Monday 11th to 18th October 2021 - Burnett Heads to Paradise Point - The adventures of sailing vessel Escapade

Monday

It was a sunny morning with the promise of another lovely day. At 0515 we cast off from our berth at Burnett Heads and motor sailed south to Big Woody Island dropping anchor in 8 metres of water with 45 metres of chain out. When we arrived at 1500 we were the only boat in the anchorage, we were questioning why that was the case with the weather forecast, but later in the evening we were joined by 4 other boats. We were starting to wonder if we had the forecast wrong!

During the ten months that we have been away we have met a few of the You-Tubers that Mark follows:-

Troy & Pascale – Free Range Sailing at Kettering in Tasmania
Norm – Motor-sailing for old dudes at Magnetic Island & Townsville
Stu – Dangar Marine at Gladstone
Damien & Jess – Project Brupeg at Burnett Heads (Bundaberg)

It was good to learn that they are as nice off screen as they are on.

Tuesday

We were the last to leave our overnight anchorage as we were waiting for the high tide to pass through the Great Sandy Straits between Fraser Island and the mainland. At 1130 we picked up anchor and made the most of the high tide pushing us along at 7 knots.

We had been hoping that we could spend a few days at the north end of Fraser Island , but the weather was against us so we kept heading south. The weather was not looking good to cross the Wide Bay Bar so we decided to head down to Tin Can Bay, which was 2 nautical miles past the Wide Bay Bar. We were all (including Lucy) looking forward to going ashore and stretching the legs.

Wednesday

The weather forecast was for rain & wind so not wanting to be stuck on the boat for another day we jumped in the dinghy and headed ashore to the township of Tin Can Bay. Georgie had a Webex meeting with her class at 0900 so she brought along her computer and work so that we could sit down at a park shelter and she could have her meeting.

The area around Tin Can Bay reminded us of Banjo country. There were a lot of derelict boats that had been anchored and forgotten and the bay was surrounded by mangroves.

To cut an hour off the voyage the next day we made the executive decision to motor back to Inskip Point which was just inside Wide Bay bar. Shortly after we had anchored a lady in a vessel named Iron Maiden anchored less than 70 metres from Escapade, it was a little too close so Mark asked her nicely to move, which she did only to do a second lap and anchor in the exact same spot. When she was pulling up her anchor the second time she thought she’d accidently snagged our anchor, Mark was not impressed!

Thursday

At 0600 we picked up anchor and motored toward the Wide Bay Bar. It takes about an 1 hour to go up the channel before turning to cross the bar. The channel is 2 nautical miles long and had such confused seas it was worse than crossing the actual bar. Once out in the sea we had up to a 3 metre swell on the beam with the wind ranging from 10-25 knots. A number of electrical storms passed over us along the way making the voyage even more stressful. It came as no surprise just to cap off the terrible conditions, poor Georgie was ill.

It took us 14 hours to get to Bribie Island, dropping the pick in the dark at 1930.

Friday

It was most embarrassing that we were out of practice with the long hauls and it took us a day to recover. We fired up the generator, ran the water maker and completed various other domestic duties before going for a walk around the CBD of Bribie Island.

For the last month we had been trying to work out how we would do the return trip through NSW to Victoria. Mark had been in touch with the COVID hotline and the Victorian Dept of Health. But after reading the latest news release today we learned that Victoria had down-graded many NSW local government areas for returning Victorians. It was welcome news, as we would now be able to anchor in bays for shelter in adverse weather conditions and go ashore!

Saturday

It was a gorgeous sunny morning, but the wind was blowing 27 knots from the west putting us on a lee shore so we picked up anchor and motored further up the channel seeking more protection.

We were meeting up with Mark’s sister Claire, husband Pano, and boys Antoni, Felix and Theo for a picnic lunch on the foreshore. It was fantastic to see them all again and the kids had great fun playing on the beach.

Prime spot for the fireworks show at Bribie Island

Sunday

We had been hoping to snorkel the Tangalooma wrecks on Moreton Island, but again the weather was not in our favour, so we continued onto Dunwich on North Stradbroke Island.

We had anchored in this bay on the way north and was a quite a lovely spot. After setting the anchor we met Pete and Sal ashore and went for a walk to stretch the legs.