Letters of Love/Hate 4 Caloundra, Queensland, Australia
By 4ando on 15-Jan-19. Waypoint GC82GZ0

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip, that started from Donnybrook aboard this tinny ship. The mate was a mighty police captain, the skipper brave and sure. Four passengers set sail that day for a three hour tour, a three hour tour.The tide was still coming in, the sandbars they did toss, if not for the courage of the fearless crew the Karicka would be lost, the Karicka would be lost.The ship set course along the shore of this charted mangrove passage with CaptainVimes, the skipper too, Peppa the travel princess and his supplies, and Davinells the navigator, here on Pumicestone Passage.After searching around a few trees, we eventually found the tether on dead branch that broke off tree. Replaced with cache having gained the CO's permission in advance. Thanks 4ando and happy caching

A trip down Pumicestone passage has been on the cards for a while and with a midday high tide we took our opportunity. With Beardman75 at the helm, first mate and boat minder CaptainVimes, Peppa, with his ever entertaining yoga display on the bow, and myself set sail in Karicka for an adventurous but fabulous day on the water. Using a previous photo we found the tree the cache was on, the branch had broken off and the tether was still attached but unfortunately no cache. With prior permission for maintenance, we left a preform attached to the same tree but on a living branch.Thanks for the cache 4andoFind #6395

CaptainVimes had a plan That plan started with a very casual I think Ill sell the boat. Well that got everyones diaries and calendars out So here we are taking Karicka back up the passage it last visited just over three and a half years ago with a very different and far more stylish crewJust like that cruise years ago, Karicka found the sand bars, more than once There was discussion about vintage port and hardwood sideboards, but I was occupied ensuring we didnt maim any mermaidsThank goodness for those supplies that have been lugged around, here we left a new replacement cacheThanks 4ando for getting us out here today, I can appreciate the attraction, still not sure Id go fishing though

We headed out to Donnybrook boat to put the geo boat to get some water-based caches today, while grabbing the information for the traditional series, multi, adventure lab and the puzzles we covered close to 80 kilometres. So, we set out to find the list of caches we had saved and to FINALLY turn it them into yellow smiley faces. While out for the day we found 16.

Before leaving the new geocar (Track my adventures here D78QWZ) we read the description, hint, confirmed the difficulty and terrain, checked we had all the caches in the offline list and pervious finder logs. We set off to start moving through the water. BrisLions was directing us to where we needed to go. Once we got to GZ, we started to walk towards GZ, we were discussing about where this geocache could possibly located. Has these caches have been on our radar for a long time.

We found we needed to maintenance a few caches throughout the day we had spare containers, tie wire, ziplock bags and log books. Thankfully after a decent search we worked out we were in the incorrect place then we regrouped. Shortly, we the cache in hand, and we added our little ink mark to the logbook. After waiting for the jetski wash to subside after 5 jetskis went past. We decided to continue our adventures.

Thank you for the cache placement and maintenance 4ando
Thank you for the Hunt
Thank you for bring us to this beautiful location
Took Nothing, Left Nothing, Signed Log
Replaced the cache exactly as found

Team Signed as Mumma Bear and the Cubs / M B & C, Muggle 65, The Green Geckos and BrisLions

Found this cache with Tiny 1508, Princess 1005, Captain Monkey 96, DFC-JLK2019, The Green Geckos, Muggle 65, BrisLions
 

We headed out to Donnybrook boat to put the geo boat to get some water-based caches today, while grabbing the information for the traditional series, multi, adventure lab and the puzzles we covered close to 80 kilometres. So, we set out to find the list of caches we had saved and to FINALLY turn it them into yellow smiley faces. While out for the day we found 16.

Before leaving the new geocar (Track my adventures here D78QWZ) we read the description, hint, confirmed the difficulty and terrain, checked we had all the caches in the offline list and pervious finder logs. We set off to start moving through the water. BrisLions was directing us to where we needed to go. Once we got to GZ, we started to walk towards GZ, we were discussing about where this geocache could possibly located. Has these caches have been on our radar for a long time.

We found we needed to maintenance a few caches throughout the day we had spare containers, tie wire, ziplock bags and log books. Thankfully after a decent search we worked out we were in the incorrect place then we regrouped. Shortly, we the cache in hand, and we added our little ink mark to the logbook. After waiting for the jetski wash to subside after 5 jetskis went past. We decided to continue our adventures.

Thank you for the cache placement and maintenance 4ando
Thank you for the Hunt
Thank you for bring us to this beautiful location
Took Nothing, Left Nothing, Signed Log
Replaced the cache exactly as found

Team Signed as Mumma Bear and the Cubs / M B & C, Muggle 65, The Green Geckos and BrisLions

Found this cache with Tiny 1508, DFC_JLK2019, Captain Monkey 96, DFC-JLK2019, The Green Geckos, Muggle 65, BrisLions

Out today with boat load of cacher. The team of The Green Geckos, Muggle65 and M.B.C. We had the Love/ Hate series as our main target. With adventure labs and multi for side dish.
I had done some caches at the top before on another trip.
My total for today was 12 finds. The breakdown is 8 traditional, multi and 3 waypoints from Adventure Lab.

Lots of fun was had and few tale were told. Couple of showers today but still got back to the vehicle dry.
4Ando *TFTC* 6448 *Finds*

We had a rather full boat today but the more the merrier they say. That might not have been the perfect description but nobody died and we didn't sink the boat. Thank you for the fun

, MB&C, Bris& myself are up the creek with a motorboat today collecting a few letters of love & hate. Putting in at Donnybrook we meandered up the passage. Along the way we found we needed to fix & replace a couple of containers & logs soo

We headed out to Donnybrook boat to put the geo boat to get some water-based caches today, while grabbing the information for the traditional series, multi, adventure lab and the puzzles we covered close to 80 kilometres. So, we set out to find the list of caches we had saved and to FINALLY turn it them into yellow smiley faces. While out for the day we found 16.

Before leaving the new geocar (Track my adventures here D78QWZ) we read the description, hint, confirmed the difficulty and terrain, checked we had all the caches in the offline list and pervious finder logs. We set off to start moving through the water. BrisLions was directing us to where we needed to go. Once we got to GZ, we started to walk towards GZ, we were discussing about where this geocache could possibly located. Has these caches have been on our radar for a long time.

We found we needed to maintenance a few caches throughout the day we had spare containers, tie wire, ziplock bags and log books. Thankfully after a decent search we worked out we were in the incorrect place then we regrouped. Shortly, we the cache in hand, and we added our little ink mark to the logbook. After waiting for the jetski wash to subside after 5 jetskis went past. We decided to continue our adventures.


Thank you for the cache placement and maintenance 4ando
Thank you for the Hunt
Thank you for bring us to this beautiful location
Took Nothing, Left Nothing, Signed Log
Replaced the cache exactly as found

Team Signed as Mumma Bear and the Cubs / M B & C, Muggle 65, The Green Geckos and BrisLions

Found this cache with Tiny 1508, Princess 1005, Captain Monkey 96, Mumma Bear 66, The Green Geckos, Muggle 65, BrisLions
 

OMG, now paddling and almost going backwards the wind is that strong. Another easy to find cache, thanks for a great find

Found it on my kayak tour.
TFTC

A very windy day for kayaking! A quick find. Thanks for the hide!

A quick find! Thanks for the hide!

Nice spot

Orange Crew had organised with karicka for a boat ride up the pumistone passage to grab a few caches of the adventure lab and the letters series. So we rrrrr pirates of the passage today, rrrrrr. I wasn’t sure as to why I got an invite but it soon became obvious I was the cabin boy, galley bitch and roust about for the day. I didn’t mind it turned out to be a really fun day, a few laughs and with a good number of caches found and/or replaced with the CO’s permission.

We launched at Donnybrook and with an incoming tide it did make for an interesting journey around the passage. Thank you for this series it has been on my to do list for some time so I was glad for the opportunity to grab them today.

Making steady progress northward in the twists and turns
A 4cm mud crab put up a good fight here.

Thank you for hiding this geocache and keeping me entertained 4ando
R

This series has been burning a figurative hole in my map for a long long time. Finally I decided to rope in karicka to skipper us in his boat, and chamad as our scoundrel first mate.

We picked today as we needed a weekend day with a big high tide during the day, so we launched early from Donnybrook and headed north to Caloundra.

The lower tide meant we couldn't park the boat anywhere near GZ and had to splosh through about 80m of mud, which was fun.

Even more fun was when karicka tried to pick up a sweet tiny little mud crab, and it turned full ninja and tried to attack him with its claws, causing him to jump back. Ah, the laughs that ensued were priceless! We soon stopped when we realised it's a looong swim back when you piss off the skipper

#10381 @ 0842
Thanks 4ando for giving us a reason to visit.

.........@__,
/|___||_/__________|\
\\_______/_TGQNRV_/
~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~

For the vast majority of this year, I have been looking at completing this series. Not owning a boat, and realising it's too far to paddle, I have been planning the trip in my canoe with it's 2HP outboard. I'd depart Donnybrook, putt up the passage, stopping at each geocache, camp the night at Caloundra and return the next day. With a top speed of 10km/h, it'd be a slow but enjoyable adventure - a bit beyond anything I've tried before.

Already today I'd pushed off into unfavourable conditions and pressed on, arguably foolishly past numbers 1 and 2, but made [a find at Letters of Love/Hate 3](https://coord.info/GL132ZM04). From there, I restarted the outboard and headed for this geocache. It would turn out to be the worst leg of the trip.

Immediately upon leaving this island, I was at the southern end of a wide, high-tide expanse of water and I had to tack across it along the northern side of Thooloora Island. There was no protection, but the trusty canoe did manage it. I got very wet and it wasn't until I finally pressed into the wind and tucked behind Long Island that the crashing waves turned to a minor chop and I had some relief from the anxiety, bouncing and constantly bailing out the canoe.

Onwards. Long Island provided decent protection for a good distance, but things soon got rough, I was forced to power back, then cross the channel to this geocache. These conditions meant getting my phone out of it's waterproof box was not an option. Naturally, I overshot the geocache, found calm water, then checked and found all this out.

Being the case for my day, the geocache was on the completely un-protected side of the island today. But I got the nose of the boat beached enough to find the geocache, touch it and take a photo (still forgot my pen). Plus, record the clue!

Not that I knew it yet, but this would be my last find for the day. I left this GZ and powered all the way to somewhere near Letters of Love/Hate 7 (stopping at 5 and 6 was not an option in these conditions) where, tired of being thrashed around, wet and stressed I pulled up to call a friend, have a drink, refuel and make the fateful decision to return the way I came. So much for 'whole series in one canoe trip'!

The section south of Long Island and the section between Mission Point and Donnybrook were awful. But pushing on to Caloundra was surely going to be worse. I had the outboard throttle wide open the whole drive home, save for a refuel stop (10km per tank will do that). The waves were overtaking me and every jetski that passed me checked I wasn't in distress.

Maybe the best part of this adventure was arriving back at the boat ramp. Mission failed, but lots learned and nobody hurt or broken. I'd miss the storms that night (thankfully) and know I'll be back to complete the series with nothing more than a gentle breeze. Thank you for this adventure 4ando, I'll be back

OMGOSH! I swear we must have missed one on the way - such a big gap! Saw some amazing water birds on the way and so peaceful at the moment. The sun was warm and breeze was cool I almost could have taken a nap - except we had business to attend to.

Great views of the Glasshouse Mountains on the way from #3 made this paddle not seem quite as long as it was! TFTC.

It was a decent paddle from No 3 to this one. The sea bottom seemed to be in a hurry to expose itself to the air with the Yak giving it a good smack in a few spots. Have to admit we did manage to fluke the tide and getting this far without too much mishap.

Great view of the glasshouses on the way here, with the ambience only disrupted by those noisy jet skies!! Nothing special about the hide, all was found in good order. Thanks 4ando for the series, looking forward to looking at the puzzle.

So onward we paddled. What a big gap but at least the wind and tide were in our favour. Wonderful views and birdlife... but a few too many pesky summer bugs including the jetskies!!! Still enjoying being out there! Easy find here!

Day 3 on the water and it started out flat as a tack. It did not stay that way for long though. It must have been close to low tide when I set off from my chosen launch point. I decided to paddle to my southern most target and work my way back. Hopefully this would minimise the amount of mud involved in the expedition.

With the tide with me it did not take long to cover the 3km or so to this one. There was a tiny channel between a sandbank and GZ that allowed me to paddle in close. A nice sandy base to the channel meant no mud.

A nice quick find and I was ready to begin the slog back north.

TFTF

Nice slow cruise in my kayak to this one from Roy's creek boat ramp. Nice easy find with my son riding on the front of my kayak. Was a few people around, so did it very carefully. They were busy yabbying anyway tftc

Thongs were definitely not the best choice for today and ended up bearfoot in the mangroves- caching always involves a scrape or two so I thought I’d increase the odds. We loved this series. Tftc fav from us

Another short paddle from letters 5. We didnt take too long to spot the cache and letter. It's been a perfect paddle with a little drizzle and cloud cover and not so hot today. Love the weather and love this cache

4226

Saturday. I love that today is the most amazing day to be out caching. I had left collecting this series of caches for far too long. With too many super hot days, boat hire plans gone awry, other plans scuppered (I hate that), that I decided that it was paddling by kayak for me! Luckily for me Que Sera wanted to come with, so I had great company! I love that . We were so fortunate to have great cloud cover which kept us cool throughout nearly the whole trip – I love that (however the cloud cover became thinner later on and I managed to get a fantastic sunburn on my legs) – I hate that [:(!]. We pulled up near GZ and took in the scenery! So amazing and very beautiful. Lots of marine and bird life and the seas were very calm today. I love that . We soon had the cache in hand and the well attached letter had a couple of pictures taken of it (just to make sure) . Water as far as the eye can see here and although we had been paddling against the current for all this trip, it wasn’t really noticeable around this spot as there was so much water here that is spread out (I really love that!). Loving collecting this series.

This was the 4th of 7 caches found on today's trip.

Thanks ***4ando***, for showing us this place.

A great day to be out on the water. Growife had bought a Seadoo named McSeadoo Face jetski and this was our virgin run with it. So all very nervous. Had CDAH55 along as he was a expert in reversing at boat ramps. We couldn't reverse to save our lives. CDAH did a great job in reversing otherwise we would have never got in the water. As usual I was told I was driving the ski first. We all got on and off we went from Donnybrook. 3 up on a jetski, 2 being seniors. Trip up was very smooth, little wind and reached first cache in the series. We had success at finding each cache as we continued up the passage.

Had trouble seeing beacons in the narrow channels due to my shortsightness and angle of the sun. Dora and myself swapped over as drivers to get more experience on the way. Wife told me to slow down several times which is new as I drive my car to the speed limit.

The narrow passage was the hardest to navigate beacon to beacon but checking maritime maps CDAH55 kindly provided helped alot. We soon got into a routine in landing, anchor and take off again and confidence in driving the ski increased . The location of each cache was not too far from the water. In most cases not too much bushbashing. Mossies around but not too bad on this day. Reached Caloundra and anchored off Bribie Island to do last cache.

While wife and CDAH55 worked on a puzzle I watched were boats going south in passage went so we would pick the right channel going back from Calondra. Trip back we could see beacons better and more aware of shallows even though stiil in high tide. Trip back took 55 minutes. One lady who saw us comjng back thought 3 up (like in Asia) very funny.

Everyone had sore bums and bit stiff from time on ski and bouncing along chop mentioned by all. But sure beats kayaking that distance. I might have to retire thr kayak. Don't tell the kayak though.

Quick and easy find. Whilst doing this one we had to consult the beacon to beacon guide which we had downloaded and CDAH55 being the logistics man had laminated, as it does get shallow in these parts. We went around the wrong side of the island and had to get off and push into deeper waters.

This was the maiden voyage of the SS Seadoo GTI 90 containing 3 crazy adventurous souls on board, being CDAH55, Phil Serenity and I. I mean who gets a new jet ski and goes 3 up on their maiden voyage, who does this? Us.

During the week I had annoyed Mrs CO with lots of questions about Jetski workings, such as where do I store flares, what do I use to make an anchor. How will we go travelling 3 up? Which she answered you might tip.

We launched from Donybrook. CDAH55 did an excellent job of reversing the trailer down the boat ramp. Great launching ramp for noobs.

We got out in the water but CDAH55 acted a little bit like a princess and didn't want to take his chances until we could prove to him, that we could control it and do a quick circuit so he could see that it wouldn't sink.

I have taken CDAH55 down mine shafts, up trees for technical tree climbs, overnight kayaking adventures to South Stradbroke Island and Fraser Island. Mountain Climbs, long 20km hikes, rock climbs. He has passed out, thrown up (several occasions) and still comes back for more. So he must have thought this was another crazy idea of mine.

We all took it in turns of riding at the bow, stern and middle. So we all had a go at being the meat in the middle of the sandwich. Nobody fell off and the jetski didn't sink. Nobody threw up or passed out. We may not have been the fastest machine on the water but we had fun.

Cache No. 4 of 9

Firstly I will apologise for the generic nature of the logs for the Letters of Love/Hate series of caches.

A new water craft (Jet Ski) was obtained and needed some time on the water. What better opportunity then to take it for a run and pick up the new caches recently released along this stretch of water.

Dora the Explorer!, Phil Serenity and I headed off to the Donnybrook boat ramp and not long after had the Personal Water Craft in the water and after testing some features we were off to find the caches.

It was a glorious day with very little wind however the sun was hot and some of us were a little red at the end of the day.

All the caches were relatively easy to find however some of the clues proved to be more elusive.

It took us 3 hours and 40 minutes and covered some 63 klms for the all round trip.

Thanks for this series of caches ***4ando***

Find #1916

We had been out kayaking with Captain Terror, fangsoki and Crew 153 about two weeks ago when the topic of the lack of caches placed in the Pumicestone Passage was discussed. We all concurred that it was certainly a worthy stretch of water which cachers should be encouraged to explore [^]

Lo and behold, a great little series of caches suddenly appears in our notification list A quick check of the tide times and weather and a plan was hatched to head out early and keep our fingers crossed that the weather would hold to enable us to find them all

Our mode of transport today was the tinnie and we decided to launch from Donnybrook to make a start at the beginning. While we didn't hit the water as early as we would have liked, the tide was still coming in and the water looked like glass as far as the eye could see something we have rarely seen when we have launched from Toorbul

It took us about 4 hours to find the 9 traditional caches and then another 1.5 hours to return back to Donnybrook. We were lucky that the wind hadn't picked up too much otherwise the return trip would have taken us much longer and would have been quite uncomfortable As it was, when we reached the Coochin Creek area it became rather interesting with the run out tide against wind creating waves about a foot high Other than that, the water on the return trip was still relatively smooth which made for a very pleasant, if not tiring, day out in the boat

All the caches were quite easy to locate, although the clues were sometimes a little harder to spot We loved all the caches we found, but we have a sneaking suspicion we are going to absolutely hate that letterbox in the series

Thank you 4ando for having placed the cache and for maintaining it for everyone to enjoy We have added a favorite point for the effort and adventure of our {FTF} hunt.

Published