Double Island Point (DIP)

[Kyle]Southeast Queensland lifted its COVID lockdown restriction on Sunday afternoon. The next evening we left Myora for the overnight sail to Double Island Point. Maryanne took the first watch, in which she mostly sailed fast while going through water that was trying almost as hard to go the other way. When she handed Begonia over to me, our ETA was predicted to be well after the next sunset. That didn't last. The current reversed with the falling tide at almost the same point we left the lee of Moreton Island, so my watch was all strong tailwinds and following seas. Just as I was getting out of the chair to wake her in the morning, I was doused by an errant wave that threw a big, cold bucket of water on my positive mood, so to speak. At least the autopilot had performed flawlessly the whole way.

We came around the corner to find a dozen other boats in the “new” anchorage. Since we had been here last seventeen months earlier, a sand bar had formed that almost completely enclosed part of the bay. Now, instead of an open roadstead that is exposed to swell, there is a lovely nook of 360-degree protection over shallow, clean sand. What used to be a choppy, uncomfortable place to wait out conditions at the adjacent Wide Bay Bar was now a must-stop for almost every shallow-draft boat going in either direction.

Rounding DIP and sheltering in the calm behind a recently formed sand bank

WE found our spot among the others and dropped anchor. The next morning, we paddled the kayak ashore and headed north along the long beach to the trailhead that leads to the Double Island Lighthouse. The beach is a day-use only area for four-wheel drives and there were lots of vehicles parked at the far corner as surfing or fishing bases for the day. We went past them all until we spotted the sign for the trail.

Stroll along the beach to the trail

Walking by Fan Tails (birds) and goannas (monitor lizards) on route to the lighthouse

It was not nearly as strenuous as we had imagined, climbing the 85 meters to the lighthouse in one very gradual slope. There, we happened upon one of the caretakers as she was pulling some weeds. She recommended the side trail to Dee's Shack, which was actually the recent ruins of a fishing hideaway set up by three brothers. The shack itself wasn't much, but the location, which was perched at the top of a bluff that had long views of the coast in both directions, was spectacular.

Watching out for Whales and Dolphins from the point

We perched ourselves on a rock for a mid-hike break and were rewarded with views of humpback whales in the middle distance. After a while, one of them even swam to the cliffs and did a close pass right under us.

Rather than return to Begonia, we decided to take the much shorter (and thus steeper) path down to adjacent Teewah Beach (to the south of the point). It was even more crowded than the beaches on our side with what appeared to be some sort of large family reunion. I splashed in the water just to say we'd been and then we headed back uphill towards home.

We took a detour to Teewah Beach

And walked the sandspit at low tide

The tide had gone down quite a way on our side of the point since our initial landing, exposing the vast sandspit protecting the new bay. We decided to walk out to the tip, mostly because it is there. What we didn't properly appreciate until later was that doing so effectively tripled the two mile beach walk from the trail exit to the kayak. We were starting to feel a little weary by the time we rejoined the main beach, but then happened upon the distraction of encountering tens of thousands of Soldier Crabs marching away from everything that approached them. Every time a bird landed in the group, they would all spread like very slow ripples, climbing over one another to get away, looking for sand soft enough for burrowing. The birds would snack on about one in five hundred. They do kinda look like popcorn.

The wildlife entertained us on the walk back

Over the next couple of days, conditions improved over the Wide Bay Bar, so more boats left than arrived. We left on the calmest of the calm days, resigning in advance to an all-day motor to our next stop at Garry's Anchorage. Our crossing of the bar turned out to be a flat one. We were followed by a boat called Waru that quickly passed us once we were through and had shut down one of our engines.

We knew we were safely over Wide Bay Bar once we see the ferry (to Fraser Island) and we were greated by dolpins

This was our third pass through the Great Sandy Strait, but our first stop at Garry's. It is in a beautiful, protected spot, but we had avoided it the first two times due to its reputation for sand flies (actually a type of midge). The ravenous little monsters are a problem throughout the strait, requiring the whole boat be shut tight from before sunset to after sunrise to keep them on the outside, even when really far from shore. I had no intention of going into a place that had a reputation for being lousy with them.

Several different people at the Double Island Point anchorage explained to us that the problems we had had were mostly due to the time of year that we had been through. Sand flies are seasonal and it's much too cold and humid in this, the dead of winter, for them to be out (hmmm). Maryanne was keen to actually set foot on Fraser Island this time and Garry's has trails. She gave me the look. Okay, we'll try it.