Phase2: Phase2 Returns Home

Bundaberg to Raby Bay
Wednesday, 26 October to Saturday, 12 November, 2016
After a couple of great days at Bundaberg Port marina catching up with friends and restocking the fridge and freezer, we left the marina and headed south to Fraser Island. Warren was keen to do some fishing so we anchored at Moon Pt for 4 nights. There is a lot of tide run here but the fresh whiting more than made up for it. With a strong northerly coming, we headed down to Bookar Island to be ready to cross Sheridan Flats on the high tide on Monday. We timed it well and carried tide all the way to Garry’s Anchorage where we caught up with Stylopora, L’Attitudes and Skedaddle. Lots of laughs as we swapped tales of adventure in far off places. We spent one night in the marina at Tin Can Bay where we had a beautiful meal at the restaurant with our friends Lois and Kel (Beach House) then onto Pelican Bay. We crossed the Wide Bay Bar at first light on Friday with about 20 other boats.

Phase2 (Photo by Neil on My Ruby)

We had a great spinnaker run down to Mooloolaba in company with the Seawind 1250, My Ruby.

My Ruby

We spent the night anchored in the pond before moving into the marina on Saturday morning for a week. We love finishing our holidays here - great beach and surf not to mention some of the best seafood in SE Qld.

While we were here, Phase2 was the background to a photo shoot for womens' shoes. We departed the marina on Saturday for the final 58nm home. We had the spinnaker up for a while, but with the wind increasing we dropped it just before Skirmish Pint on Bribie Island. The wind continued to build and storms were brewing in the west. At 25 knots we put in a double reef, but at 1530 we dropped all sails and started to motor as the storms on the radar looked severe. About 10 minutes later the wind swung to the SW and increased in strength, topping out at 42 knots.

This was the highest wind we encountered in the entire 5 months we were away! We were glad we were only half an hour from the safety of our berth. I had rung Mum and asked her not to go out in the atrocious conditions, so she went to her friends’ house to wave us in.