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UNDERWAY, AT LAST – SHADOWED BY PIRATES?...continued |
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What was more worrying than the ships was a pair of power boats that appeared out of the dark during my watch. They shadowed Masala for more than an hour, sometimes dropping back and sometimes coming quite close. Two shadowy forms could be seen in each boat through the binoculars, but it was impossible to tell what they were doing or why they were following us. Thoughts of pirates went through my head, but hey, this is Queensland, OK?
Just as the nagging fear was abating, the boats would close in again, to less than 50 metres, initiating a new bout. Several times I thought of waking Leanne and getting her to call someone on the radio, or to phone the water police, but I was too afraid of being labeled paranoid. However, later on I remembered the incident off the Queensland coast where the three men went missing off the catamaran Kaz. The boat was found with sails up, engines on, and food on the table, but no sign of the crew. The only credible explanation for this is foul play. The questions surrounding this mystery have not been answered and probably never will be.
Eventually the boats angled back towards the coast and were not seen again. A disturbing incident. |
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Our spirits lifted at sunrise when three huge dolphins surfed the bow wave for about 20 minutes, often lying on their sides and peering up at us, looking down at them. Who was watching who? |
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SUNDAY 13 SEPTEMBER. Our crossing over the notorious Wide Bay Bar into the Great Sandy Straits inside Fraser Island went fine. Fortunately we called the Coast Guard beforehand, to discover that the official route over the bar had been moved since we last crossed it. A hasty ten minutes was spent entering the new waypoints into the computer and the GPS. Masala surfed on the occasional big swell, necessitating slick work on the helm by Leanne to keep her 13 tons heading in the right direction. |
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INSKIP POINT, ON THE MAINLAND OPPOSITE FRASER ISLAND |
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Above: breakers on Wide Bay Bar, seen from the beach at Inskip Point |
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The anchor went down at Inskip Point at 1:30 pm and after a quick lunch we fell into bed for a well earned afternoon sleep. |
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Below: Masala anchored at Inskip Point |
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At night when the tide was going out we shone the torch off the back of the boat and discovered that the prawns were running. We got out the fishing net not really expecting to be fast enough to catch any, but soon had 10 of the small critters to use as bait. |