Category: 2003-trips

Mike Brown, Jonathon Peake, Ben Barry and Carolyn Proellochs kayaked to Peel Island from Victoria Point to spend a night on Peel Island and paddle back the following day. A lovely smooth paddle with sea turtles and wrecks to look at. The camp site in Halfmoon Bay is a nicely sheltered spot.

On a lengthier crossing Jonathon Peake, Mike Brown and Ben Barry, from the club, left from Manly and headed straight for the Moreton Island Little Sand Dunes after a brief stop on Green Island. Dugongs were about on the trip over, and the middle day of the trip provided a nice opportunity to paddle along Moreton’s bay side shores with a dolphin. The trip back was via St Helena Island swinging close to Mud Island.

During the year Andrew and I participated in a sea kayaking proficiency course at Mooloolaba under the instruction of Gayle Mays. Since then, we have undertaken several sea kayaking trips.

Two separate trips were conducted over 2 and 3 days through Moreton Bay. The first I did with friends, going from Victoria Point through Karragarra Island and Maclay Islands to Blakeley’s Anchorage at Straddy and then to Peel Island where we camped over night. It was a big paddle the next day, as we made it to St Helena Island. We were lucky to have a SE wind behind us as we continued through to Nudgee Beach. My colleagues made use of this wind and used their sails. I had a hard time keeping up so I ended up scoring a tow – I know, I’m a cheat! But I wasn’t going to get left behind.
The next trip through Moreton Bay, Andrew and myself went with two other friends. Leaving from Cabbage tree point we paddled North and then through the passage between Karragarra Island and Russell Island (where we stopped for brunch) and then over to Blakeley’s Anchorage where we set up camp. It was a great paddle – very calm and reasonably warm. We were even fortunate enough to see dolphins, turtle’s, and a dugong.

The next day we paddle to Peel Island where we had lunch on the North side in the Mangroves. We then paddled over to Green Island to camp. On the way we privileged to see a humpback whale and it’s calf only 20 metres off our bow. It was awesome! When we got to Green Island we copped a low tide and we had to negotiate an oyster reef. I’m bringing my oyster knife next time.

The third day saw us paddle over to Whyte’s passage and up the Brisbane river to New Farm – stopping at Colmslie Beach for lunch. We paused at Whyte’s Island for half and hour to watch a pod of dolphins play and I guess ambush fish. They came right up to the kayaks though – a fantastic experience.

Andrew and I then tackled the Pumicestone Passage. We had no idea what it was going to be like so we put in at Coochin Creek and paddled through to Caloundra. It ended up being too short. We were finished in a couple of hours. We did get an idea of how strong the currents were in the passage though. Tides should be taken into account.

So our most recent trip ended up being the whole passage – from South Bribie Island to Caloundra. We timed it with the tides and camped over night at Mission Point (across from Donnybrook). You can’t miss Mission Point, it’s well signed and very obvious on the Bribie Island side. If you ever camp there, take heaps of mozzie repellent though. They were really bad. We nicknamed it Ningi Point (“Ningi” is aboriginal for “mozzie”).

I took my fishing rod and yabby pump on the trip. There were heaps of yabbies on the bar in front of the point but fishing in front of the campsite was full of snags. I have found a good nearby fishing spot since but you’ll have to come out paddling with me to find out where. The tides, by the way, were extremely helpful in making it a pleasant trip.