CLIENT: General Public Voyage
VOYAGE NUMBER: 20190422
FROM: Gladstone To: Brisbane
DATE: 26 April 2019
POSITION: Tangalooma
REPORT BY: Red Watch
South Passage treated us to an exciting day of wind and sunshine, punctuated by turtles and dolphins. We navigated through Sandy Straits and undertook the dreaded Wide Bay Bar crossing.
Wide Bay Bar is a series of underwater sand dunes which need to be crossed at their deepest point. The tides determined the timing of the crossing as the Bar is a whopping four metres deep at highest tide, impassable at low tide. All watches clustered around our mighty skipper, Damon, as he unerringly edged his way across the infamous obstacle. Mother Nature reminded us of the importance of precision sailing as waves crashed on the sand, seemingly just centimetres below the water’s surface and metres from our bow.
As the wind caressed the sails, we flew along at a comfortable 10 knots, occasionally augmenting the ship’s progress with South Passage’s powerful diesel motor.
Sea sickness was a thing of the past as we scoffed the tortillas prepared by South Passage’s nautical treasure, Hugh! If an army marches on its stomach, South Passage’s crew sail on Hugh’s hardy helpings of gourmet grub.