Sailing to Pancake Creek

Saturday 24th




We set out for Pancake Creek at 6.30 am, shortly after Rod & Lee. Set sail after clearing the entrance to the Burnett River, and took off on a mainsail only with a 15-20 knot SE Breeze. We quickly passed Cooinda averaging around 7 knots. Not far into our trip there was a Securite message from Bundaberg Marine Rescue, that a 15m yacht had been abandoned off Breaksea Spit at the top of Fraser Island at 1 am this morning, and had been logged as a navigation hazrd as the vessel was either drifting or had sunk but was not yet found.



We were making good ground until but had to slow down just of Round Hill Head when the drag on the trolling rod went off, and pandemonium broke loose on board, as it was obvious we had a good fish on and were still doing around 7 knots and would run out of line if we didn't slow down. Mike was reeling it in, Carole was on the helm and we had to come about to lose speed and regain the some of the few hundred metres of line that had now run out. So forget the sailing, start the motor and go head to wind into an 18 knot SE wind was the only option. Half an hour later we had landed a sizable mackerel tuna, despite our high hopes that we finally had a good eating fish we ended up with enough bait to last us for some time.

                                                                   Fish on the line

                                                    
                                                                 There's the fish

Landing the fish

Landing the fish was a messy process with David showing excellent skills with the gaff, blood everywhere but the fish safely on board. He then retreated downstairs to relieve himself of his lunch.

                                                  Support crew during the landing

It was then back to sailing and liberal washing of the cockpit.



We arrived at Pancake Creek around 4.30pm and anchored in the outer anchorage area, close to the entrance. We arrived only a few hours into the incoming tide and it was too shallow to take on entering the inner anchorage area which required going through a passage with a datum level of 0.6m.



Rod and Lee arrived about 45 mins later and anchored nearby. It was blowing hard and there was little enthusiasm to get dinghies off the deck at this hour so we each dined on board our own boats.