Start Loc: Laguna Bay, Noosa Heads (26o 22.79’ S, 153o 05.84’ E)
Narrative: Noosa is not renowned as a stopover for yachts travelling between Wide Bay and Moreton Bay. Probably because Mooloolaba has a Marina (the Mooloolah River has a deeper entrance than the Noosa River), and Noosa generally has a SE swell. We must have jagged it, because we had a nice calm night.
The aim for today was to get across the Wide Bay Bar. Sunset was at 5:12pm and the larger of the two high tides was at 6:29pm (at 2.0m), so the plan was to get across the bar at about 4:00pm – 4.5 hrs into the 7 hr flooding tide and before dark. We weighed anchor at 7:20am and headed off, expecting to motor sail all day, with the forecast being “variable winds at 5 to 10 kts”. By about 9:00am the wind had freshened to 13 kts and we turned off the motor. We were making good time, assisted by the 1.5-2.0 kt northerly current. About 13 nm S of Double Island Point, the wind dropped off to less than 5 kts and the motor was turned back on. We made good time, crossed a relatively flat bar at about 1:30pm, and headed S to Tin Can Bay to follow up the phone calls we had made to see if the Marina Chandlery could assist us with a new macerator.
Apparently I couldn’t just get a macerator; I had to get a whole new conversion kit That didn’t phase me as I was looking at replacing the cracked toilet base anyway, but it would take a day and a half to arrive. Then I realised they had complete toilets on special for just $11 more. Does anyone want a new toilet bowl?
End Loc: Tin Can Bay Marina (25o 54.41’ S, 153o 00.42’ E)
Distance run: 50 nm
Engine hours: 6 hr, 57 min