Coffs Harbour to Pittwater

Sunday 18th and Monday 19th  October 2015

Finally, the last leg of our trip is upon us. We set out from Coffs Harbour at 6 am in forecast light conditions mainly from the NE.

Leaving Coffs Harbour behind at dawn

Sunrise

Once we cleared the harbour, there was a moderate SW breeze blowing, so we were able to sail along at a good pace for the first few hours with the code zero up, until we had to change course and the angle became difficult as the breeze started to shift and drop.

Mike Wesslink checking the navigation

As the wind dropped we moved into an area of sea fog, which only lasted for about half an hour before we came out the other side.

We motor sailed with just the mainsail for the rest of the day. We had a few whale, dolphin and small shark sightings in an otherwise fairly uneventful day. There is a surprising amount of commercial shipping traffic on our route and the AIS screen is full of boats moving in both directions.

A couple of ships passing nearby

Daylight weather on Sunday is pleasant and we just take in the scenery.

Passing Smokey Cape

A few attempts to sail without the motor along the way are unsuccessful, as the breeze is persistently light, rarely over 5 knots and in some spots almost zero.

Mike Wesslink on watch

By the time the sun was going down we were off Camden Haven. There were a few fisherman out in small boats trying their luck, and plenty of floating buoys marking fish traps etc to avoid.

A fisherman heading home before sunset

Sunset off Camden Haven

Once the sun has gone down, there is only a sliver of moon which isn't in the sky for all that long and it is very dark, but skies are clear and the stars are stunning. A few dolphins came and visited us along the way during the night.

Just North of Seal Rocks we started to get a bit more wind (from the East) and had a good sail for about 3 hours before it eventually dropped. We also experienced a total change of swell direction as we rounded the headland with comfortable easterly swell, quickly changing to a southerly set , straight into us. It was a bumpy ride for a few hours and we decided to take down the mainsail. Naturally it started to rain quite heavily the moment we started to pull the sail down in the dark.

We had a few more patches of rain going down the coast and the wind slowly turned NE but refused to get above around 7 knots dead behind us.

As we got closer to Sydney, we had more whale sightings.

Whale spotted off Cape Three Points

One of 3 whales we saw at the entrance to Broken Bay

As we were rounding Cape 3 Points and heading towards Barrenjoey Headland, we could see a powerboat gaining on us rapidly from the North. When I checked on the AIS I saw it was Bob Wollacott in Galene. He had left Coffs Harbour this morning and was just entering Broken Bay at around the same time as us, having completed the trip in a day less than us.

Galene surging past us doing 24 knots

We were tied up at Bayview just before 5 pm, did a basic tidy up and took a few essential things home. The rest can wait till tomorrow. Joy drove to the marina to pick Mike up. We had an early dinner with Mike and Joy at the Thai restaurant at the marina, before all heading home for a good nights sleep.

Getting ready for the last leg of our trip Coffs Harbour to Broken Bay

Saturday 17th October 2015

First priority once all tied up and settled in on our marina berth was to have some breakfast. Carole whipped up and omelette which really hit the spot for a hungry and tired crew.

Before having a shower, I decided to get all of the dirty jobs out of the way. As I was putting the mainsail away, I noticed we had broken one of the sail slides. I was not surprised as the seas were pretty sloppy before we decided to get the main down, and the sail was catching gusts after riding down a wave with a big pressure surge. I went to the chandlery and bought some more spares.

I sewed on my last spare and with Mike's help, reinserted the new slide in the mast. It was then off to get diesel. We only used 45 litres for the total trip as a lot of the time we were running low revs when motor sailing. The sail drive gear oil is still leaking, and I had to top it up this morning, so will have to nurse it down the coast tomorrow, and get our diesel man look at it when we are back at Bayview.

The marina office does not open till 9 am, so we couldn't get access keys to the amenities etc until about 9.30 am. Getting back into NSW time zone created a bit of confusion.

Steve is staying in Coffs Harbour, and Rod and Bob were off to catch planes, so Mike, Carole and I went up to the yacht club for lunch, after we had showers etc. We saw Steve on our way back from lunch and bid our farewells. He and Kim will be staying out at Nana Glen with their daughter and family.

We had a restful afternoon, getting a few hours sleep, then walked up to the IGA to get some fresh food for the trip home tomorrow. Whilst near the shopping area we walked along the row of restaurants there and made a booking for dinner at a Thai and Vietnamese restaurant.

We met Mike at the restaurant at 7.15pm, after he had been to Mass. The food was good and it was very busy. It was then back to the boat for an early night ready for our 6 am start tomorrow.

Sail to Coffs Harbour

Friday 16th October 2015

Everyone was anxious to get moving, so we left the marina at Southport at 7.45 am, for the long motor out to the Seaway and out to sea. The conditions are light, and we put up the sails and motor sailed till 9 am, when the wind angle was a bit more favourable allowing us to swap headsails and put up the code zero. We sailed for the next 3 hours in a 7-9 knot South Easterly (the forecast was NE). As the wind dropped the motor was back on and we motor sailed with the code zero still up until dusk.

We had some great whale sightings around Byron Bay, with large pods, at least 6 whales each, quite active in towards the shore.

I had noticed late yesterday, that our TV antenna was on a bit of a funny angle and made a mental note to have a good look at it when we got home. No need to do that now, we saw in fly off and land in the ocean mid morning, so we are not having a lot of luck with things attached to the mast. The electrician who installed it years ago had to have a couple of goes to get it right, and obviously never quite got there.

As it got dark we furled in the code zero and motor sailed with only the mainsail up. By now the wind was NE 10- 15 knots, right up our tail. At around 11pm, the code zero starts flapping and it is obvious that it did not furl properly, and was starting to become loose at the top. Mike and I spent the next half hour up on the foredeck getting it down and packing it away, we will tidy it up when there is next a light breeze, and some sunlight.

For dinner on board we had spaghetti bolognese that Carole had pre cooked. It tasted pretty good.

Overnight the wind drops to below 10 knots and we are motor sailing with it dead square behind us, so decide to take down the mainsail and motor the rest of the way. With the swell, it is difficult to keep any wind in the sail without going way off course, and even then, it is so light , it is hardly worth the effort.

A few hours out of Coffs the wind turns west at about 9 knots, so we unfurled the self tacker to give us a bit of a boost whilst motoring. We were tied up in the marina by 8 am.

Sunrise a few hours out from Coffs

Rounding South Solitary Island on our way in towards the harbour

We all did our best to get a bit of sleep during the trip and most of us managed to get an hour or two here and there, but we are all pretty tired when we arrived.

Preparing to Leave Southport

Thursday  15^th October 2015

The first task this morning is refueling in anticipation of leaving tomorrow. We first took Bob Wollacott’s Maritimo 50 around to the fuel wharf, and couldn’t get the pump to work. After much fiddling around by the marina staff, eventually it responded, and Galene absorbed 2000 litres of diesel. Next was Wilparina, with our 2 jerry cans on board. It was not the windfall for the marina that the previous trip delivered, with Wilparina taking 76 litres and both of us filled to 20 litre jerry cans.

Rod Mellor arrived during the day to help Steve take Wilparina down to Coffs, and Bob Woolacott is also crewing on Wilparina, and then immediately catching a plane back to Southport to bring Galene down to Coffs on Sunday, with the help of one of his mates from Sydney.

Rod arriving to crew on Wilparina

There is a large "ship", registered in the Marshall Islands that arrived at the end of our marina finger called "Asteria", it has a large crew and obviously some very wealthy guests. I looked it up on the internet and it is available for private charter and is 49 m long, and described as an expedition vessel. It looks pretty strong and seaworthy. They have hired two golf buggies to ferry people and provisions from the marina carpark to the boat. One of the vessels tenders seems pretty much occupied most of the time doing the same thing.

Asteria

A last walk up to Tedder avenue to get fresh bread and a BBQ chicken completed preparations. We had dinner at the yacht club and agreed we would get away at 8 am in the morning. Mike Wesslink arrived at a little after 8 pm, joined us for a late dinner and we then headed back to Mica to get him settled and for a good nights sleep.

Filling in the Day at Southport

Wednesday 14^th October 2015

We are already keen to move on with all of the things that needed to be attended to here now out of the way. Our berth is paid up till Friday, and both Wilparina and ourselves have extra crew arriving on Thursday for the long passages ahead. The tides for crossing the river bars are all at the wrong times, so we have now resolved to just get home doing a couple of overnight sails.

To get a bit of exercise, we walked along the beachside to Surfers Paradise, and back. They are currently preparing for the V8 Supercar racing up here later this month and barricades and stands are being erected in the streets. It all looks pretty ugly.

Great way to spoil a beachfront, erecting barriers for V8 Supercar racing

Kim has left Wilparina and caught the bus to Coffs Harbour to meet up with their family there. Steve has a couple of guys to help him sail the boat down there also on Friday, where they intend to spend some family time and stay a week or two. 

We will push on while the Northerlies persist.

Steve, Bob, Carole and I wandered down to Tedder Ave for dinner and dined at Lemongrass Thai (which was BYO). It was terrible. The service was almost non existent, we got served the wrong meals, and the food we ordered took forever to arrive, and when it did, it was pretty ordinary. Don't expect to see them still in business when we are next up here.

Still in Southport

Monday 13^th October 2015

The weather continues to be nice, but today promises a few afternoon storms. There is healthy NW breeze, and it is overcast.

Today we hope to sort out our saildrive oil level problem, and this afternoon the insurance assessor is coming over to remove the housing of the failed radar mount from the mast, for further investigation.

In the meantime, Steve has an electrician up his mast checking out a weak radio signal problem.

The girls went shopping at 11am, with Bernie providing transport. I helped Steve with the electricians, and we then had lunch over at the Main Beach Surf Club  and watched a replay of the Tonga/Namibia Rugby WC game.

My new dispstick for the saildrive arrived just after lunch and I was keen to change it over and get a proper read of the correct oil level required.

Once changed over, it was clear that the saildrive was still overfilled, so I removed enough oil to bring it back to just under the new high level. The oil leak into the pan under the engine was also cleaned up, so I look forward to see if we get a further oil leak now. If so, it probably means the input shaft seals need replacing.

The oil is still overfilled on the new dispstck

The insurance assessor turned up at just after 3 pm, and there was a storm building. I suggested he went up the mast and I would winch him up. It was a bit line ball which of us would be easiest to send up, but he probably had more experience. The remains of the mount hydraulic mount assembly was removed and on cursory inspection, didn’t give much of a clue on why it failed.

The storm was moving in

Not long after he was back on the deck, the storm got closer. We were both surprised the unit was still leaking hydraulic oil and hopefully their investigation will throw some light on why it failed.

Preparations for our next move South are under way, and to get the maximum benefit from the forecast, we have a few long sails ahead of us. The plan is to sail to Coffs Harbour on Friday  ( a 24 hour sail). Wilparina have some extra crew for the trip and we put the feelers out to get another crew member which would make it much easier for us.

We have had a long standing invitation to Mike Wesslink to join us along our trip, so I contacted Mike first, and after a lot of shuffling of his arrangements, is keen to join us on Thursday night for the sail to Coffs and on to Sydney. We now plan to take advantage of the Northerlies for the next week and get home doing a couple of long legs.

Mark from Koonya also offered to help, which was greatly appreciated. 

If the weather holds we should be home in a bit over a week.

Maintenance Day in Southport

Monday 12th October 2015

First job this morning was to help Bob Woollacott move his boat to a new berth at the yacht club. Bob, Steve and I came down to the marina at 6 am, to move "Galene" to a new berth, as the owner of the berth she is currently in has decided to come back early and needs his berth.

After moving the boat, I decided to stay at the marina as the insurance assessor is coming this morning and I would need to be dropped back to the marina in an hour or so anyway, if I went back to Labrador with the others.

The assessor turned up at 9.15 am, and gathered all of the necessary information and took photos etc. He suggested I get quotes from Windcraft to replace the radar and he would talk to some local companies to see if it could be done here within a reasonable timeframe. He also will get in touch with Quantum sails here on the Gold Coast to see what could be done to remove the oil stain from the mainsail.

Ever since I had the sail drive cone clutch repaired in Airlie, I have been leaking gear oil from the transmission. The oil level has not reduced enough for me to be overly concerned, but it makes quite a mess and my suspicion is that the oil was overfilled. I spoke briefly to a mechanic in Mooloolaba who agreed this is most likely the case and suggested I remove some oil to get it to the correct level and then see how it goes. As I investigated further, I discovered that the dipstick in the sail drive was superceded by Yanmar in 2009 by a newly calibrated one which effectively drops the oil level by 14 mm. It appears to be a well kept secret. The low level on the existing dipstick now corresponds with the high level on the new dipstick. The mechanic in Airlie was aware of this, so I am staggered it was still overfilled, and owners were not contacted and the new dipstick supplied.

I went out to Boatworks with Steve and Bob, and spoke to the Yanmar service people there, and have ordered a new dipstick which I should get tomorrow. I will then reset the level and hopefully the leaks will stop. There is a possibility that the overfilling has damaged the input shaft seals due to the high pressures produced by not having enough expansion space for when the oil heats up. I hope this is not the case.

We had lunch at the yacht club, with the Smiths, Woollacotts and Bill McGowan (and crewmember Mark) who also came down from Wide Bay bar yesterday in his big Maritimo "Our Dream". He passed us along the way, but was much further out to sea.

Later on this afternoon I received a call from the assessor who said he had spoken to Quantum Sails and they doubted the stain could be removed from the mainsail. He suggested that when we get back to Sydney, we should get a quote from North Sails to replace the damaged panels. He also wants to remove the damaged radar mount from the mast so they can investigate why it failed. We agreed he would come down to the marina tomorrow afternoon and one of us would go up the mast to remove it.

Whilst we were kindly invited to spend another night at the Wollacott's apartment tonight, but we opted to stay on board and have a quiet night. I need to be here in the morning to pick up the dipstick for the saildrive from the Yanmar mechanic who is coming here to service another boat. I don't know what time he is coming, so it is best to be here.

Sail to Southport

Sunday 11th October 2015

It is great to be finally on the move again. We were up at 4 am, and left the marina at just after 4.30am with a reasonable weather forecast. The bar crossing was uneventful but the swell offshore is much bigger than forecast, so crossing the entrance to Moreton Bay was a bit bumpy. Fortunately we had a SW breeze at around 8 knots (forecast was ENE), so we started off having a great sail towards Cape Morton.

Amazingly, at at about two thirds of the way to the Cape, the wind suddenly changed to ENE and we came to an abrupt halt. After a bit of sail adjustment we were on our way again, but into the wind and in a lighter breeze, so we motor sailed to Cape Morton.

A number of boats are on the water today, a few heading South like us. Everyone is motor sailing as the breeze continues to weaken and by the Southern end of Moreton Island, the seas started to flatten out, but the breeze remained elusive until the last hour or so before the Gold Coast Seaway. By then we had our sails down and were motoring. We flew the headsail for a while but the wind was dead behind us, and shifting all the time. It was too hard to keep it full, so we continued motoring.

An 18m yacht beside us as we travel down the outside of Moreton Island disappearing behind the swell

And then reappearing on the crests

By the time we reached the Seaway the wind was up to 20 knots, stirring up some healthy wind waves on the way in.

Overall it was a fast trip completing the 90nm in 12.5 hours. We had a healthy favourable current, up to 2 knots, for much of the way. We originally expected it to take us a few hours more than this, given the forecast.

Arriving at the Southport Yacht Club marina in daylight was a bonus. Friends of Smithy's from Akuna Bay, Bob and Bernie Woolacott, we there when we arrived having just arrived back in Southport to reunite with their boat after a 3 week holiday in South Africa. They had also been up in FNQ in their large Maritimo motor boat and are also Southward bound.

The Wollacotts have a unit in Labrador, and offered all of us a night on land staying at their place, and wandering down the road to a local pub/restaurant for dinner. It was a bit of a rush to grab a few things together for the night and to get the boat packed away, but we had a great night out.

The insurance assessor is coming tomorrow morning to assess our claim for the lost radar, so I need to be back at the marina by 8.30am to meet up with him.

Eumundi Markets

Saturday 10^th October 2015

Winds peaked at 40 knots at Cape Morton yesterday, and by the end of today are back in the 10 to 15 knot range, with a much friendlier looking sea. A few boats just going “around the corner” to Brisbane left late morning today. We plan to leave early tomorrow morning for Southport, a long trip of around 90 nm.

This morning the rain has gone and the sun is shining, or at least trying to. As the day progresses the wind continues to drop on the clouds are slowly replaced by blue sky.

As we have a car, thanks to Steve and Kim’s friends, we headed off to the Eumundi Markets at around 9.30am.  It has been a few years since we have been there, and it has grown even bigger with lots of stalls selling quality products. It is easy to fill in the morning wandering through it all, with the occasional stop for coffee etc.

Morning tea at the Bakery across the road from the markets

The market entrance across the road from the bakery

The representation by artists s always strong, and we found one particular one that worked in metal sculpture, that had just the wall decoration we were looking for at home, so we made a purchase and will get it delivered when we arrive home.

Our newly acquired wall decoration

The guy that makes the outdoor furniture also has a great range of new products, at reasonable prices. We will also have a good look at his website when we get home.

There are lots of clothes, home made sauces, preserves etc and food stalls everywhere. We were very impressed with how it has grown, and the quality of product available compared with most markets. Some of the fresh vegetables were incredibly cheap. We had some traditional German sausages for lunch before heading back to the marina.

Whilst it is a little cool, the weather has improved significantly, so we went for a walk out to the river mouth. Compared to yesterday, the seas have abated quite a bit, and the chaos is returning to the waterway.

Nothing like the challenge of avoiding a few Stand Up Paddle Boarders

On the way back to the marina, we went past the fish market and bought some green prawns to put in the freezer for future meals. We also had to get past the mango man and ended up buying another couple of his great mangoes.

It will be eat on board and an early night tonight, as well plan to leave at 4.30 am.