Author Archives: lj431

Lady Musgrave Island is the second island in the Great Barrier Reef chain of islands. The southernmost island is Lady Elliot, however it houses a tourist resort and is supposedly unwelcoming to yachties, so Lady Musgrave is where our exploration of the Great Barrier Reef was to begin. Lady Musgrave is a coral cay; a small,Continue reading “Our First Taste of the Great Barrier Reef”

The day we left Fraser Island and headed up into Hervey Bay was one of those surreal sort of days where it is so, so calm and so, so still that it doesn’t feel real. Not a cloud in the sky nor a ripple in the water and no breeze whatsoever. Just a sheet ofContinue reading “Bundaberg and Hervey Bay”

Ok. So. The Wide Bay Bar. Sounds harmless enough, right? Just another bar crossing. But every time we spoke to someone about it, descriptions like terrifying, treacherous, gnarly, whitewater, big breakers, five metre waves, surfing massive swell, and ‘getting smashed’ were used. Hmmm. It’s also known as ‘The Mad Mile.’ Hmmm. Googling images of WideContinue reading “Braving the Wide Bay Bar and Exploring Fraser Island”

We farewelled Brisbane on a gloriously sunny day, motoring downstream along glassy, flat water. A quick pit stop at Riverside Marina filled our diesel tank, and then we were out in the bay, hoisting our sails and choofing along at five knots in the ten knot breeze. Lovely! It was late afternoon when we arrivedContinue reading “Mooloolaba and the Sunshine Coast”

I’ll just put this photo here. Yep, that is us, hand feeding fish to a wild dolphin. Pretty cool, huh?! Well, it was definitely the highlight of my day, that’s for sure. Let me tell you how it came to be. Moreton Island is a large island on the east of Moreton Bay, just aboveContinue reading “Tangalooma Island Resort, Moreton Island”

The rain that had been threatening while we were in the Broadwater finally arrived. It began to rain during the night that we were anchored at Millionaire’s Row and it pretty much didn’t stop for a few days. We donned all our wet weather gear for the trip through the channels up to the bottomContinue reading “Around Moreton Bay and up the Brisbane River”

It was finally time for our long awaited passage into Queensland. It was 9th July 2020, we had been on the ‘road’ for almost 25 weeks and we were about to cross into our third state. The Gold Coast Seaway is 100 nautical miles from Iluka, a journey we estimated would take approximately 20 hours.Continue reading “And across the border we go…… Hello Queensland!!”

While we were hanging out in the Clarence Valley, waiting for Queensland to hurry up and let us in, we decided to spend a few days hiking the Yuraygir Coastal Trail. The four day, 65 kilometre walk traverses Yuraygir National Park, the longest stretch of protected coastline in NSW. The trail begins in Angourie andContinue reading “Hiking the Yuraygir Coastal Trail”

We left Coffs Harbour just after sunrise, pulling out with several other boats. There were six of us all heading north towards Iluka and Yamba. The weather conditions were lovely; calm water with some swell but no waves, light winds and a clear and sunny sky. The bar entrance into the Clarence River at Iluka/YambaContinue reading “Cruising the Clarence”

We spent five days in Coffs waiting for the right window to head north to Iluka/Yamba. Several days were overcast and rainy and we spent them doing jobs on the boat; laundry, re-stitching the sail bag and organising a new anchor bridle from the chandlery. The other days were lovely and sunny and warm andContinue reading “Coffs Harbour”