Australia - What a Beautiful Place to Cruise

[ausaviator]

Touché budawag. There is nothing better. Australia is a great place.

[susan238]

We are currently anchored at Great Keppel and would love advise about anchorages heading north. We are not in a hurry and would love to enjoy this area. We have Alan's cruising the coral coast and it mentions limited anchorage. We are on a monohull that draws slightly under 2 meters. Looking for a combination of great snorkeling/diving spots, and areas we can get off the boat and socialize.

We are a US boat, and we love cruising the east coast of Australia! Its truly beautiful.

Susan

[RaymondR]

Well your first stop needs to be Corio Bay.

Whilst it looks like a poor anchorage, being open to the SE which is the direction from which the prevailing winds come, it is enclosed by miles of shallow sand banks and remains calm during some very stiff blows. Lucas shows the entry as over the bar from the SE but I usually go around into little Corio Bay and enter between the point and the sand bank which generally breaks if there is any swell.

It's not an anchorage but one of my favorite passages when the SE,ly is really blowing is out of Island Head Creek, along the coast, through Strong Tide Passage, up Shoalwater Bay and around the west side of Collins Island to Hunter Island in the Marble Group. I usually leave there via Lola Montez Passage and go across the shoals on the East side of Hunter to Curlew Island.

A copy of Noel Patricks Cruising the Curtris Coast provides information on most of the anchorages between Bundaberg and Mackay and One Hundred Magic Miles the anchorages in the Whitsundays. Lucas provides a good cruising guide but he is not a gunkholer and generally sticks to the more frequented anchorages.

The Shag Island Yacht Club crowd are moving north at the moment and I would imagine could provide pretty well all the socialization you might need. Google their web site and joining is reasonably cheap. Their big social event is held north of Airlie Beach in August.

[RaymondR]

One of the things to be mindful of when cruising the Queensland coast is that pretty well all the non creek or river anchorages in Cruising the Corral Coast are open in the NW to NE quadrant and whilst many of the islands have bays on the southerly side they are generally not of good holding and often corral infested. Fortunately there are seldom strong northerlies which make a lot of them usable.

I always set two anchors in Airlie Bay and the outer Trinity Inlet (Cairns) Airlie Bay because whilst the clayish bottom gives good holding it is sticky and tends to ball on the anchor preventing it from resetting. Trinity inlet is prone to fairly vicious wind against tide and being a commercial harbour they are a bit touchy about errant pleasure vessels creating obstacles in both the harbour and the approach channel - they'll send you a towage bill if they have to tow your boat.

[MLOI]

Originally Posted by susan238

We are currently anchored at Great Keppel and would love advise about anchorages heading north.

Susan

Here are a few from last year;

Port Clinton - secure and protected.

Pearl Bay - Beautiful spot, good holding and protected from anything except N through W. Popular, so you might see a couple of other boats if you stay for a few days.

Island head creek - very secure, watch your draft on entry, but deeper after that. We have the same draft as you and went in a couple of hours after low and were OK. We had spent a day bashing south into a 20 ish knot southerly and it was spookily calm inside. Lots of black midges, but they didn't seem to bite.

South Percy - Anchor almost anywhere on the north side of the island in a southerly. Quiet spot as everyone goes up to West Bay on Middle Island. We anchored towards the Eastern end in a 20 ish knot SE and it was flat calm, while those at West Bay rolled a bit. Cross over to Whites Bay if there is any Northerly weather.

Middle Percy - West Bay. Pretty protected and a bit of a party spot, I think there were a dozen boats there when we were there. Really is a must do stop, because everyone else has done for years. Uncomfortable in a Westerly, so we left.

Duke Islands - Hunter Island. Anchorage as per Lucas is surprisingly protected. Nice enough spot but nothing overly special.

Digby Island - Ignore the official charts and trust Lucas. There is plenty of water, I think we anchored in 5m where the charts show 0.8 LAT. Nice ish beach, thick scrub on Island. We collected a few coconuts to go with the tuna we caught. Massive number of really dumb mosquito, think I killed about 50 of them without getting bitten. We enjoyed two nights here.

Mackay Marina - must do just to experience the 6m tides.

St Bees & Keswick - few options to anchor, channel nice and protected and had a couple of other boats. We really enjoyed snorkling on the SE tip of Keswick Island. Tried on the NW corner of St Bees, and it was a bit ordinary.

Scawfell - another popular anchorage and well protected in a SE.

Brampton / Goldsmith / Thomas / Linderman - just another tropical Island really. Charter boats don't get down here, we found a few really cool friendly people everywhere and had a ball around these Islands. Spent 3 weeks ish in total.

Whitsunday et al - Drink beer, have fun, 100 magic miles has all the details. The spots just outside the areas where the charter boats are allowed to go are quieter. From memory Deloraine Island and Saba bay had the best snorkling.

Hook / Hardy reef - magical in the right weather. You will only be able to get into Hardy an hour before high tide - but the pass is deeper than it looks. You won't have an issue with your keel, but there isn't much room either side. Well worth it though. Get the exact marks from others, even better follow someone else in or track them on AIS. High tide at mid day is what you want.

Gloucester Island - nice and surprisingly quiet as everyone else is off drinking beer at schoolies week for pensioners. (which is worth attending if you are feeling lonely, or sober)

Hope that helps a bit - I don't recall thinking there were limited anchorages!

Mike

[44'cruisingcat]

Originally Posted by susan238

We are currently anchored at Great Keppel and would love advise about anchorages heading north. We are not in a hurry and would love to enjoy this area. We have Alan's cruising the coral coast and it mentions limited anchorage. We are on a monohull that draws slightly under 2 meters. Looking for a combination of great snorkeling/diving spots, and areas we can get off the boat and socialize.

We are a US boat, and we love cruising the east coast of Australia! Its truly beautiful.

Susan

If you get very light conditions, North West island isn't far from GKI, and there's good snorkelling. Later in the year, when the turtles are nesting is great too.

[OzePete]

Originally Posted by Oliver47

Hello folks!
Could you please tell me the Visa (ETA Australian visa for Canadians ) requirments for a cruise that starts in Australia and visits New Zealand ending back in Australia. The cruise and pre and post cruise stays will last less than a month. Departure is in June.

Thanks for any help!

Hi Oliver, We are so forgiving down under these days we even let Canadians visit!
No, really you will be very welcome, just arrange a visitor visa. https://eaustraliatravel.com/?gclid=...BoCsXQQAvD_BwE

And learn how to say "G'day mate"

Cheers OzePete

[Boatsie]

www.homeaffairs.gov.au

Another site to assist visa.
(Currently without response)

You're welcome

[Boatsie]

https://www.immigrationdirect.com.au...itor-visa.html

[ausaviator]

STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING...

Warning!!!!!

Those websites above are NOT legitimate.

Any type of Australian VISA type information / applications would be on a .GOV.AU site.

The correct website is:

https://www.eta.homeaffairs.gov.au/ETAS3/etas

Our customs department recently renamed to Department of Home Affairs.

The same scam exists in the USA where third parties charge for the ESTA visa or whatever they call it these days.

[OzePete]

Originally Posted by ausaviator

STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING...

Warning!!!!!

Those websites above are NOT legitimate.

Any type of Australian VISA type information / applications would be on a .GOV.AU site.

The correct website is:

https://www.eta.homeaffairs.gov.au/ETAS3/etas

Our customs department recently renamed to Department of Home Affairs.

The same scam exists in the USA where third parties charge for the ESTA visa or whatever they call it these days.

Yes, my apology, I should have indicated the homeaffairs.gov.au site
The site I suggested is a legitimate business providing visa services.

They do charge for their services and are most helpful for complicated immigration purposes, but certainly not needed for a simple visitor visa.

Cheers OzePete

[Jim Cate]

FWIW:

Canadian friends here in Oz were recently having some visa problems. They had used the official website info to base some decisions, and got very crosswise with the officials upon trying to clear out. They were told by one such official "you are very naive to believe that there is adequate info on the website for anything but very simple situations. You need to hire an immigration lawyer."

They eventually got it sorted, but there were some anxious days involved. Immigration rules are complex, and are subject to frequent changes in language and in interpretation, so be warned!

Jim