Tuesday evening
We picked up anchor at 1700 and cautiously motored out of the shallow Iluka Bay. Once in the main channel Mark pushed the throttle down so we could push our way against the incoming tide to cross the Yamba bar. The seas were 3 ½ metres and the southerly wind was gusting up to 30 knots as we set the main and the genoa and settled in for the overnight passage of 14 hours to the Gold Coast. It was a bit rocky to begin with, Escapade was rolling up to 25 degrees as the swell rolled through underneath us. Lucy and her bed were firmly tucked into the area below the helm but on one occasion ended up in the companion way. Unfortunately, Georgie’s no-seasickness streak was broken, which was not too bad considering she didn’t want to take sea sickness tablets.
Wednesday
We were fortunate to have a clear night sky with full (pink) moon. As the night wore on, the sea and wind abated. We made good time averaging 7 ½ knots, arriving at the Gold Coast Seaway at 0700 Wednesday morning, the temperature a balmy 23 degrees.
Georgie had fallen asleep early in the morning and got a bit of a surprise when she woke to find sky rise buildings lining the shore, jet boats buzzing past, paragliders being pulled behind speed boats and tin can cowboys (thanks Azz for clarifying the term for the overpowered tinnies!). There were also a lot of people living on derelict boats, many appear to have been anchored in the same spot for years.
Mark asked me to be a spare set of eyes as we entered the sea-way looking out for other traffic, as we rounded the corner and entered the channel for North Wave Break Island I noticed a whirlpool ahead (caused by the incoming tide wrapping around the island) and casually pointed it out to Mark, before we knew it Escapade had entered the whirlpool and was turned 90 degrees at 4 ½ knots so we were now facing the rock groin bordering the island which was roughly 50 metres away. After a few expletives we exited the whirlpool, Escapade under control again.
We dropped anchor at 0730 and were taking in the sights when we noticed a rather odd-looking tank anchored a little further on. The tank’s name was Hatikva. At first glance we had thought it was some sort of derelict floating tank, but then we saw people climb out of it carrying luggage, so on further investigation we found that it was indeed a boat – of sorts (if you are interested in its history, google Hatikva Gold Coast – Abraham Tanton).
We were not entirely happy with our anchorage and decided to move around to Bum’s Bay which is opposite Sea World. There were so many different sights to see, one day a bus (Quack’r Duck amphibious tours) with huge wheels drove down the boat ramp and entered the water and motored off, it was interesting to see it come back down the channel a few hours later and exit via the boat ramp!
Thursday
We asked Georgie what she’d like to do whilst we were on the Gold Coast (within our budget of course). She chose the Mt Tambourine Tree Top Challenge (which is a high rope course and zip line) as her first choice and the local Gold Coast Swimming Pool as her second. Unfortunately, Mt Tamborine was 45km’s away, so we put that one on the bucket list for a later date. Later that day we went to the Gold Coast pool which hosted the Olympic trials late April, to think we just missed seeing Australia’s best swimmers in action! The aquatic centre was very impressive with 2 x 50-metre pools, 3 x 25-metre pools (1 of those was used for high diving) and a 25-metre indoor pool.
Sunday
On arriving in Queensland we had our first drop of rain since Tassie, this wasn’t such a problem as the temperature was still a comfortable 23 degrees. After a few days we picked up anchor and motor sailed up The Broadwater along South Stradbroke Island. Mark had picked an anchorage for the night at a location named Tipplers. We arrived just before lunch and were amazed at the number of people around. By the time we had finished lunch we decided we were not going to stay as the place was overcrowded with cruisers, tinnies and jet-skis. Apparently, Monday was a public holiday in Queensland and everyone was making the most of the long weekend. We departed at 1300 and two hours later arrived at Jacobs Well, a town that was slowly morphing from a quiet low key holiday destination into an up market suburban development with huge houses and canals. It was a welcome change from the Gold Coast and our brief visit to Tipplers.
There are a few theories about how Jacobs Well got its name.
Theory 1. The area was named after a biblical name from the book of Genesis or
Theory 2. The area was named after the eldest son of Johann Gross who was a pioneer from the 1860’s. His son found a well while fishing and hunting.
Monday
When departing Jacobs Well at 1000 the next morning, Georgie and I were slowly bringing up the anchor chain washing the sausage mud off as we went when we noticed that we had caught an old fish trap on the anchor, unfortunately it was broken and contained no fish. (Mark and Georgie have not done any fishing since leaving Tasmania and because the intention was always to pass through NSW fairly quickly, so had not purchased an NSW fishing licence. We have noticed a lot of fish life whilst sailing in Queensland, so high on the to do list is to purchase a QLD fishing licence.)
It was a short 4 hour voyage up the Broadwater with several stressful sections where we crossed sandy shoals and passed under powerlines. We arrived at Dunwich on North Stradbroke Island at 1400. The afternoon was spent with Georgie completing schoolwork and miscellaneous boat jobs.
Tuesday
The next morning was lovely with the sun shining and no wind so we took the dinghy ashore and went for a walk around Dunwich.
We departed Dunwich at 1300 and motored across to the Brisbane River. Mark called Brisbane VTS on the VHF radio to get clearance to come into port as there were a number ships entering and departing. We passed cranes unloading shipping containers, cars, grain, coal just to name a few. After 2 hours we arrived at our anchorage opposite the Brisbane Botanic Gardens.
