The weather deteriorated throughout the day, getting really bad this afternoon and evening. We went for a very long walk 10+K along the foreshore to make up for our lack of exercise over the last week and spent the rest of the day tinkering with the boat.
2nd October
Well it sure did come in last night. The southeasterly change hit and was blowing over 40 knots which is classified as gale force. We were happily and safely snuggled up in the marina without a care. Phew!
Anyway it more or less blew itself out last night and by this morning the forecast was down to 10-15 knots and moving around to the east, on it’s way to northerlies again! We’d planned an after lunch departure to catch a north-flowing tide which would have meant some night sailing which would have been lovely. But in view of losing the southerly winds we left Manly marina for Scarborough marina just after breakfast.
It’s a 22 nautical mile sail (pretty long) and we got in to Scarborough at 3pm. One of the higher stress times is crossing the entrance channel to Port of Brisbane. You have to tune in to their VHF channel and monitor it, timing your crossing to not disrupt a ship. Actually a small yacht like ours wouldn’t disrupt them, but we’d probably have ended up on the 6 o’clock news! Anyway as it turns out our timing was good and we slipped easily in between them without a worry.
We’re now moored at Scarborough marina at the end of our first long-ish period of cruising. 10 days of predominantly wonderful sailing and good times. We learnt many lessons and gained bucket loads of confidence. We’re now looking forward to long periods around other cruising grounds – maybe next year!
Soon after I send this we’ll walk over to Morgans Seafood where we’re booked in for their seafood smorgasbord. What better way to end the trip. We’ll sleep aboard on the marina tonight, pull Top Shelf out tomorrow and derig her before towing her home.
To see all the photos from our Moreton Bay sailing adventure CLICK HERE.
Here is the track of our trip.