Big sand hills and big fish

We left Brisbane on Tuesday and spent the first night at an anchorage called Big Sandhills on Moreton Island. Here there is a massive natural sand blow. The following morning we all climbed the sand hill and the kids took their boards to slide down. There was many fine crashes but no one was hurt too much.

. Those dots are us sliding down and climbing up.

Then we were off to Tangalooma, about 8 miles further north on Moreton Island. Here there are 15 wrecks that have been sunk to form an anchorage. There is lots of fish to been seen when you snorkel around them and there is also big sand hills. Amy made friends with a boy from Holland, they are spending the cyclone season in Brisbane and we met up with them again here.

. About to eat lots of sand, and below are some of the wrecks

From Tangalooma it was a days sail to Moolooaba. We dropped anchor the first night but as the tide swung we found ourselves about 10 feet from another boat. There was no where else to anchor so we grabbed a berth at Lawries Marina for 3 nights. This is the first walk on berth since Yamba at the beginning of the trip. We took advantage of the close proximity to shopping and stocked up.

. Michael caught this nice Spotted Mackeral just out of Tangalooma

This morning we made our way to Double Island Point, which is a head land that gives some protection until we cross the wide bay bar, then the inside of Frazer Island. We had a great sail, motoring for about 2 hours until the winds picked up. We had the lure out and something big grabbed it because the line broke. It was my $20 lure, I didn't want to use it at first as i thought it was too expensive to loose. We then used a cheap lure and didn't think we had much of a chance but shortly after Daniel reeled in a 45 cm Mackeral Tuna. He was pretty pleased that his was bigger than Michael's. It had a dark flesh and we didn't find it a very nice table fish. A couple of hours later, not to be out done by the boys Kathleen brang in a whopping 100cm Spanish Mackeral. A fine eating species that feed us tonight and probably another 2 nights.

, Daniel pleased with his efforts

. What a beauty and what a day