Morton Bay

I'm anchored at the south end of Morton Bay, on the north side of Peel Island trying to shelter from the up to 30 knot southerly. Not much shelter though as I can't get in very close due to sand bars extending about half a mile around the island.

I left Southport yesterday morning heading up the back channels, went aground a couple of times, first time I had to wait a couple of hours til tide came in, second time it was just on high tide and I thought I was stuffed, I had strayed out of the channel about 5 meters; this time I was able to back off under full power. I had no more trouble and dropped anchor in a quiet area last night.

On leaving anchorage this morning immediately went aground and waited an hour for the tide to come in sufficiently to refloat. apart from that it was a pretty uneventful trip up into Morton Bay, but now the winds are up over 20 knots and forecast to go up to 30 tonight. It hasn't stopped blowing a strong southerly since I left Port. I would have gone up the outside of Stradboke and Morton Islands, except that with the strong winds they were forecating 4 - 5 meter seas, very uncomfortable!