Travelling “The Narrows” to Gladstone

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After nearly a week in the marina and sufficiently recovered from our previous week of unpleasant sailing we were ready to get moving again once more. Although with only a day of usable wind we weren’t going all that far and with Gladstone only 30nm this seemed our best option. However to reach Gladstone we decided to use the short cut, a channel behind Curtis Island known as The Narrows. The Narrows was a stretch of water 10-12nm long and named as such due to the narrowness of the channel and lack of water at low tide. From our research we had found that a particular section known as the cattle crossing dried out on a nearly daily basis. However with the large tides in this section of coast The Narrows were actually quite simple to transverse. Our cruising guide informed us that to cross the drying sections of river we needed to do a couple of simple calculations. We learnt that the tide had to be a minimum of 1.6m just to wet the river bottom so for us to cross all we needed to do was add our our draft and a safety margin to this number to get the minimum tide height we would need. So based on this simple calculation we worked out that we would need a minimum tide height of 3.5m to give us sufficient depth to float without worry. Thankfully we were still near enough to the spring tide so we were having huge 4-5m tides which meant all we had to do was reach the crossing at the high to make it through.

The day we left we had a relatively good forecast of 10-15kts from the east which gave us an amazing sail. From the moment we left the breakwater we set all our working sails and were able to turn the engine off and enjoy some silence. For what felt like the first time in weeks we were actually sailing at 4-5kts in the right direction without the use of the engine. With such good sailing the last of the worries and stress leftover from the previous week slowly disappeared as we soon remembered that in the right conditions Allagai could in fact actually sail.

The high tide that day was about 6:30pm which gave us plenty of time to reach the cattle crossing and cross before dark. That day the sail across the bay was just what we needed to revitalise us especially as the closer we got to the narrows the faster Allagai went as the tide started to pull us into the river, meaning we reached the narrows with plenty of time to spare. Entering the the narrows was quite amazing especially as we watched our speed slowly climb to 7kts with the fast pull of the current. As usual we had fickle weather that afternoon and so during most of our passage through the 20nm river we had a light but steady rain. Although this didn’t take too much from the unique experience as Allagai raced along with the current through sections of river barely 50m wide. It took us about 3hrs to pass through the entire river and thankfully we picked the right tide as at no point did we see our depth sounder drop below 2.5m. However with a tide height of 4-4.5m it meant that at those points the river would have been well and truly dry at low.

That night we decided to drop anchor in Graham Creek as it was the closest we could get to Gladstone without having to enter the shipping channel. The following morning it was another early start as we had plans to book a single night in the Gladstone Marina to complete a few necessary jobs in town. So to make the most of our one day we didn’t waste any time in heading to the marina which was still nearly 10nm away.

The journey to the marina thankfully an uneventful trip as we followed the major shipping channels right the marinas entrance not encountering a single ship along the way. Although entering the marina was a rather entertaining experience as we decided to try something a little different so we could fit in a berth for our actual hull size, as normally due to our overhangs we are charged for a 45ft berth. So to save a little money Hugo spent about 10minutes removing the bowsprit. When we entered the marina we did so in style with our bowsprit pointing at the sky allowing us to fit nicely in a 10m berth.

Our time in Gladstone was spent productively getting the jobs sorted that we needed to do before our departure the following day. When we left Gladstone Marina we had no northerlies to continue south so we decided to head into the mangroves to await some good weather but also we were awaiting the arrival of some mail. We ended up spending six nights anchored out in the mangroves relaxing on Allagai and catching up on boat jobs. With no where to go ashore we spent a week sitting still however after the constant moving and stress of the last month we were both more then happy for some time off.

However it was while in the mangroves that we a little unexpected visitor. While Hugo was sitting on the back deck he could hear some unusual rustling which upon investigation was discovered to be a water monitor. Initially we thought it was a regular lizard looking to climb Allagai to get out the water. However we quickly realised it was actually a swimming monitor as it proceeded to swim circles around Allagai before diving and disappearing.

On day seven we finally had a forecast which showed some good weather so after a quick stop back at the Gladstone marina for water, groceries and our mail we headed off on our next leg south to Fraser Island.

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