Tag: anchorage

Cruising New South Wales

We, like many other sailors in Australia before us, aspire to spend our holidays in Sydney. To do that, we needed to get from Townsville in October to Sydney in December. And cruising New South Wales is quite different from cruising in Queensland. While the coast is beautiful and some of the anchorages are lovely, Queensland spoiled us, aside from the catastrophes.

Our Route Cruising New South Wales

We spent almost two and a half weeks cruising the 430 miles from Gold Coast to Sydney, where we’ll spend the holidays.

Sydney Harbor bridge and Opera House
It was exciting to sail into Sydney Harbor

From Gold Coast we sailed to Yamba, from Yamba to Coffs Harbor followed by Port Macquarie. From Port (as it’s called), we sailed to Broughton Islands for one night, before moving on to stop in Newcastle. Our friend Greg sailed straight from Newcastle to Sydney, but Brian and I wanted to explore some other ports, so we extended our trip.

Continue reading “Cruising New South Wales”

Nature’s Paradise K’Gari Island

One of our Queensland highlights is the nature’s paradise K’gari Island, a huge island a few miles off the coast. K’gari is the recently readopted Aboriginal name for Fraser Island. The name means paradise, which we found highly appropriate for this beautiful place.

About K’gari Island

K’gari is the world’s largest sand island, 122km long. It’s been called Fraser Island for generations, but the name is shifting back to K’Gari Island.

The unique geography makes it one of Australia’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Not only is it the largest sand island, it’s also the only one where tropical rainforests grow in the sand. And they grow! Some of the trees on the island are towering and hundreds of years old. Add to that perched freshwater lakes and miles upon miles of sandy beaches that you can drive on, and the name Paradise really resonates.

ancient trees, K'Gari island rain forest
Ancient trees grow in sand on K’gari Island

Accessing K’Gari Island

This natural treasure is a popular day trip from the mainland. The common way to get to K’gari is the ferry from Hervey Bay, south of Bundaberg. We sailed from Mooloolaba, after Brisbane, happily stopping in a couple anchorages on the way north up the protected west coast of K’gari Island.

Continue reading “Nature’s Paradise K’Gari Island”

Cruising From Gold Coast to Brisbane

After a week enjoying the fun activities in Gold Coast, we started sailing north. We’re trying to get to the Whitsundays and Great Barrier Reef where it’s warm even in the winter. The East Coast of Australia is ideal cruising grounds. We only need to sail a couple hours between stops because there are so many nice anchorages. Cruising from Gold Coast to Brisbane is about choosing which beautiful anchorage to stop in and for how long. Here’s where we went.

Leaving Gold Coast

The first leg of the trip, leaving Gold Coast, was the trickiest part. Depths are shallow in the inlet, and you’ve got to take care with shifting sands and tides. A superyacht which was also docked at Southport Yacht Club when we were there went aground in the area just north of the marina.

Sunday afternoon is a busy time to be in the Gold Coast Broadwater, and that’s exactly when we left the marina. The bay was full of pleasure boats, other yachts, jet skis, tour boats, and fishing craft. We were behind the wheel the entire time navigating all the obstacles.

sand bar, pelicans, Gold Coast
Sand bar in the Gold Coast Broadwater

Once we got several miles outside of Gold Coast, the traffic eased significantly. Later that first day, we had to navigate underneath electric wires crossing the bay between the mainland and Stradbroke Island, which was a little nervewracking. We don’t often have to navigate under wires, but we did it!

Continue reading “Cruising From Gold Coast to Brisbane”