Up to Yeppoon

We've arrived in Yeppoon! It was quite a journey from Mooloolaba. We set off motoring in a very light wind but before too long we hoisted sails and turned off the motor. It didn't go on again until arriving here at the marina yesterday evening. We had four more nights at sea. At dusk on day one we were just south of Yamba and by the following night we were passing the entrance to Great Sandy Straight, the passage between Fraser Island and the mainland. It is very shallow in places and our draft is just about the limit for passing through. In order to go through the passage one has to first cross the Wide Bay bar across the entrance and then make sure that you are on a rising tide. We have always been round the outside before but we did consider going inside of Fraser Island as the weather appeared to be quite settled and there were neap  tides. However the tide times just were not right. We would have had to go through in the dark which would have defeated the purpose. So, once again, we found ourselves sailing up the outside at night. It's an awful long way! We met a number of prawn trawlers around the passage entrance one of which came a bit closer to us than we would have liked. They manoeuvre in a fairly unpredictable way.  By dawn we were off Waddy Point which is a little more than three quarters of the way up the island. By this time it was overcast, showery and the wind was building. We had 2 knots of current against us. Once at the top of the visible part of Fraser Island (the largest sand island in the world), there is another 23 or so nm of under water sand bank until one reaches a North cardinal marker round which you sail. We spotted it in the afternoon when it was very grey and dismal. The wind was SE which was going to be directly behind us once we rounded the marker. It's much nicer when it's a bit to one side. The third night was a long hard one as was most of the next day. The wind was just over 20knts for much of the time with rain squalls and steering was a good work out. However we made good progress and arrived in Yeppoon just on sunset. We are in Kepple Bay Marina which is large and has plenty of empty spaces. Once safely tied up we had a G and T then a glorious shower, tidied ourselves up a bit and headed to the restaurant. It is just the most wonderful feeling after 5 days at sea. We all slept well last night! We have spent the day here doing laundry - two big loads - and borrowed the courtesy car to do a bit of shopping. Jonathan ministered to a woman who had collapsed in the disabled toilet, a boat has been towed in that was taking on water and we have had some heavy rain so all in all it has been a good day not to be at sea. South of us all down the NSW coast there are strong wind warnings but hopefully they should not affect us too much. We shall be here another day anyway as it is forecast to rain some more but by Sunday it should be a bit brighter. 

Stormy skies

Arriving at Yappoon