No, we didn’t sail overland again! I’ve given up letting the YB Tracker emit signals every few hours; it’s set up to check emails every time it emits a signal, which uses up credits at the rate of knots… given it’s now an information device more than a safety device, usage is being restricted in accordance with budget!
Despite the local name for the bar crossing into Tin Can Inlet (‘The Mad Mile’!!!), we decided to try another coastal hop from Mooloolaba to the southern end of Frazer Island a few days ago. The friends we met in Tweed River had told us of their nerve-wracking crossing of a bar that is a mile long with breaking waves, and how difficult it was. The couple on the neighboring boat at Mooloolaba Marina also weren’t encouraging – suggesting we should be leaving at night in order to arrive in the morning. But this time we really did our research, confirming from numerous sources that the time to cross was on an ingoing (flood) tide, preferably with a gentle Easterly wind going the same direction as the tide to ensure the waves wouldn’t be standing up over the bar, causing them to break. Investigation confirmed from both BoM and Predict Wind that Thursday was our day – a 10-15knot southerly swinging easterly in the afternoon, with high tide at 20h00, so flood tide late afternoon. Provided we could average 7knots speed over ground up the coast, we’d be in by 17h00, before Coast Guard Tin Can Bay closed for the evening.
All good in theory… and for once in practice as well. We headed off at 07h30, using the autopilot to steer to a fixed wind angle as the wind was almost directly behind us. Steering to the designated waypoint would have been too deep for comfort. For the non-yoti readers, sailing with the wind directly behind you (at 180 degrees on a compass dial with 0 degrees being the direction you’re heading) is the best way to end up crash gybing, as the wind shifts slightly to one side of the stern or the other and slams the mainsail across when you’re neither wanting it nor expecting it. It’s much safer to sail with the wind at a bit of an angle off one side or the other – in our case at around 155 degrees, which gave us more boat speed as well. Winds were mostly around 10 knots, so to maintain the required 7 knots speed over ground the motor was on all day, assisted by some current most of the way, finally going in our direction instead of against us! The crossing turned out to be fairly uneventful; waypoint coordinates supplied by CG Tin Can Bay allowed us to navigate successfully through the deeper channel across the bar. Although there were breaking waves each side of us, our passage was in fairly flat water and the wind even obliged in direction allowing us to leave the main up all the way across. The worst part was right at the entrance, where the water was so confused it was like a washing machine; similar to Port Phillip on its worst day. Again, with light winds and going in on a flood tide, there were no dramas. Once inside it was an easy job to drop the main and duck in behind some sand bars to anchor up for the night amongst some other cruisers.
We were treated to a beautiful outlook waking up the next morning, which changed dramatically later in the day with the sandbars becoming exposed at low tide. Taking the dinghy ashore for a walk, I tried to make friends with the locals but they didn’t want to talk – just turned around and waddled off, giving me a very cold shoulder indeed. Still no luck for Richard with his fishing, and after a second night we decided to go further up the river to explore Tin Can Inlet and re-provision. The river is bordered by some really picturesque mangroves and we even had a dolphin swimming alongside us briefly – not something you often see in rivers. Once back at anchor, it was a decent walk from the public jetty to the local IGA but these locals were more friendly – the store owner kindly delivering our shopping bags back to the rubber dinghy for us. The weather has also been kind – in fact, far too glorious to be thinking about blogging. Twenty-five degrees and sunny; too hot to stand on the deck in bare feet. With less than three weeks to go we’re both really starting to unwind, and at the same time realising we need to absolutely make the most of the rest of our time sea-trialling this lifestyle. As the sun sets on another day in paradise, we bring out a wine glass each and agree it’s definitely one we could get used to!