Gold Coast crazy again

 We departed from Peel Island headed south down the main channel between Moreton Bay and the Gold Coast.  This waterway has several areas of concern for us including the Karragarra W, the power line clearance between Rocky Point / Little Rocky point and finally the most worrying the passage through Jacob’s Well flats.

The passage through the Karragarra W is very shallow but we had a good high tide so we were able to get through without any depth issues.  The only worry was the three ferries, two from in front and one from behind that came through the narrow twisty passage at the same time as us.

Karragarra W Channel

Our second challenge the powerlines was not very difficult.  The stated air draft to get under the powerlines is smaller than True North’s mast height.I have been through here twice before and have followed advice from other yachties to pass under the lines right beside the power line pylon in the water on the west side of the channel.  This area is shown by all the white markers other yachties have added to the navigation chart shown below.  We passed under with 5 to 10mmetres of clearance.

The powerline crossing point with maximum air draft is shown with all the white dots on the chart

Our final and most difficult challenge was passing through the very shallow area at Jacob’s Well flats.  Three North has passed through here two times previously.  The first time through the channel was very silted in and I got stuck on sandbars several times before discovering the deeper channel between the red and green channel markers.  The second time through was easy because the channel had just been dredged and there was plenty of water depth.  After clearing the power lines I phoned the Jacob’s Well Volunteer Marine Rescue and asked how silted the Jacob’s Well flats were.  The VMR said they could not give advice but the channel had silted in somewhat since the last dredging.  One of the VMR staff said she had been through the flats in a yacht with the same 2.2 metre draft as True North within 2 hours of the high tide.  I pointed out we were approaching at close to low tide and was told you might make it through or might not.  I checked the tide table and saw the drop to low tide from our current time was only a few inches.  The channel bottom is all sand and there was little current with no waves or swell so I decided to cautiously try passing through.  We crept through the flats at very slow speed and might have scraped the top of a sandbar a couple times but we made it through and completed our passage to our anchorage across for Runaway Bay, just north of the Gold Coast Seaway and the city of Southport.  We anchored at this area because it is not as crazy as near town where there are dozens of jet skis, jet boats doing donuts, boats towing people hanging under parachutes, helicopter tours from Sea World and many other assorted boats going every direction at their maximum speed.

Jacob’s Well flats.  The shallowest spot is by the white dot on the chart

The photos below show our overcast and rainy anchorage at Runaway Bay looking towards Southport and Surfers Paradise and towards the Douth Stradbroke Island shore.

After a calm but very rainy night, Andrew and I set out for a walk south down the ocean side of South Stradbroke Island.  We walked from the dock just north of our anchorage to the north side of the Gold Coast Seaway and back.  We collected many shells, were kept cool by the rain showers and watched some surfers 🏄‍♂️ by the Seaway entrance.  Other than the surfers we did not see anyone else on the beach during our long walk.