Sail the Great Sandy Strait
The Great Sandy Strait – a sheltered waterway separating the mainland from Fraser Island is where you’ll find enough space and freedom to leave your cares far behind for a month or two, yet dozens of delightful treasures close enough to reach easily during a weekend away on the water.
Add to that Fraser Island’s protective sand hills that deflect the strong south-easterlies while allowing steady breezes to flow through the strait and you have perfect sailing conditions virtually all-year round. During the odd weekend a stiff wind might sweep in from the north to ruffle the waters just a tad too much but that’s only a reminder that you
should spend a weekend at home every now and again to keep the boat ship-shape.
Suggested Sailing Trip 
Start your cruise at Tin Can Bay. The southern section of the strait from Tin Can Bay north is a succession of sheltered bays, sand flats and beaches on the mainland shore and mangrove-lined creeks, perfect for crabbing and prawning, on the Fraser Island side.
Drop the pick at Fraser Island’s Garry’s Anchorage for the night then explore the creeks in the dingy as you meander north.
Throw in a line from the boat or the shore and be assured of catching a meal or two. Coral trout, sweetlip, and barramundi linger in the deep holes along Fraser Island with mangrove jack, bream, whiting and flathead.
The Great Sandy Strait is an angler’s paradise of coral reefs, snag-ridden holes, fish-laden gutters and flat sandy shallows.
Dotted along the mainland are the quaint fishing villages of Tinnanbar, Maaroom, Boonooroo, Tuan
and Poona. Families drift in from the towns and cities towing tinnies and canoes then head out from
the beaches in noisy groups to explore the sheltered waterways, fish or simply enjoy the wildlife.
Dolphins surf the bow waves, dugongs graze on seagrass and turtles and stingray glide effortlessly
across the sandy banks. More than 45,000 birds drop in to the Great Sandy Strait wetlands on their way north to Siberia or Japan or south to New Zealand and the southern islands. Osprey, boobies, godwits, egrets, herons and terns all call the Great Sandy Strait home.
Towards the northern end of the strait a muststop anchorage is Fraser Island’s world-renowned Kingfisher Bay resort. Boaties are welcome.
Early next morning just as the sun blinks across the bay, catch the swift outgoing tide for an easy sail along the eastern shore of Woody Island and out into Hervey Bay. While that might mark the northern end of the Great Sandy Strait there is still more exploring to do.
Pick up the brisker mid-morning breezes skirting around the islands and sail on north into expansive Platypus Bay. Edged with pristine white coral sand beaches the bay provides the perfect stop-off retreat for humpback whales on the southern leg of their annual migration.
Some bring calves while others wait to give birth in the bay’s sheltered waters. Whale numbers are increasing each year offering boaties ample opportunities for close encounters with these spectacular marine animals as they take
time out from their travels to play.
A night anchored in beautiful Wathumba Creek near the northern end of Fraser Island will bring your sail through the Great Sandy Strait to an end … unless of course you left the car and boat trailer in Tin Can Bay, in which case you get to experience the Strait’s wonders all over again.