Urangan to Bundaberg - A visit to Maryborough

The wind kept blowing hard for 4 days, we were happy with the decision to come to the marina. The weather started improving on Thursday and we decided to rent a car for the day and visit the historical town of Maryborough. It is a pleasant and interesting tour and is good to go there on Thursdays when the outdoor City Markets are open because the opening times coincide with the historical Mary Ann Steam train running and the "town crier" firing the time canon at 1:00 PM, which is all very interesting once you find the story behind it. There are several museums that open every day but I imagine any other day the atmosphere in town wouldn't be the same.

At the markets we bought some local produce and then went for a ride in the Mary Ann steam train replica that is maintained and run by a team of volunteers crew that are happy to tell you anything you like to know about the town. The original train was the first Queensland's steam engine and was built in 1873. The Mary Ann was used to saw the rails and sleepers for her own track. It runs among pretty gardens and alongside the Mary River shore for a little ride. After that it was lunch time and we had quite nice food at the open market while watching and learning about the time canon.  A little ceremony and we learn that the canon was fired everyday at 1:00 PM in the 1800's to let all workers in the vicinity know it was lunch time and let people reset their watches if needed.

The Mary Ann steam train

The 'Town Crier' used to read the news for the community before
firing the cannon exactly at 1:00 PM everyday.

Just a short walk from the markets is the heritage building where Mary Poppins' writer, Pamela Lyndon Travers, was born, the nanny's bronze statue is outside, just standing there .....  

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious kind of day

Next day we leave Urangan. It' s Friday June 13 and is the Soccer World Cup opening so we leave after watching the first game in our brand new TV and Antenna. As if it wasn't complicated enough to plan our route according to weather windows, places to stop and distances to cover, now the soccer world cup games schedule has entered in our plans as well and of course, the anchorage option has to has good TV coverage. After all, soccer world cup is only once every 4 years. With that in mind, our next stop is Bundaberg where we arrive late afternoon after a calm motoring day.

Leaving Urangan in the chilly morning

The Burnett River, Port Bundaberg, more bad weather on the horizon

A weak low will bring westerlies and rain during the weekend, so we are planning to stay here at least until Monday.

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Fraser Island to Urangan - Along the Great Sandy Strait

The Great Sandy Strait extends north from Tin Can Bay to Hervey Bay and separates Fraser Island from mainland. It is a complex landscape of mangroves, sandbars and islands and is an important habitat for fish, crustaceans, dugongs, dolphins and turtles. Although there are many shoal areas and drying banks it is possible to navigate using the tidal ranges.

After spending a day in Garry's anchorage we decided to keep going along the strait up to the Kingfisher Resort in Fraser Island where boats can anchor along the beach. We left about 2 hours before the high tide so that we would cross the Sheridan Flats, the shallowest part, with a rising tide in case we touch ground. With the new chart plotter display at the helm it was mostly easy navigation through the flats even when a 3 knots helping current made it almost impossible to slow down on the shallow bits. There was only one spot, at the northern tip of Tooth Island where the chart did not agree with the navigation marks and we got confused as the Red can did not seem to make a lot of sense but the rule is trust the navigation aids, so we did, the depth sounder went down to 1.4 mts and we passed (we draw about 0.80 from where our depth sounder is located). No more excitements after that and we reached the Kingfisher Bay resort where we anchored.

There is a ferry that brings cars and people to the island and resort, and this being the long Queen's Birthday weekend, the ferry was unloading cars and people quite frequently. Right after sunset we went on shore to check the resort. It is about 200 meters from the beach and it is quite nice. They have several restaurants and we decided to give us a treat and try their buffet dinner. 

Luckily we left the dinghy tied to the pier as the tide had gone down and we were not in the mood to wet our feet in a long walk to reach waters deep enough for the dinghy, specially in the chill of the night after having read unconfirmed sighting of a croc (yes, a crocodile) in the vicinity of the hotel.

Forecast of several days of strong winds and we decide to hide in a marina in Urangan. The town is part of Hervey Bay and is located in the mainland across from Fraser Island. One of the attractions here is whale watching tours. Each year humpbacks whales migrate to the eastern coast of Australia. Groups of whales or 'pods' start to arrive at the southern Great Barrier Reef in mid-June and in the following weeks they move further along the reef concentrating in the southern Whitsundays area. On the southern migration back to Antarctic waters, a large proportion of the whales stop over for a few days in Hervey Bay. Most humpbacks will have left the Queensland coast by the beginning of November. This whale behavior makes Hervey Bay a centre of whale watching tours. The whale watching guidelines state that a vessel should stop 300 meters from a whale but the whales do not know the rules and often they swim up to the side of the boat. We are a bit wary of whales and rather don’t find them. It is known that whales may be sleeping or resting on the surface and will not detect a catamaran approaching with the disastrous result of the boat hitting the whale.

In the marina, watching the rain with the pelicans

We have an easy sail and arrive at the marina just as the weather starts to deteriorate. There is a chilly wind and we are happy to be tucked in a berth. Even the pelicans don't seem happy with this kind of weather.

 Hoping for better days to do a bit of sightseeing around this historical area before continuing on our way north.   

Mooloolaba to Fraser Island - A stop at Double Island Point

Anchor area in Mooloolaba

Mooloolaba was a perfect first stop to relax and rest, at least for a couple of days. The anchorage is busy this time of the year with people stopping by on their way to the north. No wonder we met several friends that were around.

The big surprise was to find Andrea and Andreas from Akka just materializing in their dinghy one morning. We met the Andreas in San Blass, Panama just before crossing the Pacific, found them again last year in Noumea and why not, this year we met again while they are on their way to the north to continue their voyage around the world, eventually back to Germany, their home port. On Sunday we had friends on board, Eduardo and his lovely family came to visit. 

Another sunset in settled weather

Monday was back to work for Oscar that had to fix the engines blues. Tuesday was engine stress test day and after leaving each engine running for 4 hours he verified impellers are ok. The question of why the failure happened is still on guessing grounds. With a feeling of 'hope it won't happen again' and several spare impellers on board we decide we should keep going. 

In the meantime the weather looks perfect for the next leg and we decide to leave beautiful Mooloolaba towards Wide Bay and the Great Sandy Strait in Fraser Island. 

The entrance in Wide Bay Bar needs to be timed with the incoming tide, ideally one should enter in the last 2 hours before high tide. With the settled weather our best option was to stop at Double Island Point, 10 miles before Fraser Island and spend the night there so that we could be at the entrance of the bar around 11:00 AM.

We left Mooloolaba just after lunch and had a good run in calm seas and around 10 knots SE winds with Zenitude happily doing about 7 knots. It was 11.00 PM and the only squall that got to us had of course to appear at the time we decide to get sails down to enter Double Island Point bay. But it was short lived and soon the warm night was quiet and we entered this wide anchorage. It is easy in settled weather even in the dark night and on the approach there was fluorescence everywhere around us, sometimes the seas looking brighter than the starry skies. All my apprehension of doing this in the middle of the night was gone.

Double Island Point

We woke up early with VMR from Tin Can Bay calling to check if we had arrived safely to the anchorage. As always when cruising the Australia coast we log our trips with them. They do a fantastic coverage and gave us all the info we needed to cross the bar which included the 3 waypoints and the right timing. No wind this morning so we motored the 10 miles and crossed the bar uneventfully. Even with these very calm conditions there were a couple of scary wave surfing in the shallowest part as the depth goes very quickly down to 4 meters. Not the best of feelings.

Having crossed the bar we headed north in the Sandy Strait towards Gary's anchorage were we are spending the night before continuing our way north tomorrow.





Among mangroves in popular Gary's anchorage   

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On the Move Again - In Mooloolaba

It was a hectic week but finally we decided we were ready to leave Gold Coast City Marina. It is such a great marina that we are sure we'll come back there, most probably at the end of this sailing season.

The weather looked good and we left the marina around noon. The tide was going out so we had a quick run on the Coomara River for the 11 miles up to the Cold Coast Seaway. Out through the seaway we found a choppy sea until we reached deeper waters. It was a thrill to open the new sails and check that they are actually good and working much better and easier than our old ones, at least on the great downwind run we had for this trip. The upgrade of navigation instruments and software was great too so far, things working fine together, except for the AIS that now and then was losing power and needed to be restarted. There was a lot of ship movement along the night as Brisbane is a busy port, the AIS makes navigating in a busy area much safer and a lot easier. 

We did a fast run until sunset when we decided to reef sails and slow down as it was no point to arrive before dawn. Right after sunrise, in the early morning hours the wind became very light and dead in the back so we decided to motor for the last 5 miles of the trip and then is when things got really interesting. We started port engine, and soon found out there was not water coming out, not good. Stopped port and started starboard one, same situation! What was going on? We were 5 miles from the coast, no wind and no engines. Luckily there was no current either so we were just drifting very slowly and wondering what to do next. 

Oscar had just changed the impellers in the Gold Coast and went on to check them, unbelievable but the new impellers had almost disintegrated! Changed impellers again and we were on our way, 1 hour later entering Mooloolaba bar and finding peace in the nice river anchorage. By 10.00 AM we were happily resting thinking we have still work ahead of us, but that will be left for Monday. 

If you know how a new impeller looks, what do you think of this one after 2 hours of use? Now in the mission to discover why this happened.

The trip in pictures:

Leaving Gold Coast behind

Out to sea through Gold Coast Seaway

Sunrise at sea

New main sail on second reef

Entering Mooloolaba

Mooloolaba

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Ready to Go? Almost, but it's a Soccer World Cup Year

Almost all projects finished now. Navigation system is working, just need a sea trial with the vendor, all electrical work done, new sails are installed, only needing some adjustments which we think we better do at anchor somewhere nice rather than at the docks where we can't face the wind. The wind generator is fixed, engine maintenance half way (one engine done, one engine to go) and the list goes on but much shorter now.

The wind generator and a rainbow

The new sails installed and another rainbow

Fridge Door - Before

After - Happy with my new painting skills

But this is a 'Soccer World Cup' year and it requires another project that is not quite complete yet: TV Antenna. Last soccer world cup we were in Fakarava and Toao, Toamotus. When the timing of the games allowed we used to go to a resort for breakfast and watch the game there, when the game was in the middle of the night then Oscar would ride the dinghy to the beach and walk around town to one of the local houses where people would gather to watch the game. It was not the best of arrangements and Oscar decided this year he wants to watch on Zenitude, no matter the time. This requires a TV antenna, a new little (?) project. We now have the antenna, the structure to mount it and all the cables, just need to put it all together and install it somewhere high enough to get good reception.

At the beginning of this month Booker and Dave from Tortuguita arrived from the US. We met them in Grenada, Caribbean, many years ago and had sailed together many times in many different places. They crossed the Pacific last year and we are lucky this year they are going North the same way we are. Tortuguita is also a catamaran and is here at GCCM, still on dry. Dave and Booker working to get her ready for the season. It's great to have them around, and very handy too, as Dave has a load of knowledge on how to fix things around the boat, but the best are the pizza nights at the local club after a hard day's work.

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Raymarine Upgrade - Dreaming of wireless technology

We are almost done with the Raymarine upgrade, at least we managed to complete the hard part, the cables nightmare. The 2 days we estimated for the task took double the time, we even had to call a welder to make a hole in one of the stainless steel tubes to be able to remove the old Radar cable that got stuck inside.  And that was just the beginning, we wonder where is wireless technology up to for marine navigation systems. Now we are waiting for Raymarine reps to complete the connections and software upgrades, hoping to have it all working in a couple of days.

In the meantime we had a seacock valve failure and had to be lifted again to install a new one. Once more, we are extremely grateful to the staff in the marina that lifted us at the end for their working day, let us 'hanging' in the travel lift for the night and put us back in the water next morning. The weather gave us a break as well as it was pouring rain all day except when we needed to move the boat, which mainly kept us dry. 

Then we discovered that our wind generator blades got damaged in the big hail storm during last Summer, adding to the list of things that needs replacing.  

So, slowly progressing with our tasks but at the same time enjoying the Gold Coast. We find this area quite good for boat work, everything you need is available and in general services are good and reasonable priced. Generally.

The new radar in place

Installing the new chart plotter

The cables mess behind the nav station, it needs tidying up

Our friends Kristina and Phil from Songline live here in Brisbane. Songline was sold some time ago and now they have a beautiful home. We met in San Blas, Panama and crossed the Canal for the first time with them in Songline, Zenitude's sister ship. We visited last weekend, it was great to catch up with them.
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Back on the Water

After 5 months on the shipyard Zenitude is back on the water at a slip in Gold Coast City Marina. All work on the dry completed and now we have ahead of us work for another week, maybe two, before we are ready to start moving north as planned. At the moment if feels like the list is never ending but at the very least we have to complete the installation of new the Raymarine electronics, the new sails and the engines maintenance.

This is a fantastic shipyard and the crew that came for Zenitude and deposited her back in the water were terrific. Here are some pictures: