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Rutea off Kingfisher Resort |
After spending three nights at three different anchorages, we got up early this morning to make the passage to the southern end of the island. Our guide books said that most of the time those who are transiting the Straits for the first time will run aground so we had spoken with as many people as we could for advice and suggestions. The route is long enough that the tide floods and ebbs from two different directions: In the northern half, the tide floods to the south and ebbs to the north while in the southern half it does just the opposite. Even though the route is well marked with navigation aids it would have been difficult to make the passage without our chartplotter, which has been very accurate (although, for the first time since we've owned it, today it did show us sailing across an island - disconcerting) in which we had spent a lot of time programming in a route.
There was quite the parade of boats making the same passage at the same very early hour as everyone was watching their tide charts carefully. We did fine although we did hold our breaths when we saw the depth get down to 3 feet of water under the keel - which is ok but we're used to having thousands of feet under our keel. I know that people who cruise the east coast of the US will say, "What? You had 3 feet and you were worried? Three feet is a lot of room!" but we've been spoiled by the deep waters off the left coast.
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Jellyfish in Pelican Bay |
We leave early tomorrow morning for Mooloolaba where we'll rendezvous with our friend Mark and our daughter, Corie. Hopefully, it will feel good to be out on the Tasman Sea.
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