BLOG # 3
Unsettled weather

"Where's the wind blowing from?" I asked Vicky as she rushes on deck to check out the sudden increase in wind strength. "Its starting to fang from the southwest and getting stronger" she replays with an anxious voice.

Based on the previous days forecasts we had planned to anchor under the lee of Rooney Point in Platypus Bay (northern end of Fraser Island) in relatively calm conditions for several days (according to the forecast!) to explore the surrounding environs and photograph seabirds. Vick's unexpected words were a surprise "its blowing from the SW" abruptly put an end to our bushwalking plans and had us in action mode as our sheltered anchorage quickly transformed into a rolling, pitching white capped surf zone as 40 nautical miles of fetch started to piled up towards us. To make matters worse, our 50 metres of deployed anchor chain which was laying out from the shore swung Tangaloa towards the shallowing surf zone - at one point we had less than two metres of water below our keel and our anchor alarm made it clear that it wasn't happy.

Unfortunately for us, there was nowhere to go to seek shelter in this part of Hervey Bay in SW wind conditions - almost the full length of the western side of Fraser Island is exposed to the NW/W/SW winds and although the anchor was holding we were now in an untenable anchorage on a dangerous windward shore. We had to move the boat and move fast... so in very challenging conditions we winched the dinghy aboard and began pulling in the anchor chain. By now the bow was pitching and falling in boisterous waves with next to no visibility in the torrential wind & rain.

Holding on with both hands to the bow rail and foot on the deck winch button, the chain started to come slowly onboard - slackening in the troughs and then becoming bar tight on the crests with waves bursting over the bow!

Once the anchor was stowed in its locks, Vick throttled up the engine to give us distance from the surf then it was a long rough slog to windward as we set our course for the southern end of the bay and hopefully calmer conditions.

We never got to explore the northern end of Fraser Island and the unsettled weather conditions have prevented us heading up there again.

The weather has been so unsettled that we have since been blown out of another anchorage during a thunderstorm in the black of the night and then been on anchor watch while another thunderstorm lit up the bay and deafened us with rolling thunder and wind.

Some might say our anchorage selection is a bit questionable which given the past week or so is a fair observation. As a matter of course we are conservative in selecting our places to park our beloved yacht/home. We check the weather outlook including swell and sea state - then we use the knowledge of the old sea dogs that sailed before us including Alan Lucas. So why have our anchorage selections been a challenge?

We have sailed these waters in the past - our first trip was back in the 1990's and although weather forecasting was less advanced than it is today, its our recollection that forecasting was more accurate back then or maybe the weather was settled for longer periods of time.

So the question beckons, what's changed? Some will argue it's due to climate change, more frequent, more intense storm events due to increased heat in the oceans/atmosphere thus challenging the predictive weather models which seem to struggle in accurately capturing the more frequent rain, hail, flood, wind storm events - what ever the reason, Mother Nature is keeping us on our toes.