MASALA — CRUISING LOG

THE KEPPEL ISLANDS TO BRISBANE

OCTOBER & NOVEMBER 2009

With flashbacks to East Coast Marina, August 2009

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FRIDAY 18 DECEMBER.   We are about to leave Masala behind at Scarborough Marina for the summer – it has become too hot and humid in Brisbane to survive any longer. A pedestal fan inside the boat makes it bearable to read down below during the day and to sleep at night, provided we don’t exert ourselves. Work on the boat has ground to a halt as the merest effort results in heat exhaustion.

 

We will be driving to Sydney for some sailing and sightseeing with friends – more about that in the next Epistle. For now, we will continue on from the end of the last Epistle, in which we had just arrived at the magical Yellow Patch, after a fast sail north from Bundaberg.

SCARBOROUGH MARINA, BRISBANE

YELLOW PATCH – THREADING THE ANCHORAGE NEEDLE

TUESDAY 6 OCTOBER.

We eased Masala in across the vast sand bar blocking the entrance to the estuary. The yellow-orange sand blow for which this anchorage is famous begged to be explored, but first we had to make sure that we were anchored safely. There is only one patch of water deep enough for us to stay afloat during the coming low Spring Tides.

The fast running tide keeps the boat well aligned in the narrow channel. But on the turn of the tide, when wind and current fight each other, the boat wanders aimlessly around the anchor. This is a worry because the channel is narrow. On one side is a rocky promontory, while on the other there is a steep underwater bank fronting shallow sand flats.

The anchorage is strongly tidal. Four times a day the flow changes direction, the yacht swinging on the anchor to face into the racing current each time. We never cease to be amazed that the anchor stays put under these conditions.

Above: sand bars blocking the entrance to Yellow Patch are completely exposed at low tide.

Left: rocks on one side, sand banks on the other (this photo was taken at high tide so the sand banks are covered).

Below: the rocks are not far away from Masala. This promontory becomes a lee shore in south west winds.