When Pancake Creek Turns it On

We arrived at Pancake Creek from Bundaberg with a mixed weather outlook. Fresh to start with for a couple of days, then becoming fine. So we hunkered down and did some boat maintenance and watched boats arrive in bad weather and leave in the same. Clearly, they were on some kind of mission; go north or bust. The anchorage filled and emptied. Without a timetable we were able to choose good weather to walk to the Bustard Head Light as well as go ashore for sunset drinkies.

Shore party assembled for the Lighthouse trek.

Getting the tide right is important to avoid having to walk around the swamp as well as 'managing' how far you'd need to drag the dinghy up the beach or back in the water. Luckily for us, Mark from SV Veritas acted as boatman as his knees wouldn't manage the steep terrain.

View looking back to Clews Point as glimpsed through the trees

Captain Cook sailed along this shore in May, 1770 recording details of the coastline and naming significant geographical features. His crew caught and ate a large native bird here and named Bustard Head and Bustard Bay in memory of both bird and meal - apparently! The navigational light atop the head is technically the first in Queensland. The light at Cape Danger on the border with New South Wales is actually older but it was a part of NSW at the time. The devil is in the detail.

Arriving just as a tour group were leaving. Phew

Tour group transport - LARC all terrain and boat in one.

Kaija, Jaz, Gary and The Bloke

  

View to Jenny Lind Creek

Gone a while - Where did all the water go?

Sundowner time

This part of the coast, the 285 miles from Bunbaberg to Mackay, has it's own cruise guide - Noel Patrick's Curtis Coast. 

Since visiting, the GBRMPA* has installed 4 public moorings in Pancake Creek and 2 out at Clewes Point (the outer anchorage) as a safety measure. They offer a safe harbour for vessels fleeing poor conditions out on the reef islands such Lady Musgrave and Lady Elliot Islands. Although holding is generally quite good there are some areas of 'coffee rock'. Their location is evident at low tide and probably cause quite a bit of fright. Plenty of skippers are reluctant to explore anchoring possibilities further upstream because the electronic charts end well inside the areas of good depth. It takes a bit of pluck to 'go off the reservation' into the 5-6m available unless you 'know' about it, especially in the 3m tide swings.

* Great Barrier Reef Marine Parks Authrority

Sleepless in Pancake Creek

Just another day, wind 20 to 25 knots, narrow mangrove creek, big tides and lots of boats. Some of them stay still while others drag anchor all around us. Some try to re-anchor closer. Some try other spots and all continue to drag. Canadian friends call these boats ‘Sliders’.

The main reason for all this movement is not enough scope in wind over tide conditions. That is, they have not put out enough chain and as Alan Lucas told us;

"Chain is only chain when it is in the water". The rest is ballast.



So here I sit a 4.30am writing this hanging off 35 metres of chain in 4 metres of water (well above the 4-or 5 -to -1 recommended ratio). Some fenders are out for protection and there is at least one catamaran on the tiles behind us. Gee we are looking forward to sunrise!!!

See you on the other side of dawn!!

Zero Four Dark Thirty

Once again we were off at stupid o’clock! Actually, it’s been a while since we’ve done that but a 55nm passage from Bundaberg/Burnett Heads to Pancake Creek needs an early start to ensure arrival in time for 5 o’clock drinks. Just kidding: just following the ‘time your departure for your arrival’ rule as taught by Carolyn and Andrew, our sailing mentors.

Coming out of the Burnett River at night was pretty easy, taking the lit highway with synchronized strobing port and starboard lights.

We didn’t seem to be on the whale super-highway with nothing remarkable spotted even though we knew the migration was well under way.

The wind, being ‘up our bum’, necessitated The Bloke to do some pole magic to enable us to goose wing once the wind switched to the SE. We also got the benefit of an outgoing tide for 6 hours which was a gift of an extra knot in boat speed.

Our only challenge was to negotiate the imaginatively named Inner and Outer Rocks off Bustard Head.

  

Bustard Head Light on the Headland

All in all we enjoyed a brilliant day with minimum motoring. Yachts departing Bundaberg the following day were less lucky and arrived in freshening conditions. A crew on one catamaran failed to adjust their sails ahead of the headland where the gusts were getting a little wild. They blew out and then shredded their headsail. The Bloke went across to assist them untangle the mess once they’d anchored and learned that they had only moved aboard their boat 5 days before and had traveled up from Mooloolaba. They were understandably shattered. The Bloke was dispatched with a box of cake slice. We hoped they could still feel there was something nice in the world after a less than glorious first week.

Messing About at Burnett Heads

We are very fond of Burnett Heads, Bundaberg as a stop off. We’ve been here 3 times before. Initially traveling up to The Whitsundays and return in 2016, then again last year when we had an extended stay at the end of our New Caledonia and Vanuatu trip. Going up to ‘The Whitties’ we only anchored out but then stayed a week in the Bundaberg Port Marina on the return trip to allow time for our anchor and chain to be re-galvanized. Last year it served as our clearing-in port and scene of plenty of shenanigans at the conclusion of the GoWest Cruisers Rally. This time round we anchored out in the river for several days and had a very social time with other cruisers making their winter migration as well as one couple who liked it so much that they bought a house here and stayed!


Bundaberg is a working port with a large quantity of sugar cane being exported. A pilot is dispatched; Tug boats standby at the river mouth and arrivals and departures can occur at any time of day. On weekends cars park up along the riverbank to observe the process. We of course had ringside seats watching the carriers slide past.

We caught up once again with Kaija and Gary from Kaija Song -17 year cruising veterans from ‘Canadia’ (according to The Bloke). We first met here with the Rally. We’ve since knocked into them at the Boatworks, the Scarborough Marina and at Woody Island, Hervey Bay. The Bloke fancied a meal at The Lighthouse Hotel and talked Kaija and Gary into joining us. What a deal! We were offered ‘seniors discounts’, then my red wine turned into 1/2 a bottle because the manager was changing the brand of ‘red’ - would I please help out and finish this one off? OK then! Things were going along nicely, but wait there was more - our Seniors Special came with a $2 each credit on the pokies! Ridiculous. Having never been slightly interested in this form of mindless gambling we had to be instructed. Anyway, our $4 became $15 so we quit while ahead since we’d effectively finished up enjoying 2 meals for the price of 1!


We made multiple shore trips to buy a newspaper, bread, have a coffee and top up our provisions from the IGA. On one occasion we were almost run over in the carpark by Annie and Cam, a cruising couple who’ve now settled in Burnett Heads. They spotted us on AIS; drove to the anchorage to see if we were aboard, ascertained that the absence of our dinghy meant a high possibility of our being ashore at the IGA - and we were!


We learned that the Bundaberg Port Marina has an offer for boaties anchoring off. For $20 you can have half a day access to marina facilities) 8am -12:00; or for $30 you can have a full day pass which includes the courtesy shuttle into Bundaberg (20 minutes away). On Sundays the shuttle goes out to the edge of town to a farmers market held at the Shalom Christian School. Perfect for us, so we signed up and took the Sunday Day Pass.

Our Rottnest Island shopping bag is still very much in use.

We loaded up with heaps of ‘freshies’ including sour dough bread which we were promised would last 3 weeks (if only we’d bought enough). The Bloke assisted Gary to buy a ‘cocky’ for use during the forthcoming SICYC (Shaggers) Rendezvous. There is a‘Parrot-Head’ event at Gloucester Passage in August. A Sulphur Crested Cockatoo is not strictly speaking a parrot but The Bloke and Gary amused themselves with it for over an hour while Kaija and I looked over all the produce and spent up big.

We ended our day pass with a BBQ at the Cruisers Cove with our new shopping friends plus Cam and Annie. Now fully loaded up with food we were ‘good to go’ at stupid o’clock. Next stop: Pancake Creek.