Year 2 – 28 March 2025 -Fitzroy Reef-Bundaberg

If anyone reading this and is free from late June to mid July 2025 to come to Australia then do contact me as I am short of crew during this period at present.

We woke at 5.30am with the aim to leave at first light for Bundaberg where Trevor was getting off. There was some light when we woke and sunrise was 5.47am. We had a quick cuppa and we had to retrace our steps out of the narrow dogleg pass without hitting anything. The tide was up and we had 2.6m of water on chart datum (lowest recorded depth). We got ready and then upped anchor and headed toward the pass.

Trevor and I had our headsets and Mark acted as a message passer should it become necessary. We could just about see the colours of the coral – the light browns, greens and yellows and then the blue for sand and relatively shallow and then the dark for deeper water. I approached the first green marker and then had to do a dogleg right and then aim toward the red and then a dogleg left before it as both markers were on coral. Anyhow the depth did not go below 4m and soon we were out and we had not hit anything. David thought I was quite brave taking Stormbird in the lagoon. The picture of the day is the view coming in and you will see how narrow it is.

We had a great time in the lagoon which we had to ourselves and it had been a special experience. It was now a 74nm sail back to Bundaberg. There was a rain front on the way and I expected to get wet on our journey.  The wind was East but mostly Northeast 15-20 kts and we had gusts up to 26. We had a reef in the main and Staysail and we sailed well and fast. We had to adjust the sails from time to time but Stormbird went and she likes these breezy conditions. We were doing 7.5 -8.5 kts most of the time. There was a bit of a swell and we had quite a bit of water coming over the deck and swooshing down the sides with the gurgling of the deck drains struggling to suck the water back into the ocean. We had shifts of 2 hours on and 2 hours off.

We went for hours like this and initially there was no rain and we were amazed to have missed it to date and we had been lucky with the weather over the last week. Our luck did not last as by about lunchtime the drizzle came and it was rain jackets on. We continued to sail fast and wet with water from the rain and from coming over the deck. The visibility was poor and we switched the radar on. Out of the murk we could just about see Bundaberg and the channel markers. We took the sails down at 3.30pm and had covered the 74nm in 9.5 hours – a rough average of 7.89 kts which was pretty good I thought in the circumstances.

We put on the engine and motored down the channel and into the Burnett River. We anchored at the same place as before opposite the marina. It was pouring with rain and Trevor booked a table at the restaurant in the marina. We tidied up as best we could and got the dinghy down. We went ashore at about 5.45pm in our waterproofs as it was absolutely pouring down and had a nice meal. This was Trevor’s last night and he has been with me since the beginning of January 2025 in New Zealand. He has been a great crew member and we have had some great times together including when there was just two of us for a while. He will be missed but may be back again. Mark has also decided due to various personal circumstances to get off at the same time. He has only been with us for a week and it had been nice to get to know him a bit.  That will just leave David and I until 8 April 2025 when Paul Hardcastle from Sydney will get on.

We have had a great short trip since we last left Bundaberg and we have seen some lovely places.

Need/Opportunity Year Two

I am in need of more crew from late June to Mid-July so if of interest do email me at  hine.nick9@gmail.com  

In year two I will be going from New Zealand to Sydney and hen up the Eastern Australian Coast, Indonesia and then through Bali, Singapore and on to Thailand to end year two about the end of November 2025.

The blog will continue as we continue the journey. If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog then do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com