Stampede Across the Wide Bay Bar

With the prospect of winds from the SE at 10-15 knots for the first time in nearly two weeks, yachts, 19 in all, began to herd at Pelican Bay on Tuesday afternoon in anticipation of crossing the Wide Bay Bar early on Wednesday. Raven and her crew were not there. We stayed in our berth at Tin Can Bay Marina only leaving on Wednesday morning at 0600 hours, 2 hours into the rising tide. With 0.3m under the keel, we cast off and made our way gingerly out of the marina. We stayed close by the trawler jetties, making a decisive turn to port when we reached the Fish Market. Until we cleared Snapper Creek we kept close to the next 3 green markers and kept a reasonable distance away from the final marker, the red. There was plenty of water, never less than 1 m under the keel. An hour later we arrived at the Inskip yellow marker. The incredulous voice of Coast Guard Tin Can Bay’s VHF radio operator kept us informed about the yacht stampede that was in progress ahead of us on the Bar. “You could walk from boat to boat they’re so close,” he marvelled. I radioed ahead to ‘Seaplusplus’, as they had led the charge, for a bar report and was somewhat reassured- foolishly. Our passage against the tide towards the bar was slow and increasingly uncomfortable, especially by the time we reached the aptly named ‘washing machine’. We rolled, pitched, yawed and twisted our way, never exceeding 3 knots over the ground in 20 knots of breeze before making our final turn towards waypoint 1, where to our relief conditions steadied. The only challenge from then on was the very big swell over the shallowest part of the bar and the white water on either side of us, which of course I didn’t dare look at. Later Peter told me that we buried Raven’s ‘beak’ several times as we crossed. Conditions continued to ease as we rounded Double Island Point. We enjoyed a pleasant but long trip to Mooloolaba where we were greeted by Malcolm and Lani (Sedona). In all over 30 boats made the crossing that day.

PS: there are not photographs of our Bar crossing because I would have had to open my eyes to take them.