Crossing The Bar

The distance from Myora Anchorage on North Stradbroke to Tangalooma on Moreton Island isn’t far as the crow flies, about 16NM, but in order to get there we have to wend our way through the sandpit known as Moreton Bay. In all it adds another 9 NM to our journey but there’s no option if we don’t want to become another Tangalooma wreck.

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Into The Shallows

The next leg of our adventure takes us through the inland waterway known as The Broadwater, which connects the Gold Coast to Moreton Bay. This whole area is basically estuary-land, and the water here is very very thin.  I vividly remember the stress of navigating through here on our previous monohull ‘Illusion’. Her draught was 2.1 metres and we had to carefully work the tides to avoid being snafued on a sandbank somewhere (the official terminology is ‘going aground’, also known as ‘hitting the bricks’, ‘bottoming out’  ‘on the rocks’  ‘foundering’.…and a whole lot of other less savoury terms, but if you own a boat it’s only a matter of time before it happens to you).  This time it’s a different story – Toucan’s draught is a teeny weeny delightful 1.3 metres and suddenly a whole world of opportunities awaits us. Just because we can, we decide to explore the shallower, eastern channels of Tippler’s and Canaipa passages.  But first I need a wee rest…

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Splashing Out

A golden morning on the Gold Coast

Everyone knows that if you want to take a girl out you need to find somewhere that will impress her, a first-class joint, otherwise you might as well say goodbye to the whole relationship thing.  Seeing as Toucan has looked after us so well for the past 4 1/2 years it seemed only fair to reciprocate, and The Boat Works on Coomera River seemed to fit the bill. It didn’t disappoint.

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