nswsailor said..

EC31 said.. Where is Pelican Point?

Where is Pelican Point?

Pelican Point is a sand spit inside the bar. Yachts shelter behind the sand spit waiting for a weather window and its also where the car ferries pick up cars for Fraser Island.

Now just to add a bit of confusion I heard today that in the last two weeks a cat drawing 90cm, in very flat conditions, followed a large fishing boat in through the Fisherman's Gutter. They went straight in without the usual dogleg about 1 hour after high tide; ie slack water or there abouts.

He found no less the 3 metres the whole way in !!!!!

That sounds about right. IIRC we didn't have our depth alarm go off when we crossed in 2014 (It goes off at less than 2m). The only reason we did it is because we were going off with all the other boats in a flat calm. I thought to myself "I wonder if we could use the gutter?" Then I saw two big fishing charter boats go past at an angle and go out to Double Island Point - Ahah! They are going down the gutter.

My wife looked at me and said "Should we follow them?" Wonderful woman. Caveat - It was dead flat, it was calm, we were going out, and followed the local fishing boats. I would really hesitate to use it coming in. I would NOT recommend it to anyone who isn't really up on bar crossings in a shallow draft boat.

We saved about an hours worth of fuel and got that sneaky feeling like we had scored a cheeky single. Something to talk about I guess but not worth wrecking your boat on.

cheers

Phil

Last july when heading north in my 9.6 meter seawind cat I took the short option and went around the sandy point at the northern end of Rainbow beach with 800mm draught ,the sounder showing nothing less than 2.5 meters ,the tide was running in and we had a 15 knot southeaster was a little lumpy but nothing to bad ,two fishermen in runabouts took the same route

was 7.30 am when we headed in and they were both comming out ,we had spent a quiet night at double island point

Sectorsteve said..
On a flat day it could be worth a look

Most definitely worth a look in your tinnie or duckie with a reliable and powerful enough outboard on the transom to get you out and back in at 20 knots if needed.

Also attached to the transom you have to have a sounder transducer, preferably a wireless/bluetooth one that will update your Navionics Sonar Maps as you explore the alleged channel/passage/gutter.

Armed with that information you can then return to your mother vessel, determine the way points to suit safe passage with your draught.

I lay odds 100:1 that all these local "fishermen" are using that technology and updating it as time passes and bars shift.

So these local "fishermen", how many of them are on trawlers??

The screen grab below is less than 12 months old because it shows the sink hole on Inskip Point half way through the passage.

From comments above espousing the benefit of this "gutter", I note the most enthusiastic ones come from catamaran owners. There is a message there I believe.

Were I armed with updated nav info that showed the possibility of a 2 metre draught vessel making the passage, I would only attempt the passage on such a vessel if :-

1. The vessel had an engine powerful enough to push the vessel at 7 knots or more. You could have a strong tidal stream.
2. The conditions were near perfect.





There are a couple of 90 degree turns needed in that passage.

In the pic note the sharp V from the beach to the road. That is the vegetation cleared area where the lead line beacons are.

As I said previously, the reward of Wide Bay Harbour and the Great Sandy Straits make the crossing of the Wide Bay Bar well worth the effort.

Sail safely.