Swift Sailing to Southport

Sunset over Tin Can Bay

As much as we love Tin Can Bay, we had spent time here in 2014 and we are getting impatient over our slow progress. 

We have let our comprehensive boat insurance lapse and downgraded to third party, as insurance costs skyrocket and risk is small.

Unfortunately, marinas which usually were happy to accept boats on third party insurance are now requiring comprehensive. We enjoyed our last two days of remaining comprehensive insurance at Tin Can Bay marina, and now it's all anchorages, unless the more southerly marinas aren't as strict. (For my non-yachting savvy friends - marinas are the nautical equivalent of caravan parks whereas an anchorage is the equivalent of a sheltered bush camp.)

So we edged out from the convenience of the marina with it's fancy flushing toilets, hot showers and coin laundry to the other side of the bay, which was sheltered and secluded and from which we could watch spectacular sunsets over Tin Can Bay.

From there we edged out further to Inskip Point from which a ferry takes 4WD vehicles the short distance to Fraser Is.

As you can see, it's all unsealed roads and fun, fun, fun. 

Inskip Point is a popular camping area where hundreds of campers get away to relax about 6 inches away from the next camper!

The sandy spit at the end was what interested us the most. From aboard Winkali, we had been watching hundreds of birds roosting on the spit and a spectacular sandbar at low tide.

We went ashore armed with cameras which had been gathering dust.

Thousands of Soldier Crabs disappeared into the wet sand as we approached. After many photos of wet sand and vanishing crabs, I managed to sneak up without scaring them away for a few shots.

Some amazing choreography went into the coordinated patterning on the sand flats of Inskip Point.








Tearing ourselves away from the distraction of the Soldier Crabs, we went after larger quarry - birds.

Thousands of migratory birds fly from the Arctic region each summer to fatten up on abundant food supplies in various areas of Australia. The Great Sandy Straits between Fraser Is and mainland, is one of these important areas. Unfortunately, migratory birds are in decline as strategic feeding areas along their migratory route are being destroyed by human activity.
Click here for further reading on migratory birds.

Lucky for us, there were many still to be seen and we feel privileged to be able to see them still. I worry that generations to come will have to rely on photos to see them.

Most of the waders were out on the sand bar but I managed to get close up to a few locals.

From L - R
Red-capped Plover
Crested Terns
Bar-tailed Godwit and
Common Sandpipers
Mistletoe Bird





Although we had resigned ourselves to waitings for several days at Inskip Point, we found ourselves off and sailing after only one night as the northerlies kicked in early.

It was about 150 nautical miles (or 277.8k) to Southport which meant an overnight sail. When there is a crew of only 2 on board, no-one gets much sleep so we were quite exhausted when we arrived at 1pm the following day.

Although we were prepared to drop anchor and get some much needed sleep, we had arrived in an area totally different to any other we had ever visited. Sleep was some hours away.

The Gold Coast is well known for its Theme Park attractions, fantastic surf beaches and wild night-life.

However, we were unprepared for the wild abandon on the Broadwater waterways. Every conceivable watercraft was to be found going flat out, every which way. Jet skis, boats, aeroplanes, paragliders and even a crazy guy in a futuristic jet pressure water suit sorted out the hopefuls who were sedately weaving their way through this mayhem while sitting for their boat license. 

This is best described through this short movie of our travels from Inskip Point to Southport. It ends with a special guest appearance from Boston, our grand-dog who stayed with us for the weekend with Jess (Ian's daughter who wouldn't let me take her photo).

Well, we are now at Coffs Harbour after another fantastic sail and another overnighter. Southerlies are forcing us to rest here a couple of days till a northerly change which will hopefully arrive by Saturday.

Then it's off to Port Macquarie :)

Waiting for the Cyclones to Pass

A storm moves over the coast towards Tin Can Bay

We left Bundaberg two weeks ago now during a short weather break.  The first few nights we spent sheltering in the Sandy Straits, the area between Fraser Island and mainland.  First Woody Island, then Gary's Anchorage at the southern end.

We went for a terrible walk the first night at Gary's Anchorage.  The mozzies and midgies were ferocious.  Lucky there was a storm coming and we had to get back to the boat quickly.

After the storm by-passed us by, in the first photo, we were treated to some more spectacular sky scenery. 

The following morning we woke to the sounds of zinging (the noise mosquitos make around your ears when they're looking for somewhere to land).   The mozzies were undeterred by our swiping antics, so we rose to watch the sunrise -  and March flies.  


Oh dear, March flies are attracted to the colour blue and our seat covers in the cockpit happened to be their favourite colour.  There were half a dozen of them reclining on our seats.  

Ian managed to swat one of them and swiftly relocated it to our watery surrounds.  Well, it looked much nicer there.

We could now enjoy the stillness of the morning.

We checked on the weather forecast and found a couple of low pressure systems which had the potential to turn into cyclones, so we said 'see you later' to our picturesque anchorage and headed the short distance to Tin Can Bay and the safety of their marina.




We enjoyed a week at Tin Can Bay.  It's a quiet little town with lots of nature walks to do.  There's a long Foreshore bird walk and a shorter Wildflower walk with interpretive signage so you know what you're looking at.

We were impressed with the neatness and cleanliness of the town.  Graffiti was absent, public amenities were spotless and everyone was friendly and would say hello as you walked by.  

Although we missed the height of the wildflower season which peaks in the spring, there were still a few hardy species which stubbornly flowered through the hot dry summer.

We probably enjoyed the banksias the most as they had all the different flower stages - from bud to dud.  

The Swamp Banksia on the right started out with a dark green flower during early stages, changing to lime, yellow, golden, rusty brown, before turning dark brown then revealing its seed pods.

The area around here is known as Wallum country.  Wallum being a local aboriginal word for swampy. All these Wallum plants spend a large part of the year in wet boggy soil, but are able to withstand the dry months of summer.

A few more of the Wallum locals.






At this time of the year, there are often many jellyfish.  We were told that sometimes in the Sandy Straits during peak season, it seemed as though there were more jellyfish than there was water.

I was quite fascinated by them and spent many hours photographing and videoing them around the harbour.  I couldn't resist including a short movie clip of them.  It goes for 59 secs and uses 11mb

After a week at Tin Can Bay, we braved the weather and came back to Gary's Anchorage at Fraser Island.  We've since learned that it is the safest place to be in bad weather and many boats come here to shelter in the event of a cyclone.  

There has been two cyclones in the past week, with another forming in the Gulf of Carpentaria.  The first one did a little damage at Great Keppel but that's been the closest one and we had no effects of it on the Fraser coast.

We're waiting for the weather to settle a bit before we move to another anchorage at Fraser Island.  Our movements will all be northwards from now, till we get back to Cairns at the end of the cyclone season.

More coming on Fraser Island in next blog.

see you soon