Bundaberg to Lady Musgrave

We left Bundaberg at around 00:30 on the morning of the 26th of July and motored north towards Lady Musgrave. We were at the tail end of a good weather window so there was a light north westerly breeze blowing and calm seas. 

The new sails and feathering propellers are great in light winds. We had to add motor power to keep up our boat speed, but we only ticked the engines over at low revs so we hardly used any fuel. Apart from a few fishing boats hunting along the edge of the marine exclusion zones we had the ocean to ourselves - no large ships or other yachts.

Sam took watch at around 0:600 with about ten miles to go to Lady Musgrave. Before I headed down to catch some rest I reeled out our fishing line on the off chance that something would take a nibble as the sun slowly rose in the east.

We took the long-way around the reef system to avoid the marine park and snuck in close to the southern edge to see if we could lure any fish out of the shallows. There were some small breaking waves on the reef flat, but we maintained a safe distance and hoped for the best. Unfortunately we lucked out despite Sam's fish dancing and we did not catch anything before we entered the lagoon.

Sam thinks she saw a whale near the northeast tip of the reef, but the rest of the crew didn't see anything. Sam’s next sighting - accompanied by the call "dolphins at the bow” - was accurate. We all rushed forward to watch a pod of dolphins playing off the bows of Lucey Blue. Eric was enthralled by the strange friendly fish that snorted and leaped out of the water and a lot of fun was had by all.

We entered Lady Musgrave lagoon about an hour before dead low tide and anchored near the island at the west end. 

What a beautiful place! Sure there was a southerly change coming and we would be locked down for a few days by 25 to 30 knot winds, but today the sun was out, the water was warm and we had reef to explore… 

Brisbane to Bundaberg - Nearly nonstop!

We left Brisbane on the 15th of July and motored down the Brisbane river against the last of the incoming tide.

On the way down we passed another Lagoon 42 TPI - Connect Four, and a range of spectacular properties before we made it to the industrial area of Port Brisbane. The change in scenery along the banks of the river is dramatic and its great to see ships, tug boats, factories and container loading facilities near the mouth of the river. Sydney has lost a lot of this character with most of the city's waterfront now converted to luxury residences.

There was no wind at all when we arrived at Moreton Bay, but ever hopeful we pulled up our new mainsail and set off north via the small boat channel south of Bribe Island. Ryan used the traditional method to pull up the mainsail while Nick used his new electric winch handle - a WinchRite from Sailology- to save energy for more important tasks!

The kids entertained themselves in the cockpit and we were all treated to a spectacular sunset on the way  to Double Island Point. We arrived around midnight in pitch-black (there was no moon and plenty of low cloud that blocked out the stars) and anchored in six metres of water.

We woke early on the 16th to dash across the last eight nautical miles to the first waypoint of the Wide Bay Bar. We wanted to make the crossing while the tide was rising, but also wanted to wait for first light so we had everything working in our favour.

Wide Bar Bar was tranquil with no breaking waves in the shallow channel and we were pulled rapidly into the waters behind Fraser Island. We love to hitch a lift when we can as it's nice to see Lucey Blue traveling at about nine knots over the ground when we are only moving at seven through the water!

We decided to try and ride the tide all the way through the narrow channels behind Fraser Island to Hervey Bay. The conditions were perfect, but we needed to maintain the tidal advantage if we were going to clear the shallows near Boonlye Point. We nearly ran aground there last time and had no desire to get stuck.

We passed a number of yachts along the way and managed to sneak through the worst bits just on high tide. By the time we had cleared the Fairway light on Hervey Bay our boat speed across the ground had hit ten knots. We had been sucked in at one end of Fraser Island and spat out the other end in a day which is a record for us.

The crew of Lucey Blue kept their eyes peeled for sealife on Harvey Bay and Eric spent hours seagazing with Dad on the front trampolines, but the whales alluded us this time.

We arrived off Burrent Heads at dusk and gently pulled into the Bundaberg Port Marina at around 18:00 with the help of another yachtie - Gayle from Electra.

Carrying on the Mackerel Tradition

I know that you are probably well and truly over all the fishing photos...but I'm putting this up because I think it is amusing that with an ocean full of different fish, it really does appear that Mackerel (or Mackerel-themed fish [aka Mackerel Tuna]) are pretty much all that we are going to catch! Obviously our lure is a 'Mackerel-only' lure!

We left Bundy on Wednesday and had a terrific Spinnaker ride down through Hervey Bay, stopping behind Bookar Island in the Great Sandy Strait for the night. It was a glorious day to be out on the water, capped off with another catch of....you guessed it, Mackerel! This time we caught a lovely, golden-hued, Broad-Barred Mackerel (or Grey Mackerel), 80 cm long and weighing in at 3.5 kg.

Apparently the bars fade into grey patches...so you can't really see them above, but Emily caught them nicely in this picture below.

He was delicious, as usual. We are now on the hunt for a Jack Mackerel or Wahoo to top off our Mackerel menu!

I thought I'd also show you a cute picture Emily snapped of one of the Bundaberg Port Marina natives...

These little Green Tree Frogs came out to sit on the grass along the marina walkway in the evening, much to the delight of the kids.

Blue lights and Bundy-licious Booty!

 We have been having a lovely time in Bundy, catching up with family, seeing the sights, doing the boat stuff...

The Bundaberg Port Marina is a short drive from town (through some beautiful cane fields), and has had pretty much everything we've needed. We rented a car from the marina for the week, and have buzzed about all over the place in that.

Yesterday we all went in to town to visit the Bundaberg Distillery Company, and do their site tour. My favourite bit was the huge tank of molasses...I think the guide said it held a couple of olympic swimming pools-worth when full. The kids liked checking out the bottling plant, and watching all the bottles buzz around and be filled and capped. I think Eric enjoyed the Bondstores the most...he took one look and then promptly fell fast asleep in the pouch. I guess six million dollars worth of rum will do that to a small boy (and that was just one barrel....!!!!!).

The adults got to test some of the 'goods' on the way out...I zeroed in on their Royal Liqueur which they said was only available on-site....delicious! It is Bundaberg Rum with coffee and chocolate flavours, and being a fan of things like Kahlua and Bailey's, it was very much my thing. I think I may have to stock-up on the way back through here ;-).

The motor boat next to us on the marina has some very nifty blue lights attached to her stern under the waterline. I took the kids over there last night with some bread and we threw it in for the little fish...a whole school of what were probably Butter-Bream quickly came out from underneath the pontoon and began a feeding frenzy on the bread, much to the delight of the kids...

I was able to tell what fish they were by using our newly aquired 'Grant's Guide to Fishes'. We had looked all over the place for this book prior to leaving Canberra, but came up short. Then, lo and behold.....I spied not one, but two copies in Dymocks, Bundaberg (I wasn't even looking for it at the time)....so we are all kitted up now, and ready to identify fish. Hooray!

We are planning to head out to Lady Musgrave Island tomorrow night, and once there will be out of email/phone range for at least a week, perhaps longer.

'See' you then :-).

Guess where we are...

Last night, after posting here. I jumped into bed...for a very short kip. Nick and I both got up at 11:40 pm, got dressed and sorted and upped anchor at midnight and motored up and out of the Great Sandy Strait and into Hervey Bay. We decided that we'd seen enough of Fraser Island for now, and will probably stop in there again on our way home late this year, or early next year.

It was fun motoring out at midnight. It was a very quiet night on the water (another reason we chose to up anchor with short notice), very little wind and no one else was silly enough to be out and about at that time of night. The moon was up...giving great visibility, and we only found one channel marker that was definitely NOT where it was marked as being. All the rest were where they should be, and flashing as they should flash (the various markers have different coloured lights on them (port, starboard, cardinal marks etc) and flash at different intervals, so you can easily tell which one you are looking at (when you compare them to the ones listed in your chart). We even had the current coming out with us, and it turned our 6 kts of boat speed into 8+ kts over the ground (such hoons)!

Out on Hervey Bay it was very peaceful sailing. I stayed up with Nick for a while, fed Eric and then went back to bed until about 6 am as we were approaching Bargara (where we called Nick's parents and made them come out onto their balcony so we could wave hello). We entered the Burnett River at 08:00, and we were all tied up at Bundaberg Port Marina by a little after 08:30. Gotta love a smooth night sail where no one chucks :-).

Today has been a quiet day here, just wandering around working out where everything is. Nick's parents stopped by to say hi then went into town and picked us up some fresh bread, chicken, Bonjela (the first class passenger is having a hard time with his erupting teeth...) and TWO peach blossom cakes. They are a different texture to the one I made with Emma's recipe, but still delicious. If I remember, I will take a pic tomorrow and show you what the store-bought version looks like.

ETA...this is a Peach Blossom cake from Lushus Cakes in Bundaberg...

I have a mountain of washing to do tomorrow (it is truly never ending), and Nick is going to have another try at fixing a leak on the dinghy as the patch he applied in Tin Can Bay is lifting up again :-(. We plan on staying here for about a week. In that time we hope to do the Distillery tour, have a look around at some of the places Nick remembers from when he stayed here as a child, then stock up on food, fuel, gas etc etc etc. I also have a list of random things we need to get for the boat...just bits and pieces we keep finding we need, but don't have on board (like a nail brush, a wooden spoon, another bean bag and some Aeroguard to name a few....). We also have to pick up a few parcels that we had directed to Nick's parents' place...stinger suits and Emily's NSW Distance Education packs for weeks 3 - 6 of term three.

Our next stop after this is Lady Musgrave Island, and I am really looking forward to getting there. I am hoping it will be warm enough to break out the hookah system we got at the Sydney International Boat Show last year. That is going to be LOTS of fun, and hopefully there will be plenty of pretty underwater pics coming this way as a result.

I'll leave you with one more pic taken at North White Cliffs...(there are more, but I am still not in the mood to fight with this Mac...so I am trying to take it easy, and not fry its little brain)...

... BTW, yes, she did survive this flight. It's not as high up as it looks ;-).

Bye bye for now...
:-)