Photo: Newcastle, Leading ‘lights’
We left Coasters Retreat, Pittwater early on Friday morning, 5th May, and had a great wing on wing sail to Newcastle, tying up in the marina to be greeted by Len from Woodstock.
Saturday morning, after a very social night in the Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club, we went for a long walk along the boardwalk and out to the end of the breakwater at Nobby’s Head. In the afternoon Len took us for a drive around Newcastle and Lake Macquarie to see some of the sights, followed by grocery shopping and dinner at the local pub. Sunday we went for a long walk with Len in the morning along the boardwalk through the mangroves and the port of Newcastle. In the afternoon with Krissy, Len’s sister, we drove up to the Hunter Valley vineyards for an afternoon of wine tasting and an evening of playing cribbage with Chinese takeaways for dinner, great fun. Monday evening we were back at the Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club for dinner with Len, Krissy, John and Janina. John was one of the guys on Woodstock we met at Burmagui and spent time with in Tasmania. Tuesday we again went for a walk and in the evening joined everyone for a Trivia Night at the pub. A good evening and we came second. Newcastle was a good place to stop, although being a busy, working port, the town centre is close to the marina, the marina has good facilities including laundry and showers, the Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club welcomes visitors, people are friendly and helpful. It is also possible to anchor off in bays closer to the entrance depending on weather. Many other cruisers seem to bypass Newcastle as it has only been in recent years that the marina and facilities have been developed.
Wednesday it was time to move on to Port Stephens. We left the marina at 07:30 arriving in North Arm Bay, Port Stephens at 12:30 after a broad reach sail in 20 – 35 knots. We planned to stay in North Arm Bay for 2 nights until the winds eased. Rising early, 05:30, on Friday 13th to clear skies we saw the once in 100 year alignment of Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Mars in the eastern sky, then decided to stay in Port Stephens for the weekend so went back to bed. About 10 am we decided to have a look at a couple of other bays to see if they were good in westerly to south westerly winds as they were predicted to be strong over the weekend. After motoring around for 2 hours we found they were no better or too shallow, so we returned to our original anchorage. Monday morning dawned with a good forecast and we departed Port Stephens and decided to do an overnight sail through to Coffs Harbour. The trip was uneventful with a combination of sailing, (reaching, broad reaching and wing on wing) motoring and motor sailing. As the aligned planets we very visible in the morning sky, we wondered why we rose early a few days ago to see them!!! We arrived Coffs Harbour at 0900 Tuesday and refueled before going into the marina berth, almost exactly 6 months to the day from when we cleared customs here after arriving from New Caledonia. In those 6 months we have covered the entire east coast of Australia, south from Coffs to Tasmania and return, a distance of 2200 nm on our log. We are pleased we decided to see the south of Aussie but now it is time to head north. Brian took the opportunity to service the main engines while Gail concentrated on the washing and all matters IT related.
Some other interesting statistics have also just occurred as it was just 12 months ago (1st May 2010) that we departed Bay of Islands to commence our cruising life. In that time we have covered 7300 nm on the log, visited 5 countries, used the motored for 600 hours and the Gen set (old and new) for 500 hours, met countless wonderful people, both cruisers and locals and had experiences and seen places that were just amazing. We have also taken over 1200 photos. May the next 12 months be as equally rewarding.