This morning we woke early and got underway from the marina at Bundaberg where we have been since arriving in Australia on October 19th. We are bound for the Great Sandy Strait, a passage between the mainland and Fraser Island, a giant all-sand island which forms a giant bay (Hervey Bay) North and West of it. The wind is from the NW today and blowing about 15-20k with about a 4ft swell, some bigger. We are almost dead downwind on a course of 130M (SE) with the coast on our right. We are motorsailing with just the genoa up.

It is now 10am and we have about 22nm to go to reach our destination for this evening, the entrance to the Mary and Susan Rivers, which converge together forming one delta. There is a village there called River Heads and we know another boat we met in Bundy will be there this evening. It is well protected from the North and should be very comfortable. About an hour ago we passed 4 sailboats all under sail (ie. not motorsailing as we are) and we passed them one by one. We are only going 6.5k so they must have been in the 3.5-4k range.

At 1pm we are just passing Big Woody Island. The wind has decreased to 12-18k and we are still motorsailing. We have about 7nm to go to reach the Susan River.

At about 2:45 we arrived at the mouth of the Susan River. We spent some time making bad anchoring attempts. There is not much room given the shallow water and there are 6 or so boats here. According to "Juniper" who is anchored here as well, a small blue runabout has been anchored here unattended for 2 days now dragging back and forth up and down the river forcing people to re-anchor as it comes too close.

We plan to leave here tomorrow and head further South anchoring just near the exit to the Gt. Sandy Strait then the following morning complete the trip to Mooloolaba. We haven't decided yet where we will anchor tomorrow, but there are several options. The only problem I foresee is a possible wind shift on Monday bringing wind from the South instead of North. Since the last leg to Mooloolaba is outside the protection of Fraser Island it will be important to have a Northerly wind for that leg.