We left the marina at Coffs at 6 am with a plan to sail through to Broken Bay non stop.
Conditions are mild with just an main up, and just motor sailing with hope of a stronger breeze late in the day. The auto pilot appears to be working, so that will take a bit of stress out of the journey.
By the time we got to Smokey Cape the breeze had picked up a bit and we were sailing on the main and the code 0. A couple of hours later the breeze dropped and it was back to motor sailing, with various sail combinations, including the code 0 on its own at one stage,. At tacking point the wind turned SE , right on the nose, so the code zero was put back in the bag.
Code Zero flying on its own
By evening, the breeze dropped to nothing and we hauled in all the sail an motored. The headsail came in and out as the breeze changed, but the breeze was so variable, the motor was doing most of the work.
It was a new moon , so very little moonlight, but spectacular starlit skies. Carole cooked a Thai Green Curry Chicken an rice dish for dinner that went down well.
Sunset South of Crowdy Head
Carole demonstrating how to sleep in the cockpit (note the arm holding the dodger to ensure you don't roll off in a swell)
The breeze was from the South from most of the rest of our trip. It turned NE on the morning of 28/11/11, but really only had sufficient strength for a good sail when we were a couple of hours out from Broken Bay.
The spectacular cloud formations captured our attention as we sailed the last leg home.
Coming into Broken Bay was interesting, wee arrived in the last hour of the outgoing tide, but because it was a new moon, and there had been some flooding, the run out current was 3 knots. When we got past the Hawkesbury entrance, it dropped back to normal.
We berthed at the marina at about 5.30pm , with a small problem. Someone had rearranged our mooring lines, which it not obvious until you are almost alongside you berth. Nevertheless we worked it out, but were not happy !!!
We just did a basic lockdown of the boat, went home very tired, and will come back tomorrow to clean up.
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