Hazardous surf and heatwave warnings remain in place for the Sunshine Coast, but the sweltering conditions are set to make way for storms and cooler conditions.
The large seas forced the skipper of a catamaran into a “controlled beaching” at Mooloolaba on Sunday night after it suffered engine difficulties.
Livio Regano from the Bureau of Meteorology said the swells whipped up by ex-Tropical Cyclone Gabrielle would continue for at least another 24 hours.
“We’ve got a hazardous surf warning for today and tomorrow as well,” he said.
“We’ve got to remember, even though Gabrielle is no longer a cyclone, it’s still a huge system – threatening New Zealand now on the North Island where it’s literally bringing harrowing winds – and as long as it’s such a broad and strong system it will continue to radiate swell, which is reaching our southern beaches.
“It’s at 2-2.5m swell typically and it’s a long enough period to warrant a hazardous surf warning, which is still in place. It doesn’t look like it’s going to drop anytime soon.
“We had some pretty big waves over the weekend – the Mooloolaba Waverider Buoy, which is well offshore, recorded waves to as high as 7m at one point, but that is a long way out to sea.”
Coast Guard Mooloolaba duty radio operator Frank Perrone said the 14m vessel that encountered difficulties at the Mooloolaba Spit was “broadsided” by a wave and lost engine power.
The skipper then dropped anchor, which held for about five minutes before it tore away.
“The vessel was left at the mercy of the waves,” Mr Perrone said.
The decision was made by the skipper to beach the vessel to avoid injuries and further damage to the boat.
On Monday morning, the vessel was on Mooloolaba Beach about 300-400m from the rock wall.
Mr Perrone said the skipper was aiming to return the vessel to the sea by ‘kedging’, which involves throwing an anchor out to sea and pulling the ship towards it.
He said the Mooloolaba Coast Guard was not aware of any other incidents over the weekend, as people had largely heeded warnings from the Bureau of Meteorology.
Sunshine Coast Surf Life Saving Services co-ordinator Shane Urban said despite the rough conditions lifeguards performed no serious rescues on the Coast over the weekend.
“All of our beaches had our patrol captains and our lifeguards making individual decisions on the suitability of putting flags up. A number of the flags were put down and beaches closed,” he said.
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“We had lots and lots of preventative actions where we tapped the shoulder of people and said ‘hey, not a good idea’ or ‘please don’t swim in this area’. But there were no serious rescues as such by the lifesavers and lifeguards, and we put that down to the education through last week letting people know the swell was coming, and good communication with our people on the beach.”
Mr Regano said weather conditions were expected to change from tomorrow.
“Today’s the last of the really bad days,” he said.
“Tomorrow is a transition day – we’re going to get storms tomorrow, that’s the headline there. We’re going to get storms developing in the afternoon, and they could be quite meaty storms with a decent amount of rain in them.
“Those storms will herald a cool change where the wind will change to the southeast.
“By Wednesday we’ll be back to around 28 degrees, which is far more pleasant than what we’ve been having.”
Mr Urban said lifeguards would continue to be vigilant around the large swells.
“It’s predicted to stay around today and possibly tomorrow,” he said.
“Again, our lifeguards are making those decisions on an hour-by-hour basis because with this large swell pushing and the big surges, the amount of water coming in wanting to go straight back out again is causing the issues.
“There’s a bit of erosion as well. Individual locations may have a small drop-off where the erosion has eaten into the beach.
“That stretch from Coolum to Sunshine Beach, there has been some evidence of erosion with the water coming right up to those foredunes, especially in that Peregian area.
“Of course, the entire coast has felt that but we expect that to start easing off.
“We expect over the next couple of days the lifeguards are going to keep an eye on the conditions and hopefully they will abate over the week.”
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