The dangers of Moreton Bay

[TheRealAndy]

For those who are not aware. Today, I was out on the water with Sandgate Yacht Club for a race. Forecast was saying that the wind was going to ease off to 5 - 10knots. If a strong wind warning is issued we will not race. Today there was no warnings, so the race was on. I hit the bay in my boat (had a professional photographer on board) at around 12.30pm for a 1pm start. At 12.30, 1nm off Shorncliffe in a south west breeze there was a 30cm chop blowing about 15knots. at 1pm there was 1.5m and 35knots. 1nm offshort in westerly and 1.5m, I could only imagine what it was like as you get closer to moreton. This happened in the period of about half an hour. We had one boat bend a mast, and another boat nearly sank (water to the gunwhales, only the foam kept it from sinking).

The strong wind warning was cancelled in the morning, but I heard southport tower issue a warning for northern NSW when I was on the water. The race was aboneded before the start.

For those of you who think moreton bay is a safe haven beware. This is how quickly conditions can turn from ok to bad. This is not the first time I have seen this happen and its not the first time I have been caught out in moreton bay in such conditions.

[trueblue]

I've been caught out badly with a blow that came up quickly. certainly does come up very fast when the big bloke upstairs turns on the fan

[sleepygreg]

the same can be said of any large body of relatively shallow water. Westerlies do have a tendancy to hit fast and hard, and you generally cant pick em by cloud formations etc. Ask some of the freshwater fishos about their experiences on some of the larger dams, especially the relatively shallow ones in Tassie and Southern NSW.....wind speed and direction changes would do some Drag racing cars proud. Lake Macquarie, Botany Bay, Lake Illawarra, Batemans bay, Twofold Bay and Westernport all fit into the same category, and I have been caught out in those conditions on all of them. Be prepared and dont think "it wont happen to me"..........IT CAN.

Greg

[ozscott]

Good warning. When I take out my family I get paranoid. I make sure it has not been windy in the couple of days leading up and its predicted to be 5-10 in the am and no more than 15 in the late afternoon and even then I try to get back early afternoon due to the sea breezes. The bay is a place to be respected. I have a mate who gets up me because I am so cautious of the bay...but I am still here.

Cheers

[robersl]

Yes a timely warning for this time of year for moreton bay it get very ugly very quickly it is only a shallow bay most of the way towards the shipping channel it is 5-8m deep and any wind chops up the water and if you have the tide pushing against the breeze this makes it worst as the waves tend to stand up and you get them from 3 different direction and it is like being in a washing machine any more than point 7 on the wave forcast and i will not venture out as it is to unpridictable


shane