Hello from Mooloolaba
28 July 2013
Hello from mooloolaba, terrible day on the water with 3 meters swell and water moving in all directions like a washing machine. Again the captain did a fantastic job.
Crossing the Mooloolaba bar at became quite dramatic, looking back now is a bit comical but it wasnt then.
Arrived at around 4.30pm, just before crossing the bar the wind had picked up to 27knots, I went down below to do a few last minute things when I hear Steve calling out to enlarge the GPS, I try to rush but my automatic life jacket cord gets tangle in the bathroom door inflating the life jacket making it quite difficult for me to get through the door , at the same time it starts raining (only for a few minutes) and at the same time the phone starts ringing, wow all that happened in a few minutes!!
Anyway, we continued upstream on the Mooloolah River to the"Pond" for the nights anchorage but the markers and the GPS were giving contradicting messages, Steve thought markers out do the gps so he followed the markers, well we hit bottom and we were stranded for 5 hours waiting for the tide to rise, apparently the markers were for Marina Entry and not for the Pond, in any case very confusing, we were later to find out that it is a nearly daily occurance for boats to get stranded there.
The next day we booked in the Mooloolaba Yacht Club Marina for a couple of nights to do washing , shopping, baking and for the luxury of long showers. After that returned to the Pond awaiting the right weather conditions to continue to the Great Sandy Strait through the Wide Bay Bar.
We really enjoyed Mooloolaba, we caught up with Deb and her partner Glen for a drink, I havnt seen Deb for many many years so it was just wonderful to see her again. We also loved going for walks along the beach and the cafes , it has a real holiday atmosphere about it.
Again we caught up with Jen & Glenn also with Ray & Val from Simba, we orginally met Ray & Val in Port Stephens so it was lovely to see them at Mooloolaba. We also ran into Greg from S/V Zennith, we first met him at Bum's Bay and also we befriended Trish and Trev on Prowler , they were anchored at the Pond. Its always nice to run into familiar faces.
On the last night at Mooloolaba a fairly large group of us met up at the yacht club for dinner and drinks, quite a lot of time was spent talking about The Wide Bay Bar, none of us had done it, we all had read about it, we all had gone to consult with Marine Rescue for their tips and cordinates and we all knew that extreme caution was required but none of us really knew exactly what to expect!!!!!