We are presently sitting in Port Bundaberg Marina and will be here for about a week. We needed to have the anchor chain re-galvanized and as there is a galvanizing plant right here in Bundaberg it seemed like an opportune time to get it done.

Since leaving Double Island Point with its rolly anchorage, we “crossed the bar” and headed for Tin Can Bay. Now many of you will think that crossing a bar is no big deal having done it many times to use the washroom or get another drink, but this is a bar of a different colour. “Bars” are sand bars that develop at the mouth of rivers or in our case a passage between Fraser Island and the Australian Mainland. As we all know from beaches. when the water depth decreases the size of the waves increases. No different with bars. So you want to cross them in calm weather and close to high tide to minimize the waves. So this we did when crossing the Wide Bay Bar at the South end of Fraser Island. An exciting and anxiety provoking experience where the depth got down to 12 feet and the waves got up to 10-15 feet. (The coast guard had given us coordinates to follow to get through the shallow part and we followed them carefully. Waves were breaking and the water was less than 5 feet deep on either side of us.) All went well and suddenly, much like going into an atoll in the tropics, we were in the flat calm water of the Sandy Straits.

Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world and the area between it and the mainland is a mixture of sand islets and water passages. For the next week we explored the area, anchoring in a variety of bays including Tin Can Bay with it’s small town, Garry’s Anchorage, quiet and secluded, and Kingfisher Bay with a convenient resort to celebrate Kim’s birthday with a swim in the pool and a dinner out. (Yes I do give her a brake from galley duties on special occasions!)

One aspect of this part of the Australian coast that we will not miss is the lack of depth under our keel! Many of the areas we had to pass to get through Sandy Straits required travelling only at high tide and even then the amount of water under the keel was often less than 18 inches! Luckily we met a local Australian couple who knew the area well and led us through some of the more challenging spots. My only concern was that they were on a catamaran needing only two feet of water. (we need 6.5). They were, however, very aware of our draft and never led us astray.
We have now ‘come out the other side’ and after Bundaberg will head further North to more tropical climes.