The adventure continues north. Our goal: get to Lady Musgrave!

We decided to break the journey up in two so that we would arrive somewhat fresh at our first reef. This was also to reduce tiredness and anxiety (something which I’ve learned so far in this journey will be with me, especially as we do things for the first time).

Burnett River

First stop was the Burnett River, which is 45 nautical miles north of Bundaberg. The wind was forecasted to be southerly, which would have been great, but in reality, there ended up being not much wind at all. As such we motor sailed most of the way in order to arrive while there was still some sunlight to help us anchor.

Unfortunately our first anchorage was really rocky, we arrived just before the sun was setting and decided to stay near the mouth of the river as we were uncertain how long it might take us to find a more protected anchorage. Although it was unprotected from the swell, it was an easy anchorage to get to, and only a dinghy hop away from the marina.

Coincidently it is also the area allocated for use by overseas visitors awaiting customs. The two boats next to us had Finish and German flags. This left me wondering how long there journey would have been and what they have explored along the way…

Our second anchorage was further up the river and was a much-needed change. Despite the weather being windy (gusts up to 30 kts) and rainy we were away from the swell which kept the boat comfortable. We didn’t end up doing any real exploration of Bundaberg. The city itself is further up the river and instead we decided to spend the next two days resting – a decision which was pretty easy to make due to the weather.

Bundaberg Port Marina

We spent 1 day and 1 night at the Bundaberg Port Marina before continuing north. The marina is lovely, but really exposed to north wind and the current.

We were assigned Red 13 but ended up having to awkwardly berth on Red 12. I had to change my plan to reverse in at the last minute as I could feel the force of the current and the wind while coming in, it was clear that my initial plan wasn’t going to work. We ended up in Red 12, bow forward, and then walking the boat at the bow and winching at the stern to get the boat to Red 13.

One night at the marina was $58, and we used our time there to provision, do laundry, and plan the next passages.

The local IGA, which is a 30 min walk away happens to be owned by ex-yachties, and has a courtesy shuttle available to pick up and drop off customers from the marina. Our shuttle driver was super friendly and happy to taxi us around, he even offered to take us to the local bottle shop in case we were in need of more alcoholic provisions than we could carry back to the store…. we were not, but it was very nice of him to offer! This amazing service saved us from a downpour, and we got back just on time to avoid most of it.

While Erica was doing the laundry, I worked on our passage plans for the trips to Pancake Creek and Lady Musgrave. That night I made pizza, they were delicious but in the end maybe not the best idea given the boat was already hot and humid and rain meant our windows were shut. We already had a rule not to use the oven unless we have a breeze, clearly it slipped our minds.

Note: Try to remember not to extensively cook with our oven when we can’t open the hatches!

1770 Pancake Creek to Lady Musgrave

Our initial plan was to go to 1770, which is a little town with an anchorage protected by a sand bar that we had heard great things about. However, we would have needed to pass it at high tide which didn’t give us much of a window to continue our journey to Lady Musgrave. We decided instead to skip it and go to Pancake Creek which is a bit further north.

To get there we had to wake up early (4am), it was 60 miles away. Sailing at 6 knots in the right direction would have meant it was 10 hours away, but the ability to go straight to where you want rarely happen when sailing.

We sailed most of the way but kicked off with a stressful situation at the beginning due to a quick uptick in wind. The attachment point for our toping lift decided to unscrew itself and let that line loose, flying up in the air with 23 knots of wind.
We quickly stopped our wind turbine. Erica was maneuvering so I could catch the end of the line with our boat hook. It took us a few minutes but we managed to get it. Luckily we didn’t loose the attachment and I was able to re-installed everything.
About 2/3rd of the way the wind died down to next to nothing and we ended up motor sailing to the anchorage to keep ourselves onetime.

Pancake Creek is another lovely anchorage north of 1770, unfortunately we only had 9 hours there before neeing to depart again. We anchored at the entrance of the creek to allow for our 1am departure time, an unfortunate requirement in order for us to arrive at Lady Musgrave in the morning, with high-tide and sunny skies.

The journey to Lady Musgrave was smooth and largely uneventful, but that’s for our next post.