Wow, Ramona - that was close! If you hadn't seen him you'd have been thrown forward strongly, I assume.
I had a lovely sail this afternoon. Great breeze. Took a guy who'd been around boats a lot but never sailed. He loved it (and got the hang of helming pretty quickly).
Had to reef the genny at times and was about to reef the main as we came out of the heads into clear seas but decided it was time to head home. Registered 6.8 kt (theoretical hull speed) for the first time. Lovely sail.
a nice adventure over the last 3 days down to peel island.
firstly an exciting storm that came across on the second day. hunkered down with about 35 - 40 meters of chain on a CQR in 3 meters of water, life jackets on in case I had to make a made dash onto the deck ( although beer still in hand which probably undid any safety efforts) . in the end the island protected us as the front hit from the north west. I was expecting a lot worse.
Re whales: It has been suggested that if you turn on your echo sounder they will know where you are, and avoid you.
Sailed 120 nm down from Keppeel to Bundaberg yesterday leaving at 5.30am and arriving at 7.30 pm in a storm ( average speed for the trip 8.9kn ) Glad we did not stop at Pancake Creek as the boats that arrived tonight said the had a **** of a night there and even a worse run down today. Not sure if we are heading for the Sandy straits in the morning or not as it is still blowing 20kn from the SE. We will see what happens in the morning, if the wind goes to the east we will make a move and cross the Wide bay bar on Tuesday to get home in Brisbane by Tuesday night before the next South Easter .
Weekend before last, went down to Mandurah for the boat show. Beautiful sail back with dolphins doing rolls off the bow.
how do you rotate pictures?
Select to expand quoteYara said..
Re whales: It has been suggested that if you turn on your echo sounder they will know where you are, and avoid you.
I doubt it. When I was fishing and the vessel was stationary with the main and auxillary engine running, two seriously powerful sounders operating, I have had a whale lay under the keel with his flukes out each side of the boat. Another occasion a mother and calf vertical in the water with their tails resting over the bow. I was down the back having a brew and chatting to my mate who was parked about 20 feet away. He had a similar incident a few hours earlier except the whales tail had slid down the side of his boat and dealt a glancing blow to his deckhand.
So, I don't have any pretty photos or a long voyage to talk of, but I had a great day.
My wife and I took Galini out for a couple of hours today, just in the waters near the mooring (for anyone that knows Brooklyn just between the M1 and the railway bridge)
And why was this such a good day?
Well my wife has been insisting since we bought her that this was a silly idea, that she didn't likes Sailing, etc
Well I started from the very basics, explaining in simple terms what we were going to do and how. Well by the end of it, she was handling the jib sheets, steering tacks and jibes and running the helm while I folded the sails.
And the best bit? That was at the end when as we were going to lunch and I asked if she had fun? And she said yes
:D Yep that was a good day.
Sounds like the beginning of a sailing couple knight - take it slowly and patiently with her. Nothing better than your life partner also being your sailing partner.
regards
allan
Had a great sail today, we did the local club race with just the wife and myself, had every thing from rain, sunshine, 3kn to 23kn of wind from all directions on the clock and still managed line honours. It's great to have a boat that has all the creature comforts, easy to sail, fast and does not need a cast of thousands to win races. There's a lot to be said for the modern cruising yacht. 
I took my Red Witch out at Mandurah yesterday...racing was cancelled due to 30 knot winds but I took my crew of 2 16 year old anyway..they we're keen and I don't need any excuse to sail. Poked our nose out into the ocean and stayed close up too the windward shore...good fun, tried to heave to but she didn't want to, got knocked down once but threw the helm down and she responded immediately. Nice. Then went up into the estuary, like a giant wind tunnel, heading straight into it with tide against us. No dramas, quick tacks and all good. Tooled around in the estuary, had a dolphin surfing in our wake, got knocked down again by a 'bullet' . Filled the cockpit but boat straight up again and off we went. Some seriously fast runs with up to 30 knots pushing us along.
We then sailed into the marina, dropped the jib and sailed up to the jetty, timed it beautifully and kissed the end of the wharf, packed up, pulled the boat out and went home.
No broken gear, two knockdowns and three huge grins. A $3000 boat and what a blast.
Got up this morning, had a look at Seabreeze and could not believe good weather for a weeK, so grabbed a few things and heading to Moreton Island for a few days.
Just returned from remote islands ! 15 days unshackled from the chains of society!
6 to 7 knots boat speed in 12 to 15 knot southerly not bad for 12 tonne tub!
Select to expand quoteJode5 said..
Got up this morning, had a look at Seabreeze and could not believe good weather for a weeK, so grabbed a few things and heading to Moreton Island for a few days.
That's a beautiful boat Jode from any angle. Are you still over there?
Select to expand quotesouthace said..
Just returned from remote islands ! 15 days unshackled from the chains of society!
6 to 7 knots boat speed in 12 to 15 knot southerly not bad for 12 tonne tub!
Prick 
Haven't been out on my boat since October, but have been crewing on some races out from Coffs on a friend's boat. Crewed on a nice boat from Southport to Port Macquarie with a friend of a friend a few weeks back, and tomorrow am getting on a boat to crew from Yamba to Manly in Brisbane with someone from Findacrew.net.au .
Grabbing every chance I can when it fits with my days off to go sailing with other people for the experience. It's interesting to see how other people do things. Notable is the lack of lifejackets and lifelines used. I appreciate now that my first experience sailing was with my very safety conscious brother.
Select to expand quoteMcNaughtical said..
Haven't been out on my boat since October, but have been crewing on some races out from Coffs on a friend's boat. Crewed on a nice boat from Southport to Port Macquarie with a friend of a friend a few weeks back, and tomorrow am getting on a boat to crew from Yamba to Manly in Brisbane with someone from Findacrew.net.au .
Grabbing every chance I can when it fits with my days off to go sailing with other people for the experience. It's interesting to see how other people do things. Notable is the lack of lifejackets and lifelines used. I appreciate now that my first experience sailing was with my very safety conscious brother.
Thats a great way to get experience & build confidence McN, won't be long before you're comfortable single handing your own boat.
regards
Allan
Select to expand quoteShaggybaxter said..Jode5 said..
Got up this morning, had a look at Seabreeze and could not believe good weather for a weeK, so grabbed a few things and heading to Moreton Island for a few days.
That's a beautiful boat Jode from any angle. Are you still over there?
No, l had to go to work on Monday. Had a great night and caught a feed of fish. You may want to copy a couple of things from my photo for your boat. Stubble holder beside wheel, bait board and fishing rod holders. Your will require these things when there is no wind.??
Looks like another great day today with 15 to 20kn northeaster forecast for this afternoon. We have some people flying up from Sydney who are looking to buy a new Hanse 575, so we are heading out to do the Wags race with them. Should be a nice afternoon sail.
Yesterday I brought my dear "Second Wind" up the beautiful Burnett River to her new home for maintenance and storage in the off season.
It is about a two hour trip up or down the river so going for a day sail from the mooring is not really an option but certainly not too big a task for a weekend sail.
She has been at anchor here in the Burnett Heads basin for the last 18 months. A great spot but it is due to be dredged fairly soon in preparation for the marina redevelopment. There of course in the centre is the fair "Second Wind".
The first task was to get her along side to lay the anchor and chain out to get the twists out and mud off them. That completed, wife and I shoved off and proceeded up river at around 8:30. The top of the tide in the town reach was due at 11:00 and ideally I wanted to be putting her on the mooring just after the top of the tide so that she would stream down river thereby making it easier to pick up the stern mooring.
Out and around the corner we go past the Port Marina and past the sugar export facility.
Just up stream of that is Corser Street where the houses have title deed to high water and licences for pontoons in front of them. There are probably 50 such properties along Corser Street and there are only a few of them that are still vacant blocks. You may be able to buy one of them for around $5-800,000.
Houses with pontoons and even slip ways have been sold from $1.3 mil to $2 mil in recent times. Bargain buying in comparison to most other locations in Australia where similar properties exist. I remember back in the late 80s early 90s we thought $50 k was too high a price to pay for a block there.
Immediately up stream of Corser Street is Bundaberg's Bum's Bay. That being said one must also say that most of length of the Burnett River up to the bridges is a Bum's Bay. Your choice of anchoring spot is determined by how close you want to be to a landing point.
This particular Bum's Bay section has a nice sandy landing beach and a good car parking area 100 metres away. The 50 odd acres of land just behind the beach has sugar cane growing on it. It also has a 100 plus year old multi title deed of quarter acre blocks on it. It has been in the same family of cane growers for the last 4 or 5 generations and they would never think of splitting it up and selling the blocks despite the fact it would make them multi millionaires.
Bum's Bay always attracts bums with dunger boats.
Passing a section of Port Authority land one encounters the Bundaberg Sailing Club. It has been there for many, many years and the club I believe has finally got freehold over the land. It is a very friendly club with excellent facilities including wash down slab, hard stand area, ramp and pontoon.
The committee of old conservative fuddy duddies seems to have gone and a bit newer generation of people are now in place.
Next we come to the narrowest part of the river where the sugar/cane ferry used to run on cables and which I drove for 4 seasons from 1998 to 2001. Despite the huge warning sign there were many boats that ran into the cables which could be lowered to allow passage of vessels.
Bundaberg Sugar had a licence for the crossing and vessel that was valid as long as that particular vessel was serviceable. They spent a fortune keeping it in survey as a licence for a new vessel would not be granted. Then along came the 2013 floods which swept it out to sea where it sank. Therefore no cable or ferry are present today.
North ramp.
South Ramp.
This brings us to Strathdee's (the farming family which owns the land there) or Rubyanna (the creek that runs in there). This is a hook in the river that becomes very popular during flooding of the river. People who are prepared to live on board during the flood go there to anchor up as close in to the bank as possible to avoid the flotsam and carnage that comes down in the main channel of the river. They still get things crashing into them in the middle of the night.
Some people have it sweet. This guy has about 30 acres of river front.
There is a big gap with photos here as I was just following channel markers, there was not much of interest and I was a bit preoccupied with my water temp alarm going off all the time. I did a big service on my raw water cooling system last year and I don't think the problem is there. My water intake leaves a lot to be desired so it will be a focus of my efforts very soon.
If you are coming up the Burnett River and follow the recommended track on Navionics you should not have any groundings. We came up on a making tide and I was watching my sounder all the way up. I think the lowest sounding I got was 3.5 metres. My draught is 1.67 metres and my transducer is about 500 mm below water level. So in my estimation vessels with a draught up to 2 metres should pass safely up or down the river with a making tide from half tide.
We were approaching our mooring but it was not yet full tide so I decided to go right up the town reach and take a few piccys for you guys.
Our mooring is in the centre of pic consisting of the two larger yellow buoys with link line between and three small whit floats on it. The land below the houses is water front reserve and has road access. A few of the house owners have yachts on moorings in this area.
The Bundaberg Rum Bond store just opposite. Don't try getting in there. It has an electric fence around it and lots of CCTV cameras.
These water front properties are mostly owned by trawler operators. About 25 years ago the Qld government announced it would no longer be dredging the mid reaches of the Burnett River. This was at a time when there were possibly 100 or more trawlers working out of the Burnett River. With that, the number of season closures and rising fuel costs, that fleet has been decimated to where there are probably only a dozen trawlers still operating out of here. Sad stuff.
There were big sailing ships that used to come right up to the town reach of the Burnett 100 years ago. The building of barrages on the river has buggered it up sadly. Where the river once had sandy beaches are now mangroves and you dare not cut them down.
Bundaberg Rowers Club and Rowers on the River Restaurant.
The Spinnaker Restaurant next door which has sent many a man broke.
The town reach proper.
The public pontoon at which one may tie up for a limited time and has water supplied to it but no electricity.
This is the new Bundaberg Ferry pontoon. A local family operates an old former Moreton Bay Island Ferry doing river cruises the length of the river. Originally it was from this location but it took so long for the pontoon to be rebuilt after the floods that they found a different location to work from and this piece of council owned infrastructure is sitting there doing nothing. The access gate is locked but it has power and water running to it.
I am going to use it as a work berth and if the council comes along and asks me what I am doing my reply will be "Defraying my rates!!!" of which I am paying $12,000 per annum for not much return.
The Burnett Riverside Motel and H2O Restaurant. Very popular and likely the best in town.
This is all that remains of Midtown Marina after the 2011 flood took out half of it and the 2013 flood took out the rest of it.
Bundaberg Foundry where several of the Navy's Landing Craft Heavy were built. Poor old Bundaberg. She is just a shadow of her former self.
Bundabeg RSL where members having a veterans or pensioners card can get a choice of very nice meals on a Wednesday night for $5.50 in first class surroundings.
Bundaberg Slipways that still operates and is up for sale for not too bad a price I believe. Someone with the money and the energy could turn this back into a very good business.
A small marina pontoon owned by one of the local trawler operators. Quite remarkably it did not get washed away in the floods and as I recall still had one or two boats tied to it.
This is the end of the line for us stick boat owners. The Bundaberg Traffic Bridge, like the original Manly Ferries in Sydney was built in Auld Blighty and shipped out here. This was in line with the British Colonialists policy of raping the colonies for their raw materials, value adding to them and selling it back to the colonies and thereby inhibiting their development.
This Quest 8 sold about 12 months ago for $4,000, was brought up the river from Burnett Heads and I don't think has moved since. It is not the reason for the photo though. Where it is located there is a plan to install 70 pile berths. There is some local opposition to it with the notion that the next flood will take them out. The biggest trouble with boats in the Burnett River is that people park them here and then disappear. When flood events happen here most of the boat owners are uncontactable.
Approaching our mooring from up river.
A picture here for DrRog of my mates Adams 31 with solid dodger.
These next photos are of the most gorgeous little yacht you are ever likely to see which is newly arrived yesterday in the Distillery Reach of the Burnett River.
It has been 18 months in the making but this vision is surely worth 91 cents per week.
Your sponsors Cisco and Second Wind hope you fine folk have enjoyed this pictorial sojourn on the beautiful Burnett River.
Feel free to copy and archive any of the photos for future reference if visiting Bundaberg and be sure to look us up when here.
Cheers Cisco. 
Tell me again about the $12, 000 per year rates. Does everyone need to be as rich as you to be able to live in Bundaberg?
Enjoyed the photographic tour thanks Cisco
I would not mind applying for a pile post there
Is that your second maiden voyage since buying your most adorable Second Wind Cisco kid?
I have clocked up close to 1000nm in my girl since 12 months and 7 days ago , and just a tad over 20k replacing preventative maintance break downs!
4 bags of King Goerge whiting , 1 x 5 kg King fish and lost count of the monster calamari squid.
Today..... sealed the chain plates on my deck...... was a good dry day to stop leaks!!
great photos Cisco ,thanks for the tour of the river !!
second wind looks very comfortable on her moorings !!
and i bet shes just as comfy on the wind !! 
Hey Cisco, lovely pictorial and informative meander up the Burnett
Here are my pretty girls and my pretty girl over at Tangalooma yesterday. Sorry about the dodgy sideways pic.
First overnighter....yay us :)
Of course, the trip wouldn't have been complete without another misadventure of this sailor girl, however, someone was looking out for me. Wading in the shallows, brushed against what turned out to be a Stonefish. Pain was EXCRUCIATING, foot swelled up like a balloon, red, veins distended. No further symptoms ...difficulty breathing etc. and the inflammation wasn't travelling up the leg, so I knew I wasn't going to die, so we decided to stay put at Lucinda Bay on Monday night. Got home last night and under a decent light managed to identify a spine which I dislodged. 48 hours since my little near-miss and my foot is still sore and a little swollen.
Just the irony of it. Nearly 50 and been bumming around Moreton Bay all my life. Complacency though....cruising up north in a previous life and boat, I was fanatical about all of us wearing reef-walkers in the water. Guess it's like most motor accidents occurring closest to home 
Just so relieved it was me and not one of the kids.
Select to expand quoteAnything else you would like to know about me?? Would you like a copy of my tax return??
Cisco, it was a tongue in cheek question as I was sure it was typo. Not having heard of paying $12,000/anum in rates I was somewhat aghast.
Maybe I should have added lots of smiley thingies or something, I dunno
Nice pics and commentary btw
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