The Moreton Bay region of about 800 square miles is a myriad of islands and swatchways where the cruising sailor could spend years exploring. Safely below the cyclone belt of the Tropic of Capricorn, so with year-round sailing, it’s been a good place to base our pocket cruiser for a year.
Our sailing plans for heading further north, beyond the Brisbane region after our departure from Sydney in 2021, were delayed by the La Niña weather. So, my wife Carole and I contented ourselves by leaving our 25-foot Contessa in the Gold Coast/Brisbane region, which was also handy for my project work there and a good base from which to explore the area.
Such as the many islands near Brisbane. These contain layers of indigenous people’s history, and they continue to live here despite the waves of colonial explorers (and latterly settlers) who now dominate the region.
British explorer Matthew Flinders stormed ashore here, followed by white convicts who were incarcerated among the islands. Transported here by sea, long before this Queensland region was connected to the settled south, there were plenty of remote islands to house them and others with diseases such as leprosy.
SPRING CRUISE
Sampling this region on our pocket cruiser, , was our two-week mission in October. This trip would take
