Sailing Sandy Straits, some questions

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sunshinecoasting
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Sailing Sandy Straits, some questions

Post by sunshinecoasting »

Hi All,

I am planning a two week trip in September from Tin Can Bay to Wathumba and back and have a few questions I am hoping someone can answer, I know a few of you have done this trip.

1. Fraser is a National Park so its a no go for pets/dogs but I am thinking of taking my small dog and wondered if anyone else had done this and what they did as far as toileting etc goes.

2. Do you need camping permits to stay at Wathumba or Garry's etc if you are living aboard the boat, that is not using the camp grounds or facilities?

I will probably think of more questions but that will do for a start.

Cheers, Dennis.
cestlavie
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Re: Sailing Sandy Straits, some questions

Post by cestlavie »

Hey Dennis
Paul M has a good YouTube on Fraser west side.

No dogs allowed but i've seen them in every trip in the back of 4wds at kingfisher barge queue and running on the beaches everywhere. I've also read a lot of blogs with Live aboard types cruising all the way up and out with dogs, excersing and toileting them on the beach. At peak times you will run into rangers daily, so you'd have to keep it right at waters edge and say your live aboard. Watch the dingoes as well they'll definitely investigate.

No permit required unless you are going to pitch a tent at the campsites.

Garry's is nice and an easy sail up from TCB, but not much to do, it is nicely positioned for the first night.

White cliffs was nice as well, sheltered and good walk/beachcombing.

Highly recommend beaching at kingfisher if tides are right and take advantage of the bar/cafe and it's showers and pools. We walked into lake McKenzie and central station which was awesome but bloody exhausting.

I've been thrawted a couple of times getting to wathumba by the weather, anything northerly is terrible once you get around moon point, but we always push into Coongul creek to see if we have time to wait weather out, it is nice and recommended, it's a mini wathumba without the large 4wd campsite (no facilities).
Stay inside (Fraser side) the peilcan sand island off moon point and the sand bars the run all the way up and past Coongul, they are a pain to cross in swell and wind from outside.

May join you, I wanted to do lady Musgrave this holidays but wasn't happy with weather, so will see what's it's like in September for a trip out there or play around sandy straights.

Cheers
P
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Fresh Breeze
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Re: Sailing Sandy Straits, some questions

Post by Fresh Breeze »

Hi Dennis,

Just thought We drop in to see how things were going with you.
Great to see you are heading up our way.

The only thing when you stay at any of the anchorage's in the Great Sandy's is don't forget your inset spray. The midge's and mozzies will carry you away.
As for your dog when staying at any of the anchorage's, No problem, if you have to go a shore for a doggy pit stop, just pick up the do do's. Be careful of dingo's. We have seen them board a Catamaran when it was beached on the western side of Fraser.

We are not on the water at the moment. We are restoring a vintage Couta style boat, we've just finished the trailer. Hopefully we should have it in the water by the end of the year. We sold our Fly Bridge Cruiser, for we had a bit of a health scare a few years back, but all's good now. We just want to get on with having fun on the water.
We might even catch up with you soon.

Cheers
Ken and Christine
Last edited by Fresh Breeze on Tue Sep 25, 2018 8:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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sunshinecoasting
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Location: Sunshine Coast Queensland Australia - "Entropy" Nissan 50 CDI Furling Jib

Re: Sailing Sandy Straits, some questions

Post by sunshinecoasting »

Hi Ken and Christine, great to hear from you, sorry to hear about the scare and the boat but sounds like you are having fun with the couta boat.

We have decided not to bring the dog now so that is no longer an issue, we launch at TCB on Saturday and leave heading north on Sunday stopping at Garrys and Kingfisher at least, would love to catch up for a coffee at Urangan marina when we arrive there, I expect somewhere around Wednesday the 26th but that depends on how long we stay at Kingfisher on the way through, if you send your mobile number to my email address [email protected] I will call you the day before we arrive to arrange it if you like.

Cheers, Dennis.
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