Ride em' cowboy, but don't wear boxers!

Today, we went to Tangalooma on Moreton Island. If you look at this map, the 'n' of Wynnum, is next to a harbour called Manly, which is where we set off from.


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They have boat parking, as well as the conventional moorings. When you want to go out, you phone them up and they put your boat in the water with a forklift!



We were guests of Cindy and Hilton, and thrilled to be going along. They have a lovely aluminium boat with a smooth 115 hp Yamaha on it. The sun was shining, the sea was calm (ish) and everyone was in a good mood.







...its about 24kms to Tangalooma from Manly. Here's what it looks like from about 16kms off.



Once we got out into the open sea of the bay, (renowned for its chop) things became a little more 'dynamic' shall we say!





At the helm end of the boat, things felt bumpy right enough, but because you can see what's coming from there, you could be ready for them... where Cindy and Daile were sitting with the girls, was less smooth, as I found out on the way back.

It took about 45 mins to make the crossing at roughly 20 to 25 knots, (half power). The island is famous for its Dolphin sanctuary and for these sand hills that you can toboggan down...!





We anchored here to have a picnic....





Then we got back on and went to snorkel by the wrecks.
This is Logan..















There were LOADS of fish, and interesting things going on below the surface. While we were doing that, the boat dragged anchor and we had a pretty close thing catching it, fending it off the wrecks and regaining our composure. We re-anchored further down opposite the sand hill you can see on the photo above and did some tobogganing. It's a really fun thing to do. Needless to say, it seemed prudent to leave the camera on the boat because of the proximity of the sand.

Then it was almost time to go and the two lads had a last minute mad session...

Quentin... showing me his star jump.



and Logan...





The weather had picked up a bit while we were there, so we set off back a little earlier than planned. I took my turn sitting in the back seat with Phoebe, where you catch the waves going past... and get to experience what I can only describe as riding a bronco, where the boat leaps off a wave, and well... sort of disappears away from you, leaving you to fall back to the seat with a hell of a bump. It's not a comfortable way to travel... to say the very least. You have to hold yourself down to the boat to avoid crushed nuts! He he. OUCH! (in a high voice!)

But it was a FANTASTIC day. If you're going to be out of work... this is the place to be it!