Now with a big fish cleaned and filleted we still had ½ left over, which I tied to the rails in fresh air hoping it would be a nice gift to an unsuccsessful local fisherman.
Nice and mellow we moved into the protected waters of the gold coast. A nice delta experience without the worries of open ocean sailing. Yeah. Our electronic charts gave us no details to work with, but the cruising book about Queensland had chartlike pictures that we followed to easily find our way up to Moreton Bay .
We picked an anchor spot on the map and went along to a bit of a river that was marked as an dredged channel, 2 hours before high tide. We passed a green marker to our starboard side with a sign on it saying something that we could not see. Just past that, smack, we got stuck in the mud and turned sideways to the strong current. Back and forth with the strong engine did not give us the hoped results. We were bloody stuck. Now think tricks here. We let out the jib all the way, and the boat leaned sideways. All that time we got looks from the fast passing little fishing boats, sort of sorry we can't help you even if we would know what's wrong with you. I yelled to one guy with a dog wearing a life jacket if he would like some fish, but he only replied that he had a burger a minute ago. Than came our savior (without yet knowing) a bigger slower heavy power launch with a big ass wake in tow. With the engine on the ready we lifted over the shoal into freedom. Good going there. The next marker had the same sign but also turned away from the readers. Yes, we hid the ripples again and again until stuck. The captain tried again all angles and back and forth and nothing. One more push and we got back out, moved backwards into deeper waters and dropped the anchor to wait for high tide about an hour away at 1800 hours or so. While in the waiting mode I was able to flag down a bypassing rescue boat to ask about the shoals, the dredged channel and the tides. The dredged channel had not been cleared for a while, the signs tells interested parties that the water at low tide might be 1 m or less at low tide. The chart in the book indicated 2 metres and we draw the same, the shoals move at free will and the high tide will be soon, but we will call you on the radio later with more details, we gave them the rest of the big fish. The man did call back to inform us that the evening tide is not very high and better to wait until the next one at 6.52 am.
Happily we went the next morning by looking at our book for marked directions out of the maize of delta arms. During our progress we thought about our friends on Sol Searcher who fought northern winds the night before and had to give up finding shelter at 2am in a harbor a day trip away from us. Boing , we hit mud again 2 hours after high tide. Oh man this is an outgoing tide, not good. We were located right behind a cardinal marker showing the symbol of danger , ouch, on the wrong side of the captains thinking. The better thinking crew called the coastguard who showed up 10 min later to try to pull us of with a side tie. Excuse me we are solid connected to the mud, thank you very much. But the seasoned salt, just like the other 2 coast guard volunteers, asked for the halyard leading to the top of the mast. They then accelerated their powerful twin outboards until our rail was way under water and Kara getting worried as hell about the end of the world being here. The Magnum captain assisted with the strong Perkins until all of a sudden, we floated free once more. We told the saviors that hopefully they will not run into more beginners like us. Pulling away they laughed assuring us that it was not their first performance. After that we did not touch mud again, only because we got lucky 2 more times. Later we found a nice anchorage at Peel Island, Anne had enough of looking at shrinking depth sounder readings. A catarman with 2 kids pulled up (with an Irish Mom on board). Now finally a time to relax, have a coffee at the hook near a very nice beach. We hung out at the beach, kids played and swam and while Kara had her friend over for a playdate, the Coast Guard announced a strong wind warning , which would put us into a lee shore; Danger! Oh brother as Kara says. We pulled anchor to get into a more sheltered place. Anne nearly lost her sensitive nerves as we had again navigate through some questionable shallow waters. The little girl also called Anne asked why our boat was leanding as we sailed (she was only used to sailing on her Catamaran). What can I tell you, as it turns out the strong wind warning is expected not before tomorrow. Just tells you , tomorrow will be another day in the exiting life of Magnum and her crew. Last trip tomorrow should, all going well, lead us to Scarborough marina, Brisbane.