Start Loc: Inskip Point (25o 48.88'S, 153o 02.68'E)
Narrative: We got an early start this morning, raising the anchor at 7:03am and motoring around Inskip Point. A large motor vessel had gone over the bar about half an hour before us and I listened to their chatter with Coast Guard Tin Can Bay on the VHF, so I knew the bar was not to too bad. We logged on with the Coast Guard for our crossing, but once they have you on their books they like to keep it that way, so we ended up logging our trip to Mooloolaba.
It was 7:45am before we got to the first waypoint in the bar crossing, and almost 9:00am before we were clear of the bar. It is a 4nm crossing and we could only do around 3.5kts over ground, into wind, waves and tide. Once across the bar we set sail. The wind was E at 10-15kts, so we motor sailed close hauled with one reef in the main and 110% head sail. With the motor assisting, we were able to maintain 6kts over ground as we made our way outside Wolf Rock and around Double Island Point.
After clearing Double Island Point, we increased to full sail and altered course to starboard onto our heading to Mooloolaba. The winds remained E for the trip and our point of sail remained arouns a close reach. There were times the wind sat in the 5-10kts bracket for a while and our speed would drop to around 4kts, but it was generally 10-15kts and we once reached 8kts over ground. We covered almost 41nm in six and a half hours, averaging 6.3kts over ground. The sky was clear, the sun was shining, the waves were not too big, and it was very pleasant sailing.
Just north of Mooloolaba the wind dropped to around 6kts and swung NE, so we put all the sail away and motored the last couple of miles. We crossed the Mooloolah River Bar (the QLD Government declared the entrance to the Mooloolah River a bar crossing from 1st January 2012) at 5:35pm and were berthed at the marina at 5:48pm. For the entire trip we averaged 5.8kts over ground, which I was pretty happy with. It was a good day.
We will spend tomorrow at Mooloolaba including a trip to the surf beach, then head off reasonably early on Sunday morning for the final 40nm leg back to Redcliffe.
End Loc: Mooloolaba (26o 41.20'S, 153o 07.67'E)
Distance run: 62nm (cumulative: 3089nm)
Engine hours: 4 hr, 19 min (cumulative: 138 hr, 41 min)