Kite Island Safari

Friends who claim Moreton Bay as either their home or back yard told us about a tiny sand island at the top of the Rainbow Banks near the top end of North Stradbroke Island. It doesn’t actually exist on the charts although we were later informed it’s quite popular for weddings. Since we were in company of the two pairs of Queensland cruisers who’d mentioned the place to us, they felt compelled to take us.

We had good deep water all the way up to Amity Point where we turned at a starboard marker towards, what looked on the charts, to be dry land, but it turned out that even at low tide it was possible to get across the channel - although probably not recommended at LAT (lowest astronomical tide). 

The mighty Mercedes led the tour

Tauranga and Zofia at anchor in a 3-4 kt current

Curlews, terns and pelicans enjoy this sandy island situated in the gap between Moreton and North Stradbroke Islands.

A few drinks to celebrate our little safari

In lighter conditions this might have been an even more enjoyable wee island to visit but on an average day it's best regarded as a lunch anchorage.

Lights Out!

About 6 weeks ago we sailed overnight up from from Scarborough Marina to Double Island Point in order to cross Wide Bay Bar with the morning high tide. A fellow cruiser leaving Mooloolaba later that afternoon, buddy sailed up the coast with us. She commented that our navigation lights seemed feint. Were we separated further than she thought or was there an issue?

COLREGS (international regulations for the avoidance of collisions at sea) mandate that the light array appropriate for your size and type of boat should be visible for at least 2 nautical miles. We turned on our lights and checked they were working but how strongly the lights shone was hard to judge.

Returning recently to Moreton Bay in a single passage commencing from Fraser Island, we sailed into the night to eventually anchor at Peel Island around 1:30am. We were in company with Queenie Grace,  different sailing partners from our last nighttime passage but they hadn’t noticed anything unusual.  It was only when a dusk exodus from one anchorage to another following a storm-front, that another crew noticed our lights were not as bright as those of nearby vessels. Clearly there was something not quite right and our nav lights suddenly become a priority.

At the next opportunity - when the boat was not rocking or rolling, the Bloke investigated. He dismantled the port and starboard navigation lights that are fixed to the bow rails and removed the LED’s to check them. 

Even Blind Freddy could tell something was amiss here. 

The red port lamp was quite apparently compromised. The metal had corroded. Salt water must have got into the fitting. It’s hardly surprising as the bow occasionally takes a ‘greenie’ or dips into a wave. In fact, it was so bad that only a single LED array illuminated!

Both LED bulbs were condemned and the connections in the light fittings on the bow were cleaned with an electrical contact spray.

Luckily, we happened to have a pair of replacement LEDs we were able to substitute immediately, although we had kept the original incandescent globes as ‘spares’ for just such a situation. Our spare parts tub seems to grow year on year! 

We’ll now need to buy some replacements since these 'spares' were intended for our new masthead tri-colour-anchoring light array. Tamar Marine in Launceston, our very most favourite chandlery, will be sending us red and green replacements. Happily we will now be clearly visible at night when out to sea on a black night!

Storm Season In Queensland

Spring heralds a great deal of unstable weather in South East Queensland and strangely, we encountered an almost identical storm 369 days ago.

We were sheltering from strong northerly winds on the south side of Peel Island. Visibility was diminishing.

We’ve learned to check the radar to monitor the progress of inbound storms.

BoM alert confirming what we were already guessing from our own observations.

Hey, it’s become a bit dark for 4pm!

Oh, here we go. Here it comes!

The weather forecast suggested thunderstorms and we also knew that the northerly winds we’d used to sail from Wide Bay Bar/Fraser Island to Peel Island in Moreton Bay were now strengthening and expected to switch to 25kt S-SE by the following morning. It was so hot and extremely humid that the coast was shrouded in haze. 

The wind dropped out, although not for long.

  

Wind and rain about to be delivered.

Weird light created by the approaching storm front.

Rain bucketing down and wind gusting to 37kts. Our decks and rigging received a proper power-wash and yet more red Bundaberg soil grit came out of the rigging. 

Still blowing but with rain easing. The storm front now passed. 

The southerly burst was replaced with the returning northerly. 

 

Weather observations from Bureau of Meteorology. The Gold Coast Seaway is south and Cape Moreton is North of our location.

Glowing evening sky as if nothing had ever happened.