Wide Bay Bar

The crossing of Wide Bay Bar at the southern tip of Fraser Island is renowned as the most dangerous on the east coast and you can read lots of horror stories about the size of waves whipped up across a long shallow bar. You also need to time the crossing to be at least 2 hours either side of high tide and the nearest port is Mooloolaba 10-12 hours away, unless conditions are ok to stay off Rainbow Beach - which they weren't.
The Commodore of the Mooloolaba Yacht Club is a friend of Aunty Tanya and he rang with some advice, after his wife collared Natasha at the supermarket to tell her
So we got shipshape and stuck the name on the Bucc to make it official and set the alarm for 12:30AM. I almost slept but was just too excited so as soon as the time came we pushed out and headed to sea.
With the wind just starting up in the night we motor sailed until sunrise and thanks to the autohelm I was able to have a few snoozes on the way. There is nothing out there to hit and no one else around.
The kids got up early and slept in the cockpit until we rounded Double Island Point and Rainbow Beach unfolded before us. Radioing the Coast Guard provided the best waypoints which is set in the plotter. They were well to the north of the path suggested by Navionics and while the charts showed a directional beacon, they told me that wasn't used anymore.
I'd have to say we got lucky with our crossing, it was smooth as, good weather and the wind off the beam. Yo could see large waves breaking very close but the channel between the waypoints was around 13m deep. There was also another boat coming the other way so we could see where they had been.
Once into the final stretch it was most pleasant, with dolphins jumping around and lots of activity on the beach.
We stayed the night in Pelican Bay which was still and excellent. It can get shallow but there is plenty of room.