Leapfroging the Bugs in Morton Bay, Bongaree, a cinch at Skirmish Point, and a great sail up to Mooloolaba
Fleck
Fri 27 Nov 2009 03:15
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24th November 2009
Position Mooloolah River, Mooloolaba 26:41.40S
153:07.221E
Well, we finally broke out of Manly Marina, with
the promise of some easterly wind for a while. Last weekend was extremely hot -
33 degrees - despite the strong northerlies. Still, some nice walking along the
shoreside of Morton Bay. The shallow warm water makes an interesting ecosystem:
there are the famous bugs, and the protected and prehistoric looking dugongs,
together with a large number of turtles and rare shark species. Talking of bugs,
I have discovered that sand crabs taste twice as good, are easy to dissect, and
cost half as much! I will sorely miss these fresh seafood shops. For some tide
and current reason the sand is all offshore: it is what Moreton Island
is made of: just a big sand dune. There is no sand against the mainland:
just mangroves, and where these have been cleared, red mud. The water is
discoloured by this, so in the southern part of the Bay you can't see the bottom
until you hit it! Mangroves are really very interesting: to cope with
living in seawater they excrete salt through their leaves, and at low tide they
can breath through their roots. Useful if you have to take part in a pub quiz
perhaps. And on the subject of trivia, but an area close to my stomach, I had an
encounter with the owner of the Fresh German Bread Stall, at the Manly Market on
Sunday Morning. This is a weekly affair, stalls set up on the seafront,
fast food, 'Gourmet food' (terrible american term, or do the Aussies claim it
for themselves, I also hate 'Boutique Hotel' for the same reasons) and
tourist junk. Anyway, I say to the fat Australian stall holder 'Do you fly it in
then, on the space shuttle?', and this does not get things off to a good start,
because what I'm really interested in are her almond croissants, next to
what are called Marzipan Croissants. Now the Marzipan croissants are instantly
recognisable as Costa Coffee almond croissants, but the German Almond croissants
look rather like real almond croissants: French ones, the sort you used to be
able to buy in Costa. Are you following, so far? So I ask, whats a marzipan
croissant? A croissant with marzipan inside it, she says. So then I say, 'and an
almond croissant?' Ah, she says they are made with almonds. Yes, good, I say,
but how are they made with almonds. She squares up to me: 'look I sell them, do
you want to buy one or not?' Well, I did, and the almond croissant wasn't bad,
and I think that they put ground almonds into the pastry dough, but I still
chase the dream of baking my very own french almond croissants, or better still
persuade Costa to restock them.
I'm in no hurry now, and the next trip, to
Mooloolaba, can be broken down into two daytime sails, with, obviously, an
overnight rest, and with the additional bonus of carrying favourable tidal
streams as they run in and out of Morton Bay. I set off at noon
yesterday (very hot again), and the predicted easterly wind did indeed set in
shortly afterwards, and we sailed around the Islands off Manly (noteably St
Helen's Island: yes, they did put another jail there: to keep the really bad
prisoners away from the other prisoners on the mainland!!), and then across the
main shipping entrance to the Brisbane River and into the Northern part of the
Bay. Despite the shelter my stomach informed me of a nasty short chop, which we
pounded into on a close fetch. Now that we understand the grey charts, and have
learned the difference between red and green buoys, we found water beneath our
keel at all times, or maybe I've eaten all the bugs now! Anyway we
made it without incident (just as well on a falling tide) to Bribie Island,
where we found shelter for the night in the Pumicestone Passage off the
setlement of Bongaree: a poor write up in the Pilot Book, but actually very
pleasant, lots of room to anchor, good holding, and scenic to boot with the
Glasshouse Mountains in the far background.
Next morning my bioclock woke me in the predawn (it
is curious how this happens, I don't have an alarm clock, but can usually wake
up when I need to) and by 04.30 we were
steaming down the Pumicestone passage to catch the tide around Skirmish Point.
The tide flows very strongly here, and I wanted to catch the ebb to carry
us round, and to give us a push up north along the east coast of Bribie Island
and out to sea again. The water is shallow here too, no doubt why the tide
flows so fast, and the navigation marks are new, ie not on my maps. You have to
learn to trust the marks, not your instincts. That is why the marks have been
put there!! Again all went according to plan, and apart from some more heavy
traffic off Caloundra (where the big ship lane does a Z turn to keep in deep
water) it was a plain sail, on a close fetch, up to Mooloolaba.
Although our entrance here was timed as usual for
the fourth hour of the flood tide it was very easy going indeed, and
quite picturesque. The river itself was narrow, and just inside the entrance the
old trawler harbour, and beyond it the early 'seaside town' holiday
developement, wooden buildings on wooden piers, was very attractive.
In recent years there has been the usual high rise developement, and much of the
river's foreshore has been sold off to housing developement: millionaire homes
with I must admit some striking architecture, and off course the obligatory but
ugly mooring pontoon at the bottom of each garden. There are several marinas,
but an anchorage as well, although a bit upstream. Anchorages are free
(they will soon catch on to European ways!!), and with no need of marina
facilities this is where I go.. Ashore are the usual well tended public
facilities with showers and loo paper! This is a very first world country!! The
easterlies are due to fade away before the end of the week, so just a day here,
and we shall try to get up to Wide Bar Bay: back to Bundaberg, bar the
shouting.
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