May 2021
Leaving from Hervey Bay was another early morning for us on our journey north. Our first stop on the way to the Town of 1770 was to be Bundaberg where we had decided to anchor for a couple of nights before continuing onwards. The morning we left Hervey Bay we couldn’t have asked for better wind conditions, it seemed we had finally entered the area of the trade winds and so had a consistent 15kts all day. From where we were anchored in Hervey Bay to Bundaberg was about 40nm so we were expecting it to take about 10 hours to reach the anchorage. However with such favourable winds we were sailing at a fast 5-6kts for most of the day and so made the distance in about 8 hours, dropping anchor about mid afternoon.
Although the trip to Bundaberg wasn’t all sunshine and happy skies. All day we were being threatened with rain as huge cumulonimbus clouds built parallel to us out at sea and behind us. At times it seemed we were ringed by the clouds and thought that for sure we would get hit by squally conditions. However thankfully they seemed mostly for show as all we ever got was a few drops of rain and an increase in wind of only about 5kts.
Arriving into Bundaberg we were relieved that we wouldn’t have to cross another bar as the river was well dredged to allow for the shipping traffic to enter. So that afternoon we dropped the anchor about 3nm up the river amongst the local moored and anchored boats without any dramas. We stayed in Bundaberg for a total of two nights before heading off, resting on Allagai and preparing for our next sail to the Town of 1770.
We left for 1770 just on sunrise exiting the river of Bundaberg before setting the mainsail and jib. That day we had a straight downwind run and had found that this sail configuration worked better without the staysail, which usually struggles to keep full of wind. We had an awesome sail that day, with 15-20kts of wind we raced along at 5-6kts and had our highest ever average passage time. The distance between Bundaberg and 1770 was about 53nm and so we were expecting to take about 13-14hours to reach the anchorage however we did the trip in just over 10hours.
To get into 1770 we had to cross a rather shallow bar, 3m at high tide and less then 50cm at low tide. It was with this in mind that we had decided that unless we arrived in the daylight we wouldn’t go in but continue on to Pancake Creek, not wanting to enter such a shallow bar without any light. But with such high speeds that day we had no issue and were crossing the bar into 1770 with an hour of sunlight to spare. This allowed us to take the time to find a nice anchorage up the river, as we were going to be there for a while. The Town of 1770 was going to be our home for the next week as we had decided that it was time to do some much needed deck maintenance.
We stayed in 1770 for eight nights, Allagai’s main deck had been looking a little sad for a very long time now so this was top priority. We had repainted the fore and aft decks while sitting in the Tamar River back in March but had run out of paint to do the main deck. So with a whole week of sunny weather we thought that there was no better time to do a bit of painting. Although before painting the deck needed a little love. A small part of the deck which we had redone in our 2018 refit was starting to crack so before any painting could happen this had to be re-fibreglassed especially before we got any leaks below. This took us a day to do but once that part was out of the way we had three days of painting starting with the under coat then the topcoat and finally followed by the Kiwi-Grip non skid paint. Even though we had a whole week we decided to only do the port side of the deck so we could still walk on the starboard side without damaging the new paint. Once the port side was painted Allagai was already looking a thousand times better all we needed now was another week of good weather later to finish the job.
While in the Town of 1770 we didn’t only work on Allagai, we had plenty of time while waiting for the fibreglass and paint to dry to do other things. Each day we enjoyed a short walk along the foreshore but on our sixth day we decided to go for a long walk, out to the Round Hill Headland.
This was a lovely walk but to get to the trail head we had to walk along the entire foreshore trail. But once at the beginning of the track we headed inland walking through a very tropical feeling forest out to the lookout points at the end of the headland. The entire walk was about 7.5km and along the way we saw a flock of bush turkeys, watched the water flowing around the bar entrance and enjoyed looking out to sea from the lookout point.
While in 1770 we also enjoyed doing a lot of fishing, trying our luck off the yacht, in the dingy and even off the nearby sandbar at low tide. However even with all the fishing we did we didn’t manage to catch anything of note or if it was noteworthy it wasn’t of legal size. That week we caught more pesky tiny bait stealing grunter fish then we could count and plenty of undersized whiting, all of which got thrown back.
It was the day before leaving 1770 we decided to get the bikes out and visit the nearby town Agnes Waters. The Town of 1770 doesn’t have any major grocery shops and after a week we were in need of some fresh supplies. So this seemed like the perfect excuse get the bikes out and to go for a bike ride and exploration of the area. The ride to Agnes Waters took us about half an hour (5km). However it was quite early when we arrived so we decided to keep going as there was a short walk about 3km further along though a paperbark forest. When we arrived at the Paperbark Forest Walking trail the car park was absolutely packed, however somehow we had the trail to ourselves. The trail was only about 400m long and made completely of board walks and stepping stones, leading through a small, very tropical feeling, forest of paperbark trees and palms.
Following our walk through the paperbarks we noticed a 4WD trail on the opposite side of the road leading to the beach. The track was about 1km and good enough to take the bikes down. So we arrived at the beach not long after and decided that it was the perfect spot to have a short break and enjoy a simple morning tea. We used the hiking stove to boil water for a cup of tea while sheltering under a small stand of sheoaks about 50m from the waters edge.
We spent some time relaxing on the beach, watching the surf and enjoying the peace before heading back to the bikes and riding back into town. Once back at town we visited the local Foodworks to get some fresh produce before returning back to Allagai for the afternoon. This was set to be our last night in 1770 as the following day we were finally going to make the journey to Keppal Island.