Episode 67 Gold Coast to Brisbane

Yep, that's right folks - Gold Coast to Brisbane.
Completely the wrong way - North not South.
Wars, Fuel Crisis, Horrible Weather, Wind, Rain, Consistent Southerly Winds, Boat Repairs, Broken Fridge, Damage and the lists go on. 
It's not a fantastic read if you were expecting tropical sailing and palm trees...
Oh, The Cruising Life - never a dull moment.

Our route for this episode of the blog

For our last blog post we had spent 6 fun weeks sailing, exploring, fishing, kayaking and SUPing along the length or Fraser Island’s west coast.

We then transited down to Tin Can Bay before an overnight sail to the Gold Coast (neither of which were very enjoyable) before arriving on the morning of the 26^th January and having to deal with the absolute mayhem that is Gold Coast on Australia Day.

 

A few days after Australia Day, the volume of traffic had settled down at the southern end of South Stradbroke Island but it was still a very busy place with a lot of both commercial and recreational vessels transiting up and down the channel and the plethora of tourist vessels like parasailing, jet boat rides and the hundreds of hire jet skis that are involved in guided tours.

With the spring tides approaching and stronger winds from the south forecast, we were finding that on the lowest tides during the day, we only had about 50cm of water under the keel and any change in the wind would force us onto the shallow sand bars – so we decided to move just a few hundred meters to a safer spot.

What started as a safe decision turned out to be the start of one of our worst days ever in our 2 decades of cruising. 

We motored out into the deeper channel and were unsure where to go to anchor.

Paul wanted to go north while Lisa said south would be better.

The tide was falling and the wind was increasing.

Then all of a sudden, this ear-piercing alarm starts going off throughout the boat.

We had never heard it before, so we were unsure what it was – and initially thought it was something coming from our new B&G navigation system.

When we opened the engine room door, Paul was horrified to find saltwater pouring out of the side of the engine and flooding the boat.

The alarm was the high-water alarm and the sign that all 3 bilge pumps in the bottom of the boat were running.

There were hundreds of litres in the bilge and only inches under the motor.

With fear of sinking in the deeper channel, we turned Lorelei straight towards South Stradbroke Island and ran her in until the keel hit the sand and we were up on the beach. At least we couldn’t sink….

Once we were able to switch the engine off, we were able to see that we had blown a rubber seal on the end of the oil cooling system for the gearbox. The result was it had sprayed salt water all over the engine and down into the bilge at a rapid rate as it was a 2.5” hose that had come off.

The seal with the paint flaking off was the culprit

After about 15 tense minutes of fixing the issue and being able to reconnect the pipe.

With some high revs in reverse, we were able to get off the beach and back into deep water to anchor safely.

It was the first time we’ve had a major leak like that and that’s why we didn’t recognise the prolonged alarm signal.

We do test the alarm regularly but just for a few seconds as it is so loud.

 

For the rest of the day, it was pumping out the final amount of water, getting the pressure washer out and washing the entire engine bay with clean fresh water and drying it all up.

Then it was double checking the repair had worked and to ring John Deere to order some new seals and hose.

 

After lunch the wind had picked up to 20-25 knots from the south but the tide was flooding back in so we were sitting with the wind and tide running in the same direction.

 

However, at 6pm until midnight the tide turned and ran back out.

Being spring tides, it meant Lorelei was being pushed hard south by the current but being forced north by the wind – all while sitting in only 1.5 meters of water depth.

 

The problem was with no depth, the weight of the chain wasn’t able to sit down deep and vertical and with no weight the chain was able to run at a very sharp angle.

When Lorelei surged forward on the tide the chain would ride up the side of the hull threatening to scratch the newly painted hull.

From inside we could hear it scratching and scrapping as it rubbed up and down.

 

In the end all Paul could do was lie on the bow in the rain and wind from 9pm until 1am with a fender in hand to try and minimise the damage – but the scratches in the new paint job were pretty bad.

Paul was so upset.

For over a decade we had wanted to repaint Lorelei’s hull but had not had the time, funds or location to do it.

He was absolutely gutted to have this happen just months after it was completed.

At 1:30am he crawled into bed completely deflated after almost sinking and damaging the new $30k paintjob.

He cried himself to sleep.

 

Five hours later at first light we woke and had no option but to move locations.

The marinas were a no-go. They were only taking long term rentals, didn’t allow liveaboards (meaning we could go into a berth – but couldn’t stay onboard) or simply didn’t have a berth in our size or enough water depth within the marina for Lorelei and her keel

After a lot of searching, Lisa decided to take us further up the island to the northern end of South Stradbroke Island.

On the spring high tide, there was ample water depth to transit – but still only a few meters under the keel.

We cruised up past a lot of very flash houses on the water's edge.

After looking at the popular Tipplers day trip facility, we decided it was a no-go as there were too many boats there already.

 We decided to head a little further north to Dux anchorage which is just out from the Southport Yacht Club’s private day trip facility.

The anchorage was a shallow and narrow channel that ran parallel with the island. 

At high tide we had 2m under the keel but at low tide we had barely had 40cm.

But it was the deepest place we could find and more importantly, it was way off the main channel so the current would hopefully be a lot less and eliminate the wind against tide issue from the previous days.

After 48 hours of cleaning up, regaining our composure and deciding we were just fine, we felt we were finally able to leave Lorelei and go explore.

On our second night there, we were sitting out in the cockpit on a clear night when Lisa spotted Elon Musk's star link satellite train come past overhead.

It was amazing and one of the best things we've ever seen in the night sky.

On the weekend, close friends Rod and Mel (who live locally) decided to bring their jet-ski up to Jacobs Well and come out to visit.

We spent a lot of time catching up onboard and then decided to go into Tipplers for lunch.

It was very busy but we had a great time with them.

The next day we decided to put the kayaks in and explore further north towards Jumpinpin Bar – which is the notoriously dangerous seaway that separates South and North Stradbroke Islands.

We had a great swim in a sandy channel between the main island and some smaller mangrove islands.

We even saw a seaplane land and take-off right next to where we were paddling.

The following days we spent doing small sorties and checking out the area by foot.

The Southport Yacht Club facility is private but there are tracks around the facility that meander through the islands centre and over to the surf beach side.

The area has loads of bird life and resident Kangaroos that come right down to the shoreline.

Paul was able to take his new drone over to the beach to have a test fly.

He has owned the same model before for work in The Kimberley so it was just a formality to check it was syncing in with his existing hand-held controller and batteries.

Paul also took his 600mm bird lens to get some photos on the beach side.

On the walk home we found some nice bottlebrushes, spiders and the kangaroos & curlews along the fenceline.

The sunset on the bayside was great.

With the spring tides returning, so did the weather and we were due to have a gale warning hit us with winds up to 40 knots from the South-East.

We decided the Dux anchorage was still the best location to ride it out, so we stayed and simply paid out more anchor chain to handle the conditions.

On the day it was due, we woke at 5am to an eerie calm and a glass out across the waterway.

For Paul it was a great opportunity to get the drone out and fly it from Lorelei for the first time.

The photos came out awesome – but Paul had forgotten to disable the collision avoidance sensors on the drone, and he couldn’t get it to come in close to Lorelei to land with all the rigging, etc in the way.

With the battery running low it decided to self-land and started to lower to land on the water.

Paul freaked out and with a desperate lunge, he was able to grab it from the top as it lowered down past the side of the boat.

He caught it, but cut his fingers on the brand-new spinning rotor blades. 

He was not happy – he has flown off the cruise ships and his tender onboard literally 1000’s of times with never an incident, so he was pretty pissed off at what had happened.

Needless to say – the sensors are now permanently disabled, and his fingers were bandaged up for a few days while they healed.

He did also manage to get a few shots of the glassy conditions from Lorelei with his Nikon cameras.

That afternoon it did blow, but we were very protected and it only got to about 35 knots in the anchorage.

It did however get to 45 knots offshore.

That night as the tide fell to a spring low and the chain pull tight, we swung towards the sandbar that was behind Lorelei and ended up in less that 40cm of water under her stern.

It was a tense few hours, but eventually the tide rose and the new anchor held a treat throughout, so we were fine – and actually quite impressed with how the anchor did work in those sorts of conditions.

After the weather event went through, we still had large spring tides, so we decided to explore a mangrove area in our kayaks that was behind the shoreline of the island that we had only seen when we flew the drone over it.

We had to find a spot that had a break in the mangroves where we could get the kayaks through and into the area.

It still involved ducking and weaving and holding the paddles alongside the kayak and use the branches to pull us in.

It was still very shallow even on the spring high tide, but it was great to skim over the mangrove roots and sea floor.

We saw a lot of birds, fish and even mud crabs.

Paul was wishing he was able to bring his Nikon wildlife lenses instead of the gopro.

We decided to continue north when we found a channel that continued between the steepening dunes with casuarina trees on the shoreline and the mangroves in the water.

There was a great but steep dune that we just had to climb.

It offered great views in all directions.

The run back down was fast and fun.

Two days later, on the largest tide of the month, we decided to take Lorelei through the channels and in to Jacobs Well, which is a small suburb centrally located half-way between Surfers Paradise and Brisbane. It is an out-of-the-way place with a lot of sugar cane and farming between it and the larger suburbs of Coomera and Pimpama which are on the highway.

The scary part was an area called the shoals, which was crazy shallow.

We phoned the local Jacobs Well VMR to confirm the depth and they said we would probably get through but they said they would stay on standby in case we needed towing off the sandbar. Great we thought – that’s not exactly making us feel confident!

 We went anyway – and despite going over on the highest tide, we only had 10cm under the keel as we skipped over the shallow section.

It was not fun, but we were in…. thankfully.

The downside - we were stuck in there for two weeks until the next spring tides.

We went past the new Calypso Bay Marina – which would not take us as we weren’t allowed to stay onboard.

Jacobs Well was a way to get ashore to get the much needed, supplies, boat parts and the get Ken back onboard for our Autopilot re-vamp part 2.

The edges of the channel close to the Jacobs Well Boat Ramp were packed with a mixture of house boats, power boats and sail boats – most of which were on anchor instead of moorings.  

Whilst there were some nice vessels, many were uncared for dilapidated wrecks that were barely floating.

With that in mid, we decided to head further up the inlet away from the masses, but it did mean a longer run to get to the boat ramp and shore.

We did however park next to an historical sailing ship replica called the Notorious, which was from Spain.

We went to go ashore to drop the garbage off and get some fresh water as we couldn’t run the desalinator in the shallow muddy waters of the areas we had been for the past 2 weeks – and particularly Jacobs Well, which was like chocolate milk.

We couldn’t find a tap anywhere, even at the boat ramp, so we went to the VMR to enquire, only to find the whole area is on tank water and not town supplied water and hence the lack of public taps.

Paul was able to talk to the lovely staff at the caravan park (which is right opposite the boat ramp) and fortunately they were not so busy and gave Paul a code to get into the park and to use the washing machines there instead of wasting the precious water onboard Lorelei through our washing machine onboard.

It wasn’t perfect – but it got us clean clothes, sheets and linen.

While Lisa was working mid-week, Paul decided to hire a car for 3 days.

The first 2 days were a Thursday & Friday and Paul ran around with a big list of things to do.

The first stop was to Outback Marine to return our brand-new wind generator, which was faulty.

After a lot of testing at the factory, we worked out that the wind generator itself was fine but the controller that was mounted within our Victron electronic board set-up was at fault.

Fortunately, they did have a tap at the factory that Paul was able to get some free water and put it into Jerry cans.

Couldn’t believe we had resorted to this to get fresh water…….

Next stop was to get a replacement for the brand-new air-conditioning system that last only about 4 hours running time before it decided to stop cooling….

Paul also did stops at the post office to get parcels of much needed boats bits – including the much-needed new engine seals to replace the wrecked ones from 2 weeks ago.

There was also a stop at Whitworths to get a stack of boat bits, fairleads, rope, sealant and a much-needed new toilet.

Additionally, there were stops at the surf shop outlet stores to get new leg ropes for Lisa’s new mal and the sups (and Paul even got 4 spares for his short boards), board wax, some new rashies for kayaking and SUPing and a stop at the awesome skateboard store next door to drool on the new old-school decks that they had lots of.

Then the supermarket for much needed fresh fruit and veges. 

There was even a stop at Bunnings for bits & pieces – and a mirror – as we realised there wasn’t one onboard since the refit. 

And there was multiple times of filling jerry cans to get more fresh water from wherever he could.

It was a big 2 days and by Friday night he was stuffed. 

On the Saturday we went back to the shops and this time it was all about Lisa.

She needed shoes and summer clothes and thankfully was able to get what she needed after having no luck in Bundaberg with the limited shops that didn’t stock shoes for her size 12 feet and clothes for her height. 

We also went to Sushi Train as it was Paul’s birthday.

On the Sunday Lisa helped Paul reseal the deck hatches (for the third damn time) as we were still getting annoying dripping leaks though most of the hatches.

It took all day and we tried a different way to seal them which we were hoping would work. We went through 5 tubes of black Fix-Tech sealant.

The following week was very busy with Lisa flat-out with work as there was only 1 week to go before the Abrolhos & Kimberley Cruise season kicked off for 2026.

LISA SAID THERE ARE STILL A FEW LIMITED CABINS IF YOU'RE INTERESTED.
CALL HER FOR A GREAT DEAL

After the car hire and the shopping spree, Paul had a mountain of parts to install which took days. 

The wind generator was a bit difficult to put back up as it was so high up off the davits and hard to reach.

We had the advantage of a scissor lift during the refit but not now.

With the help of Lisa lifting with the mizzen halyard on a winch, we were able to get the pole back up into place while Paul was precariously balanced on top of the davits (and inches from the new solar panels) bolting it into place.

Fortunately, it worked straight away.

The toilet took an entire day to remove (including the wiring and plumbing) and install the new one. There were a few teething issues, but it now works great and the holding tank which took so long to install during the refit, is also functioning well.

We did decide to keep the original lid and seat which we had painted grey during the refit to match the rest of the room.

Yay!! Now we could finally put the temporary port-a-potti toilet away.

In the hallway, we decided to remove the old photos off the photo wall and replace it with mirror tiles.

We also put a new B&G AIS splitter system into the VHF radio and chart plotter set-up.

The upside was the afternoon drinks and watching the great sunsets with all the cloud cover around.

One afternoon we had this massive boat that was about 30m wide come down the channel. It took up most of the channel!!

Turns out it was a party boat called the Yot Club which operates between the Gold Coast and Brisbane.

With the number of mosquitos, midges, sandflies in the area, we were told by locals that helicopters regularly spray the mangroves with pesticides around Kangaroo Island which is on the other side of the channel opposite the mainland.

As we were moored right next to the island, the helicopter was coming straight past us at heights lower than our mast.

We felt sorry for the animals and bird life as it is a reserve area and we saw heaps of different species of birds within the mangrove areas.

Surely the chemicals aren’t good for them in their natural habitat.

One of the few upsides of Jacobs Well, was that great little skate park and pump track that were only 100m from the boat ramp and rarely used.

The following week Ken from TMQ Autopilots (who fortunately only lived 20 minutes from Jacobs Well) turned up with our new compass to be installed.

He had installed a rebuilt fluxgate compass for us in Tin Can Bay (see the last episode), but it would only be a back up unit and suitable for areas closer to the equator and not at the poles.

The new Furuno digital compass cost us a bomb, but it was piece of mind as it is much better suited to a steel boat and a necessity for areas in the higher latitudes like southern NZ, Antarctica, Norway and the arctic regions.

It took us an entire day to run the wires from the davits to the internal helm area and for Ken to wire it up.

Fortunately, Ken set it up so the digital and fluxgate compasses are both connected, so if one fails (or Trump and Elon Musk turn the satellites off….), then the other simply kicks in.

Ken designed and built the units for TMQ (his family business) so we were very grateful to have him onboard doing the work.

With a few more supplies needed, Mel came up in her car and very graciously drove Paul around town for the day.

With 2 days to go before the spring tides came again (meaning we could get out of there), some idiot in an old trimaran decided to park his boat right next to ours at 9pm and then rowed ashore and left it there.

We woke at 6am to the bloody thing being only 6 feet off our stern.

So that was it, we were sick of the place and the damn mosquitos, march flies, midges and derelict boats with careless owners, so we decided to leave on the morning’s high tide.

Fortunately, we had 20 cm’s under the keel this time in going over the shoals to get out.

It was great to get the shopping & work done – but we won’t ever be returning to Jacobs Well.

With some nicer weather coming (for a short while anyway) we decided to head back to Dux anchorage and start to enjoy ourselves a bit more and continue the work when the weather wasn’t great.

Once back at Dux, Paul put some new fairleads onto both booms to keep the reefing lines from dropping down onto the new canopy.

On the weekend, we decided to get the new 30hp engine up and running.

It took a bit of logistics to work out the safest way to get the heavy engine down and onto the tender from its storage location on Lorelei.

The new 30hp is 4-stroke, electric start, alternator charging with gas tilt and trim which makes it 70kg compared to our old 30hp Mercury which was 2-stroke, manual start and manual tilt which made it only 48kg.

It was only 22kg, but that made a big difference, and it was physically larger too.

When we refitted Lorelei’s rig, we put a larger 2-speed self tailing winches on the mizzen mast to accommodate the extra load and ran the lift rope as a 2-to-1 pulley system rather than the old single line system.

For Lisa to do the lifting, it was actually easier – just slower with the ratios. 

But for Paul, it was a bit daunting getting the 70kg engine up off the bracket, over the rail and down on the tinny.

However, after a few tries, it became more manageable and we were relieved it wasn’t too much hassle.

Paul also made 2 new foam block mounts to stabilise the bottom end and the legs whilst we were sailing.

 

He also put Anderson plugs on the electric starter cable and on the battery box for a faster and easier way to hook the power to the engine. But the bonus was the alternator which meant the battery charged during use instead of relying on solar like before.

We decided to go for a slow cruise around the area at low revs which is required to run the brand-new motor in.

We went north up along the island and found a great little beach to swim at. 

The next day we lifted the floor of the tinny and replaced the electric bilge pump, float switch, electrical wiring and installed 2 new manual pumps to replace the perished old ones.

The final 2 steps were to fit the speargun rack and put on the canopy.

We had to get Ricky in Bundaberg to widen and raise the gun rack due the larger outboard and he put new mounts on the transom.

The canopy took a while to put back together but after a bit of a wash and polish, it came up like new.

Overall, we were very impressed by how it went together – that was until we went to put the boat up onto plane.

As we increased the revs, water was spraying up out both sides of the engine and covering both the engine and Paul in saltwater.

A bit of testing and we found the engine was sitting too low in the water.

We made up two 20mm x 40mm chocks and put them on top of the transom and under the engine mounting which raised it up 20mm.

The difference was huge – much less spray. 

We turned the chocks 90 degrees so it was 40mm higher and that was perfect and the trim plate on the leg was at the exact right height.

The issue was the tightening screws to hold the engine onto the transom were only just touching the alloy so we had to be very careful and just do the 40mm height as a quick test only. 

We’ve lowered it back to 20mm and glued the chocks onto the transom.

When we can get to an alloy boat welder in NSW, we will get the transom altered to suit a 40mm permanent raised solution.

With the mods all done, we took a longer run up to Jumpinpin Bar.

It was on a nice day during the weekend and the amount of boat up there was just nuts. So many – in all shapes and sizes.

We went to have a look at the sand spit which was full of trailer boats pulled up with everyone having a great day out.

We did a walk up along the edges of the lagoon and up to the sandhills and saw 3 stunt planes doing some awesome formation flying.

As we headed further up towards the bar, it was much quieter due to the shallower depths.

We put the boat on anchor in a nice little sandy cove and went for a walk over to the edge of the bar.

Even on a nice day, the Jumpinpin Bar was rough and messy.

Lisa found a nice little channel with clean water running right along the edge of it.

She had a swim and drift along.

A pelican also came in to have a look.

Back at the Dux anchorage, it was also filling up with the nice weather.

Down at Tipplers, it was really crowded!

With the nice weather we were able to finally have some nice sunsets in the cockpit – now it was all finished and nice and clean.

Lisa also found her beloved hammock, and she set it up for a few arvo sessions reading her book with a bowl of popcorn and a teddy.

With the new settings installed, Paul tried to fly his drone again off Lorelei.

This time it was a success, and he was able to catch it very easily.

Despite the nice weather, some boat owners still couldn't manage to stay in the channel and ran onto the mudflats at high speed.
By 10pm they were still high and dry.

While the weather stayed calm, Paul got stuck into some mid-week maintenance and decided to sand and paint the toe rails around the outside of Lorelei.

When the boat was on the hardstand, it was held up by 4 posts that were pushed hard onto the toe rails making it impossible to sand and paint around the supports.

He masked the areas up, sanded them smooth and painted them.

At the same time he also touched up a few other spots and put an extra coat on the areas at the sides where we loaded up the tinny and above the rear ladder to the swim platform.

After the paint had hardened, he put non-slip grip over the rails.

Midweek it was really quiet in the anchorage and at low tide there were a lot of birds coming down to the water's edge to feed. Because we were parked so close to the bank, we were able to sit on the bow with the 600mm lens and get some bird photos.

That was until a random jetski decided to come along just meters off the bank at 25 knots with stereo blazing and sent the birds scattering......  :-(

There were also a lot of small dolphins in the channel and around Lorelei.

Paul had a resident juvenile duck that used to paddle up to the side of Lorelei everyday looking for food.

It would automatically swim up to where Paul was and sit just 1 metre off the hull waiting to be feed.

It was a very picky eater. It didn't like fruit or vegie scraps but loved rice cakes.
We on purposely didn't feed it bread.

One night we had an awesome blood moon eclipse that was going to be the last full eclipse until 2029.

Where we were, the peak viewing time was 9-10pm.
At 8pm it was very overcast with a lot of patchy cloud overhead.

Fortunately, it started to clear and we were able to view it starting.

The cloud came and went, but we had ample time to get some photos while it was in the clear patches.
With it being about 10-15 knots of wind, a moving boat, trying to manually hold the big 600mm lens and ISO's at over 10000, it wasn't the ideal camera set-up, but we got some shots.

Just as it was starting to finish, the cloud came over for good and put an end to the photo session.

With the nice weather and the new outboard going ok, we decided to take the tinny on an 8 mile run from Dux down to Runaway Bay as there is a large shopping centre down there that is right on the edge of the canal precinct and has 2 wharf/pontoon set-ups so small trailer vessels and tenders can come in to shop.

By the time we came out with the groceries, it was 5:30pm and the weather was starting to turn.

We had an interesting sunset on the drive home with some great cloud formations.

The nice weather didn’t last and with rain forecast for a whole week (and what a week it was Australia wide….), Paul was forced inside.

He decided to tackle the last room that didn’t get renovated which was the shower/laundry/desalinator room. It was the only area in the boat that has fiberglass walls (as it’s a wet area) and had the portable toilet set up while the main toilet was out of action and that’s why it didn’t get looked at during the refit.

It wasn’t until the new toilet was up and working that it was able to be done.

He set about taking all the trim off the walls and ceiling, removing the lights, taps, shower fittings and the desal membranes and filters.

It took a long time to mask up and cover everything as the sanding was going to create a lot of old paint and fibreglass dust.

The painting was actually the easiest bit – starting at the ceiling and slowly working down towards the floor.

The resealing of the floor waste, taps and installation of the new shower fixtures, new towel rails and existing trim took a lot longer.

We left the desal membranes off for now as we are going to change the desal set-up when we get down to NSW.

We didn’t need it with so much rain about!!!!

The finished result turned out great.

With Lisa working full time, Paul became "House Hubby" and was in charge of food, washing, cleaning, all the normal maintenance and the list of post refit jobs.
He loved experimenting with the new combi oven and appliances and was able to make a lot of yummy old and new recipes.

Prawn Gyoza Casserole

Prawn, Pumpkin and Dumpling Laksa

Tempeh Nasi Goreng

When the wind dropped out and the rain cleared for a short time, Lisa hoisted Paul up the main mast to sync our new chart plotter system to the wind gauges on top of the mast.

Finally, we had proper wind readings – and it also completed the final stage of our electronic navigation refit. Everything was working, syncing and talking to each other.

We now had Radar, Charts, Depth, AIS, DSC, Radios, Compass and now wind gauges.  Yipeee!!!! It had taken months…

At the same time, he did a full rig inspection to see how everything went after we purposely push it pretty hard sailing down from Fraser Island to the Gold Coast.

But then the weather had started to turn for the worst.

Heavy rain and strong winds were forecast for days, so we reset the boat, put out more anchor chain, locked down the kayaks and sups, pack the tinny away and put everything away that was outside.

We set up the water catching systems to catch rainwater off the new roof and at first had it going straight to our main freshwater tank.

The anchorage started to fill up as boats headed in to seek shelter.

By late arvo it was getting ugly – strong winds and rain and the anchor chain was pulling straight out in front.

 

It drizzled all night, but it didn’t actually rain that hard – that was until 5am Thursday.

Then it poured. We woke and raced upstairs to find the 19mm water catching hoses filling like a wide open tap into the main tank.

It only took 30 minutes to have it completely full.

Then we diverted it to the drinking water tank – same thing – full in no time.

We had large 50 litre tubs in the cockpit and filled them up too.

By 10am we had almost 300 litres of water sitting in tubs on the floor.

The upside was we didn’t have one single leak in any of the newly sealed hatches.

Finally!! Thank goodness.

We did get a great rainbow photo as the sun tried to show itself.

Despite the terrible forecast, we woke Friday to a nice sunny day.

What??? It was supposed to be pouring…..

So, Paul put out the washing lines and used the 300 litres of water (and another 150) to do 9 loads of washing in the new washing machine.

He washed every piece of clothing, the painting clothes and all the sheets, doona cover and towels.

And by 5pm we had 90% of it dry, folded, packed away and brand-new sheets and doona covers on the bed.

We couldn’t believe it.

On the Saturday it was still fine – despite the forecast.

So we launched the Kayaks and decided to do a paddle down past the SYC pontoon, the oyster leases and Tipplers.

We had a look at “The Boat Club” which is a private club that you can pay to join and use the facilities onshore.

We paddled down to a flag pole that is sitting on a sand spit surrounded by 1000’s of small soldier crabs. 

With the day facility being almost empty due to the forecast, we decided to stop in and have lunch.

The Kangaroos and Goanna’s loved the lack of people and roamed right through the eating area.

After lunch we walked further south to The Boat Club and past the bungalows and camping areas, where we saw more wildlife.

There was a school group set-up in the campground but they were all away doing an activity.

We found a cheeky kangaroo that had gone into the kitchen area and helped itself to bags of food which were on the bench.

There were half eaten apples all over the ground.

Lisa shooed it off and resealed what was left of the bags.

On the way home, it was downwind all the way, so we set the kayak sails up and glided though the moored boats.

We received a lot of nice comments as we came past. 

On the Sunday and Monday the bad weather did hit, but we seemed to just be on the bottom of the system and missed most of it.

We did however manage to collect another 350 litres of water and received winds over 35 knots.

Sadly, Bundaberg (where we did our refit) didn’t fair so well and received a lot of rain and the town flooded as the river rose up to record levels.

Our car and camper trailer were still there but fortunately were ok - we think….

However, sadly some of our friends’ farms and properties were flooded and a lot of the businesses we used during the refit were also underwater.

There were a lot of boats and pontoons that broke free and travelled down the river until they came to grief.

The river was flowing at 10 knots before the authorities decided to close the river to all vessel traffic.

The dam was overflowing!

 

Sadly, other areas like Mataranka, Katherine, Darwin, The Whitsundays and Cairns all received lots of rainfall too.

It had been a very bad week for many people in Australia – so we felt fortunate to simply ride it out onboard...

That week the war with Iran also started.

The forecast had wind and rain for another week, but there was a little dip in the forecast on Wednesday arvo and Thursday where the wind backed off and went around to the NW for about 24 hours. 

On the Wednesday arvo, Lisa knocked off work at midday and we launched the tinny and raced down to Runaway Bay shops to get some much need fresh fruit and vegies.

With fuel shortages starting and prices hiking up very quickly, we rang ahead to the marina fuel outlet to confirm they still had premium unleaded fuel available.

They did, but prices were going to rise significantly that evening, so we grabbed every available container we could find onboard to stock up on petrol as we were getting very low. Fortunately, we still had over ¾ of our Diesel and didn’t need any. 

At Runaway Bay, we caught up with Lisa’s cousins Frank and Michelle.

We had a great lunch and catch up with them and while Lisa did the groceries, Frank and Michelle were lovely enough to drive Paul down to Whitworths Marine Centre for some more marine supplies and much need sealant, after using all of it on the hatches.

The marina fuel wharf shut at 5pm so at 4:15pm we raced back to the tinny and up to the fuel dock.

The ladies there are awesome and helped transfer the fuel line down so we could fuel up with premium unleaded.

It was only $2.00 per litre which was well below the fuel stations on the Gold Coast roads which were all about $2.32 and rising.

As we left the ladies said they were putting the fuel up to $2.18 in 20 minutes and $2.30 by the weekend. They estimated it would be $3.00+ within a week.

We were sooo lucky. We took over 280 litres and made it by 20 minutes!!!!

After we pulled out, we went to get up on plane and despite going at full revs, we couldn’t even get close to fast enough to get onto plane.

We did a weight calculation and all up with the everything onboard – we had well over 600kg in a 4.3m/14ft tinny. No wonder we couldn’t get going!!

So, we pottered home at 6-8 knots.

It took about an hour – but as the sun was setting, it glassed off and we had a great sunset cruise.

 
As we headed towards the weekend, the clouds rolled in again.
We didn’t get any rain, but we did get some interesting sunsets. 

By Friday night the storms rolled in yet again threatening to ruin another weekend.
Lisa was not happy.

There were rescues underway on the waterway and conditions were pretty ugly.

It blew and it rained and it blew and it rained.

 With the rain around, Paul set up the sewing machine to do some modifications and strengthening of the webbing lifting harness on the new 30hp motor.

He also made some extension straps for some new sleeveless overall jumpsuits Lisa brought online as they weren't long enough for her height.

Over the weekend our failing fridge got worse and worse.

The compressor was not stopping which meant it was chewing a lot of power, and with the overcast conditions, it was putting a strain on our battery levels.

Despite it running non-stop, the temperature was still rising to a point where perishable items were only lasting a few days.

With an 8-9 week wait to get a fridgy on the Gold Coast (and having to go into a $160 per night marina berth), it just wasn’t viable.

We started to look online for an alternative until we could get it properly repaired in NSW.

To our surprise, we found Kings 4WD Supacentre had just opened a new store in Pimpama and were having opening specials.

They had 50 litre fridges with all the accessories (cover, 12v & 240v cables, ties downs, etc…) on sale for half price.

It was too good a deal to pass up and we ordered 2 with all the trimmings as a “click and collect” for $460 in total which was crazy cheap. 

The issue was how to get them.

We called Frank & Michelle for help as they live in the suburb next to Pimpama.

But the downside was it meant we had to go back to Jacobs Well……

Paul was not happy! 

Fortunately, the spring tides were over the next 2 days so on the Tuesday morning at 6am, we headed back over the shoals again.

We had 30cm under the keel this time instead of the 10cm we had last time! 

The anchorage at Jacobs Well had changed heaps in the 3 weeks since we were there last.

The big storms had sunk a heap of more boats and there were loads more derelict ones.

The derelict trawler that was on the bank 3 weeks ago was now underwater and had obstruction floats and foam boom floats all around it.

Before

After

There was also a stack of more houseboats. We suspect it might be from the loads of Noosa River houseboats that have been evicted from the area.

Paul was able to catch a bus into Pimpama Shopping Centre (for 50 cents!) and do a shop for fresh fruit and vegies before Frank picked him up to go over to Bunnings and Kings.

Lisa was waiting for us at the boat ramp when we arrived, and we loaded all the shopping, 2 fridges and the 3 of us into the tinny.

It was tight…

Frank came out to visit Lorelei which was great to have him onboard. 

The fridges fitted perfectly up in the V-berth area, but it did mean relocating Paul’s 2 boxes of camera gear to the spare bedroom.

After checking the weather forecast, it was still another week of strong S-SE winds and rain.

There was no way we were able to head south to NSW with that forecast.

A boat had overturned on the Yamba Bar that day and two people had died, so there was no way we were going out there.

It seemed like there was a death every day somewhere on the NSW coastline with the big seas and terrible weather.

Additionally, diesel was becoming very scarce (the marina in Yamba had none available) so we were reluctant to head into regional areas with either super expensive fuel – or none at all.

 

We made the very hard decision to abort the southward journey and instead, head north to Brisbane rather that sit in the Gold Coast frustrated, waiting and clutching at hope.

 

At least in Moreton Bay we could explore a lot more locations by sailing and not burning fuel.

There are deeper anchorages and less boat traffic mid-week than where we were.

Additionally, it would give Paul access to kiteboarding locations when the rain backed off (and the wind was over 20 knots), and sandboarding locations for both of us at the Moreton Bay Sandhills.

We lived in Brisbane from 2005-2010 and went out most weekends on Lorelei so we did know the area well.

 

But if we were going, then we had to leave the next morning as it was the day after the springs and each day after was a lower high tide making it more difficult to transit the narrow areas between Jacobs Well and Moreton Bay.

 

On the Wednesday morning, it was clear of rain, nice light winds and a very high tide, so we took off north.
The current was flying with us and we only had the engine at 1100rpm at still doing 6 knots.

We went past Horizon Shores Marina and wound our way through the narrow passages.

There was a lot of marine industry along the waterway.

There wasn't much residential along the shoreline, but the few areas were quite nice locations.

The mangroves had a lot of birdlife both in the trees and overhead.

big hurdle was going under the powerlines.
They are reported to be 20m high in the middle of the sag and 30m high right next to the towers – but the channel was in the middle and lowest section.

With the high tide, we braved going off the recommended track and out of the channel so we could be closer to the tower for a bit of safety.

We still had 2m of water depth under the keel so it was fine.

 

Once we reached the areas of the southern Moreton Bay Islands (Karragarra, Russell, Lamb and Macleay) it got very busy with vessel traffic.

All the islands are populated with many homes, small businesses and even small supermarkets, shops, restaurants, clubs, etc…

Each island also has well established ferry terminals for both pedestrian and vehicle traffic.

A lot of people commute daily between the islands and Brisbane, so the morning peak hour was really busy with ferries going in all directions.

We even had a police barge come past and an ambulance boat going at full speed through the channel.

Apparently, the prawns were also running with the new moon springs, so there were trailer boats everywhere throwing cast nests along the channel.

 There were loads of yachts and pleasure craft on moorings all around the islands.

We originally anchored at Karragarra Island in the main channel, but it was very rocky with a lot of vessel traffic and the wind against tide issue after lunch.

At 2pm we lifted the anchor and motored 3 miles towards Canaipa on Russell Island.

The downside, it was a very low tide and we didn’t have much water.

In the channel going down to Canaipa, we only had between 0.3m and 0.9m under the keel. Lisa slowly inched us forward, but when it became too shallow (as it was still a falling tide) we turned around and went back toward the mouth where we knew it was 1.0m depth.

It was great. We were out of the current, no where near any other boats and away from the main channels with the ferry routes.

It was very quiet.

Paul made Spaghetti for dinner.

We rarely eat pasta and only have it as “arrival food” for when we arrive after long sailing passages of 3 days or more.

But Lisa wanted to celebrate breaking away from the Goldy and arriving in Brisbane – so arrival food it was….
We ate it in the cockpit at sunset

The next day guess what happened – it rained – just for something different…
That evening there was another cloudy sunset.

With a strong wind warning forecast yet again over the weekend, we knew we would have Friday to get secured into a bomb proof anchorage.

However, when we woke Friday morning it was 20 knots from the south already and there were boats leaving anchorages on mass – including from the Canaipa anchorage which was just in from us, and where we were planning on going to ride it out.

Guess we now weren’t going there if they were leaving in droves.

We aborted and decided to sail north out of the southern island areas, past Peel Island and onto the protected anchorage area of Myora, which is at the top of North Stradbroke Island. 

It took us 2.5 hours as we plodded along with just a small bit of headsail out as we were running directly downwind.

We passed the South Passage which is a local tall-ship sail training vessel.

The Coast Guard were out doing training with helicopter rescues.

We couldn’t believe there were boats moored in Horseshoe Bay at Peel Island as it faces due south and is directly onshore to the southerly swell and wind.

The moored boats were bouncing around everywhere.

The island was actually a leper colony from 1907 to 1957.

On the edge of Peel Island is the wreck of the Platypus (which is in Platypus Bay). 

We sailed past Dunwich which is the main ferry terminal and shopping area at Nth Straddie.

The Little Ships Club anchorage was packed with moored boats and is quite shallow so we were glad we weren’t going there.

The Rainbow Channel which separates North Stradbroke Island and Moreton Island has a long history of the Oyster Industry and there are loads of old infrastructure along both side of the channel.

When we got to Myora, there was only 3 other boats which was great.

The anchorage can take about 15 boats so we expect it to fill up over the weekend – if the wind and rain stay away…

Paul just had to fly the drone before the wind got up and it got crowded.

Being a Friday night, we decided to have a few drinks and a nibbles plate at sunset.
And what a sunset it was!

It started with clear skies, but then the clouds rolled in and went a crazy yellow colour with the setting sun, then grey, then black and then it rained - again!!!!!

We love this area!

There is so much to see and do and spearfishing, kitesurfing, kayaking and exploring options galore.

We’ve decided to stay in this general area while the fuel dilemma continues and things settle down in the world…

 

So that is it for this episode.

It’s certainly not how we thought it would end and we expected to have explored the areas of Port Stephens, Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, The Central Coast and The Hawkesbury River systems by now and be well on the way to Sydney and further south.

But alas, it wasn’t to be….

It’s a first world problem.

We are still afloat, still have our health and don’t have a bombs raining down over us, a flooded property or business, or a tourism business (like a Kimberley Cruise Vessel) or farm that relies heavily on diesel fuel.

We have many family and friends in all of these situations and we feel for them very much.

For us to be in this situation, we are grateful for what we have and where we are.

A couple of scratches on the hull, a broken fridge, a list of repairs/maintenance and a delay in sailing adventures going south is a small price to pay.

 

Cheers for now.

Paul and Lisa

Yacht Lorelei