Day 26 - 4 May 2017 - Shopping in Mackay

We took the opportunity to head into Mackay early in the morning by bus to the Caneland Central shopping centre. It was absolutely huge, as big as the largest shopping centres in Sydney.

We were able to get some groceries and generally browse the shops.

We returned to the boat and the kids did some more school work. We enjoyed a nice meal at the steak house on the edge of the marina.

Weather forecast for the next 3 days is not good. Strong wind warnings (and we can see and hear it howling through the marina as well). Kite surfers are taking advantace of this at the nearby beach although sand is being blow up the beach. Seas are expected to be up to 2.5m with a 2m swell, wind 25-30knots gusts to 35knots. Looks like we will be here for some days.

Mummy and Nicholas had plans to get back to Sydney for 1 week from Proserpine on Monday 8th so Nicholas can do his Naplan year 5 tests. If we are delayed much further, they will need to catch a bus up to the airport and Daddy and Jasmine will bring the yacht up to the Whitsundays. Plan is to go via the Goldsmith group in the south, only a short hop away and then island hop to Airlie Beach.

Day 25 - 3 May 2017 Welcome to Mackay

Having departed South Percy Island due to the uncomfortable roll, we left the protection of the island and found a reasonably comfortable ride, almost no wind, motoring to Mackay (72nm). Within a few hours however the wind arrived in force as well as rain squalls. With the clouds in the sky, all around was pitch black, totally pitch black. Turning off all the instruments and lights and adjusting our eyes enabled us to see a faint glow on the horizon, which must have been the lights of Mackay in the very distance reflecting off the clouds.

We travelled through the night and in the early hours of the morning as the sun rose, we witnessed a beautiful rainbow through the rain showers.

With the fuel tank almost empty, Daddy went on deck at about 3am and ran the fuel cable back to top off (to 3/4 full) the main diesel tank.

Off Mackay are a large number of marked (on the chart) anchoring areas for large coal ships. These are huge ships, especially in a small yacht at close range (we passed some at anchor as close as 100m). As we approached through the morning light (pun intended), we were surrounded by over 32 of these container ships racked up in rows like a car park as far as the eye could see on the horizon all riding high and awaiting their turn to fill up. We didn't see a single person on any of the decks or bridges. Some looked new, others, rusting hulks in disrepair.

We called the Marina, now we were back in range of phone towers, and arranged a spot, followed the leads (lights and shore markers showing the centre of the channel) in following a large sugar? ship, filled our diesel tanks at the fuel wharf, tied up to the dock and enjoyed a nice relaxing, refreshing, long shower in the change facilities. We also took the opportunity to get some washing done.

The marina is surrounded by huge stone walls. At low tide (and the tides are 3-4m, they are 2/3rds of the hight of our mast, so about 3 stories high. Apparently they have been repaired 3 times, each time making the wall and size of the boulders larger  in the last 8 years (according to information we heard from someone at the marina) after being damaged from storms/cyclones. The last cyclone didn't cause too much damage. The north east swells that arrived after the most recent early April cyclone (2 days later), rolled into the marina entrance (which is on the North East Cnr) and caused damage to a number of the pontoons. Apart from that, little damage was done to Mackay. We have heard that Airlie Beach in the Whitsundays however was heavily damaged with a number of the pontoons and over 30 vessels sunk and many others damaged. We will no doubt see all this when we eventually arrive there.

We approached the reception at the nearby hotel on the edge of the marina and they kindly gave us permission to use their pool. Nicholas, Jasmine and Daddy, enjoyed a quick swim before dinner at a Thai restaurant on the edge of the Marina.

Aim is to stay here for tomorrow and then head off towards Airlie Beach Marina in the Whitsundays the following morning (subject to weather).

Day 24 - 2 May 2017 - South Percy Island

We had beautiful weather and the seas and wind had fallen from the previous day. We again started early with Nicholas and Jasmine again still in bed. We upped anchor, finding a large clay lump on the end, and headed to South Percy Island. The journey was largely uneventful although we did see numerious schools of tuna and attempted to catch one, unsuccessfully, with our lure.

When we arrived off the North Eastern end of South Percy Island, we were protected from the South East waves and Southerly winds and we anchored in 8m of water. Daddy, Nicholas and Jasmine used the 30min of remaining light to quickly go ashore and explore the beach. There were amazing polished black stones on the white sand, which had fallen from the rocks at the end of the beach where there was a cliff face. Jasmine decided to keep a few of the smaller ones to remember the trip by. We walked along the beach and had a quick dip. The beach was covered in pumic and Nicholas used the time to skip stones across the water. It was getting dark so Jasmine took command of the tender and motored everyone back to Morning Light. Good one Jasmine!

Dinner and bed.... well not quite. By about 10pm the seas had increased in size and taken a more Easterly heading. The yacht was rolling again badly and it was impossible to sleep. At midnight Daddy and Mummy decided to up anchor and head to Mackay. The anchor was caught around rocks underwater, but after 10min of effort raising and lowering, raising and lowering, raising and lowering we were able to raise the anchor and head off to Mackay. A long night ahead!

Day 23 - 1 May 2017 - Off to Port Clinton

We awoke to a rising wind from the South and rising seas from the South East. Unfortunately as we had to keep our speed up, we were not able to explore Great Keppel Island and after bringing up the light anchor and the cable (rope) used the night before so successfully to swing the yacht into the swell, we were off.

The yacht surfed relatively comfortably down the waves, with a bit of a roll, as we headed north. We sighted 3 very large dolphins less than 1 hour from our departure, just north of North Keppel Island. These three stayed with us putting on a great show for about 5 mins allowing us to get some great footage and photos. These ones seemed larger than any of the dolphins we has sighted previously; again a reminder to look up these different breeds to understand the differences.

Daddy and Mummy took the opportunity to relax on the deck as our friend, "auto pilot", steered us up the coast. For mile after mile we surfed down 2m waves in beautiful bright sun shine off beautiful sandy beaches to our port side (less than 4 nautical miles away). Those waves however were slowly getting bigger and the wind increasing too, so the methodical roll took on a suprising turn, when and especially large wave combined with a gust allowed the yacht to bury the whole port rail and even worse, wet Daddy's feet! We all dosed back off.

We were able to contact Coast Guard and log our journey to Port Clinton and radioed to log off when we arrived.

Port Clinton, once entered, is a protected safe anchorage.  It is like a large lake surrounded by sandy beaches and mangrove trees, it is not a "port" in the sense there is anything there,... because there isn't. Once again, Daddy was reminded of Myall Lakes. The Northern edge is bound by the restricted Army Training area, "Shoalwater Bay".

We anchored in 7m of water just inside the point and 400m away from another yacht who was also enjoying the protection. The only other sign of people was a speed boat, fishing, but we have no idea where they came from as the whole lake didn't appear to have any signs of human civilization that would support such a small boat.

We checked with the Coast Guard as we entered, and they confirmed that it was unlikely, but possible for a Croc and Box Jelly fish to be in the Port, so we had to be careful.

We took again the opportunity to explore and headed ashore in the tender to the middle of a white sandy beach (300m long) no more than 400m away across a shallow sand flat. The shallow water was barely 1m deep, and by the time we were 20m from shore, it was barely 0.5m deep. The water was clear and would make it almost impossible for a croc to approach and we were all wearing rash/stinger suits. Given it was so shallow we had to wade the last 20m in to shore and our swim largely involved lying in the water cooling off; much appreciated as it was so hot.

Nicholas and Jasmine took the opportunity to attempt to rebuild their trench that was destroyed by the rising tide at Bundaberg. Mummy and Daddy, took the opportunity to walk the 200m to the Southern end of the beach exploring. One fascinating find was evidence of tiny crabs. These crabs had made their homes in a stretch no more than 2m wide at the high water mark up the whole length of the beach. To dig their holes, the crabs had made tiny, tiny sand balls, one quarter the size of a pea. There was therefore a 2m wide strip the length of the beach covered in tiny sand marbles!

With the tide flowing quickly out and no wish to be caught having to haul the tender and engine across the sand flats, we headed back to the yacht.

This gave us now the opportunity to do a few other chores. We were now without any bread, so Mummy made and baked 2 beautiful fresh loaves. The fresh smell of bread filled the yacht and made everyone hungry.

The yacht has 2 water tanks, and we had emptied one and were well on the way to emptying the other. Daddy took the opportunity to test the water desalinator using the Honda Generator for power. After an hour he was able to put 130L of water into the empty water tank, giving enough of a reserve until the next expected landfall at Mackay in 2 days.

After a nice dinner and move, it was off to bed once again. Tomorrow's trip is expected to be approx. 52NM to anchor off the northern side of South Percy Island.

Day 22 - 30 April 2017 - The trip to Great Keppel Island

An early rise had us heading out of the lagoon with the sun barely up. Just our luck it was an overcast sky with strong winds. It was almost impossible to spot the bommies and determine depth. After several aborted attempts to find a safe passage, we eventually were able to get out of the lagoon as the sun rose higher and there was slightly less gloom. Another yacht was able to take advantage of our attempts and followed the safe passage we had found.

We have been out of radio and phone range for several days now so once again we picked up our weather report off the HF radio.

Poor Jasmine was initially sick at the start of the trip to Great Keppel Island. Good news was that after a few hours everyone improved and we settled down to a steady pace for our next stop on the journey.

Once again we spotted dolphins on the journey, they only stayed briefly with us but it was a welcome distraction. 

Mummy found a copy of the extracts from Capt James Cook's journal published in "Curtis Coast" by Noel Patrick. It was absolutely wonderful reading, it described the very area we were travelling through and was amazingly accurate and fascinating to read. Here we were with all the modern comforts, HF radio for weather, detailed charts with depths, depth sounders, auto-pilots, engines, fresh water, easy to furl sails, yachts that can easily sail up or down wind. We really have it easy!

We crossed the Tropic of Capricorn at approx. 4pm and arrived around the back (Northern side) of Great Keppel Island to anchor for the night, sheltered from the Southerly wind and South East swell. It was pitch black. There were at least another 10 mooring lights visible as we approached the anchoring spot. At night it is almost impossible to tell distance from the lights. We anchored as close as we dared and attempted to settle down for the night.

The South East swell rolled around the Eastern point and while the Yacht was pointed South into the winds which were still over 20 knots even with the shelter from the island, it left the yacht in the trough (side on to the waves) and rolling terribly. Daddy had difficulty keeping in his bunk. We attempted to cast out a light stern anchor, however it dragged almost immediately, a second attempt also failed.

As a final last ditched effort we tied a long rope from the jib winch on the starboard side to the anchor chain. This allowed us to slowly winch the yacht so that it was pointed into the rolling swell making it far more bearable. A good lesson learned the hard way!

Off to Port Clinton tomorrow.

Day 21 - 29 April 2017 - No departure today, more snorkling with those graceful turtles

We had originally considered a depature today but the wind continues to blow at 25-30knots with waves breaking heavily on the outer reef and foam and smaller waves rolling across the lagoon, especially during high tide. We managed to tune up the High Frequency Radio to the Weather channel out of Charleville Queensland on 8176hz and made a decision to remain an extra day at Lady Musgrave. The seas were expected to drop tomorrow back to 1.5-2m and wind back to 15-20 knots.

The day was spent again doing school work, and playing a board game as a family in the morning. In the afternoon as the tide dropped, the reef gave greater protection to the lagoon, and we all boarded the tender for the bumpy trip to the reef for some snorkeling. This time, Daddy was able to pull out his second Go-pro video camera and after charging the batteries, shared one with the kids.

We entered the water for snorkeling and almost immediately saw a turtle. During that afternoon Jasmine saw 9 turtles and everyone else saw 8. We were able to swim and dive among all the fish and turtles comfortably, and managed to get some reasonable footage from the video cameras that could be edited into a short video later.

Everyone was quite proficient now at snorkeling, and this was while there were some reasonably rough waves rolling over the area that often filled our snorkels. It was a long afternoon, but we had to get back. Nicholas motored us back to the yacht and we rested up for our trip back to the mainland in the morning.

As a result of the extended stay, we now had to get to Mackay and on to Airlie Beach as quickly as we could so that Nicholas and Mummy could get back to Sydney for 1 week for Nicholas' year 5 Naplan tests. Flights were already booked in advance from Proserpine Airport.

We now decided to head to the back of Great Keppel Island and then on to Port Clinton on the mainland. This would be a long trip so we aimed for an early start (as soon as the sun was up so we could see the bommies).

Day 20 - 28 April 2017 - Snorkling with the Turtles

The wind is still howling (25-30knots) and the seas leave us rocking at the mooring. We saw a few of the yacht in the lagoon leave and watched them disappear in the rough seas outside the lagoon. White caps and foam are still blowing across the lagoon but we are afforded some protection.

We spent the morning doing some school work and playing a board game as a family.

When it was low tide in the afternoon, the waves dropped slightly and we headed back over to the little bay we had discovered on the first day for some more snorkeling. Daddy brought his go-pro this time. We all dived in an watched the beautiful fish swimming along the edge of the coral drop-off. Nicholas and Jasmine were becoming experts and started to build up the courage to dive down under the surface to see certain fish and corals at close hand. The battery on the Go-pro, despite being charged fully before leaving Sydney, was very quickly flat. Immediately after it was put back into the tender, the turtles were spotted.

We saw 4 turtles that afternoon and also a school of cuttlefish.

Everyone was tired and cold from the wind as we motored back at the end of the day in the rough wet conditions. We arrived to the yacht to find that Daddy's life jacket, which was in the tender when we went snorkeling, had blow overboard and was missing. Daddy went back to the reef and found it sitting on the top of the exposed corals. We clipped all the lifejackets onto the back of the yacht so they wouldn't blow out over night.

It was again a windy night with an uncomfortable roll when the tide rose during the night. The yacht did a strong see-saw swigging on the anchor; but the anchor didn't drag. Daddy got up, as he did the night before, a couple of times to check references and bearings to ensure there was no drag that would risk the yacht ending up on the nearby reef.

Day 19 - 27 April 2017 - Exploring Lady Musgrave Island - watch out for the bird poo

The wind has picked up (25knots with gusts of 35 knots), small waves up to 0.5m, foam and white caps are rolling across the lagoon. After breakfast we all relaxed playing a few board games waiting for the tide to drop. With a lower tide, the rollers will not be able to come over the top of the reef.

At low tide in the afternoon, we ventured out to Lady Musgrave Island. The channel in is extremely tight with many small bommies and the last part just before the beach is rock and sharp dead coral which required Daddy to cut the engine, jump out and pull the inflatable tender in to the beach. We pulled the tender up on the beach and Nicholas and Jasmine help set the anchor high up on the beach with large lumps of dead dried coral rocks helping to weigh it down.

As we walked away from the tender we spotted 2 turtles 5m off the beach swimming along the edge of the beach. Lady Musgrave is a small island about 1km long (East-West) and perhaps 700m wide (Nth-South) surrounded by a lagoon which is perhaps 1.4km long (East-West) and perhaps 1km wide (North - South). The coral reef that surrounds the lagoon and joins the island at the Western edge, varies in width and is approx. 100-150m wide. At low water tide, the top of the reef is exposed and at high water, waves break on the outer edge but then roll (with reduced power) into the lagoon. The island is snuggled on the Western end of the reefring with the lagoon to the East. The island has a camping site for visitors at the North Western end, a few short walking trails through the reasonably dense trees and foliage and some basic toilets. The island is made of sand and broken down coral that has built up over many years.

The island is used by turtles for nesting, particularly the Western end.

We walked in an anti-clockwise direction around the island starting from the landing site on the Eastern end.

We saw lots of sea shells and different types of coral that made up the island. We met a lovely lady who was apparently a volunteer guide who was camping on the island. She showed us a few of the signs that had been erected on the island with details on the turtles that nest (there are several types including Green and Loggerhead). The island is also a home to what seems like millions of birds. The tops of the trees are covered with different sea birds.

Daddy asked how the entrance was made into the lagoon. This is the only island in the whole Barrier Reef with a safe deep passage into a protected lagoon with an island.

The lady said there is much debate on how it was made, but no-one is certain. One interesting theory is that the Japanese used explosive to make the small entrance during the second world war. There was apparently a small retreat on the island that was closed and abandoned in the early 1940's. 

The lady said they had seen small turtles hatching each of the past 3 nights and suggested we come back then.

Daddy was lucky to get the birds to give him their special gift (poo) on his back and shoulder. We beat a hasty retreat back to the beach and continued on our walk around the island.

We saw a number of small sand crabs and on the Southern side, saw lots of rocks made up of fosselised corals that formed the foundations of the island and existing reef. Daddy showed everyone a number of small clams in the shallows and we gently touched the outer lips and watched them snap shut. As they shut, as they were just under the water, water squrted up over Daddy which everyone thought was funny.

Back to the tender and back to our yacht.

We returned back to the island after a short wait through even larger waves and strong winds at night. It was a bit of a challenge getting to the beach, however with the higher tide (and larger waves) the water was higher up the beach and after cutting the engine close to shore, Daddy waded the tender in with water up to his chest. The wind was howling and everyone was wet and a bit cold.

We walked around the beach with some torches but unfortunately we were unable to see any baby turtles that night. As we walked back slowly on the Northern edge of the island (protected as the wind was from the South East), we saw small and large fish cruising along the edge, we saw what looked like a small reef shark (about 2 foot long), a turtle on the Northern edge and another three turtles on the beach edge near the tender. The small sand crabs, about the size of a 20 cent piece with a few as large as a squash ball, were in large numbers all along the beach. The funny little things would freeze in the torch lights and we had difficulty not stepping on them.

We got back to the boat, after being drenched in the wind and waves, for a quick shower, dinner and bed.

Day 18 - 26 April 2017 - Lady Musgrave Island, Queensland... WOW!

We left early morning on 25th in the dark, to ensure we arrived off Lady Musgrave Island with sufficient light to see the bommies in the lagoon and as we pass through the entrance. The ETA was 3pm with a 6am start. Seas were a pleasant 1m and we had a great calm trip. As we left the coast behind, all land faded away yet we still couldn't see the island. For several hours we travelled North East towards the island but out of sight of all land, a first so far on the trip.

With a call of "land ho!", actually it was a very excited Nicholas yelling, "hey, there it is!' we saw the outline of the island materialize on the horizon and slowly it crept closer.

As we approached within approx. 5 nautical miles, Daddy stopped the boat, dropped the sail and yelled out that he had seen a sea snake. We retraced out steps and the curious creature came right alongside the yacht. It was a yellow colour with slightly darker yellow/grey circles over the length of its' body. It then dived down out of sight after affording us a few pictures.

We returned to our original course and as we arrived about 500m off the Western point, the call of "Dolphins" was heard and everyone rushed back on deck to watch a pod of dolphins jump and weave around the yacht. They didn't stay long, and we continued around the island passing from the Western and then Northern side on our way to the entrance which is barely 12m wide with strong currents (as the tide was on the way out) near the North East Cnr. Everyone was on deck with polaroid sunglasses on looking for the channel and shallow bommies. With good directions and a lot of pointing, we navigated the channel and crossed the beautiful lagoon heading West back towards the island.

We anchored at about 3.30pm about 800m from the island and 300m from the edge of the reef in 6.5m of water (at low tide). For company we had about 12 other vessels, 2 large commercial cats with day trippers, who all left for the mainland almost as soon as we anchored, and the rest small yachts and cats like ourselves.

We couldn't wait any longer, a quick change of clothes and we were all ready for our swim and snorkel. Tender launched, and we motored over to the nearest small horseshoe bay on the edge of the reef (about 100m across from one side of the horseshoe to the other) with a small coral drop off to a sandy bottom with depth ranging from 3m to about 6m. The water was crystal clear and we could see all the way through the clear blue tinged water to the bottom.

Before we had even anchored the tender, a small turtle popped its' head up for a curious look about 5m away.

We dived in and ... wow, was it awesome! Fish, fish, everywhere. And the turtle????? well they were a regular occurrence and we saw 3 turtles on that first afternoon alone. We saw, many fish, including angel fish, coral trout, spotted cod, long thin gar fish (at least they looked like them), and lots and lots of others.

With the sun disappearing, we headed quickly over towards the island for a quick look, but darkness fell, and after realizing the island has only a very small channel, and the water was still shallow, we abandoned the attempt that night and headed back to the yacht; we were very satisfied with the efforts and the kids couldn't stop talking about all the different things we had seen.

A quick dinner, a movie and off to bed.

Day 17 - 25 April 2017 - Rest and washing...

Not much to say, a day relaxing at the marina doing washing, a few games of soccer.

Daddy, Nicholas and Jasmine took the tender across the port to a small piece of sand on the North side of the channel where they anchored for a swim and explore. After a short 150m walk, they had a small swim at the beach just North of the port entrance.

Nicholas and Jasmine did some digging in the sand and made a large battle trench and tried to hold back, unsuccessfully (which was somewhat of a surprise to them), the tide. Abandoning the position in the face of the superior forces of the tide, we bid a hasty retreat back to our tender and back to the yacht. Nicholas had his first go driving the tender, which he really enjoyed. Jasmine was an expert tying up the tender and casting the anchor.

Off to Lady Musgrave tomorrow, we can't wait!

Day 16 - 24 April 2017 - Is that a Dugong... oh, it's a dead turtle

We left the North White Cliffs and the top of the Great Sandy Straits for Bundaberg. We were surrounded by small sand islands all surrounded by calm warm waters and beautiful white sandy beaches. What a paradise! We passed a few boaters and they waved.

Following the channel markers across almost perfectly flat seas we set course for Bundaberg and a pleasant 10-15 knots of wind giving a fast passage. Seas were calm for most of the trip across the back of Fraser Island and we soaked it all in, trying to forget those days when everyone was sick.  We kept our luck and saw 3 dolphins as we approached Bundaberg, these all appeared to be the more normal size and colour dolphins, unfortunately however, Daddy got all excited when less than 40min away from Bundaberg, he yelled, "look, I think that was a Dugong!". We furled the jib, and motored back along our course looking for the shape Daddy had seen, Nicholas then saw the turtle; it was very still and sadly clearly no longer with us.

It was an easy entrance into Bundaberg Port for a tie up in the late afternoon. We walked up to the thriving metropolis of Burnet Heads, eaten by mosquitos, and found the pub, IGA store and we were able to restock our supplies and have a relaxing dinner in the pub. Thankfully they had a free shuttle bus for us back to the yacht for the night... and more of the friendly mozzies!

Drats, should have bought some thing at IGA! Lights out .....buzzzzzzzzzz

Day 15 - 23 April 2017 - The Great Sandy Straits and are they albino dolphins?

After a good nights rest we awoke to a beautiful view of a protected bay and a handful of boats who had arrived immediately prior to us the night before or who must have arrived overnight. The car barge was at work loading 4WDs of the beach not 500m away from us to take them across to Fraser Island. We launched our tender and headed over to a nearby small sandy island (a sand flat at low tide with no more than 100m across in any direction). We quickly discovered it was covered with small crabs who were extremely fast, and a bit cranky as the kids said. We caught up with one and it reared up and pointed it's nippers at Daddy. We left them alone and went for a quick swim.

We rested up waiting for the rising tide. We needed to time our arrival at the low water points up the strait exactly so we could pass over the shallow points, which at low water were only 90cm deep. Taking some advice from some friendly boaters from the Gold Coast, we downloaded the Navonics Chart App for the ipad/iPhone. This was particularly helpful as this chart includes comments from the public on shallow points or rocks others had encountered. A quick calculation and we determined that we needed to leave at 2.30pm to arrive in time for high water.

We departed on time and within 300m of our overnight anchoring point we encountered a massive pod of dolphins unlike anything we had so far encountered. There were at least 40 dolphins and at one point everyone was yelling out and pointing in every direction, they completely surrounded the yacht. We circled slowly and they stayed around us, completely unphased at such a stranger in their midst. What was unusual was these dolphins were extremely small, all of them! They seemed more like babies as we had seen previously in pods offshore, but these were no babies, they also a far lighter grey and many had patches of white or were entirely off white. Their dorsal fins were small as well, as though the fins had been sanded down so they were only a small hump rather than the larger fin of their cousins. Extremely unusual, and clearly a totally different breed from dolphins we had seen before... something to research at some stage in the future.

We couldn't wait unfortunately, and had to head off to ensure we were on time at the lowest sections of the Sandy Straits with high water. The currents in some sections can flow as much as 4 knots, which is very strong, so missing the tide can not only risk a grounding, it can make it extremely difficult to make headway (our cruising speed being 6 knots on the motor left only 2 knots to spare).

We headed up the straits and ... they are beautiful and calm. On either side we see sandy beaches, sandy flats, the occasional palm tree and mangrove and many small gums and paper bark trees. It reminded Daddy of the Myall Lakes in NSW. Occasionally we passed a small tinny or sports fishing boat, but otherwise we had the waterway mostly to ourselves.

We passed two extremely shallow points on the trip where the depth alarms were sounding and we had to slow to just a couple of knots so that Daddy could throw the yacht into reverse if required. One was the 'narrows' which is on the chart and well know to the locals, the other was not on the Garmin chart, but was marked on the Navonics chart thanks to comments from the public. Both had the depth below the keel, even at high tide dropping to 80cm, a very tight fit, but manageable. The channels are reasonably well marked. One disconcerting point to note, was that the sand bars are always moving so it is difficult to rely on the charts and you have to keep your wits about you. At one point, according to the Garmin chart, we had deviated over 30m out of the channel and were passing way outside the channel marks and in fact we were apparently travelling over dry land, the Navonics chart had us on the edge of the channel and almost hitting the channel marks. Taking into account some comments on the Navonics chart and the references inserted by members of the public, the latest channel marks, which are often moved, were correctly shown. All a bit disconcerting, travelling (correctly) between channel marks we can see with our eyes and in a 4m wide channel with 3 knot currents, and charts that are not entirely reliable over this particular area; all part of the adventure!

We arrived at the North White Cliffs at the top of the Great Sandy Straits for the night after a wonderful journey over beautiful waters at about 7pm in the dark and dropped the anchor in about 7m of water. In the dark across the water we could just see the lights of the Harvey Bay. Well protected we had a pleasant night ready for the trip planned to Bundaberg in the morning behind Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world.

Day 14 - 22 April 2017 - So, can our yacht surf?

We have decided to try the Wide Bay Bar which is the entrance into the Great Sandy Straights. The original plan was to go around the top of Fraser Island, however it is a very long trip and we can't stay in Wide Bay any longer with everyone so sick.

We have obtained the latest coordinates from Coast Guard Tin Can Bay for the entrance across the bar. The water is as shallow as 3m at the low water, seas are 2m and high water is 1.8m. A worrying proposition.

We headed off from Wide Bay for the bar aiming to arrive 40min before the top of high water to have a slight incoming current and light. With light starting to fade we all put on our lifejackets and started the crossing.

Well well well... what can we say. We were travelling well with good speed and although it was a bit rough, things looked good until, yep... a set of waves arrived. "The sea was angry that day my friends".

Two monster waves arrived, probably 3-4m behind us, worst timing possible, and picked up the yacht. With Daddy holding on firmly and keeping the yacht going straight down the wave, the yacht reached 15.9knots and was surfing down the wave, the second wave was not quite as large, and we caught that one as well, although... it was easier, after all... Daddy was by then experienced with these sorts of monsters!

We made the turn as recommended by the Coast Guard and then weathered the mad mile dash.

As the sun set, we rounded the point and anchored in the entrance to Pelican Bay in 5m of water where it was calm.  Wow, what an experience.

What did we learn... perhaps don't do the crossing unless seas are under say 1.7m.

Tomorrow we will attempt the calm but shallow Great Sandy Strait at high tide.

Pelican Bay where we have anchored is absolutely beautiful, a real hidden treasure. Broad waterway and protected. We can see the 4WDs and camp sites on the beach, many of them are lining up to make the crossing to Fraser Island on the barge.

Daddy cooked a hearty curry with sausages, veges and rice. A few episodes of the "Deadliest Catch" (to show how soft we really are compared to them) and off to a well earned rest for everyone. We should all sleep well tonight.

Day 13 - 21 April 2017 - Less said about this day the better!

Weather report "suggested", I say that because they seem to be quite a bit out, seas of 2m and wind 10-15knots. We headed off, with the aim to do several day and nights to Bundaberg.

Within 5 hours we were in 2-3m rough seas, rain and wind gusting to 27knots and steady over 23knots. Everyone is sea sick to varying degrees and feeling terrible.

We spotted dolphins 3 times today, although they didn't stay around too long, ... probably knew we were so sea sick.

We rounded Double Island Point and anchored in Wide Bay in 5m of water. It is a safe anchorage but as the seas roll around the point, it makes for a terrible spot to anchor. 2m rolling waves come around the point and the yacht is rocking and rolling; although it is some relief, we are all still feeling terrible. We even had out lee cloths up to stop us from falling out of our bunks.

The Bay itself is beautiful and it would be great to come back one day (by land) and have an explore.

We enjoyed the company of another cruiser and fishing boat both waiting for the right tide to cross the bar into the Great Sandy Straits (the passage between the mainland and Fraser Island.