Sunshine at last

Simanderal
Michael Hughes and Ger White
Fri 22 Apr 2011 02:02
We spent nearly a week in Mooloolaba--always intended to spend time there, but our departure was delayed by a day or two by continuous heavy rain!! But we enjoyed ourselves--Andrew & Emma came up from Brisbane for the weekend--made use of his car for some provisioning--and Ger enjoyed the shops!!
 
And the last few days have been a series of day passages heading further north--with at last some glorious sunshine!!
On the 20th we sailed from Mooloolaba to the south end of Fraser Island--a passage of over 60 miles, so an early start--after the first couple of hours of rubbish wind, the wind kicked in at 0800 at 15 knots on a very fast broad reach which took us up to the Wide Bay Bar earlier than expected--crossing the bar was interesting on an early rising tide, but the lowest we recorded was 4.8m depth, so ok. And we were anchored in peaceful Pelican Bay by 1630.
Then on 21st it was another early morning--anchor up before 0700--to sail up the Sandy Straight with the rising tide. These are very shallow waters and the middle section has to be crossed near high water (about 1130 that day) or else you'll go aground. The forecast was for very little wind and I expected to have to motor most of it--but unexpectedly there was enough wind from a good direction (this never normally happens!!) to sail almost all the way--lovely calm sea behind Fraser Island, a lovely sunny day--doesn't come much better! And we were anchored in Kingfisher Bay, towards the north end of Fraser Island, in time for lunch--wonderful!!
We're paying for it today (22nd), however--currently on passage to Bundaberg--somewhat over 53 miles--and although we sailed for over a couple of hours at the start, there just isn't enough wind to get us there before dark--probably not enough to get us there at all!--so the engine is on and we'll be in around 1630--it gets dark here at 1730. At least the sun is still shining!!
Plan is to keep heading north quickly towards Mackay where we'll be provisioning etc for a couple of weeks in the Whitsundays.
All is well.