Mud Island on a spring high tide

A couple of us headed out to Mud Island with a plan to paddle into a 15 knot SE headwind against the tide and then after exploring some of the lagoons and creeks on the island, paddle/sail home with 10-15 knots pushing us home.

Taking off from Shorncliffe, you take an easterly tack to get to Mud Island, crossing the Brisbane Channel at the "Coffee Pots".  Strangely enough the SErly had more south in it so we ended up with a beam wind assisting us out to the island and a tail wind on the way home - who am I to complain!

We explored a tidal creek from the north side of the island before being chased off the island by a swarm of overly friendly mosquitoes.  With some more tide and a lot of bug spray we could have potentially joined up with some water from the southern side of the island - but there were a lot of mangroves in the interior with little in the way of a  clearly defined channel.

We beat a hasty retreat and headed around to the eastern side of the island where we paddled over a coral bank into the interior of the island.

We saw a lot of turtles and fish and think the crabs would be well fed since they started dragging whale carcasses onto the island to decompose. We didn't come across any whale bones but assume they were in the lagoons on the western side of the island which had the best access for larger boats.

A nice 41 km paddle.

QSKC Australia Day Paddle - On Water

Some photos taken from the QSKC Australia Day Paddle - on the water.

QSKC - Australia Day Off Water Photos

The following photos were taken at the QSKC Australia Day Paddle (pre-paddle).  It was great to see so many people in attendance and thanks to the volunteers who made the day possible.

Peel Island Mangroves

After a few days of rain, I was keen to get out of the house and on the water.  With a neap high tide just after lunch, we took off at 12:30 pm to paddle around Peel Island and explore the mangroves on the northern side of the island.

The wind was light with around 15 knots of SSE wind, dropping off later in the afternoon.  The wind kept conditions relatively cool, or at least the humidity down.  The mangroves were teaming with fish and the usual predators shooting through the shadows, including one large shovel nose shark which we disturbed finding our way through the mangroves to short-cut out way out to the eastern side of the island.

We stopped off at Platypus Bay which was supposedly booked out on the Australia Day long weekend but not a tent in site - obviously the rain keeping people indoors!

The following are some photos of the quarantine station ruins on the South-Eastern corner of Peel Island.

The tide was still up so I couldn't get around the rocks to Horseshoe Bay, but I took a couple of shots of the sandstone sculptures on the Platypus Bay side.

A pleasant way to spend a summer afternoon!