Summer in Brisbane and Gold Coast

We stayed at East Coast Marina in Manly for most of November and part of December. Manly is not far from Brisbane. We enjoyed the marina life for a while and Manly was surprisingly fun with all the Summer activities, the local markets and many of our cruising friends around, away from cyclone areas.

By mid December we traveled to Sydney and Melbourne for the Christmas holidays. Soon the New Year came and the first week of January we left the marina to spend some time around Moreton Bay before heading to the Gold Coast.

The weather was nice and we decided to explore Moreton Island. Just a couple of days in Tangalooma Wrecks were enough to convince us to look for a quieter place. We tried to go to the dolphin feeding attraction in the beach across the resort but incredibly you can only see the dolphins if you book a tour with them. This is a public beach, but apparently they can block you from accessing it while the dolphins come for their afternoon snack. We've seen wild dolphins feeding in Tin Can Bay and decided to skip it this time.

Tangalooma Wrecks, crowded during Summer

Not far south from Tangalooma we discovered  Little and Big Sand Hills. What a beautiful place with amazing sand dunes and water so clear that you can hardly believe this place exists inside Moreton Bay.

Big Sand Hills

Little Sand Hills

Hundreds of starfish can be seen at low tide

After spending 2 fantastic weeks we headed to the Gold Coast. We stopped at Dunwich (Deanabilla Bay) which we found has a good anchorage and a little town, where is possible to buy fuel and food. Expensive in the island but well provisioned. The anchorage gets a bit of swell from the ferries, but it seems well protected from easterly winds.

Arriving at the Gold Coast we headed to the anchorage at the Marine Stadium. We've heard a lot about this anchorage but had never been there so we decided to try it while the weather was good. It is a nice area but the tourist helicopters drive you crazy during the afternoons. After a couple of days we decided it was time to finally reach our destination at the Gold Coast City Marina and take care of regular maintenance jobs.

Early in March Zenitude went out of the water and into the storage area in Boatworks as we got ready for our upcoming overseas trip.

G.