Sailing to the Boat Show

At 5.30 am on a cold and dark Monday morning I was reconsidering my invitation to sail down to the Sanctuary Cove Boat Show on a new Hanse 370. However the forecast was for 20-25 knots from the south west and a fine day, and it turned out to be a very fine day indeed.

With the sun just breaking over the horizon we left Mooloolaba with one reef in the main and also rolled away a bit of the self tacking headsail as we came onto the wind after rounding Point Cartwright.

The fresh offshore breeze and flat seas gave us a superb sail down the coast and right through to the southern end of Moreton bay. The boat behaved impeccably, tracking well and very light on the helm. The decks remained virtually dry with only the occasional light wind driven spray curling over the bow as we surged along at a steady 6.5 knots. We had set off shortly before the Hanse 400, also on its way to the show, and with a bit of spirited competition between the 2 boats we managed to hold on to our lead until we were abeam of the Tangalooma wrecks.

At this point the wind was easing, we had long since unfurled all of the headsail and now shook the reef out of the main. Our progress was further slowed as the tide turned and our speed over the ground dropped. By late afternoon we had reached the entrance to the main channel through the islands between the Southern end of Moreton Bay and the Gold Coast. The tide was low and we tentatively picked our way from marker to marker to reach our overnight anchorage just on nightfall.

We anchored in the Steiglitz passage for the night to await the morning’s high tide. With the two boats rafted up we enjoyed a well earned rum and tucked into a very tasty bolognaise sauce and pasta followed by an early night.

8 am the next morning found us under way and with a rising tide we were able to negotiate the shallowest part of the channel with a few feet to spare. By late morning we were tied up with the other Hanse yachts on display at the show ready to be scrubbed and polished in plenty of time for the opening of the boat show on Thursday.

I’m looking forward to the boat show and would love anyone reading this to stop and say hello if you’re going to be there. I’m helping out on the Hanse stand some of the time in return for having the opportunity to be there in my boatweb cap and hand out some leaflets :)) . I’ll also try and do a bit of a write up each day.

Cheers, Ian