Touching bottom part 1, 2

July 27, 2008
We are now 25 nm north of Coffs Harbour making our way to the Whitsundays and beyond for a couple of months. Michele and I hope to see some of you during this trip so if you see or hear us please call as we always enjoy a glass of  wine and sharing some stories.
In that theme, we have a small story to share with you. We made a cold and sloppy 30 hour trip to Coffs on Friday and Saturday but got here last night in time for the ladies to grab a coffee.
This morning, as we were leaving the inner harbour entry, we touched bottom. We were able to back off and inch our way out by heading further west. When we checked, we were on a 0.5m tide so with our 2.6 m draft, the inner harbour entrance has only 2.0 m clearance above a zero tide datum. We called the marina office later and Matt explained that they had just finished dredging the entrance and that he was surprised by this information. It sounded like they would take some time to get the dredge back so if any of you are planning on using Coffs Harbour in the near future, please make sure that you watch the tide and check with the marina staff for the latest information.

July 28, 2008
Well, if things happen in threes, then we are now waiting for the next one with apprehension.
The second incident was entering  into the  Mooloola River at Mooloolaba. We checked with VMR Mooloolaba as we heard that there was a problem with the outer lateral starboard mark and they advised that it had moved recently and was 150 metres out of position. Their advice was to ignore this mark and to enter on the leads and there should be sufficient depth.
The tide was 0.8 m and rising so we headed in on the leads. As we crossed the line between the two rock walls, our under keel clearance fell quickly from 2 metres to to zero but we did not touch by the faintest margin. Given our draft of 2.6 m., this means that the river entry has only 1.8m plus the tide lift. I advised the VMR of this result and encouraged them to advise yachts planing a future entrance to check their clearances particularly during the lower tides. While I hope they will do this, I encourage any of you heading north to share this your crews and other yachts thinking of entering Mooloolaba.
This little town is a great stopover on a trip north so it is a concern that the river entrance has sanded to the extent that it will discourage yachts from visiting.
Oh well, on to the next adventure....

[UPDATE]

3 August 2008

Following our recent incident, Maritime Safety Queensland have issued a Notice to Mariners which you can review on their website.

We left Mooloolaba yesterday on the morning high tide. Although we got out without incident, we did witness Secret Men's Business touch bottom just ahead of us. The best water is slightly to the west of the lead in lights.

We are now entering the Great Sandy Straits, where we really don't want  number three incident of touching bottom, so I will go back to the helm.

Hamish Petrie
Ngak Ngak

[23 August 2008 - MSQ issued an update on the Mooloolabah entrance on 22 August here - MC]