The day had arrived, it was the 8th of December and we are heading south, with the intention not to sail back.

Corinne was dropped off by her god sister Amy on the 6th of December. We gave her two days at the marina in Scarborough before departing, just enough time to get acquainted with the boat layout and systems before setting off.

The passage from Redcliffe to Gold Coast would only normally take 2 days but we planned to take our time to get there, making plenty of stops along the way. Our berth and airbnb in Gold Coast were booked from the 13th, which Zach would be joining us.

On the 8th the forecast was 15-20 knots Northerly until 6 pm and 20-25 knots south-easterly over night. We decided to skip Moreton Island and go directly to Dunwich, North Stradbroke Island for 2 nights. The anchorage provided good protection from the wind and is right by the town.

MBBC to Dunwich

It’s rare that we are able to cross Moreton Bay within a day, but this was one of those occasions. We didn’t even start as early as we intended since we needed to check out from the marina, drop keys and get some deposits back. It was a bit sad (and scary) to say goodbye to the berth we’d been in for the last 16 months, but past time for us to continue on our adventure and leave “the nest”. The sail was fun and relaxing, just perfect for the first day with Corinne at sea.

North Stradbroke

We went to North Straddie a lot our first year in Brisbane, it was a great option for a day trip or long weekends where we felt like getting out of the city but didn’t do too much planning ahead. Obviously covid stopped those types of weekends away.

We spent two night anchored next to Dunwich (where the passenger ferry drops off), from there we were easily able to grab a bus to Point Lookout. Only a short dingy ride to the beach, we had lunch at the Straddie brewery in Dunwich and grabbed the bus. At Point Lookout there is a 1 hour walk that allowed us to see kangaroos, birds, turtles and blowholes. At the right time of year you can see the impressive whale migration from the walk as well.

Dunwich to Tipplers anchorage

From Dunwich to Tipplers the passage is twisty and surrounded by shallow waters. We’d been through it once before at the beginning of the year, but this time around we had brand new electronics which were much more reliable, making it a bit easier. This passage took us about 5 hours motoring.

Tripplers anchorage & Couran Cove marina

Tripplers is a nice (but crowded) anchorage on South Stradbroke island. We arrived on a Saturday morning not realizing that this anchorage and camp ground was so popular, throughout the morning there were lots of motor boats, jet-skis, and barbecue boat rentals going by. Thankfully I found a perfect stop for our boat at the beginning of the anchorage area near the lateral marker. We were 50 meters from the beach, and Tripplers restaurant was less than a 10 min walk from the beach closest to our boat and only a few minutes away if we took our dinghy straight to it.

We relaxed there for 2 nights. During the days we were either playing cards or walking and exploring the area. There are a few short tracks to get to the other side of island which faces the ocean.

Our next stop was Couran Cove Marina, which was only 15 minutes away from our anchorage. We decided to hide from weather here and refill our water tanks.

Upon arrival the lady who checked us in recommended not to refill our tanks with the tap water on the island, so that was a bust. She didn’t say but we were wondering if the water was rain water, and in the end we didn’t feel confident using it other than for cleaning the boat. Luckily we still had plenty of water left in our tanks from when we left Scarborough.

The whole resort/marina ended up being a bit sad. It probably should have been a red flag when we booked it and saw that almost every berth in the marina was available to book, there were only 2 other boats on the finger our berth was on (out of probably 30+ berths available). It didn’t take us long to figure out why. The resort was barely open, the restaurants were closed, there were basically no options to buy food, they didn’t have any drinkable tap water (drinkable water was produced by melting ice cubes)…

The marina is part of a huge resort which we could see would have been amazing to stay at once upon a time. There were lots of potential activities available like paddle boarding, fishing, biking, two pools. They had an entire sports complex with tennis courts, volleyball, children’s playground, bowls court, mini golf. The resort even has a helipad. It is next to a rain forest and they have a boardwalk to walk through, which is quite different from the area you can see around the anchorage. Sadly almost everything was closed, overgrown and/or dilapidated. It definitely seemed like the business was struggling, hopefully tourism will pick up again and they can get things back in shape.

One amazing point was the website to book the marina berth allowed you to book entirely online, even pick the one you want. I selected ours based on the forecasted wind 😀.

Gold Coast

Our boat was at Hope Harbour Marina for a week while we were in an airbnb with Corine and Zach! Since we changed one of the berths (rooms) on our boat into a storage area we can only accommodate two guests sleeping in one bedroom, which would have been a bit tight.

Luckily for us it was a much needed reprieve from boat life. We hadn’t been in a house since we moved onto our boat in early October. It didn’t take long for us to realize how much we missed climate control, big beds, long showers and food delivery 😅.

Even though we lived in Brisbane for 4 years we hadn’t spent much time at the Gold Coast, so despite the area only being about an hour from where we used to live we got to be tourists and explore most things for the first time 😀.

The first day together we went to the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. Brisbane had a similar sanctuary which we’d visited a number of times called Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. For the most part you can see the same animals but I believe Gold Coast has a bit nicer set-up, they have different areas with themes and a train that will take you around. While we were there Corinne and Zach got their signature “holding a koala” 🐨 pics.

The next day we spent some time exploring Surfer’s Paradise. We tried to make the most of our day at the beach, but we got sand blasted due to the wind. We also tried a few brewery along the way.

On our last day together we went flying in a Hot Air Balloon 🎈. We had a 3 year old voucher about to expire from a trip we had planned at the beginning of 2019 when Corinne, Lauren and Kevin were supposed to visit us (unfortunately cancelled due to covid). We were so glad that we could use it before we left! What an amazing experience.

I also was of course supporting France in the World Cup final. Sadly we lost, but that was the last benefit of being in a house with a big screen TV, I was able to watch it from 1 – 3 am on Monday morning.

Gold Coast to Tweed River

Tweed isn’t far, but with a southerly / south-easterly wind it wasn’t as easy to reach as we had hoped. My crew didn’t want to wait for better conditions on the next day, so we left our anchorage at Bum’s Bay and crossed the inlet.

As I said in a previous post, safety first. Logging your trip with Marine Rescue NSW is so easy! They have an app. What’s happening Queensland VMR?

Arriving that day in not great conditions allowed us to get a nice anchoring spot and a full day at Tweed / Coolangatta with Zach and Megan. It was worth it.

The morning of the 23rd was busy. We first dropped Megan on the beach next to the anchorage where her car was. We then moved our boat to a public pontoon to drop Zach and replenish our water tank. We had to go at high tide (8am) because the channel to get to the pontoon was too shallow for comfort at any other time of day. Oddly the gate from the public pontoon to those was locked 🔒 so the last two meters for Zach to get on land had to be done via our dinghy. The only problem was that Zach’s flight wasn’t until the afternoon, better early than late I guess!

Once done we got back to our prime anchorage spot. I was really happy that no one had tried to take it. Many boats arrived that day to spend Christmas on the river.

Before leaving the Tweed River we rented a car, provisioned, got a new fender step (our Christmas present to ourselves), and did laundry.

Note: Don’t leave your fender step attached underway. It will be gone by the end of the passage 😑