Its been raining heavy for 4 days and nights now and the river has been slowly rising. This morning we awoke to flood warnings. The Brisbane CBD waterfront under water and many roads closed due to flooding. There was a flotilla of ferry boats heading down river looking for a safe place to moor. The ferry services have been cancelled so far today.
Not long after a submerged boat went past followed by several kayaks, trees, logs and fence posts, pontoons and a complete jetty.
After talking with the water police, we have decided to stay anchored where we are. We just have to watch out for large objects and boats dragging anchors and keep an eye on Wivenhoe Dam levels. There is about 6knots (about 12km/hr) current coming past at the moment. There is also high winds (gusting 40 knots) out in the bay with 2-3 metre swells.
We have heard on the radio of jetty pontoons sailing down the river and a range of boats breaking moorings and dragging anchor. The river police and tugs are very busy.
There is major flooding across SE Queensland in general, there is a lot of flood damage and flash flooding and unfortunately a couple of deaths. We are keeping vigilant listening to the radio and keeping a visual watch.
While writing this a boat anchored up river from us dragged anchor headed straight for us. We only had time to start the motor and as Andrew spooled more chain out Sue drove Imagine hard to port (left) as the boat dragging anchor passed only meters off our starboard side. No time to take photos, just lucky it didn’t hook our anchor as it went past.
Debris coming down the river had lodged around his anchor chain and the anchor couldn’t hold it all. We can see debris building up around other unmanned boats upstream of us. We are cleaning debris off our chain every 15 minutes.
