May 2021
The day we left Moreton Bay we were leaving from the Tangalooma Wrecks and heading towards Mooloolaba, our first stop before Fraser Island. We were forecast for storms and lightening that night so had decided that rather then be at sea we would shelter for a day in Mooloolaba. The only problem was that we had yet another day of winds less then five knots and so although the sails were set we were actually relying on the engine to get us to our destination. It was about 30nm from the Tangalooma Wrecks to the entrance to Mooloolaba, which also happened to be a bar crossing. The sail to Mooloolaba was fairly uneventful, making it to the entrance of the river in the mid afternoon.
This was set to be our second major bar crossing. When we arrived there was a boat going in before us so we did the right thing and stood off to watch it go through. By this point we had already been watching the bar for a couple of minutes and hadn’t seen a single breaking wave.However as soon as the power boat entered the bar a large wave broke across the entrance, throwing white water everywhere. This made us a little wary so we continued watching the bar and after a couple of minutes with no sign of any other breaking waves we figured that it must have been the powerboats wake that had caused the disturbance so we proceed to the bar. To start everything was going perfectly but as soon as our bow was level with the breakwater we saw the wave coming and we were past the point of no return. With the surfers off the adjacent beach starting to stand up on their boards we revved the engine hard and raced ahead of the surf wave making it a boat length ahead of it before it broke behind us. This was a hair raising moment but we made it through the worst of the bar with only a little green water churning behind us.
Once the drama of the bar was behind us it was time to drop the sails and find somewhere to anchor for the night. We travelled about a mile up the river and dropped our anchor amongst about 20-30 other anchored boats ready for a peaceful afternoon before the forecast storm arrived. However we were lucky and other then a few light rain showers while we slept the storm never actually hit us. According to the radar and the clouds around us there was plenty of lightening around but it was far enough away that we couldn’t even hear it. The following day we went for a brief trip ashore to check out the town of Mooloolaba before spending a nice easy day on Allagai, catching up on a few jobs on board.
That night we were hit with a storm that gave us a spectacular light show. We could see it coming for about an hour as it looked like strobe lights outside the portholes. However it seemed like all the lightning was in the clouds as we were only hearing thunder every so often not the continuous rumble that the light show suggested. Although the lack of sound didn’t mean it wasn’t a bad storm as when it finally did reach us the front brought high winds, lots of rain and even more lightning, which we didn’t think possible. However the front was fast moving and within 15minutes the worst had passed us and although the rain stuck around for a couple of hours the wind had all but disappeared.
The following morning we were up bright and early as it was time to leave Mooloolaba . We had the tide in the right direction, no wind and the storm from the night before was well and truly over so were ready to take on the bar. Passing through the bar on the way out was easy with no sign of the rogue breaking waves over the entry. Although due to the early hour we had to deal with the commercial fishing boats coming and going making life a little challenging. In fact just as we were exiting the bar we had one boat standing off waiting for us to exit and another race to overtake us at the worst possible moment causing Allagai to roll wildly when its huge wake hit us, it was worse then crossing the bar. Once we exited the bar though it was smooth sailing towards our next destination. That day we were aiming to anchor behind Double Island Point to wait for the right tide to go through Wide Bay Bar on Fraser Island. The sail to Double Island Point was another long motor-sail, it seemed we just couldn’t catch a break in the weather department. We had been forecast to have a 5-10kt southwesterly but instead we had a light northerly breeze. The only way for us to have sailed to the anchorage that night would have been to tack our way up the coast which with Allagai’s upwind capabilities would have taken days.Â
It was just as the sun was dipping below the horizon that we rounded the point into the bay finding a spot to anchor behind a sandbar just as the last light was fading. However we weren’t the only boat taking shelter in this bay that night, when we arrived we counted about 12 other yachts. But the following morning when we left we counted about 20, the population in the anchorage had just about doubled overnight.
We left for Wide Bay Bar about 4 in the morning set to reach the bar an hour before high tide. That morning we were the first boat to leave and by the time we reached the bar there were three other boats lined up behind us like ducks with four others racing across the bay. Crossing the bar was actually quite uneventful, there were no breaking waves thanks to the low swell and so it was actually what the locals like to call the “mad mile” after that was more challenging. The water in this part was lumpy, confused and very churned up, nothing Allagai or her crew couldn’t handle but uncomfortable due to the effect of wind over tide.
Once we left the bar and the river entrance behind it was time to find somewhere to drop the anchor for the day before the tide turned against us. We decided to motor to a spot called Garry’s Anchorage, a little side creek created by an island in the main channel, about 10nm from the entrance. And we couldn’t have picked a better spot to drop the anchor. Garry’s anchorage was completely protected and offered us a very peaceful day aboard Allagai at anchor. However the following day we were ready to move on to see if we could find somewhere to stretch our legs, as Garry’s Anchorage only sported a 4WD track to nowhere in particular, which we had explored the day before.
So we weighed anchor after breakfast to head off for the main channel before the tide changed. That day we were aiming for Kingfisher Bay which hosted the islands resort and had many walking trails leading from the area. Kingfisher Bay was about 20nm away so we were hoping to sail there but the wind was once again non-existent. That day we had a few knots of wind behind us so we set the spinaker. But not even that would stay full of wind in the light conditions, so once again it was another long motor to the anchorage although thankfully the tide was in our favour most of the way. Apparently about halfway along the bay the tide changes direction as you get closer to the other end of the island and the second entrance. But this didn’t slow us to much and thankfully we reached our anchorage before the flow could really pick up too much.
We stayed anchored in Kingfisher Bay for two nights and while there did a lot of fishing off the back deck and although the fishing was fun we didn’t catch anything of legal length so they all got thrown back. However we didn’t only fish we also enjoyed a nice long walk ashore. We walked the circuit along the beach to McKenzies Jetty which returned to the small resort town via the WW2 Commando School on the sand dunes above the beach. This was a lovely walk through lightly wooded forest along a well defined sandy track. Following our walk we spent the rest of the afternoon on board Allagai, fishing and packing the boat up for our next sail.
We had decided that the following day we would head over to Hervey Bay on the mainland. This was about a 15nm sail and for the first time in a long time this was completed nearly entirely under sail. That day we started with light winds from behind and this time conditions were perfect to set the spinnaker. However by mid morning the wind picked up and the spinnaker had to come in and be replaced by our usual sails. With the winds that day we were able to have a magnificent sail with the full mainsail, stay sail and jib. We reached Hervey Bay a couple of hours after lunch, dropping anchor behind the sand bar off the main beach.
While there time seemed to get away from us and so we were anchored in Hervey Bay for 5 nights taking many trips ashore to explore the local area. During our time in Hervey Bay we visited a local park with a large fruit bat population, took the bus to the local botanical gardens and walked the entire length of the foreshore path. However after five days we were ready to move on and find some where new to explore. Our next destination we were hoping to visit was still a little unknown, we were going to aim for Bundaberg and then following that find a coral reef snorkel as after many months we were finally entering the Great Barrier Reef region.