On Sunday
morning, after farewelling Ray, we looked up the weather forecast for the next
few days. There was a big high pressure
system coming across with S to SE wind 25 to 30 knots forecast for
Tuesday. Would we stay in Burrum Heads
for maybe another week or would we head north now?
We elected to head for the Burnett River, 35 nautical miles away with the aim of overnighting there before continuing on to 1770.
The wind varied in speed and direction but was mostly directly behind
us at 5 – 10 knots. Like most cats, Maripi does not like to go square down
wind. Given the light conditions, this
time we went for the spinnaker. It is
the first time that we have set the spinnaker on Maripi.
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| Maripi's Spinnaker up for the first time |
We entered
the Burnett River at Bundaberg just as the sun was going down and anchored
before it was fully dark at 1750. We anchored
where we usually do – just upstream of the sugar shed. Merv tells us he and his mate put the first
coat on paint on it (last century!) At
0400 the next day we were off again in the dark up the river and out through the laterals headed
for 1770 on Round Hill Creek; a distance of 55 nautical miles.
Both the wind and sea were up and at 0500 that morning a
strong wind warning was issued for that Monday afternoon. We were sailing downwind on a S-SWesterly that was
around 15 to 20 knots. Far too much wind for the spinnaker. We
averaged 6.3 knots under headsail and main.
After a long day on the water the day before
and the early start, breakfast was not up to our usual culinary standard. Chris
(he with the cast iron stomach) announced that he had “had enough” after
getting through about ¾ of his serve.
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| Breakfast |
North of
Baffle Creek, about 5 miles off shore, we picked up two exhausted hitch
hikers. They must have been blown out to
sea by the strong SW winds. They checked
out the phone aerials, backstay, back rail and finally settled for a snooze
under the TV antenna and in the lee of the radar (which was not on).
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| Rainbow Lorikeets |
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| Tuning the antenna? |
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| Not flying underneath the radar |
They stayed
with us for an hour. When they left we were much closer to land. They were in good voice and we hope they
made it.
As expected the ocean swells
were rougher around Round Hill Head. We manually steered because the auto pilot would not hold a course in the rough conditions.
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| Concentration required at the helm |
We were very pleased to see the green marking
the entry to Round Hill Creek. The entrance is narrow and
adjacent to a rocky outcrop. The channel
runs between the green and the rocks. We arrived at 1770 at 1330.
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| Round Hill Head |
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| The welcome green channel marker. The channel is to port (the left) of the marker. |
We anchored just
upstream from the LARC base in 2 metres of water. This was OK for Monday night. With the approaching spring tides, however, there would be over a 2 metre tidal range. We needed 4 metres of water at high tide later in the week so
that we would not take the hard at low tide. On Tuesday we went searching for some deeper water. After an extensive “marine survey “, we found a hole with 5 metre depth of water at high tide, away
from the other anchored and moored vessels.
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| 1770 anchorage looking downstream |
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| 1770 anchorage looking upstream |
On Wednesday
we took the dingy ashore and walked up past the caravan park to see what the
entrance looked like in a strong wind warning. There was white water everywhere!
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| The arrow shows the position of the green marker |
We have a great fondness for 1770 from a previous visit with our Avan on
a return trip from Middlemount to visit Kitty and Lawrie.
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| 1770 "Caravan Park" anchorage |
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| Robyn enjoying a coffee at "The Tree 1770" |
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| Hi Kitty, do you recognise the verandah? |
The 1770 pub has selected a great place for their ATM location?
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| Deposits and withdrawals in one easy location! |
Wednesday was also
washing day again. In a strong wind warning
the question is not will they dry, but rather will they still be there!
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| No
pegs or clothes were lost! |
