Having been spoilt with two nights sleep inside the Great Sandy Straights on flat water with little movement, we were snapped back into reality last night with a most uncomfortable night anchored at Double Island Point. The swell rolled in relentlessly and there was nowhere to hide. Whilst the rollers were not large, they were enough to keep the boat lurching from one side to another all night.
Sunrise at Double Island Point
Neither of us had much sleep and were keen to get out of there. To meet the tide at Mooloolaba we planned to leave at 7 am. Despite the discomfort, it is a very pretty place. A whale swam behind the boat quite close to us whilst we were getting ready to go, but by the time I got to the camera it was gone.
Today an easterly is forecast, which will be ideal for our sail to Mooloolaba, however, as we are getting ready it is still coming from the SE. Nevertheless, trusting the forecast, we get the code zero out and hoist it up in anticipation of a nice sail in a light breeze. Pulling the anchor up, the water is so clear I watch the anchor break out of the sand 5.5 m below us.
We motored out past the point, raised our mainsails and headed south. Still no sign of an easterly, but we can get a tight angle on on the Southeaster, and sail for the next 2.5 hours ( in our case with the code zero up sailing close to wind speed for about 2 of those). Alas it is only blowing 6-7 knots and moving more south, so in the end we had to motor the rest of the way.
It was a great day for whale watching, and we lost count of how many we saw. Three curious ones came so close to our boat we had to alter course to avoid them.
Three curious whales came very close
It was a nice fine day, with light conditions, so we just soaked up the scenery. We also spotted a large turtle off Coolum, and a shark a little further on. It looked like a Wobbegong.
Coastline along the way
Sunshine Beach
Coolum
We arrived at Mooloolaba Bar at 2.30 pm, and entering it was chaotic. The first obstacle was someone diving just in the eastern side of the entrance signalled by a pair of flippers sticking up in the air. Little boats were darting in out, a kayak was stopped in the middle of the channel with no real intentions of moving until we offered some encouragement, and it is shallow with only 1.4 m under our keel in the centre.
As we got further in and the kayak under the way, a trawler came bearing down on us from behind intent on passing us on the western side, between us and the marina we are trying to enter. We moved over and let him through, and not soon after a fishing boat wanted to do the same. There was a huge amount of room to pass us on port, but the all wanted to see if they could fit between us and the marina despite that they were heading further down river.
We were in our berth safely at a bit after 3pm. Wilparina was in about 10 minutes later, and we went up to the office and checked in for 4 days. Sunday looks like being when the latest southerly change will be exhausted.
It was agreed we would eat out tonight, so we all walked down to the seafood market and had a good feed of seafood.
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