(16th July to 2nd August 2015)

With this being the last few weeks of our cruising holiday we decided to treat it as a normal holiday and have probably over indulged in a little too much eating and drinking when catching up with family and friends, as well as not exercising quite as much as we should have been - well we are on holidays after all!

We said our goodbyes to Stewart, Karen's brother, and his family in the town of Hervey Bay and headed out into Platypus Bay. Platypus Bay is a large protected bay on the inside of the northern section of Fraser Island. On a map the top end of Fraser Island kind of looks like a platypus. This is one of Karen's favourite sailing destinations.

Fraser Island at Moon Point

Sailing Along Inside Fraser Island
We basically spent our time sailing along the inside of Fraser Island watching out for Humpback Whales. Whilst it's still very early in the whale's migration season we were lucky in seeing whales at quite close quarters on several occasions. The whales still continue to amaze us with their grace and awareness of where they are in relation to our boat. Which is just as well as they are much MUCH bigger than our boat.

Whale Close By

Whale Watchers Looking At The Very Few Whales To Be Seen

Karen Doing The Gardening (Scraping The Hulls)
We had intended to spend as much time as possible in Platypus Bay before turning south and heading for Brisbane but upon checking the weather (late in the afternoon) we found that fairly strong southerly winds were predicted for the last week of our holidays - Bugger. So with this newfound knowledge we set off for the Great Sandy Straights, arriving at the top of the straights around 7:30pm, where we anchored for the evening.

The 'Sandy Straights' are a shallow section of water between Fraser Island and the main land that need to be traversed close to a high tide so that you maximise the depth of water below your boat and minimise the risk of running ground in the shallowest sections. We also needed to cross the Wide Bay Bar before the southerly winds kicked in on the following day. So in order to catch the next high tide to pass through the 'Straights' we were up at 4:30am. We would probably never have attempted this in the dark had we not had our previous track through the straights recorded. Anyway we made it through quite safely. So the next obstacle was the Wide Bay Bar, which we crossed on a falling tide. We wouldn't have done this either but for the Coast Guard advising that the bar conditions were 'calm with a slight swell'. The 'Mad Mile' was a little lumpy but otherwise perfectly safe....

Sunrise - Great Sandy Straights

Moving Through The Straights
After passing Double Island Point we had a 40 mile sail under spinnaker. This was a very pleasant sail, and off the Sunshine Coast we watched the sun go down. We arrived at Mooloolaba around 7:30pm and eventually found an anchorage amongst the other anchored boats. Anchoring in the river in the dark is always an anxious time for me as many of the permanent boats on anchor don't show mooring lights.

Double Island Point Lighthouse

Sailing Under Spinnaker For 40 Miles

Sunset Over Glasshouse Mountains
We spent the week on anchor in the river at Mooloolaba, with either Karen working during the morning and me going for walks along the esplanade, or going for a kayak around the various canals. We'd then go ashore in the afternoons for coffee & cake, or a few quite ales at the local yacht club - as you do.

Anchorage at Mooloolaba
Whilst not quite in the "what went wrong" category it certainly is up there with the "I wish I hadn't said that" category. Now let me set the seen. Remember I'd mentioned it was early in the whale-watching season? Well this being the case the commercial whale watching boats usually had to spread themselves out across the bay in order to find whales and upon finding the whales they would call up on the radio and let the other boats know where the whales were. We were fortunate to find a couple of whales very early in the morning. Now this is where I stuffed up. The whales being one large one and one small one, I thought they were a mother and a one year old calf, so promptly called this up on the radio for the whole whale watching fleet to hear and get quite excited over as this being the first sighting of the season of a mother whale. Upon a whale watching boat investigating my outstanding report, he advised the whole whale watching fleet that they were in fact only two 'subbies'. Needles to say I didn't report any more whale sightings over the radio, but rather left it to the professionals.

Two Whales - Not a Mother and Calf
Our friends Megan and Jane arrived on the Friday evening and sailed with us over the weekend from Mooloolaba to Brisbane, where we berthed at Dockside Marina at Kangaroo Point.

Dockside Marina - Isis Roughly in Centre of Photo

View From Isis - Story Bridge
With us now having returned to Brisbane, this will be the last of my posts on what has been a thoroughly enjoyable seven months of sailing. We've certainly learned a lot more about sailing 'Isis', and are still very happy with our chosen lifestyle and are looking forward to more adventures in Australia as well as overseas.

Here's a few statistics about our 7-month trip;
Distance travelled - 2,804 Miles
Fuel used - 716L Diesel
Different Anchorages Experienced - 94

Cheers for now - Karen & Hamish