange colour from the tea trees lining the waters edge. We all had to have a swim in the cool, soft tannin water. Jimmy found a passionfruit vine that was full of ripe passionfruit's. Well that was until we got to it...
When walking along the beach we saw a couple off the yacht anchored beside Lorelei. It was Mark and Meg who are cruising on their yacht “Grace”.
As it turns out Mark who is also known as “Hedgie” is an ex pro wave sailboarder from Sydney and spent many years living in Hawaii au l actually used to ride Hedgie’s boards when he was into competitive sailboarding in his early 20’s so it was great for them to catch up. They are both the same age and now mad into kiteboarding so hopefully they can both have a kite soon.
We had them over for drinks that arvo. It’s refreshing to hang out with some other cruising yachties our own age who do the same activities we do.
Saturday morning Heartbeat left to explore the Sandy Straights while Lorelei and Grace sailed 12nm down to Moon Point for a change of scenery and to be closer to the straights for when we both decide to head south thru it.
We anchored in front of a great little creek system that was lined with loads of old fallen trees. We explored it with our kayaks and we pumped some nippers and fished it for the afternoon.
Today was Meg’s birthday so Lisa cooked us all a yummy feast of Coral Trout and a Peach Crumble/Birthday Cake for dessert. It was a fun night !!
Sunday – its raining and pretty yuck outside. Grace left early to head down to Mackenzie’s Jetty but we stayed put. Pau l braved the conditions, put his kayak in on high tide and explored the small creeks. He threw some lures around the mangroves and cau ght 2 fish.
Monday – Pau l’s second most dreaded day of the trip!
The first one was in October negotiating the Great Sandy au l hates it as it is very shallow. Considering the seaward side of Fraser Island
With Lisa at the helm we managed to get through just fine with the shallowest being only 0.8m depth under the keel.
The Mary River
Just as we were entering the straights, Grace was just leaving their anchorage so we went through together.
On Tuesday we loaded up the big RIB and went 5nm from our anchorage near Inskip Point up to Tin Can Bay
We got there early to watch the daily dolphin feeding which begins at 7am.
After the feeding as we were moving the tender to the wharf we bumped into a cruising friend we have not seen for ages, Peter from SV Head Office. We met Peter and Doris when we started cruising in 2001 as we both had the same catamaran. Like us, they traded up to a larger monohull a few years ago and have a lovely cruising ketch.
Well that was it! Peter was very hospitable and loaded us into his car, showed us around his quaint little town, took us food shopping, got fuel and invited us back to lunch at their house to catch up with Doris too. It turned out to be an unexpected super fun day and we had a blast catching up with them and hearing their amazing stories from their cruise to The Kimberlies.
Wednesday we spoke to Grace early and decided to cross the notorious Wide Bay Bar together for safety. The bar had been closed for many days due to bad weather and it only became suitable for passage yesterday. Heartbeat went over it yesterday and said it was pretty uncomfortable and got hit with a few set waves right at the end of the 4nm long bar.
It was still pretty rough and we also hit the waves at the end but we got over it just fine. The run south was marginal with light E-NE winds and a 2m+ E swell. We put the spinnaker up but struggled keeping it filled as the swell kept rolling the boat from side to side and knocking the wind out of it. By 4pm the wind had died and we were forced to motor sail all the way back to Moreton Bay
We crossed the NE channel entrance at midnight and with now NW winds, we had no option but to continued south down the bay to Peel Island
At 1pm we got up and joined Danny and Carol on the beach for a swim, in water Frisbee and drinks. We have known Danny since our early cruising days back in 2001 when we cruised together in FNQ.
They only started full time cruising last week so it was awesome to catch up with them as we will be travelling together to New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Solomons in only 8 weeks time.
Friday morning we moved anchorage from Peel Island over to Myora on North Stradbroke Island to beat the weekend rush that was sure to come – along with the Southerly winds that arvo.
Sentinel coming into Myora
We then loaded all 4 of us into our RIB and took off out thru the Rainbow Channel and South Passage Bar to a wreck called the Rufus King.
We had a great spearfishing session there and got 4 Mangrove Jack’s between the 2 of us. The biggest went 3.5kg. This was Danny’s first time spearing with his new gear and he had a blast too.
The stern section of the Rufus King when she went aground.
That night we had thai style baked Jack for dinner, a few drinks and an awesome sunset.
Saturday morning was overcast and grey (of course it’s the weekend…) but that didn’t stop the 4 of us putting the kayaks in paddling around the top of North Stradbroke Island
On one of the wrecks we found a Snowflake Moray Eel which was pretty cool.
Sunday – still overcast and yuk!! Pau l got up early and did a big paddle across the Rous Channel and along the Rainbow Channel which took a few hours.
For most of the day we did research and planned a proposed route around New Caledonia. We are starting to get very excited!!
At 4pm we linked up with Danny and Carol and went for another paddle on the incoming tide. First we went up to the Myora freshwater springs for a swim.
In one of the fresh water swimming holes we found a stack of fresh water crayfish with some long claws.
We then paddled up the channel and entered the complex maze of mangroves. We saw Turtles, Fish and loads of Stingrays.
On dusk we turned to paddle back and rather than follow the mangroves around in an arc back to the boats we straight lined it back in the deeper water. About half way back we were all paddling close together when something came up and grabbed the end of Pau l’s paddle nearly ripping it out of his hands. We can only assume it was a shark as there were teeth marks in the blade. All any of us saw was the splash and swirls.
Monday and another rainy day. Lisa spent the day cooking while Pau l organized the slipping of Lorelei for 3 weeks time at Rivergate Marina in the Brisbane River
That evening we had some wild looking clouds overhead but not much rain, unlike the rest of SE QLD that we saw on the news that night with widespread flooding across the country. They are even talking about a cyclone forming off Fraser Island
Sentinel and those clouds…
Tuesday 6th March. Well it’s all happening today on the news with floods over a lot of areas of Australia
We spent most of the day doing more research on New Caledonia
One very big highlight was just after lunch. We were standing at the back of the boat looking out when we saw a spotted eagle jump out right at the back of the boat. Then out of nowhere bursts this big hammerhead shark with his head and tall dorsal fin out of the water swimming in erratic figure-8’s trying to catch the ray. It was amazing as we were looking down and could see it all clear as day. The wildest thing was it was dead low tide and only 2.5m deep and 20m behind us was a sandbar that was completely dry. It was longer than the water was deep! We were buzzing for ages after it. And Pau l wanted to go for a kite off the sandbar that afternoon…..
Wednesday. We woke to a glorious sunny day so the 4 of us decided to spend the day exploring North Stradbroke Island
Danny picked us up at 8am and we took his RIB around to the Little Ships Club where we left it for the day. We then jumped on a bus to Point Lookout and spent the morning doing The Gorge Walk, pigging out for morning tea at the Bakery ( a novel experience for us…) and doing The Whale Walk and Cylinder Beach
For lunch we went to the Bowls Club and in the arvo we cau ght the bus to Dunwich and did some sightseeing and fruit and veg shopping before walking back to the little ships club.On the way we found some cheeky birds.
We had a fantastic day but walked a long way and were pretty tired when we returned to the boats.
Thursday. The foul weather had past and we were going to leave until we got an early phone call from Danny. He ran his engine last night and sucked up a jellyfish into his saltwater intake much the same way we did 6 weeks ago at Island Head Creek. Unfortunately at night he didn’t realize there was a problem and he overheated the engine melting the exhau st system.
So that morning Pau l and Danny took our RIB over to Cleveland au st system which was installed that arvo.
Friday the weather was beau t so we took off from Myora and sailed north to out favourite spot in Moreton Bay – The Sandhills, arriving there just after lunch.
When we were in Tin Can Bay last week we brought 3 new heavy duty crab pots after the old ones were destroyed at Island Head Creek by big muddies.
The Sandhills is renowned for Blue Swimmer Crabs so we put the new pots in straight away.
We then went over and cau ght up with friends Barry and Mau reen on their yacht “Spirit of Kalahari”. We first met them in Lady Musgrave when cruising on Purranha back in 2001 and have been close friends ever since. Having sailed around the world, they are our mentors in our cruising life and we fondly refer to them as our cruising parents.
We had a great dinner and evening with them on our boat.
Saturday morning we got up early and went to check the crab pots.
We had an amazing experience with a dolphin while checking the pots.
The dolphin was swimming around the line as we pulled the first pot up and sat on the surface right next to the boat obviously knowing there might be some by-catch. We had about 15 crabs, 10 starfish and 2 smaller fish. We threw 10 crabs back that were undersized and the starfish but the dolphin wasn’t interested. We then put one fish into the water and it gobbled it up straight away. Lisa held the second on the surface and it came up and took it straight off her.
It followed us over to the next crab pot and repeated the process again. It was a big dolphin and the water was very clear making it an awesome experience. If only we had a camera with us…
We ended up with 9 legal size crabs.
We took Mau reen into the Big Sandhill with us for the morning to go Sandboarding on the high tide while Barry was doing some work on the computer. The sandhill had changed a lot since last time we were here which was over 9 months ago. The smaller front run is now much longer and has some fantastic varied terrain while the big sandhill at the back is now not as tall and steep and has a smoother lower transition making for a longer run and less intense initial drop.
Lisa on the lower run.
The stunning view from the big sandhill.
Mau reen on the big sandhill. Not bad for a first timer who is fast approaching 60….. proves anybody can do it !!!!
That night the four of us had an awesome meal of Chilli Crab onboard Lorelei.
Sunday morning the southerly hit about 3:30am with 15 knots of wind and overcast conditions. We checked the crab pots at 9am and kept 4 legal ones.
Barry came over in the morning with his laptop to show us some photos and his new house plans.
In the arvo Mau reen and Barry’s close friends Chris and Robyn onboard their cat Maripi anchored in the bay. Rod, Mel and the kids also turned up on Heartbeat.
Mau reen and Barry had dinner with Chris and Robyn while we went over to Heartbeat for Clau dia’s 12th birthday dinner.
With no Donkeys on the Ocean we came up with
“Pin the Scale on the Fish”!
Monday 12th March. All the weekend boats have gone leaving the 4 of us with the bay all to ourselves. We took the RIB into the Litte Sandhills on high tide to have a snorkel in the mangroves with the camera to see if we could find some Stringrays, Shovel Nose Sharks and Fish to photograph. It was a fun stealth mission which proved rather challenging. We flew the octopus from the RIB while we were in the water for a bit of fun.
Whiting in the Mangroves.
This one was over 1m wide.
Shovel Nose Shark well camouflaged.
That arvo we went over to catch up with Robyn and Chris as they have just started full time cruising too and it’s great to exchange ideas and great locations. On the way back to Lorelei we went past Heartbeat and there was the whole family on the rail watching Rod having a huge battle fighting what is obviously a big fish that he has hooked. There were Longtail Tuna busting up all around the boat but it was much bigger than that. We jumped onboard for moral support and to watch the action. After a fight lasting over 40 minutes it came busting out on the surface and it turned out to be a very large bull shark with a solid girth. It cau sed a lot of commotion and our noises and excitement alerted every other boat in the bay. It eventually busted him off and Clau dia got the whole thing on video which was great.
That night Danny and Carol sailed into the bay at about 9:30pm after being in at Manly for the weekend.
That night Danny and Carol sailed into the bay at about 9:30pm after being in at Manly for the weekend.
Tuesday turned out to be another jam packed day.
Robyn and Chris came over to have a look at some of our cruising items on Lorelei before they sailed to Redcliffe.
On the high tide all the group (minus Mel, Hunter and Clau dia who were doing schoolwork) met at the Big Sandhills for a Sandboarding session.
The sand was very dry and fast and we had a great time. It was Danny, Carol and Barry’s first time and they all did great. Not bad for an old bunch ranging in ages from 42 to 65…
Danny the Natural…
Barry on the lower hill.
Pau l above and below carving up the ridges on the Top Sandhill
For late lunch/dinner we had Malaysian Satay Crabs followed by a late arvo swim at the Little Sandhills whilst watching a big storm develop over North Straddy. Luckily it went around us and clocked the mainland. However it did get very windy and a second storm was developing so we all raced home and got the dingy’s up and toys put away just in case.
Wednesday. It blew 20 knots all night and at daybreak Pau l was up and organizing his kiteboarding gear for a fun day of kiting. When we went outside we found Mackeral and Longtail Tuna jumping all around the boat. We have seen lots of Tuna in the bay all week and that probably explains all the big shark action we have had in the past 7 days. Actually we have had more big shark encounters in the past week than we have had in the last 5 months!!
Anyway - when we go outside Rod and Mel are already in their RIB trolling around and already have 2. We then hear Hunter hooting and hollering as he is on the cat and is hooked up on one too. All the more funnier seeing he should have been inside doing his schoolwork - but while mum and dad were gone.... Barry also landed one from his boat too. So Paul decides to go kiteboarding anyway and it was a lot of fun silently running the board at speed through the working Tuna schools. He got hit on the leg once and hit a few with the tip of the board. The key was not to fall off in the middle of the school...
That arvo Paul serviced Maureen and Barry's scuba regulators and spent about 4 hours downloading this damn blog! He didn't realise how many photos were actually in it!
Anyway - when we go outside Rod and Mel are already in their RIB trolling around and already have 2. We then hear Hunter hooting and hollering as he is on the cat and is hooked up on one too. All the more funnier seeing he should have been inside doing his schoolwork - but while mum and dad were gone.... Barry also landed one from his boat too. So Paul decides to go kiteboarding anyway and it was a lot of fun silently running the board at speed through the working Tuna schools. He got hit on the leg once and hit a few with the tip of the board. The key was not to fall off in the middle of the school...
That arvo Paul serviced Maureen and Barry's scuba regulators and spent about 4 hours downloading this damn blog! He didn't realise how many photos were actually in it!
So the plan is we will hang around in Moreton Bay for about another 10 days before going up the Brisbane River
In the meantime we hope to do some dives on the Curtain and Flinders Reefs, do some more kiteboarding, some spearing around Moreton Island and hopefully get out to Hutchinson
For those that are interested in some statistics…
Since leaving Brisbane
Sailed or Motored Lorelei 2765 nau tical miles or 5121 kilometers.
Used approx. 1350 litres of Diesel for Lorelei’s engine.
Used approx. 190 litres of Unleaded for both outboards and the Scuba Compressor.
Made approx. 6800 litres of fresh water using the desalinator.
Made approx. 6800 litres of fresh water using the desalinator.
Overall we are very happy with how the trip up and back went. Lorelei, the 2 RIB’s and all the gear onboard worked very well. We did have a few minor issues – particularly the starter motor in Port Douglas and the Salt Water intake pump for the engine in Cairns
We were very fortunate with the weather. It was a calculated risk to head north in monsoon season and the weather could have gone either way. For us the risk was definitely worth it with some fantastic weather and cruising conditions particularly in FNQ. The worst weather we have had is now we are back in Moreton Bay
So that’s it for this blog – hope you enjoyed the read and the pics.
Our next blog will be after we come off the slip just before we clear customs for New Caledonia
Cheers– Pau l and Lisa……
