Thursday 24th September 2015
It was a wild night at Hunter Island with
the Southerly change coming in 5 hours earlier than forecast and winds gusting
to 30 knots. It is a relatively shallow anchorage and we are in a period of
very low tides, so keeping an eye on the amount of water under us added to the
excitement.
At midnight there was lots of activity on
Wilparina, and then on came the navigation lights and they headed out to deeper
water to re anchor. Apparently their anchor alarm went off with only 0.8 m of
water under them and the tide not fully out till 1pm. We had 1.2 m at low tide
but kept an eye on it for an hour either side of the change and we were also
ready to move if it got down below a metre. With the strong winds and
associated swell it was a bumpy old night and not a lot of time was spent
sleeping.
We were up at 7 am and now had 5.2 m of
water under us, but pulled up the anchor at 8 am and moved further out to give
us an extra metre of depth as tonight’s tide will be lower than last nights by 0.5
m.
The tidal range in this area is huge , 4-5 m and there is scant information available for individual anchorages, so you just need to monitor what is happening based on the data you have, and be prepared to move. It is a bit of a compromise between getting out of the wind and having enough depth at low tide, with enough chain out to allow for an up to 5 m change.
The tidal range in this area is huge , 4-5 m and there is scant information available for individual anchorages, so you just need to monitor what is happening based on the data you have, and be prepared to move. It is a bit of a compromise between getting out of the wind and having enough depth at low tide, with enough chain out to allow for an up to 5 m change.
Wilparina anchored a long way out because of the huge tidal range. We are out at the same distance from the beach now.
The wind is abating in the morning but
still in the 15 to 20 knot range. The last few days have been quite cool and
there is a heavy smoke haze over the mainland from bushfires. We could smell
the smoke last night.
Of the six boats that were here last night,
2 have headed North (on a great breeze if you are going in that direction), and
the other 4 of us are still here waiting for better conditions for travelling
South tomorrow.
We do not leave our boats today as it is still blowing hard. We are in touch with Wilparina on the VHF radio and have agreed to leave tomorrow morning at 7am for Island Head Creek or Port Clinton, depending on the conditions. Either way, we are unlikely to have an internet connection for 1 or 2 days, so the blog will be updated when we get to Yeppoon on Saturday or Sunday depending on the weather and tides.
We do not leave our boats today as it is still blowing hard. We are in touch with Wilparina on the VHF radio and have agreed to leave tomorrow morning at 7am for Island Head Creek or Port Clinton, depending on the conditions. Either way, we are unlikely to have an internet connection for 1 or 2 days, so the blog will be updated when we get to Yeppoon on Saturday or Sunday depending on the weather and tides.
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