East Coast Cruising

Stayed a week at Mooloolaba great to catch up with family. Laura got to meet up with her friend from school, Ruby, and we all had a great time surfing on the beach at Mooloolaba. Ruby and her family were holidaying in Noosa. It was good timing.
From there we provisioned the boat again and set off for the Great Sandy Strait which is the piece of water also known as 'Inside Fraser'. It extends 40 miles up the west side of Fraser Island. Wide bay Bar is its entrance and we were a bit nervous about entering it. We had to leave Mooloolaba at 2 am to be at the Bar at slack water at midday. Getting up that early is soooooo hard! We had a shitty sail as the wind was strong and kept gusting and the sea swell was massive in areas. We got caught with too much sail up at one point and as the wind gust the autohelm lost control - (dont you love automatic equipment!) and the boat turned sending the boom swinging violently to the other side. The preventer bust and bent a stanchion (a metal pole that holds the lifelines). We were lucky the boom didn't get damaged. Trying to get the boom back again and reef in was not fun in those conditions and I got a nice rope burn even with gloves on! With the swell as it was and the wind that strong we wondered if we would be able to get into the bar. However, when we got there it was very wide and even though waves were breaking south and north of it there was a clear patch in the middle so entering was a piece of cake! Just before we entered we saw our first shark it was about 4 metres long and the same distance from the boat!
Now we are in nice calm waters for the next two weeks - first stop Tin Can Bay - what a beautiful little place. The Yacht Club was cool and very basic - right on the waters edge it was more like an enlarged hut with the best position of any building. Basic bar, tables and chairs and good atmosphere. They had a 'Vinyl' night and we boogied on down to the oldies (with the oldies!). It was fun and a late night. The next day we had to be up at the crack of dawn so the kids could feed the dolphins. A really big tourist attraction in Tin Can Bay. Barnacles Cafe are making a packet out of this. They charge $5 a person for 2 small fish to feed the dolphins and on a slow day they get about 60 people and on a good day, school holidays etc they get about 200 people. We were on a quiet day luckily but it was still packed. The kids loved it and got to play with the dolphins for about an hour (I loved it too!!).
From Tin Can Bay we sailed two hours to Gary's Anchorage. This is on the west coast of Fraser Island. A pretty spot with isolated beaches. The beach was small but room enough to play and swim - if you dare - a big sign greets you saying crocodiles have been sighted along the west coast of Fraser, take care - GREAT - if its not sharks, its jelly fish and if its not jelly fish, its crocodiles!
Anyhow we felt safe swimming off the back of the boat.
We are now at South Cliffs also on the west coast of Fraser. The past three anchorages have all been very picturesque with small beaches, mangroves and an abundance of birdlife. The tides are quite high here and when the tides are low there are thousands of crabs on the mud flats and lots of birds. Took Laura and Rayner fishing in the dinghy tonight by the mangroves and we saw a large turtle really close up - cool. We are catching heaps of fish here but they are all Toados which are poisonous so have to put them back - given up now trying to catch anything else as you don't even need bait on your hook and you will stick catch a Toado.
Going to King Fisher Resort tomorrow whose facilities are available to boaties, swimming pool, bar and showers. We haven't had a shower since Mooloolaba! Looking forward to catching up with friends of ours, Renae, Caddy, Olivia and Summer at King Fisher Resort. They have booked in there for five nights. We have hired at 4 wheel drive for one of the days so will be able to have a good look around Fraser. Be good to have my drinking partner for a while....