Finally a Break in the Weather

Thursday 14th October




We left the marina at 8 am to head south to Southport. Low tide was at 6 am , so we waited until the bar had settled down a bit. We raised the mainsail in the river before going out. It was a bit rolly going out and there was still a reasonable swell as we headed off to Cape Morton, but the forecast is for a 10-15 knot NE breeze, so hopefully we might get to have a sail.



We motor sailed until 11.30am, when the breeze started to pick up and we cut the engine and sailed for the next 2.5 hrs getting along nicely at 6-7 knots. Cooinda and Kyeema also left at the same time so we had each other in sight most of the way down. The wind dropped around 2 pm so we motor sailed again for a few hours until we passed Point Lookout and with a 1.5 knot current running with us we were going to arrive at the Gold Coast Seaway too early with the tide there still running out, so we stopped the engine and sailed the rest of the way on a mainsail with the wind right behind us.



We saw lots of dolphins on this leg, more than we had seen anywhere in QLD waters.



We arrived at the waypoint off the seaway at dead low tide, around 8.30pm. There was a good sized swell still rolling in at the Gold Coast so we waited till 9.30 pm to cross the bar, figuring that the tidal flow would be pretty neutral at this time. The wind was now up to 20 knots and getting the sail down in the rolling seas was a bit uncomfortable, so it was a pretty rough job that we tidied up when we got in.



Approaching the bar on the southern leads, was very rolly going in and there was still a good swell going across the bar but no breaking waves, so the crossing was a bit uncomfortable but otherwise uneventful. I don’t think I would have liked to have been doing it in a power boat.



We were anchored at the spit, just off Seaworld by 10.30 pm, had dinner and had no trouble going to sleep. We will head into the Southport Yacht Club Marina first thing in the morning, as there is a gale warning for tomorrow and the wind is expected to come up early from the North.