Start Loc: South White Cliffs, Fraser Island (25o 31.21’ S, 152o 58.39’ E)
Narrative: We used the morning high tide to give us plenty of water to proceed up to Urangan. We had a southerly of about 5kts apparent, so with full head sail we motor sailed up the main channel. The sun broke through and the breeze freshened as we continued north, and as we came up on the east side of Big Woody Island we raised the main, cut the engine and had a very pleasant sail.
I considered taking a bit of a shortcut across the sandbanks immediately north of Big Woody Island. We had enough water, but with only two marks to guide us and a lack of local knowledge, I decided on the longer safe option of continuing NW to the special mark and then SSE down the channel to Urangan.With the breeze now from the SE, it was tack after tack down the narrow channel - we sailed 8nm for a distance of 3.5nm! It was not all boring though. We were "racing" Cygneture (a Bavaria 38) down the channel. Being less beamy, she could sail closer to the wind than us and as we criss-crossed down the channel, I eventually had to give way and pass astern of her. We also got to watch the local VMR attempt to pull Boomerang 7 off a sandbar in the area I decided to go around, so I felt somewhat vindicated in my decision to take the safe option. They were unsuccessful and the owner remained on board for a long and uncomfortable wait through the low tide until the next high.
After refueling, we went to our berth, cleaned up, and went for a walk (a scoot for the kids) to have a look around. We then showered and went to the the boat club for dinner - something we won't bother to do again if we drop in on the way back down.
Refuelled: 44.48L at 154.9c/L = $66.90
Economy since 11 Jul: 44.48L for 20 hr 04 min = 2.21L/hr
End Loc: Urangan Harbour, Hervey Bay (25o 17.59’ S, 152o 54.67’ E)
Distance run: 29nm (cumulative: 171nm)
Engine hours: 2 hr, 15 min (cumulative: 20 hr, 04 min)