Peel Island

[Kyle]We left Brisbane into the teeth of a strong wind, which required a lot of tacking to get out of the river. Occasionally, we had to heave to on one side or the other to let an inbound ship pass. Once we were out of the river, we turned across the wind and flew down Moreton Bay.

The Saturday racers were out in force, which gave us plenty of practice determining which right-of-way rule applied to each vessel we encountered as they gave it their all to be the first to the yacht club cocktail lounge.

Sailing with plenty of other boats as we continue south

Peel Island has been described as “over loved”. As it was the weekend, we were certain, just from the subset of AIS targets, that the anchorage was going to be pretty full. That side of the island has a broad, shallow bay with no real hazards going in or out. That gave me the idea that we could redeem ourselves from all of our Brisbane River motoring by sailing in and dropping anchor without using the engines.

It worked well. There was enough space that all we had to do was sail up to the back row of boats, drop the hook and sail backwards until the anchor dug in. I counted thirty-three other boats anchored with us. It reminded us of Man-of-War Bay in New Zealand. It seemed way too crowded for a quiet Island, but it made for a convenient stop on the way south.