A few Relaixing Days in Yamba

After a sound night's sleep we booked ourselves into the marina at Yamba and motored across on the high tide, snugly tied up in our berth by 10.30am. Once marina book in procedures were completed and diesel supplies replenished, we went for a walk into town, met up with Carole's brother David and wife Justine at their Real Estate Agency (First National) and had lunch together at a local coffee shop.

Late afternoon, David, Justine and their twins (Christian & Cassea) came to visit us at the marina to check out the boat. It was a good chance to have a relaxed chat and a glass of wine, and as you can see from the photograph below the kids settled in to boating life quickly.

Next morning (29th) it was time for a game of golf. The golf clubs were recovered from the spare cabin and we set out to walk to the golf course, ~ 1.3 km. We teed off at around 10.30 am for the inaugural “Mica Cup” an aggregate stableford event that will continue for the entire cruise. The first round was fiercely contested, but ended in a draw with each of us having 36 stableford points. The next round is likely to be on the Gold Coast. We thoroughly enjoyed the game at Yamba which is now a very scenic and well maintained golf course.

We lugged our clubs back to the boat and had a relaxing afternoon in perfect weather, if not a little cool for up here at this time of the year. The view below from the cockpit of our boat says it all.

 

 

The Wind has turned South, it is time to move on

After a couple of very relaxing days in Coffs, the North West winds finally abated and turned around to the South, so it was time to sail on to Yamba.

Whilst in Coffs we made the best of sampling the famous Coffs Harbour king prawns and the fish co-op was full of lovely fresh ocean fish. We bought some albacore tuna for dinner and it was terrific, marinated and cooked on the BBQ.

We went for a number of walks and last night had dinner at a local Indian restaurant in the Jetty shopping precinct near the marina. The food was excellent.



After dinner we got back toi the boat just in time to catch the second half of the Australia vs Ireland rugby test on our boat TV . A cheap external digital TV antenna from Dick Smith and a bit of ingenuity in mounting it, gave us full reception of all main channels and quite a few other digital channels.



So back to setting out for Yamba. We set out from the marina at 8.20am, motored out into the harbour, put up the mainsail and headed out into the ocean with a 10 knot SSW wind assisting.

We had a terrific sail for about 6.5 hrs, but the wind stubbornly stayed SSW to South requiring us to gybe our way up the coast. The wind strengthened to 15+ knots, so we were often sailing at around 8 knots but forward progress was a problem as the more we gybed out to sea the stronger the southern flowing current became. At 3 pm we decided to start the engine and head along the most direct route, as we wanted to cross the bar into the Clarence before it got too dark.



We crossed the bar at 5.45pm about halfway through the incoming tide, motored around to Iluka and set our anchor in the dark. We are now enjoying a quiet little drink.

Onwards to Coffs Harbour

We managed to have dinner at the RSL without getting wet but had only just got back on board when the heavens opened. It rained heavily from then on so any thoughts of leaving early the next morning for Coffs Harbour evaporated quickly.

The next morning we decided to go for a long walk along the other side of the river to Dunbogan, a small village on the way to Camden Head at the mouth of the river. The one thing that really strikes you about this area is the abundance of pelicans and how comfortable life is here for them They will perch on anything as you can see from this photo, and regularly frequent the many fish cleaning tables along the river bank, getting a free feed.

After flathead and chips at the fisherman's co-op for lunch, we walked around town and got a few essentials and returned to the boat to ready ourselves for the trip north to Coffs Harbour in the morning.

We weighed anchor at 5 am and were underway by 5.15am heading out of the river, once again in the dark. Not all of the marker buoy lights were functioning, but fortunately we could follow the GPS track from our trip in and the radar picked up the unlit buoys anyway.

There was very little wind and for most of the trip it was right behind us, so we motor sailed all of the way against a steady 1 knot southerly current.

We had the usual whale and dolphin sightings, all though not as frequent as the previous days.

We arrived at Coffs in the dark at 6.30pm. And were tied up in the marina by 7pm ready for a well earned drink.

Morning of 25th it is a beautiful sunny day in Coffs, last time we were here it was blowing a gale.

Port Stephens to Camden Haven

On Monday 21st we set sail for Camden Haven , approx 78Nm north of Port Stephens. We left our mooring just after 4am with mainsail up and a 12 knot westerly. We motor sailed till we cleared the islands around the entrance to Port Stephens on then stopped the engine and had a good sail for the next 4 hrs averaging around 7.5 knots.




As we approached Seal Rocks the fishing line went out the back and with 10 minutes we had a bonito. At this point we were sailing at 8 knots and had little interest in slowing down, so landing was a challenge.

Sadly soon after the wind started moving to the south and ran out of steam, so back on with the engine and we motor sailed most of the rest of the way.



We lost count of the number of whales we saw, some flapping their tails above the water for extended periods, others breaching and some just swimming along, sometimes quite close to the boat. Dolphin sitings were also common and lots a seas birds.



Around 1 pm a storm was developing out to sea, so as it appeared to be moving our way and the wind was beginning to get confused, we pulled the sails down and motored the rest of the way.. Fortunately it went back out to sea so all we got was a bit of rain.



We arrived at Camden Haven at 4.30pm and had an easy run across the bar and up the river at full tide. We were anchored off Laurieton by 5pm.

Last night we had a good nights sleep and today explored Laurieton. We are treating ourselves to a meal at the RSL tonight (located on the riverbank adjacent to where we are anchored) .It has been showering on and off all day, hopefully we won't get too wet getting there and back.

Great Day at Sea, but Little Wind

We set out from Pittwater at a bit after 5am clearing Barrenjoey at 5.30am. We raised the mainsail on the mooring to make it easier and motored out into s light westerly. That continued until 9am when we could finally killed the motor and sailed. The breeze slowly moved to the South West but gathered little strength, so an executive decision was made to set the Gennaker. As it was only the 3rd time it has been up and the first time that the two of us set it, there was some treditadion. After a few minor adjustments we spent the next 2 hours sailing with the gennaker and the main, but the wind moved SSW and died down to around 5 knots, so at 12 noon the mottor was fired up again and we motor sailed the rest af the way arriving at a mooring at Nelsons bay ar 5.30pm.

Along the way we were met by a few dolphins of Avoca, about 20+ dolphins in Stockton Bight and 2 whales cruising alongside about 100 metres away just off Anna Bay, all eluded the photographer.

Heading North

After a lot of planning and preparation, we are about to head off on our journey North. Ample supplies are now on board, and Mica has acquired solar panels, radar, more accurate fuel and water guages and a healthy supply of spares.

The installation of a new water tank guage resulted in a bilge full of fresh water due to an access hatch to the tank not being closed correctly after installation of a new sender and a last minute replacement of a faulty tacho / hour meter on the Yanmar Control Panel provided a bit of late excitement, but everything is now shipshape.

We plan to head off to Port Stephens early morning on Sunday 20th June, if the current weather forecast holds.