Hervey Bay to Southport

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" background="1ccd05a3.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>DRUMBEAT</B></FONT><B>    </B><B> |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="DRUMBEAT"><B>home</B></A></div> <div> back to  <A HREF="id94.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Voyages"><B>Voyages</B></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" background="1cdd2123.jpg"> <div> <A HREF="id373.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Airlie Beach to Hervey Bay">Airlie Beach to Hervey Bay</A></div> <div> <B>Hervey Bay to Southport</B></div> <div> <A HREF="id376.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Flat Water">Flat Water</A></div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="c82d9210.jpg" border=0 width="217" height="289" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 width="100%" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>Hervey Bay to Southport </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>(by Brian)</B></FONT></div> <bR> <div> Tuesday, 12th was a busy day, giving Drumbeat a good scrub, as this was her first stay on a marina berth for many months, with it's abundance of fresh water.  We caught a lift up to te shopping centre with Bridgit, did some grocery shopping, and caught a taxi home. Polbert picked us up, and we went to Maryborough where my sister Carolyn had prepared a sumptuous 'Christmas' dinner.  Polbert dropped us back to the Marina where we had a good nights sleep.  On Wednesday morning it was more cleaning, and Linda's Aunty Pauline and Uncle John made a visit.  We had hot chips for lunch, and left the berth at 1pm, sailing though the Great Sandy Straights, anchoring at Inskip Point at 6pm.  We sailed almost all the way, with light 10-12 knot easterlies, with only a couple of legs where we furled the headsail and motor-sailed into the wind.  There was a farly large monohull motoring through at the same time as us.  They were about 2 miles in front of us at the start, and about 2 miles behind at he end.  It was fun to sail past them doing 12 knots, as they listened to the sound of their diesel thumping away!  Wayne Jones, who built Drumbeat, was delivering Silhouette to Brisbane, and took some photos of Drumbeat under sail as he went past.  Silhouette is a motor cruising catamaran he built for himself and some partners. See her on his web site under 'links'.</div> <bR> <div> Wednesday was an early start so we could cross the Wide Bay Bar on high tide at 4:30am.  As we crossed the bar in the weak light of a grey dawn, we motor sailed past a monomaran, and they called us on the radio.  It was Ian & Wendy off 'Insider', who are friends of Linda's Uncle George & Aunty Margaret who had asked them to keep an eye out for Drumbeat.  It's a small world!</div> <bR> <div> We had a light NNE breeze of about 12 knots, which made for good sailing for a while, but it gradually dropped out, until it got the best of me, and at about 9 am the motors went on.  We had come 35 miles, and motor sailed the next 30 miles until the breeze kicked back in at about 1pm.  By 2pm we were doing 9-11 knots in flat seas with the spinnaker up, and an increasing wind. As we neared Cape Morton, the wind was blowing a steady 20 knots and we had a great run down Morton Island doing 12-16 knots, with a top speed of 19.2 knots.  The winds had increased to 20-25 knots as we passed Point Lookout on the North end of North Stradbroke Island, and with some counter-current,and the seas were standing up a bit.  We doused the spinnaker, only to have the winds promptly drop to 15 knots.  We sailed 'wing & wing' down North and South Stradbroke Islands, as the many prawn trawlers made their way from the Gold Coast Seaway, north to the grounds off Moreton Island.  Love that radar!  Just on sunset, we were visited by a pod of about 15 dolphins, who frollicked around our bows for about 10 minutes.  We entered the GCS at 9pm, and anchored of Seaworld, on The Spit.  An enjoyable run of about 140 miles, despite the light conditions mid morning.</div> <bR> <div> We spent the next few days anchored in 'Bum's Bay', and were visited by many friends.  Our new Swift inflateable and 15HP Yamaha were delivered to us by Rob Nilon.</div> </td> </tr></table></body>