Mooloolaba to Yamba 15/12/2010

We spent two days in  Mooloolaba in torrential rain. The Mooloola river was a fecal brown and the beaches were not much better.  We decided to adventure into the heart of Sunshine Coast, the Pacific Fair shopping centre. A terrifying place, people everywhere, like ants attacking a carcase. We escaped back to the boat and made plans to depart for a quieter location. 

Our options were, to go to Surfers Paradise  on the outside of Morton/Stradbroke Islamds, or to sail to Brisbane then motor on the inside of these Islands. On the way up we had a few bumps getting past Jacobs Well so we elected to sail the outside.

The weather report was for light North East to North West winds and a chance of thunder storm but the next day, there was predicted thunderstorms for the Brisbane region.

We left in blue skies and light winds and made rapid progress south, passing Morton Island and North Stradbroke Island thanks to the (3 knot) east Australian current.
But.... to the South West the skies were getting dark....

We  altered course to get further out to sea as the storms appeared to be tracking towards the Brisbane area.

On the radio we heard that the Logan area got hit with hail and damaging winds. If we went on the inside of Morton Island we would have been hit with hail.

We are now well out to sea in light winds and 4.5knts of current watching the sun set over the high- rises of Surfers Paradise. The storms had passed and with only 90 Nm to go to Yamba and more storms predicted the next day, and not wanting to get stuck at Surfers, we elected to keep on going over night.

With not much wind,  we pulled the sails down and motored all the way to Yamba, arriving at 9am Thursday. Storms arrived a few hours later...