Noosa Heads to Tin Can Bay

After a very rocky night and much sea sickness at Noosa Heads, we were up and moving early towards Tin Can Bay.  The sailing was friendlier with 2.5m swells and 5 knot winds.  We did a bit of motoring... after the problems of the previous day we needed to make sure the motor was working properly.  Unfortunately our auto pilot stopped working so Michael had a heavy day ahead of him - 50 nautical miles of manual steering in a 2.5m swell.

We passed Rainbow Beach and even had a whale escort for about a nautical mile.  For such massive creatures they are very graceful.

It was uneventful (besides Jed being sea sick again) until we got to Wide Bay Bar.  We were warned about crossing the bar and were even issued with written instructions and diagrams.  There are three way points to pass to get into Wide Bay Harbour.  We had advised Tin Can Bay Coast Guard of our intention to reach Tin Can Bay and they insisted we contact them when we passed the third way point. 

We knew we needed a high tide and when studying the maps we couldn't understand exactly why.  There are no sandbars to get caught on and when we approached the first way point it all started to look like someone was pulling our leg.  Why did we need to negotiate this invisible obstacle course when nothing appeared to be dangerous.

Way point one... no problem, change tack and head to way point two... easy!  What's going on here... OH FUCK!!!! Between way point two and way point three was some very rough water and we broadsided with breaking waves over the helm and Michael could hardly see.  We were only about a meter from "knock down" on several occassions and were angled at about 50 degrees.  It only took about 15 minutes from way point two to way point three but it felt like hours. 

After getting through way point three we encountered some very calm waters.  We motored through Tin Can Inlet and anchored at the opening of Snapper Creek.  Hopefully there's some good fishing!