A long over night leg from Moolooba along the east cost of Fraser Island to Sandy Cape. Sloppy seas with a light SE breeze for most of the way. We were planning to go all the way to Pancake creek but cut it short.
A 2.5 knot current running against us along the Breaksea spit on the northern end of Fraser island made it slow going, so by the time we got to the end of the spit we decided to head to Bundaburg. We arrived at 9pm on friday night after covering 204Nm in 36 hours (Avg SOG 5.6knts) .
The next time we will head on the inside, as Wide bay bar would have been easy to cross in those conditions. On the way back we may still go around the outside if there are North Easterly winds as the current would be an advantage.
Lots of fishing vessels and Cargo ships were en counted. At one point we had two container ships and half a dozen fishing boats to dodge. At night they seem much closer. The AIS we have on the boat has made a big difference as we can track the cargo ships.
The AIS displays the name of the vessel as well as its course, position, speed and CPA / TCPA ( Closest Point of Approach and Time to CPA). With this we can determine if a collision will occur. Knowing the name of the vessel allows us to attempt to call it on the VHF. We called up one ship and asked if they had spotted us on their Radar, as the CPA was less than a nautical mile, they answered the call but the officer's English was not the best.
After 5 years of service the Head exploded, a smelly chocolate soup overflowed into the bilge. The outlet pipe had totally blocked with crystallized urea and salt.
Due to unsuccessful attempts in obtaining an ocean ski for this trip, we compromised for a plastic fantastic (pull apart) ski. Which we picked up in Mooloolaba (thanks to Kerry, who said he was impressed by the sound engineering in the way the 3 x 1.25m sections clipped together soundly). This has pleasantly surprised us how well it has performed in the surf and stayed in one piece!
Gabrielle catching the nicely formed waves under Bustard Head. With whole beach to ourselves for the past three days it is hard to leave. It was interesting taking the rubber duck from the shelter of Pancake creek to the surf beach. The landing was not the most elegant, Gabrielle concerned about the boards, sun glasses etc and I was concerned about the out board motor as we crashed then dumped onto the beach, we all survived to surf another day.
