Start Loc: The Narrows (23o 36.79'S, 151o 02.60'E)
Narrative: Given there was strong wind warning for this area in place all day today, and it was blowing 25-30kts outside Curtis Island, we made the right decision to stay inside Curtis Island and come through The Narrows.
We sat at anchor this morning waiting for the tide to come in. The Narrows has a 6nm or so stretch in the middle that dries at low tide, in some places to 2.5m at LAT. The rule of thumb is that you need a tide of 1.5m plus draught, based on Gladstone. High tide at Cattle Crossing is about 30 minutes after high tide at Gladstone and 15-25% higher, depending how conservative you want to be.
We passed through The Narrows on our way north on 30th July with a Gladstone high tide of 3.5m, and showed a least depth of 2.1m as we went through. High tide today was 3.3m at 1:30pm, so we had enough water.
We raised the anchor at 12:39pm and motored towards the drying area. Just before 1:00pm, an hour before high tide and with roughly 20cm to still come in, we started through. Half an hour later we were past the shallowest part and nearly out of the drying area. The sounder showed us a least depth of 1.8m.
Clear of The Narrows and coming in to the Gladstone pilotage area, we checked in with Gladstone Harbour Control (VHF 13), pulled out some head sail and switched the motor off. The wind was E at 15-20kts, so we sailed SE towards the main part of the harbour. It was good for 30 minutes or so but then the wind was too much on our bow, so we furled the head sail and motored again.
We stayed out of the main shipping area by passing between Passage Islands and Curtis Island. They are doing a lot of development work in this part of the harbour and we would have had less traffic if we had been in the main channel area.
We came around Hamilton Point about 3:15pm and looked for an anchorage on the lee side of Tide Island. While it was protected enough, it was 15m plus deep until it shelved to 5m about 15m off the island. It was no good for anchoring so we moved and had a look at the lee side of Picnic Island. It had a swell running south to north, so we decided we would give the marina a try.
Heather tried calling the marina on the radio just after 4:00pm, but VMR responded to tell us they had knocked off early. We tried phoning, but there was no answering machine to give us an after hours mobile number or similar. We decided we would go into Auckland Creek and see if there was anywhere suitable to anchor, and if there wasn't we would then have a look at the marina.
There was no room to anchor in Auckland Creek. The public jetty was an overnight option, but it was possibly not the night to be tied to a public jetty, so we headed in to the marina. After motoring around and having a look at a few berth options and trying to anchor in the poor holding mud near the swing buoys, a bloke called us over and pointed us to a corner berth that he knew was vacant. We tied up there at 5:03pm.
The kids went and checked out the marina office for us, but there was nothing giving us an after hours point of contact. One of the other blokes lent us his key so we could use the showers, and we were invited to join a few other yachties for a barbecue and drinks. We got cleaned up and spent the evening swapping stories until we welcomed the new year.
End Loc: Gladstone Marina (23o 49.96'S, 151o 14.62'E)
Distance run: 21nm (cumulative: 2800nm)
Engine hours: 4 hr, 13 min (cumulative: 111 hr, 28 min)