Episode 66 Fraser Island to the Gold Coast

DISCLAMIER:
We all know Fraser Island has been renamed to K’Gari.

But for us, we’ve been calling it Fraser Island for our entire life and K’Gari is a pain to type with the capitals, the apostrophe and auto correct, so for the sake of old times sake and the blog – we are still calling it Fraser.

Please don’t get offended…….

For those who don’t know, we both work (or used to – Paul is retired) in the Kimberley tourism industry and Paul was a Cruise Director and Tour Guide who took people to view Aboriginal Art and deliver presentations on the art and aboriginal culture – so there is respect.

Our route for this Episode

For our last post, we had spent 7 straight months completing the 2^nd half of Lorelei’s major refit in Bundaberg QLD and had launched in mid Dec before sailing over to Fraser Island.

For the first week at Fraser, we stayed in the bay around the northern part of the island and anchored out the front of the small creek systems.

After the refit, Paul was completely exhausted and spent a week relaxing, recovering and lazing around watching movies, cooking and sleeping.

We did make some nice meals...

He did a few odd jobs when he felt like it, but that was it.

One of the jobs was installing the new B&G navigation gear and radio system into the internal helm station area.

He also rigged up the new boom bar off the side of Lorelei that we can tie the tinny up to.

Friends are calling it our barefoot bar - but Lorelei is certainly not that quick...

On the higher tides we would take the kayaks up the creek systems. 

The first one to explore was Awinya Creek.

The shallow bar entrance was further down the beach which meant a paddle up an inlet behind a long tree-lined sand spit.

We found a little sandy bank where we could hop out and walk across to the bay side.

The water was brown with tannin from the Paperbark Trees along the creek’s banks.
Further up, the area was full of mangroves which was super fun to kayak through.

Then the mangroves dispersed, we entered a marshland area with only low-lying vegetation and reeds.

We were able to kayak another 1km up with the big Christmas spring tides.

On the way back down, we found another path through the mangroves which led to larger waterway and easier paddling.

When the tide turned, we were able to snorkel back down past the coffee rock and fallen trees lying in the water.

There were heaps of little fish, small mangrove jacks within the structure and even some larger whiting, bream, mullet and stingrays.

Two days later we moved 6 miles south to Bowarrady Creek.

With just a week to go until Christmas, there were a lot of people camping along the creek edge.

We were also able to kayak up into the system on the high tide.
Kayaking across the bar and up the shallow inlet behind the thin sand bar was great.

It didn’t have the low-lying marshlands at the end but kayaking through the mangroves was super fun.

 We had to stop because it got too tight to paddle and unable to turn around.

It was also fun for a snorkel and swim back down but was not as wide or as deep as Awinya Creek for snorkeling.

At the start of the creek is a large sandhill track that is well used by the day trip charter boat Tasman Venture that departs from Hervey Bay.

The climb up is steep but the views across the bay and back towards the mainland are excellent.

The anchorages in the area are perfect for SE-E-NE winds and swell but very uncomfortable in anything else.

When the wind went to the N-NW we had no option but to move south down into the Great Sandy Straights for more protection.

Plus, we wanted a flat calm anchorage for Christmas so we could cook and relax without the worry of being exposed and having to move unexpectedly.

 

We spent one night at Sandy Point near Moon Bank and enjoyed a kayak there, but it was very rolly with the big tides pushing us sideways to the wind so we continued south the next day.

 

We considered about 10 anchorages on the way down but with the developed N-NW winds, none of them were adequately protected.

We sailed past Kingfisher Bay Resort and there wasn’t a single boat moored out the front as it was so rough – which is unheard of for 3 days before Christmas.

Normally its packed with boats….

We ended up going right down past Ungowa and anchored up just north of the Sheridan Flats.

The area is very shallow with sand bars and extreme caution, sticking right to the centre of the channel and transiting at high tide only are a must. 

Just on the last turn before the anchorage, a 50ft Riviera Sports Boat came flying past us at 20 knots and put a large bow wave onto us which sent us rocking and rolling.

We were not happy.

But karma prevailed when they cut the corner at high speed just 3 minutes later and drove straight up onto a sand bar. With a falling tide they were stuck until well after dark that night.

At dusk, you could have walked right around the boat on dry sand!

At this stage we hadn’t even put either of the 2 new outboards onto the tinny yet.

We started with the smaller and lighter 6hp Suzuki and used it at low speeds (which is a must when running in a new engine) to go into the shore for swims, exploring and fishing.

 

We were able to pump nippers on the shore at low tide for whiting fishing but all we seemed to catch was anything but whiting.

Lisa did get a small Estuary Cod and a Trevally which were released – but super fun to catch on light tackle.

On Christmas Eve we made some yummy treats like coconut ice, pavlova, peanut caramel slice and potato bake.

We decorated the inside of Lorelei with the few Christmas things we still had onboard.

We had a yummy lunch in the new enclosed cockpit which was perfect.

Surprisingly, we were the only boat in the anchorage so we had to place all to ourselves.

The peace didn’t last as 3 days later there were boats everywhere.

There were still N-NW winds and a bit of rain about, but we didn’t care as it topped up our water tanks and allowed us to try out the new washing machine.
 The new water catching system on the top of the new hardtop worked a treat!

 

On New Year’s Day the wind and swell went to the SE so we sailed north again back up to the creek systems.

With a moderate wind and a falling spring tide creating almost 2.5 knots of current assistance, we were flying along at over 10 knots boat speed most of the way.

The 24nm sail took only 2.5 hours which was super-fast.

Back up at the creeks, we met up with friends Greg and Angie on their yacht Ocean Piper.

Greg is the electrician who did all our wiring and Victron panel install during our refit and we’ve stayed in touch ever since.

Like us they are keen divers, and Angie is also a Dive Instructor.
Lisa and Angie look like sisters!

We stopped at Coongul Creek.
There was a lot of boat traffic, jet skis and 4wd's along the coastline.

The large Christmas tides caught more than one holiday camper out.
As we were heading in the tide came up even higher and was lapping halfway up the doors and over the bonnet every time a boat came past and pushed waves onto the beach.

The water even came right up to the edge of the campsites.

One of the campers we spoke to even said the water went right through their campsite on the previous night's king high tide.

On the high tide, we went for a kayak up into the Coongul Creek system together.
There is a forest of dead trees that you can kayak through at the top of the tide.

On the way back down, the tide had turned, and the water was flowing back out really fast.

Check the video out that shows the water speed.

The next day we sailed 2 hours north up to Bowarrady Creek and the boys decided to tackle the creeks again, but this time both of them tried out their new SUP’s while Lisa came in for a swim and Angie had a break.

It was a long way into the creek mouth from the anchorage so we towed the sups in with Greg’s RIB tender.

We couldn’t get as far up as we could in the kayaks as we couldn’t duck under the branches without risk of falling off and impaling ourselves on the tree branches and root systems.

Additionally, we didn’t want to scratch the new sups – or put a hole in Greg’s inflatable one.

For the afternoon on the low tide, we went back into the creek to pump some nippers and have a fish for Whiting.
For 30 minutes we searched for nipper holes but after a few exploratory pumps, we couldn't find any nippers.
Just as we were about to give up, Lisa walked up the water course and found a patch of nipper holes. We only got about 20, but that was just enough.

We all went for an afternoon fish along the shoreline as the sun was getting low in the sky.
We were finally catching some whiting, but most were undersize.

We ended up keeping 6 - which wasn't enough for a full meal - but was enough to make Whiting Sushi...

The upside of all the cloud about was the fantastic sunsets.

When the wind changed around to the NE, we sailed another 8nm north to Wathumba Creek.

It was a lively sail with over 20 knots of wind.
We decided to try a single reef in the new main for the first time and the brand-new no.2 headsail.
Both worked a treat and the boat felt very balanced.

We had saltwater all over the front of the boat by the time we arrived and anchored, so we were pretty happy when it started rain about 5 minutes after we had put the anchor down and tidied up.
It washed all the salt away.

We had another great sunset on anchor.

The creek has by far the best inlet for fishing, SUP and kayaking on the entire NW coast of Fraser Island.

At low tide you can walk across the inlet, but at high tide, it is a large body of water that has heaps of options for exploring, kayaking and excellent fishing.

In the summer, they even get baby Black Marlin cruising along the shallow sand flats at the creek entrance.

Within 12 hours of anchoring, there were so many small bait fish around and under Lorelei.
We could see the silver flashes of the bigger fish underneath as they push the bait up onto the surface all around us.
The fish school looked big on the sounder.

On our first full day there, we planned on going fishing, but it was windy and there were heaps of rain squalls that only lasted a few minutes but were enough to wet everything, so we decided to put the tinny in and go into the Creek for a explore, swim and beach walk.

Fortunately the rain stayed away for the entire 2.5 hours we were in there.

The first little side inlet was very shallow but there were a lot of birds both in the trees and on the sand bars. 
We saw Pied and Sooty Oystercatchers, Bar Tail Godwits, Sandpipers, Crested and Fairy Terns, Gulls, Ospreys and Kites. Paul wished he had taken in his 600m wildlife lens instead of a gopro - but the rain dictated what we took.

We anchored in the creek and waded ashore before walking over to the bayside.

It was offshore there and glassy flat so we had a great swim in a little channel that had a sandbar on one side and the sandy shoreline on the other.

We relocated the tinny up to the sandspit for another walk and a swim.
There were heaps of Casuarina Trees that looked like they had been planted to stabilise the sand spit and a lot of other small flowering plants.

Overnight the storms rolled in as the remnants of Cyclone Koji tracked down the QLD coast.

It drizzled all night, but we didn’t actually catch much water to top the tanks up which was frustrating.

We awoke on Sunday morning to a very bleak day with heavy cloud and more drizzle.

We made pancakes for breakfast and expected a day indoors – but we were wrong.

By 10:30am it started to clear and the winds dropped off. It was still a very light drizzle but not too bad.

We decided to go for it anyway and packed the kayaks for a long paddle right up the creek system.

It was high tide at 1:30pm so we needed to be right and the top of the system at the top of the tide and as it turned so we could take advantage of the flooding tide going up and the run-out tide coming back down.

We took a new toy each which was a kayak sail system.

We actually brought them from Temu!!
Lisa paid $22 for hers and got the deluxe one with webbing straps and all the clips provided.

Paul brought a cheaper one at $14 and despite it looking the same on their website, it came with only thin rope, no clips with a different shape & folding system.
Oh well – Paul can always upgrade later it they work out and we use them a lot.

It was into the wind for the first half, so we paddled right up to the shoreline to escape the wind.
We paddled past the 4wd campsite area which was filled with families having a lot of fun on the shallow sand flats.

There were heaps of stingrays on the sand flats and we also saw 2 small sharks and mullet schools.

The bird life on the remote sandbars was excellent.

There were Bar Tailed Godwits again and other smaller waders.
 With them we saw some larger White Egrets and even one Spoonbill which was the first one we’ve ever seen at Fraser Island.

Once we got out of the large main channel and into the smaller mangrove estuaries, the paddling became easier and more enjoyable.

When we reached the end of a small tributary, we were inundated by a swarm of mosquitoes. They were even biting us through our insulated rash tops.

We paddled pretty fast to exit the tributary and get away from them.

Back down at the junction, we stopped for a swim and a drink & food break.
We’d been paddling for over 2.5 hours, and our legs were so stiff we could hardly walk for a minute or two.

The weather was still not too bad, so we decided to tackle the main arm and paddle up as far as we could.

It was a long paddle up the mangrove system.

There were stacks of seed pods on the Orange Mangroves and flowers on the Grey Mangroves.

Once we turned around, we were able to use the new sail on the downwind legs.

It was a little hard in the creek system and the mangroves shielded the wind on the tighter sections and corners, but they worked ok on the straights.

Once we got back out into the open main channel, they worked a lot better. 

We were able to glide over the shallow sand bars with almost no sound which allowed us to sneak up to the wildlife a lot easier than when paddling.

A small shark we startled in from of the kayak

Once we left the creek system, we had about a 1.5km downwind sail across the bay and back to Lorelei. It was the best sail yet with steady and constant winds.
Lisa was grinning like a Cheshire Cat when we got back to Lorelei – at 4pm.

Overall, it was a BIG paddle. We worked out we had paddled about 12km and sailed another 3km making it a long day in the kayak seat.

We were stuffed when we finally got back and washed down and packed up for the day.
Stuffed – but Happy Stuffed!!!

That evening the ex-tropical cyclone weather system did finally decide to give us some heavy downpours, so we set up the water catching system to go directly into our main water tanks.

Paul got up every 2 hours all night to check the levels and make sure everything was ok onboard.

After not much sleep the night before, Lisa worked the whole day on Monday while Paul cooked meals, baked tasty treats and updated this blog…

With some swell now coming down and into the anchorage, we decided to move south in the afternoon to get a better night's sleep.

We tried 3 anchorages, but they were all still too rolly, so in the end we went all the way to Awinya Creek where it was a lot more comfortable.

The next morning we got up early to head into shore to pump some nippers and go Whiting fishing.

We found a heap of nippers along the creek banks and got enough for both a morning and arvo fishing session.

We were casting into the mouth of the channel on a run out tide and despite not getting any Whiting, Paul did manage to get a large 59cm Flathead.

At 5pm we went back in again for another fish and once again we didn't get any Whiting as we were constantly getting the bait taken by pesky Toadfish and Garfish.

The sunset made up for the lack of fish - it was terrific.

We also had a swim in the freshwater just after sunset.
It was a bit colder than the saltwater, but the high amount of tannin made our skin feel very nice after you hopped out.

On Friday the wind slowly back off and so did the swell.
It was still overcast and the rain was more like mist that came and went every 8 minutes.
We must have opened and closed the hatches 100 times during the day!

At 4pm the girls knocked off work for the day, and we all went into the creek mouth.
Angie decided to pump nippers and fish while Greg joined us for a sup up the shallow creek.

After a great swim in the freshwater, we paddled back down as the sunset got better and better.

We hung out at the creek mouth fishing, swimming and having sunset drinks as the sky turned it on.

We had turtles swimming right up to the edge with shovelnose sharks and 3 species of stingrays swimming in the shallows around our feet.
The local pair of Brahminy Kites were also sitting in the tree just behind us.

It was magical.

On the paddle home we saw so much wildlife.

On Saturday 17th Jan we sadly said goodbye to our friends Greg and Angie on Ocean Piper as they were heading back to Bundaberg and their farm.

We vowed to catch up to go cruising again where we can all go for a dive.

While they headed north, we motored south and were now finally on our way towards NSW and TAS.

We only motored about 8nm when we had to stop at Coongul Point to wait for the tide to turn and rise back up which would give us both more water to navigate safely over the sandbars and to get the tide assistance which would give us much better fuel economy.

We anchored very close to the beach in crystal clear water and had only 1.5m water depth under the keel. While we waited, we went swimming off the back swim platform and had lunch.
We saw a series of what looked to be restored army vehicles cruising up along the beach.
We gathered from the fishing rods on the bull bars and roof racks that they were privately owned. 

There were still a lot of other tourists on the beach enjoying the popular creek.

Once the tide started to rise, we continued south to Kingfisher Bay Resort.

There was a load of boats anchored close to the resort, so we chose to anchor at a secluded little bay just north of the main jetty.

It was the flattest anchorage we had been in for weeks, so we celebrated with a bottle of wine and some cheese and dip at sunset.

There was a lot of wildlife with dolphins & turtles swimming around the anchorage and Welcome Swallows sitting on our ropes.

We knew that the peace might not last as a big storm was coming from the west and the BOM radar showed heavy rain.

We could see a lot of lightning and heavy cloud over the mainland.

We set up the water catching system and waited until 11pm.
It didn’t eventuate and ended up splitting and going around us.
It was bittersweet. The weather stayed calm, but we didn’t get any rain for the water tanks. 

We have been to Kingfisher Bay Resort multiple times and we felt we didn’t need to go in again, especially during peak school holidays.

We decided to explore the small creek in the bay on the kayaks at high tide.

The creek was only 1km north of the Kingfisher Bay Resort and had a large shallow sand delta extending out from the creek entrance.

The shallow sand flat was full of marine life including many fish species, rays and turtles.

The life also extended into and around the mangrove trees and structure that were along the shoreline.

The creek wasn’t overly long, but it had lots of tight bends and turns making it very sheltered from the wind.

We don’t normally venture off the main channel and too far into the mangroves as it is very easy to get lost, but with the high sided shoreline of the creek, it was easy to orientate and paddle back towards if we got lost.

We ventured as far as we could go until the mangroves became too dense to paddle through.

We did find a little gap through to a clearing where we were able to have a shallow cool off in the brackish water.

Instead of returning back to Lorelei, we decided to head north and explore along the foreshore.

It was packed with wildlife and heaps of structure both on the shoreline and in the water.

We even saw an awesome White Bellied Sea Eagle that was sitting on a log eating a fish. We quietly skimmed past and it didn’t fly away.

It was so good that we kept paddling on – and on – and on…..
and stopping for cool swims. 

After about 3km we found another creek that Lisa had seen on Google Earth the day before.

It was a lot bigger than the first one.
Due to its remote location and shallow water surrounds, we doubted it would be visited very often.

Around the first bend we found what we think is an old livestock loading ramp on the side of the creek.

It was built with a mixture of steel and timber and looked very old. 

With the water depth, we very much doubt a boat that size would get in there now.
We later thought it might be a timber loading jetty but then realised the main timber jetty was Mackenzie’s Jetty which is about 1km south of the resort.

After a bit of googling, we found an article about livestock being moved to the island to that area in 1901 after a severe drought on the mainland.

The paddle up the creek was a challenge as the tide had turned and the water was flooding back out quite quickly.

The upside of the lower tide was the mangrove roots were becoming exposed which looked amazing.

The water was a deep brown colour from the tannin leaching out from the paperbark trees in the area.

We were able to stop on the many sandbars in the middle of the channel for a cool off in the cold fresh water.

Right at the top, we found a small turtle in the channel. It was lazily swimming around us and didn’t at all seem fazed by us being there, so we stood up in the water, and it swam around our legs.

Up in the tree branches, was a lot of moss that we had not seen at any of the other mangrove inlets we had kayaked during the last few weeks.

There were also lots of seed pods on the Orange Mangroves and flowers on the Grey Mangroves.

On the way home we had to battle the tide, which made it slow going, but we saw so much wildlife.

Countless rays in all shapes and sizes, 3 species of shark, so many fish and large schools of mullet & even sea & wading birds both on the shoreline and overhead.

Note the shark fin and fish boiling on the water surface

Paul went out to have a look at the navigational lead line marker.

While Paul was out at the marker, two large sharks came past Lisa and then turned around and proceeded to follow her.

She was only in about 1 meter of water, and their fins were coming out of the water by about 40cm. Paul had to race back and help scare them off. 

We had one last swim to cool off on a shallow sandbar before heading out into the deeper water and back to Lorelei.

By the time we got back we were stuffed - again! It had been a long 4-hour paddle, and we estimated we had paddled over 10km – with most of it being in less than 1 meter of water depth.

It is by far the best paddle we’ve done at Fraser Island – and yet the one we didn’t really know anything about…..

That afternoon with the flooding tide, we moved south to the Sheridan Flats to prep us for the transit through the Great Sandy Straights the next morning on the spring high tide – and the highest tide of the month.

As we left Kingfisher, we transited past Mackenzie’s Jetty.

This is one of Paul’s favourite places on the island and we have anchored there many times. Paul has photographed the jetty and boiler in virtually every possible variation – and star trail photography over the jetty.

As we headed further south, we passed Ungowa, which is an old forestry base. The area has two shipwrecks, an old jetty and another cattle loading area in the corner near the creek entrance.

The wrecks are the Ceratodus Wreck (which was a logging barge) just south of the Ungowa Jetty and the SS Palmer in nearby Deep Creek. The SS Palmer was also used as a logging barge along with transporting gravel from Big Woody Island to mainland Hervey Bay in the 1930’s before being abandoned at Deep Creek in 1942.

The next morning, we left at 6:30am for the passage through the straights. 

And the one-day window we had to do it on the right tide – it decided to blow – hard!!

It was a strong wind warning from the south and was blowing 25-35 knots! 

Even in the protected sections we had saltwater spray going everywhere.

Fortunately, we didn’t run aground, but we did get to 0.7m (70 centimetres) under the keel as we transited across the shallow sand flats. 

With the strong wind, we considered stopping at Gary’s anchorage, which was the only anchorage in the area, but even it was rough and awful.

So, we pushed on – but we probably shouldn’t have…. 

By the time we got down south towards Inskip Point, it was 35 knots plus and there were very steep waves with the wind-against-tide conditions.

We had spray over the new hardtop and our boat speed was down to only 3 knots.
It was brutal on the poor engine.

We motored over to the north shore to get some protection before we could cross the channel with the wind off our back quarter and limped down past Inskip Point and on towards Tin Can Bay.

Surprisingly we could still see the barge working between the point and the island and cars and trucks waiting on the point for their turn to cross.

Fortunately, as we headed down the channel towards Tin Can Bay, it started to rain and we were able to start getting some of the saltwater off Lorelei.

Tin Can Bay's waterways are difficult enough to negotiate, let alone during a strong wind warning and rain!

Whilst it is not so bad on the land, the waterways is a whole new level of horrible!!

The creeks, inlet and channel are filled to capacity with hundreds of boats, many of which are dilapidated old boats that are falling apart. That combined with the wind against tide in the channel, a strong wind warning and numerous shallow sand bars adding to the danger, it was a nightmare to find a safe place to anchor.

We found one place, but a man appeared from a nearby, well-used yacht in his white
Y-fronts and gave us a distinctly unwelcoming look.

We moved again and, in the end, anchored right in the middle of the channel.
 Hopefully we were away from anything that might drag and end up smashing into us at some stage.

Despite needing to go ashore, it blew and rained – and blew and rained.

So we stayed onboard and worked inside.

Double Island Point which was nearby was blowing 35-45 knots!

Getting ashore was all but impossible at anytime except for high tide and the public wharf was packed full of tenders both old and new for people trying to get ashore from their boats.

There is a marina there, but it is only accessible on the high tide or for smaller vessels and cats.

Large monohulls can get in on the high tide but you would be sitting in the mud on a spring low tide.

We did enquire about a berth, but there were none available for Lorelei’s length, width and draft.

Two days later the wind subsided and the rain stopped and Paul was able to get ashore to do the shopping.

Lisa dropped Paul at the boat ramp with his skateboard.
 He was able to skate to the chandlery, the marina and the local IGA.

He conveniently found a local skatepark on the way….

Paul considered getting an Uber from the area to Cooloola which is a new suburb about 12km away that has a Woolworths for restocking as there would be a greater variety of food and cheaper prices.

But despite a few attempts, there were no Uber drivers available - and there was also the drama of getting there and not being able to get back.

So in the end he decided to shop locally at the IGA.

The staff were fantastic and after a discussion with the manager about the amount Paul wanted to purchase, they were more than happy to help out and give him a free lift back down to the boat ramp.

He loaded a full trolley of cold stores, and the staff were able to put it in the cool room while he continued to shop for the rest of the items.

In the end there were over 3.5 trolley loads full!

Fortunately, Jodie the staff member who was dropping Paul to the boat ramp had a Landcruiser, which was filled to capacity with the bags of shopping.
She was very kind and even helped Paul carry the bags from the car to Lisa who was waiting at the end of the wharf in the tinny.

On the Thursday, Ken from TMQ Autopilots in Brisbane came aboard Lorelei to fix the autopilot issue. After a bit of fault searching, we all decided it would be prudent to install a new CPU drive and a new compass. 
We suspected this was going to be the issue and he had brought them with him from Brisbane.

We removed the old CPU and kept it as a spare, but the compass (which has been mounted outside on the mast for 20 years) was a throw-away. We put in a newer re-vamped magnetic compass Ken brought with him which will be fine for the areas from the Equator down to VIC but is not suitable for 50 degrees latitudes and beyond to the north and south poles. So, if we want to visit Tassie, southern NZ, Norway, Greenland, etc. then the magnetic compass won't work very well and digital is the way to go.

But it would get it working for now - finally....!

By Friday, the wind had dropped to zero and the bay was a glass out.

The evening produced a great sunset over the land and the town.

On the Saturday we both went into town for a walk and explore.

For Lisa (who had worked all week onboard) it was a chance to get off the boat for a leg stretch.

We walked over 6km with stops at the marina, IGA, bakery for lunch and the parks and recreational areas all along the foreshore.

The afternoon was spent cooking meals and preparing Lorelei for the crossing of the notorious Wide Bay Bar (one of the most dangerous bars on Australia’s East Coast) and her first overnight sail since the refit.
 

On Sunday morning of the Australia Day Long Weekend, we set sail for the Gold Coast – a 160nm (300km) sail. 

It fortunately was calm at daybreak so we lifted anchor and motored the 12nm to the bar entrance.

We had to pass Inskip Point and the barges linking the mainland to Fraser Island once again.

The Coast Guard looked like they were in for a busy long weekend with an early Sunday morning call-out.

The bar crossing is a long 4nm length and the first half was just fine with turbulent conditions.

The second half was a lot shallower with breaking waves on both sides of the channel – but fortunately no waves were breaking across the channel – which often happens during larger swell or wind conditions.

We were very happy to be clear and out in safer and deeper water.

As we motored down the coast we could see the large sand cliffs of the area and the Lighthouse on top of Double Island Point.

Being the long weekend, there were hundreds of 4WD’s along beach south of Double Island Point.

As the wind slowly increased from the NE, we were able to put the sails up at lunchtime and switch the motor off.

There was a lot of boat traffic off the Sunshine Coast ranging from large container ships, charter fishing vessels, trawlers and a few larger recreational boats.

We even had a large Leopard Shark swim past Lorelei on the surface.

By late afternoon the wind had increased to 20 knots and we had to reduce sail and were flying along at speeds up to 9 knots.

The sunset over Cape Morton was great but there were also trawlers to dodge and a lot of new FAD’s to maneuver around.

There were also birds flying around the FAD's.

At 9pm a large storm cell approaching from the south began tracking up the coast toward Brisbane, giving us quite a scare.

It had the potential to bring strong winds from the south, large amounts of rain and possibly hail along with some pretty rough conditions. 

We had already passed Cape Morton so diverting into Brisbane was not an option and we’d also be going straight towards the storm cell.

We elected to turn out to sea and head out to the continental shelf and away from the weather system.

We were not happy!

It was very dark, the seas were confused, we were flying south at max speed into the storm front! There was lightning everywhere on our starboard side.

For 90 minutes we watched reports from wind angles and wind strengths from around Brisbane and the islands.

Fortunately, the storm cell tracked due north, and it slipped past us as it went up through Brisbane city and the Sunshine Coast.

We had just missed it!!

However, the seas became rough, but fortunately the wind only changed a little in direction and speed.

Paul became very sick whilst trying to reduce sail and run around the deck in the rough conditions.

He’d work for 15 minutes then come back and vomit into a bucket, pass out on the floor for 30 minutes, then get up and do it all again.

The upside was we were still flying along – although a lot further out to sea than on the rhumb line. 

We were very happy to see the sunrise on Australia Day at 4:45am.

We gybed over at 5am, changed sails to a reaching setup, and sailed 30nm in towards the Gold Coast Seaway. 

At 10nm out we could see the city skyline clearly.

Crossing into the Gold Coast Seaway was absolutely nuts!!!!

There were small trailer boats fishing all along the seaway sides and dozens of jet skis in the centre of the channel riding and jumping the waves.

It was so chaotic that in the end, we picked straight line and motor sailed in.

We figured if they want to play chicken with 30 tonnes of steel, then good luck.

The waterways of the Gold Coast were no better.

There were thousands of boats of all sizes and literally hundreds of jet skis.

We decided to motor north up the inside of South Stradbroke Island to find a quieter anchorage.

We had both stayed up all night and were totally exhausted and needed to eat & sleep.

The antics in the channel alongside the anchorage were simply crazy.

Hundreds of boats going up and down at full speed with jet skis weaving in and out of them.

We even saw people learning how to wakeboard in the channel while all this was going on.

Check this photo out…. A boat with only one driver – no lookout and teaching someone how to wakeboard in the channel while a 130ft superyacht is travelling directly behind them. Nuts!!!!

To escape the madness, we had a meal and went downstairs for a sleep with fingers crossed that Lorelei wouldn't get run into.

These are some aerial photos from the Goad Coast waterways that were on Facebook that afternoon and only 1km from our anchorage.
Apparently, there was a big fight at Wave-Break Island and more than 20 police were called in to break it up.

By 6pm the crowds had dissipated and we were able to have the anchorage all to ourselves and just 2 other cruising yachts.

We had a cheese platter and a few drinks at sunset to celebrate Australia Day 2026 - and the last day of this Blog Post - Episode 66.

So that’s it for this episode of this blog.

We plan to stay on the Gold Coast for 2-3 weeks as we get the final parts required for the minor issues we have with equipment onboard, do some last-minute painting and sealing and a general tidy up and final prep before heading further south.

Ken from TMQ Autopilots is also coming to visit again, this time with a new digital compass which will work much better in the higher latitudes.

We want to complete all the small jobs so we are 100% prepared before we leave to go south to NSW, VIC and Tassie for the remainder of 2026.

Additionally, we have a few family members and friends that we want to catch up with on the Gold Coast – and we do want to go and see some of the attractions and touristy things the area has to offer.

We are only a short walk from the other side of Stradbroke Island which offers great surfing and kiteboarding.

 

Thanks for following.

It’s great to be back cruising again and each day there is less to do onboard as far as last-minute jobs and more time to cruise – and get back into the full-time cruising life that we are so looking forward to.

 

Cheers for now.

Paul and Lisa

Yacht Lorelei.