Well we certainly got the storms we mentioned in the last blog. For a week or so the afternoon and evening supercell thunder storms menaced SE Qld everyday. A combination of very hot conditions on the coast, a cold front/trough and hot dry winds coming in over the continent from the west produced rapidly developing lines of thunder, lightening and hail storms over the inland and coast. Out of a clear sky you could watch them develop to the west over a matter of an hour or two. Towering cumulus and dark bands of lower level clouds would rise rapidly. You could watch them approach on the BOM radar and see the supercells embedded in the line of rain. If it was dark, the lightning was extraordinary – non stop flashing throughout the clouds and the occasional ground strike that lit up the sky. On one night there were over 800,000 strikes recorded in 1 hour.
News reports showed multiple areas on the coast suffering severe damage with hail stones up to 12cm and gail force winds that uprooted trees, wrecked rooves and broke boats off their moorings.
Needless to say, we were very concerned about getting in the path of one of these cells. We had two during the day which were a bit less vigorous, but they still packed 40+knot winds from the west for half an hour or so. Lots of rain, but thankfully no hail. So it was all about finding the right anchorage where we could get some protection from the westerlies and make sure we were very securely anchored. After that, it was wait and hope that the most intense parts missed us and we only got the fringes. Luckily that worked most of the time, but we did have a very busy evening in an anchorage inside South Stradbroke, hunkered down in the mangroves.
This is typical weather for this time of year in SE Qld, but not usually this extended or this intense. We were certainly looking forward to getting south out of this zone when the weather allowed. That took some patience, as the last thing we wanted was to be caught out at sea under one of these things.
Weather aside, we had an interesting and fairly busy time in the area. The Bongaree anchorage was a really nice stop for a couple of nights and then we headed down to Scarborough Marina for 3 nights. We are planning to leave the boat for 3 months from March next year and want to get some refit work done too. This whole area if full of marinas and a couple of shipyards that are able to pull a catamaran out of the water (many travel lifts are not wide enough).
So part of our plan was to check out Scarborough, hire a car for a few days and then visit all the likely spots to check them out. Not the normal tourist trip along the coast but very useful. Being able to physically visit the marinas and yards and speak directly to the folk there was much more revealing than just emails and websites. We came away with plenty to think about and enough information to firm up our plans for next year. What seemed universally true was how friendly, knowledgeable and accommodating the people we met were. Not only was this nice, but it gave us confidence that wherever we chose would do a good job. Partly they benefited from the comparison with our experiences in the Pacific. Not that the Pacific folk were not friendly and generally competent, but the lack of resources and limited facilities made getting anything done much harder. Suffice it to say that everything is so much easier in Aus where you can find everything close by and we are familiar with how things generally work.
After Scarborough we headed across Moreton Bay to The Sandhills, a lovely anchorage off a big sand blow. The water was relatively clear and the holding excellent. We weren’t game to do more than a quick cool off dip off the boat (too many large bitey things around), but taking the dink ashore we walked to the top of the sand blow, had a nice swim in the shallows and saw loads of turtles, rays and the odd shark. A squall then westerly winds made this spot bouncy very quickly so we headed south down the bay to Peel Island. This was another lovely long bay with loads of room to anchor and good protection from the fetch (tested with another heavy squall one afternoon).
Continuing south we then wound our way through all the shallow channels between North and South Stradbroke and the mainland. Here you have to get the tide right to pass the shallows and not too high to get under a power line about half way down. Many yachts larger than us go under this line so we knew we had clearance, but it still felt very close when we passed under.
Next we thought would be Jumpinpin which is right at the tip of South Straddie and a popular anchorage. However the wind was all wrong and the tidal current through there made it very unappealing, so we retraced our steps a bit and found a very quiet spot just inside Tuleen Island and out of the channel and in amongst the mangroves. We were expecting the worst of the thunderstorms in the next few days and wanted a spot that was tucked away with as much protection from the westerlies as possible. This was ideal, although we did move across to the western side of the channel on our last night to maximise the protection. (Good choice as it turns out as this was where one of the storm cells went right over us. Didn’t last long happily, but the lightning was really scary.)
Finally, it looked like there would be a window to head south to Yamba the next day, so we moved down to Corrigee which is just north of the Gold Coast Seaway. This was a day stop, as we planned to leave in the evening for an overnighter to Yamba, catching the tide at the right time in the morning to cross the bar there. This was where we were back in the Gold Coast zoo. The waterways are super crowded. The speed limit in the channel is 40knots! You can imagine what an endless line of Rivieras, go faster motor boats, jetskis and fishing boats powering up the water can do. The wakes running through the anchorages were horrendous. It really is a terrible place for a cruising boat and we were very happy to get out of there. We had been looking forward to exploring Yamba/Iluka and it looked like the sail would be a good one. Needless to say we were farewelled in good Aussie fashion by a shark following us as we left the Seaway channel.
So not our favourite area to cruise in by a long way. Difficult weather, muddy, mangrove anchorages, no swimming, and loads of sand flies and mossies and too many people on boats for us. However, it was interesting to have done it and we have been able to check out our options for next year when we leave the boat.