Wednesday 23 November - Port Macquarie
Once again the obligatory long walk with Max in the morning, followed by a local bus to trip Laurieton to collect a parcel of mail sent from home (thank you to Rebecca). It’s about 22 kms from door to door. I bought a concession ticket for the day, and did the round trip for the princely sum of $2.50! There are some benefits from being older! Susie also used her seniors, card to go to Pet Barn and Bunnings to do some shopping. And the freezer has had a vacuum on it to remain overnight to ensure there are no leaks in the system. Terry, the repair man, kindly found a freezer into which we could unload the remaining food from the freezer. We were lucky and did not loose anything!
Overnight a catamaran was dis-masted off Plomer Point in strong NE winds gusting over 30kn, in the process of cutting away the mast with a grinder, it caught and jumped, lacerating the vessels, tendons and nerves in his wrist. Marine Rescue went out and brought him in – obviously with paramedics on board to attend the injured. We have since heard that John Hunter Hospital were unable to do the microsurgery in the timeframe, so the poor seaman was airlifted to Royal Brisbane.
Thursday 24 November - Port Macquarie
Rain and more rain! We got the call from the computer shop (Leading Edge, Short Street), that the laptop would be ready for collection at 2 pm. I’m very impressed with their service with a 3 day turn around including having to order and obtain parts from Sydney.
And the freezer was re-gassed and seems to be ok.
According to BOM records Port had 53 mm rain, not including the 47mm of yesterday!
Friday 25 November - Port Macquarie
The freezer has now been re-gassed, but the back plate is still not getting frosty, so we had better just live with it and learn that there is a warm spot and pack the freezer accordingly. With that job done, we could now move off the fuel dock but with strong NE winds gusting 25kn+ pushing us on it was rather difficult to say the least, but we managed to get off in a lull, gosh it’s good to be back on the mooring. All this was done in a downpour, according to BOM records another 65 mm of rain.
I have since spent a lot of time re-installing and tweaking software programmes and everything seems to be ok.
Whilst doing all this, I found out there were some gaps in the back up I had made, fortunately the guys at Leading Edge still had the old hard drive and I was able to get most of the missing files, some stuff was lost but is replaceable – Number one take home message – I need to do more back ups!
“Bella Amalfi” and “Liquidity II” (yachts) arrived at about 6 pm, they looked quite strained and considering the conditions, they will have an interesting story to tell!
Saturday 26 November - Port Macquarie
73 mm rain according to BOM records and the wind has been relentless but is due to ease during the day.
Susie took the laundry in to town, it is easier to do the big weekly wash at the launderette rather than on board.
Max got wet in the rain – again!
The rain is trying to stop; the humidity gauge in the cabin was 94% when got up and slowly dropped to 84% during the day, the last shower passed over mid afternoon – Hallelujah!
We joined Bella Amalfi – heading south (Dean) for sun downers on Liquidity 2 – heading north (Greg & Robin) and heard firsthand the details of their entrance through the Port Macquarie bar the night before and being guided by the Marine Rescue boat in 4 metre swells and limited visibility.

Sunday 27 November - Port Macquarie to Laurieton
13 mm rain according to BOM records but we saw none!
Although the surf sounded as though it was pounding we left Port Macquarie at 7 am, motoring down the channel past the town dock towards the bar. “Water Music” in the lead followed by “Bella Amalfi” and “Liquidity II”. The water was a rich brown colour due to the recent rain. Susie started to be nervous but without cause, we exited the bar smoothly and turned south in company with “Bella Amalfi”, the sails went up and we had a great sail past Tacking Point and on to the next bar at Camden Haven River. The training walls are the narrowest we have seen yet, as we entered with the rising tide at 7.5 knots, the water depth varied from 4.5 to 14 metres with massive swirling overfalls and currents. We anchored opposite the Services Club dock at Laurieton. What a fabulous place! It is small town lying alongside the river with a big hill in the background. Top spot! Had lunch at the pub, we stayed until the live C&W music started, the singer’s voice sounded more like an electric saw cutting metal. The boat got vacuumed, I cut the grass and washed the windows and then it was time for sundowners on “Bella Amalfi”. NB I took some turf from home and put it a catty litter tray hoping Max would use it in his hour of need, no luck, it nearly all died in Iluka but the recent rains has had it growing fast, mine takes 5 minutes with the scissors.
Have a look at the photos, see what some of the locals do on Sunday.

Monday 28 November – Laurieton to Tuncurry……..and beyond!
Max took us for a long walk along the river, we inspected the caravan park, the fish co-op and slipway. We also went to the Museum, it does not open on Monday’s! High tide was supposed to be at 11:14 so we set off at that time expecting slack water. Nothing slack about it, there must have been at least 3-4 kn of tide against us for the last mile of the channel before we escaped into the sea. We were doing 3.8 knots on the GPS at 2650 RPM, that would normally push us along at 6-7 knots on flat water.
“Bella Amalfi” followed us out and struggled to make the same speed until he headed further out, we rounded Crowdy Head and then went almost dead downwind for the first time on “Water Music”. Poling out the genoa to leeward and the gybe preventer on the main, a bit rolly, polly. It brings back the memories of many sea miles and ocean crossings. Hopefully we will get in and anchored in time to get fish and chips for dinner. My typing is a bit more erratic than usual as we are still at sea (5:15 pm). I hoping the bar is kind to us, as there is small easterly swell, so it should be ok.
Famous last words! As we approached the bar we noticed it was standing up considerably and after some tense moments decided to abort the crossing 0.6 miles out. Heading back out to sea and laid a course for Port Stephens. Luckily for “Bella Amalfi” who being behind us benefited from our look at the bar and continued onwards. He beat us to Port Stephens by an hour and went straight in as he knows the area, anchoring temporarily at Jimmy’s Beach, which while protected from the wind is open to the swell. However, we were a little more cautious and did not get in until 3 am. Dean kept a watch out for us and kept his deck lights on to guide us in. Both of us had a couple of hours of rolling and squeaking sleep before “Bella Amalfi” took off at 5 am for Pittwater, thanks Deano!
We took Max ashore at Jimmy’s Beach before heading for a more comfortable and picturesque anchorage in Fame Cove, this is almost perfect, except no sandy beach for Max. Poor Max, had gained a bit of confidence over our stay in Port Macquarie and has since had this completely shattered by our unprepared longer and fairly rough trip. We will be giving him much love and care over the next few days to help him recover and forget.