Off to Trial Bay

Wednesday 20th May 2015

As we have been struggling to get a berth at Coffs Harbour, we decided to do the trip in 2 stages. First to Trial Bay, and then a shorter trip to Coffs on Thursday when we do have a booking.

High tide at Laurieton today was at 10 am, and it was not a real high tide (unlike the one we came in on), so we crossed the bar at 9am, when it was pretty tame. As we were motoring out of the river, we were escorted by a dolphin, who stayed with us for about a third of the trip to the bar.

We ran into at Norwester blowing at around 10 knots, so up went the sails and we had a bit over half an hour of very nice sailing, before it all dropped out.

Under way, off Camden Haven

One again we were back to motor sailing, with just the main up for the first few hours, and when a light NE breeze came in we could motor sail with everything up, but the breeze never got over 10 knots and most of the time was below 5. Of course the East Coast Current was in play as well. As soon as we passed Tacking Point we ran into 2 knots of adverse current.

Port Macquarie

Our final trip stats for the day showed that we did 69 nm over the water, to cover 53 nm. So despite our best laid plans we arrived at Trial Bay at 7pm, and once again anchored in the dark.

The highlight of the day, including the magic weather, was a very large pod of dolphins that stayed with us for a few hours after Tacking Point, playfully diving all around the both and performing acrobatics alongside, off the bow, and the stern. Capturing it all in still photos was impossible, but I did get a few short video clips.

Mark and Janet were trying out their new Code Zero sail, which unfortunately required sailing in the direction of New Zealand, rather than South West Rocks, but they did give in a short run and sorted out how to set it.

We had a brief (about 30 minute) sail a little further on, before it was again necessary to turn the motor back on. We pulled sails in just before Hat Head, and motored the rest of the way.

                              Koonya having a final sail, before dropping sails off Hat Head


There is a 12 knot NE breeze blowing as we are at anchor and an incoming tide is making it not too bumpy.  Lets see what it is like when the tide changes. It later became uncomfortable for an hour or so before settling down and allowing us a good nights sleep.