Wind, waves, whales, with just a little bit of worry thrown in. The day started with some intensive internet assessments of the wind/wave maps with computer projections for the next 24 hours. A steady 20 knots blew across the breakfast table but the bom.gov said if we stuck close to shore we could expect 2 meter seas to Cape Byron, 3 meters at Cape Byron and less than 1.5 meters to Coffs Harbour - that seemed do-able. Safety check revealed a significant split in the fan belt so departure was delayed for an hour whilst our on board mechanic Julian worked his magic. So far so good, the Tweed bar was reasonably easy but we should have read the omens when we headed down wind surfing the swell at over double our normal cruising speed (a record 16.4 Kn). By the time we hit cape Byron and had to point into the swell to manoeuvre to pass the cape we were looking at the face of 4 to 5 meter waves short spaced with green water over the entire bow. It was 15 minutes of boating I think none of us would ever like to do again. Past the Cape and into the lee of Australia we now head sou' south west to Coffs Harbour. The wind has eased as predicted the seas are now a manageable 1.5 - 2 meters and falling as the afternoon sun turns the swells to gold. As it has been all day, whales blow, breach and flap their tails in salute as we pass. We are making such good downwind speed our over night to Coffs should finish before 3 am with a marina berth waiting.