The Great Sandy Straits

Arjuna at twilight. Photographed from Twilight. (c) SV Twilight

As the First Mate points out, it may be a bad sailing omen to start a voyage on a Friday but probably no worse than quoting Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem on dying in a previous blog post. As we and the internet can attest, the Wide Bay Bar was survived (if the truth be known, the swell was worse on the journey up than that on the bar itself) and we lived happily overnight at Pelican Bay - or at least as close in to it as we felt comfortable with.

Gale force winds at Fraser Island and a lunar eclipse.

Arjuna in finer weather - note keel positioning.

The low pressure system from Cyclone Ita met with a high pressure system from the Tasman sea somewhere over the southern Coral Sea to bring us gale force south easterly winds.

We found a good anchorage at Sheridan Flats on the west coast of Fraser Island on Sunday morning, set our anchor well, crossed our fingers and toes and bunkered down for a storm that lasted through Monday and Monday night.

Crossing the Bar

The crossing of the infamous Wide Bay Bar at the southern end of Fraser Island is the stuff of many a hairy tale amongst salty dogs in marinas along the east coast. The Bar is crossed via a zigzag series of 3 navigational waypoints and has a section known as the "Mad Mile" (between waypoints 2 and 3) due to a narrow passage with breaking surf on both sides.

Sailing lore suggests that it is bad luck to embark on a voyage on Friday  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailors'_superstitions.

Bimini by Murray, bunting by Sophie.

Moreton Island to Mooloolaba

Thursday 3rd April, the second last day of school for Term One, saw us pulling up anchor from beautiful Moreton Island and following the west coast of Moreton Island northwards towards Mooloolaba. The Second Mate, Third Mate and Ship's Monkey all had online assessments to complete with their teachers to wrap up the school term. These were completed as we dodged amongst the shipping traffic of the Northwest Channel. This was the Third Mate and Ship's Monkey's first open water voyage.

End of term assessments in the Northwest Channel

Engine troubles at Slaughter's Gutter



Farewell East Coast Marina.

Finally all the odds and ends had been tidied up and Arjuna was set to depart from Brisbane. The final elusive bearing for the autopilot and been tracked down and the car had been repaired.