Through the Sheridan Flats and on to Kingfisher Resort

Thursday 8^th June 2017

It is a very peaceful night at Garry’s Anchorage, with hardly any breeze all night, and it was cool. Just after midnight the dingos start howling and it went on for about an hour with plenty of them participating. We have a full moon tomorrow night, so maybe they were howling at the now large moon.

We woke at 6.15 am, planning a 7 am departure to meet the high tide at Sheridan Flats, (the shallowest part of the Great Sandy Straights ), at 8.50am. The tides here are big, this one is 2.81m, so we should have enough water to get through comfortably. If you get it wrong, the low is about 0.7m, so it best not to run aground.

Hopeful Crabbers picked up their pots before we left, no crabs were seen 

We left Garry’s Anchorage on time at 7am, with fog still coming off the water. As expected, the American boat was behind us in no time and followed us through the shallows, and then went their own way.

Scintilla the USA boat that followed us before is right behind us, note the vapour still rising off the water

The boats following us through the Sheridan Flats (Scintilla on the right) and off to deeper water

Our destination is Kingfisher Resort, which took us a bit under 3.5 hrs to get to. The shoaling along the shore is significant here, soi you need to anchor a fair way out, and like yesterday, it is bitterly cold this morning due to the 12 knot SW breeze.

Approaching Kingfisher the car ferry is in and being loaded

Not sure if we will bother to inflate the dinghy unless the weather improves, we had lunch on board, and by 2pm, the wind was abating and the day warmed up. So we pumped up the dinghy and headed to shore.

Mica at anchor, we pulled the dinghy a fair way up the beach as the tide was coming in

The Resort is still avery impressive 

By now it was shorts and T shirt weather and we had a very pleasant walk around the resort and some way down the beach, before heading back to the boat a bit after 4pm, before the many biting insects had a chance to get a meal.

The Soldier Crabs are on the move

A single huge mangrove sitting in the middle of the beach

And another

Time to head back to the boat

The dinghy was hoisted up on the deck, and we plan to head to Bundaberg tomorrow. The wind forecast looks light and a bit on the beam, so the code zero is set and ready for use tomorrow (hopefully the forecast is right for once).

The moon has risen early tonight and is almost full