Into the Burnett River

2^nd May 2012

Early to bed, early to rise

24’45.588 S – 152’23.180 E

Warm, cloudy slight breeze

In the evening John and I are found to be sitting in the saloon each reading our current book. Reading has always made me very relaxed and I find that I am close to nodding off so we usual hit the sack round 2100. During the early hours of the morning we were getting the wind against a strong tidal flow which made the anchor bridle (A rope attached to both sides of a boat on the bows then hooked together on the anchor chain to keep the chain central to the hulls) begin to chatter against the hull of the boat. I buried my head deeper in the pillow but not so John. He was up jumping all over the trampoline on the deck trying to quieten the bridle but John was making more noise that the bridle – sounded like a herd of elephants s dancing on the deck. John came back to be d but not for long we had both lost our sleep.

A nice warm cup of tea was deposited by the bed; I knew John would be playing on his computer so with the big bed to myself I snuggled down and once more fell asleep to be rudely woken by the engines starting. Good morning world – hello!

Now I am up and out and running - we are soon underway. There is little or no wind this morning – not better than yesterday. What has happened to all that wind that was predicted???

Sunrise across Fraser Island

Motor-sailing again we make our way across Hervey Bay water to the mouth of the Burnett River, Bundaberg. It is 1500h when I radio the Bundaberg VMR to log off out trip for the day. John and I believe in logging on and off with the VMR or Coast Guard whenever we sail the coast line; we both think that it is a matter of safety and our safety is important. The same as we send a text message to some family and friend to let them know our where about; it is all a safety issue, we are both big believers in “safety first”.

We motor up the Burnett River Past the Sugar Mill Wharf to see if our friends off Neriki are still there. There is no sign of their boat and after a phone call I find that Neriki is nearly at Pancake Creek. John turns AR around and we drop the pick just off the Bundaberg Port Marina.

Sunset on the Burnett River