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.