Sailing North: Kingfisher Bay

4^th July 2011

Kingfisher Bay. Fraser Island

We left Gary’s Anchorage at first light with the intention of getting to Urangan. One of the problems facing cruisers who need to stay in touch with the world is access to internet. Up the East Coast it is generally good to about two miles offshore, but patches are still not covered.

As we passed Kingfisher Bay we realised that here was a resort, full internet access, we are fully watered and provisioned so why not stay here and spend the $50 we would have spent on  a berth at Urangan on a sundowner at Kingfisher Bay.

We anchored off a superb white sand beach and whiled away the afternoon attending to our chores on the net. At about 4pm we launched the dinghy and made for the resort.

The Sand Bar, Kingfisher Resort

In hindsight, arriving 15 minutes before the low was not the greatest decision. The beach had given way to mud which stretched out about 200 meters from the firm sand. I waded through this like Humphrey Bogart in the African Queen while Rona sat in the dinghy playing her part as Audrey Hepburn. All that was missing were the parasol and the leeches.

Kingfisher resort is highly recommended as a stopover. The “Sand bar” is delightful and the pools looked very inviting. Unfortunately we didn’t have  an anchor with the dinghy and 15 minutes before the low means that in 15 minutes after the low the dinghy will have floated free of its mud berth and be going somewhere exotic without us. Never have I downed a Gin and Tonic so fast, (well that may not be true) before we found ourselves knee deep in mud trying to launch.

Sunset over Kingfisher Bay

On retruring to Dreamagic we found that the SV Amble had anchored behind us. We went over to pay our respects to the couple we had spoken to on the radio and had followed us over Wide bay bar. We met the delightful Brett and Jane aboard their Beneteau 43 and they were kind enough to invite us for tea. They also put us onto http://www.skipr.net/ which I can heartily recommend to all cruisers, especially if you have an iPhone. It effectively makes our Spot Tracker redundant, and you can see at a glance what other cruisers are near wherever you are. Brilliant website and thanks Jane. Oh, and sorry about the mud.