More than 200 people will spend the night stranded in Moreton Bay after Stradbroke Ferries' Big Red Cat car barge ran aground in gale-force winds whipping Dunwich on Monday afternoon.

Passengers on the barge said they felt a jolt as the boat hit a sand bar and came to a grinding halt just after 3.50pm.

Stradbroke Ferries attempts to get passengers off its stranded Red Cat ferry. Credit:Luke Brown

They said strong winds forced the boat off its course, stranding it about 300 metre off shore. Wind gauges off nearby Peel Island recorded speeds of up to 53.5km/h at 3.50pm, not as fierce as the 77.8km/h that buffeted the island on December 10, or the 92.5km/h recorded on January 27, 2013 during Cyclone Oswald.

The boat ran aground just before the low tide of 53 centimetres, one of the lowest low tides of the year.