Like Great Sandy Strait, the shallow passage on the inside of Moreton Island is defined by shifting sandbars and swift currents. As it was early on a Sunday morning, we had the whole area all to ourselves. At nine o’clock, the recreational fishing boats arrived. At Noon, the jet skis joined in. By late afternoon, there was so much traffic that there was no room to pass and all of the boats had to just funnel back and forth like cars on a freeway in rush hour traffic.
Moreton Bay to Paradise Point
We were so relieved to pull out of the line and find a spot big enough to anchor at a place called Paradise Point, near the mouth of the Coomera River. This area is an enclave for the super-rich, where giant mansions sit shoulder to shoulder on manicured lots. We read somewhere that the average home around there goes for $20M, although the same source said some homes could be had for under $5M. That’s perfect! That’s exactly what we have! Maybe we’ll pick one up.
It turns out most of the area was geared to our end of the scale. We got a nice meal ashore for under $5M, found a bottle of wine for under $5M and even found a whole store with every item priced at under $5M. The real estate store was a different matter, though.
As mentioned before, we were hoping to get a look at the yard we were planning on using later in Autumn. As far as we could tell, Our spot at Paradise Point was as close as we could get without forking over a hundred bucks a night for a marina. The Boatyard was only four miles away, but on further study, it looked like we were going to have to walk twice that far to get there, due to the inconvenient placement of bridges along the route. A trip by bus suffered from indirect routing and long connection times and would likely end up taking longer than the walk. The river was very sinuous, making the water distance much farther than the straight-line distance, so going by dinghy didn’t seem feasible either.
After studying the satellite pictures of the area for a while, Maryanne was able to figure out a shortcut along a local creek. If we did the trip right, we could even get a boost from the tide in both directions. This would allow us to use low enough power to make the long dinghy trip without exhausting our battery and forcing me to row a long way back.
We find another Athena (the same model as our boat) and a lunch place with vintage cars
A nesting swallow under the bridge, and a sea eagle soaring overhead
The kangaroos seemed surprised to see us
Our shortcut ended up being a nice little nature cruise. We saw kangaroos and plenty of different kinds of birds. In the Under $5M section, we even exchanged greetings with a man on a park bench on the riverbank behind his house. He was feeding a flock of birds at his feet. Instead of ducks or pigeons, he was surrounded by parrots; cockatoos and lorikeets who had flown in for a snack.
When we emerged into the Coomera, just upstream of the Boatyard, we were dismayed to find two boats anchored in a space big enough for four. We’ll remember that next time. They have a really nice facility there, if a little on the pricey side. We found most of the engine parts we needed and had a bonus at the cafe where we had lunch. Apparently, the owner of the Boatyard is a vintage car and motorcycle buff and has a whole big showroom of them that you can wander about on the proviso that you promise not to touch anything.
We were thinking our day had been long enough to just go to the boat and call it a day, but it was just too nice of an evening to not go ashore for a walk along the park lining the water’s edge. We even shared an ice cream cone for under $5M.
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