Category Archives: Cruising East Coast

Wow, it has been a big few days.  We are all packed up, with The Bossa now sitting on the red dirt of the banks of the Mary River, Maryborough.

It has been a crazy few weeks since our rendezvous with Waterfront in Yeppoon. The weather has certainly dictated our choices and fortunately our decisions proved to be the correct ones.

What a special time it is when we have family on board. We had 10 days of calm weather, no strong winds and no rain, but it was very hot and humid.  A heat wave had engulfed Queensland.  

We haven’t visited the Whitsundays’ outer reefs for some time, in fact we think our last visit was in 2022. With a calm weather window approaching here in the Whitsundays, before our family fly in to Hamilton Island, it was perfect timing to get out there.

So what have we been doing the last few weeks? Once Lizard Island was off the agenda, it was an easy plan … “we need to go south?”

I have always wanted to visit Flynn Reef.  After our friends on Anui wrote about Flynn Reef a few seasons back and Gerry from Aqualibrium kept mentioning it, I was quite thrilled to finally get there.

What a fun week we’ve had with our ex-ET crew. We collected our Cairns friends Leanne and Steve from Dunk Island where we enjoyed a lunch at the Spit Bar together, before sailing out to the outer reefs of Beaver and Taylor.

After our reef visit we could see a window to visit the stunning Zoe Bay on Hinchinbrook Island. Zoe Bay is known for its long sandy pristine beach, lush tropical rainforest backdrop, high spectacular mountain peaks and an iconic waterfall.  

Back to the reef! Once our ‘overnight’ parcel arrived, we hightailed from the Townsville Marina as quickly as we could. 

It has been a while since my last post.  Our trip from Yeppoon to Maggie has had some ups and downs, but hey, what is it they say about the definition of cruising? 

We always try to stop by Lady Musgrave in the Southern Reef after Hervey Bay.  With a small weather window beckoning we found ourselves in an unexpected rather wild ride to get there.  

We often see humpback whales on our journey north. Humpbacks migrate annually to the warmer Queensland waters between May and November for breeding and calving. They are on a mission to get north and we the same.

I suppose you could say our 2025 ‘season’ started way back in April, or even March, when Queensland’s big weather event impacted the Gold Coast.  

I think this is the only season we haven’t dropped by Lady Musgrave on the way south, but sometimes things just don’t go according to plan.  W E A T H E R is G O D!

We are southward bound! What a great run of weather we have had. Northerly winds and gentle seas have made it an enjoyable and quick trip south.  

Once we decided to not venture further north from Cairns, we chose to use the approaching calm weather to explore some of Cairn’s neighbouring reefs instead, while also keeping in mind we needed to keep moving south. 

Our plan this season was to always sail as far north as Cairns and hopefully further on to Lizard Island. Well, as we sailors all say, “plans are drawn in the sand at low tide” … 

A lot has happened since our guests recently departed … doc appointments, calm weather, outer reef visits, fish caught, countless snorkels, a naughty drone and even a hospital visit. We have also enjoyed some of the best conditions to date this season, especially while at our two favourite coral cay reefs, Taylor and Beaver, just… Read More »

Sometimes cruising doesn’t always go to plan, but it’s how you deal with the hiccups, that’s the key. Even more so when you have guests on board. Suffice to say, this post is all about our guests.

After catching up on some chores, jobs and shopping in the Townsville Marina, we spotted another reef window coming our way. So it was off to Lodestone Reef this time.

The brilliant weather continued.   Kelso Reef is a favourite destination.  I’ve enjoyed some great snorkels here in the past, even last season, but unfortunately, not this time. 

What a wonderful week of weather we’ve just had …  outer reef here we come! After sitting out a few days of rain and wind at Magnetic Island, obsessively checking Meteye and Windy for any sign of an upcoming reef window, one came. Yippee!!

We had a mixed bag at the Whitsundays. Our intention was to spend as little time as possible visiting the familiar haunts here. We have visited this popular Queensland location many times (yes … poor us!).

We have island hopped our way from Yeppoon to the Whitsundays over the last few weeks.  We’ve seen so many whales, fortunately from afar … until …

Yellow Patch on Curtis Island is such a unique location on the Queensland coast.  We were lucky enough to spend five days in this lovely place.  I think my photos will do the talking as my cameras got a big workout (hope I haven’t overdone it).

It was a very quick visit to Lady Musgrave this time. Rain was approaching in the forecast but we thought we could still squeeze in a few days of the remaining sunshine at one of our favourite anchorages on the coast.

After our summer at home in Victoria, we are now back on The Bossa, our second ‘home’.  It’s not hard to understand why so many Victorians escape our Victorian winters as we’ve had day after day of sunshine here, such glorious weather.

Our 2023 sailing season has come to end. We are back on the Gold Coast where we have packed up The Bossa and hit the road to return home.

I’ve been wanting to snorkel the Lady Elliot reef for a long time. I finally have! It’s such an exposed island with little shelter and only two public moorings, so it’s really not an overnight stop. Anchoring is difficult due to the depths, but its really about picking a day that’s calm with little swell… Read More »

We found a way!  Yes, one last snorkel for the season … well, actually … four! 

After our wonderful week with family on board in the Whitsundays it was time to think about heading south.

We’ve just spent a week cruising around the Whitsundays with family. Tim, Kaycee and our two-year-old granddaughter Ava jumped on board.  It was a whirlwind visit with lots of activity.  We had a 2 year old to entertain!

Duncan Reef is 25 nm north of Kelso, approx’ a 4-hour motor. We decided on an 8.30 am departure. Late enough to see our way out of Kelso with the sun and following our entrance track, but also early enough to arrive at Duncan Reef for an early afternoon snorkel of course.

Back to the reef! We anchored in Radical Bay, Magnetic Island, when we returned from our first reef adventure with Vivacious and Chances. The wind arrived with rage during the early hours of the morning. After an aborted attempt to move around to Horseshoe Bay, we spent the morning at Radical Bay instead, watching the… Read More »

After two very enjoyable days at Faith Reef we dropped anchor in 5 metres of crystal clear water at the nearby Darley Reef.  We were deep inside Darley Reef and while it was technically not a lagoon, we did feel we were surrounded by reef, giving us the comfort of plenty of shelter. 

After sitting out a rather long and unpleasant SE blow in the Whitsundays, we finally set sail north … via the outer reef. Yay! 

We left Keppel Bay Marina in the company of Chances and Vivacious. That’s three boats! Once the wind eased after a few days in the marina, there was a ‘conga line’ of yachts heading north, not just our three. Our plan was to sail three long days through the Percy islands to the Whitsundays before… Read More »

Two weeks with the Walsh’s on board!  And we are all still talking.  What’s that saying? “Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days!” Not the Walsh’s. We did let them shower of course and we had so much fun.

It’s 2023 and our sailing season on The Bossa has begun. After our special time at Wakatobi I am now looking forward to returning to the Great Barrier Reef and playing with my cameras in the Queensland waters. This will be our ninth year on the water, eight cruising the Queensland coast (New Caledonia and… Read More »

We have returned to The Boatworks. It does seem to have been a long season this year. Perhaps that’s because we arrived in May and we’re leaving in late November. It has also been a challenging one too at times. But as always, it’s the good times we’ll remember!

There has to be a last snorkel so the Southern Reef is always on our list travelling south.  Fortunately, the weather finally obliged for a visit out to Lady Musgrave.

We’ve visited Yellow Patch a few times over the years.  It is a special place and it never disappoints even in 20+ knot howling winds and this time we had it all to ourselves!

One of my favourite spots is Monkey Beach on Great Keppel Island. It’s a small bay and if you’re lucky you can tuck in close, right next to the small fringing reef.

Family, friends, fix-its and of course, weather!  This pretty much covers the last month … a whirlwind of emotions … the good, the bad and the ugly!

We’ve spent the last few weeks wandering around the Whitsunday islands, and enjoying the best weather!  We’ve also had guests aboard for a week.  They told us they ticked every box on the ‘brochure’ and I think maybe we just we nailed it … apart from the sailing box (no wind!). We’ve spent the last… Read More »

It had been three weeks since we’d seen a shop or laundry so after a quick visit to Townsville to reprovision and visit a laundry (3 weeks’ worth of washing is big), and some unexpected socialising with Lukim Yu and Pacific Dreams, we dropped by Maggie for our last stopover for this season. It had… Read More »

I’m writing this blog post while anchored in Seventh Creek on Hinchinbrook Island and I’m listening to the pouring rain outside. It’s our fifth day here which is a long time to spend in the mangroves.

Since our last visit to the outer reef we’ve visited Townsville and spent some relaxing time at Magnetic Island with friends. And, we’ve snuck out to the outer reef again!

Yay!! We had a calm weather window in sight so we decided to sail north from the Whitsundays and spend these rare calm days out at the Great Barrier Reef, between the Whitsundays and Townsville.

We have made the Whitsunday islands.  Lots of photos in this post both from above and below. We are often greeted by a big blow when we reach the Whitsundays. Sure enough wind and heavy rain were forecast.