Gutter Bar. Moreton island

[gford001]

Just a quick one.
I have a mate that goes to the Gutter bar a bit, takes his cat over from Cleveland. Was thinking about it today, thought I would like to check it out.
Will be going down from Redcliffe, bit of a hike, but it would be worth it.
Plotted it our on the computer app for my plotter, straight forward enough, just 1 question, you go up the Rous, then turn North into Moreton to get there, I can see the proximity to South Passage Bar.
Is the approach affected by the bar ie: is it dangerous? Or still far enough west of the bar to not be affected?
Cheers

[GBC]

There is a northern entrance behind the island. The southern entrance is fine but not what you’d use coming from Redcliffe.

[SUPERDAFF]

South Passage Bar is not an issue for you if, as would be logical, you come down the western side of Moreton Island. While you certainly come close to the SPB, you are not actually in it, nor any of its three major crossing points which are at Amity, the Mid-channel and the Northern Channel. They, along with stretches in between such as The Shingles which can get cantankerous, are further to the east of your route - i.e. you are on the 'sheltered' side of the bar. You'll see it, but not be in it. It can be a shallow waterway on the western side of Moreton so go in on a rising tide first time until you get the feel of the waterway.

[gford001]

South Passage Bar is not an issue for you if, as would be logical, you come down the western side of Moreton Island. While you certainly come close to the SPB, you are not actually in it, nor any of its three major crossing points which are at Amity, the Mid-channel and the Northern Channel. They, along with stretches in between such as The Shingles which can get cantankerous, are further to the east of your route - i.e. you are on the 'sheltered' side of the bar. You'll see it, but not be in it. It can be a shallow waterway on the western side of Moreton so go in on a rising tide first time until you get the feel of the waterway.

Ah sweet. I'll pull it up again and look for the route down the island.
I plotted one through Harry Atkinson, and up the rous.

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[Moonlighter]

The route you had in mind - eg head across to near Harry’s then into the Rous channel and follow it to the bar is the most sensible direct route from Redcliffe. Stay in the marked channel, because there is a lot of GO SLOW area outside the channel to get fined in if you are at planing speeds.

The alternative - if you go from Redcliffe across to the inside of Moreton (say towards the Sandhills) then follow the beach south, you will end up having to go thru the marked channel via the Blue Hole and then thru Day’s gutter to bring you to the bar area.

The big problems with that route are that once you get to the marked channel that leads into the Blue hole, and that its a long way thru there and all GO SLOW zone (off the plane) all the way thru to the bar, and its also very shallow at anything less than half tide. You would be mad to go that way.

So Harrys/Rous is the way to go.

Once you get to the bar end of the Rous, after the last beacon you are in the area we call the shingles. It can be very lumpy there especially on a rising tide, because you have a convergence of many channels - the Rous, the Rainbow, and the 3 main channels that lead into the ocean. Weirdly enough, the shingles can be smoothest on a run out tide in my experience.

Anyway once you get to the shingles you then have to decide which of those channels you are going to head thru. If your destination is Pt Lookout or even the southern 35’s then Amity channel or the middle channel are obviously the best choices.

I tend to like the Amity or Rufus King passages, if for no other reason than if the brown stuff hits the wind oscillating device, then its a fairly short swim to the beach on Straddie! Plus its a shorter run thru the break zone there.

[gford001]

The route you had in mind - eg head across to near Harry’s then into the Rous channel and follow it to the bar is the most sensible direct route from Redcliffe. Stay in the marked channel, because there is a lot of GO SLOW area outside the channel to get fined in if you are at planing speeds.

The alternative - if you go from Redcliffe across to the inside of Moreton (say towards the Sandhills) then follow the beach south, you will end up having to go thru the marked channel via the Blue Hole and then thru Day’s gutter to bring you to the bar area.

The big problems with that route are that once you get to the marked channel that leads into the Blue hole, and that its a long way thru there and all GO SLOW zone (off the plane) all the way thru to the bar, and its also very shallow at anything less than half tide. You would be mad to go that way.

So Harrys/Rous is the way to go.

Once you get to the bar end of the Rous, after the last beacon you are in the area we call the shingles. It can be very lumpy there especially on a rising tide, because you have a convergence of many channels - the Rous, the Rainbow, and the 3 main channels that lead into the ocean. Weirdly enough, the shingles can be smoothest on a run out tide in my experience.

Anyway once you get to the shingles you then have to decide which of those channels you are going to head thru. If your destination is Pt Lookout or even the southern 35’s then Amity channel or the middle channel are obviously the best choices.

I tend to like the Amity or Rufus King passages, if for no other reason than if the brown stuff hits the wind oscillating device, then its a fairly short swim to the beach on Straddie! Plus its a shorter run thru the break zone there.

Cheers mate
Looked like a decent route on the GPS.
Pretty far, but will give it a go when I finish this month at work I reckon.

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