It’s March 14, Friday, and on Monday it will be two weeks since we left Balls Head Bay!
It was beginning to feel as if we had moved into Sydney, we had been there so long! But like most unexpected delays it was finally over and we were thrilled to be on our way again!
That first morning when we pulled up the anchor after more than a month working and fixing and holding our breaths was quite a challenge! We had every expectation of things being okay but you just never do know do you! But there wasn’t even the slightest hic-cup and we were delighted to not only have a functioning engine but one that has really never sounded so good!
We motored over to Manly, our pre-planned exit point from the harbour and re-stocked the boat, ready for the wind to take us further north.
Manly it turns out is an excellent place! We wished we had visited it sooner! There are five courtesy mooring buoys (rated to 20 ton and 20 knot of wind) there as well (when we arrived) as several boats comfortably anchored, though the mooring buoys do indicate it to be a no-anchoring spot due to sea-grass. We moored near the ferry terminus but had minimal wash from the ferries as they seemed to glide slowly into the jetty. There is an Aldi store right on the ferry jetty and nearby, only a few meters up on The Corso, a Coles store. This is the easiest shopping point we have had the entire time we have been in Sydney – we were able to wheel the trolley right up to the jetty and carry the bags on board! It was excellent – which was great because we wanted to ensure we were well-stocked for the weeks ahead! There was also a service station an easy walk up Pittwater road where we were able to refill our fuel jerry cans for the generator.
After doing this big shop we waited. Not long – just a couple of days and then the weather report indicated suitable wind for us to head north. We have found the wind pattern at this time of year to really favour sailing south, with only the occasional southerly wind kicking in, but our observations are that the wind follows a simple pattern most days. When coming from the NE it is low in the mornings, gradually picking up in the early afternoon and then coming back down in the evening. As we cannot sail directly into the NE wind and we must get further north we have decided to try and travel in the mornings and or overnight trips – this means we are not really able to sail, but at least getting further north. We have no problem in doing this, we are not that wedded to always going with the wind, its simply not practical for us, but also we really wanted to give the engine a good work out and test to ensure that the problems that saw us remain in Sydney so long were really sorted out. As we get further north the wind pattern will change and we may be able to get some more sailing done, and of course if there is some reasonable south wind we will also use that. So far we had done one night ‘sail’ and three mornings.
On our first day out we went to Pittwater. What a playground this is for Sydney boaters! A joy and a delight and we thoroughly enjoyed our few days there! We found the best little beach side café and enjoyed relaxing over a coffee - once with some old friends, once while Erina and Liam had their first go at SUP’ing and then all together on the day before we left – what a life! We enjoyed latte’s, chai tea’s and scrumptious treats while waiting again for the right wind direction/speed combination to get us a bit further north.
A couple of days later and we were heading out again towards Newcastle. This would be our first night/day sail and also the first time Erina and Liam have done night watches. It’s always a bit funny the first night at sea. Everything sounds strange and the boat movements seem more vivid and dramatic than during the day but it’s also incredibly peaceful. Both the kids did excellent jobs and it’s great to see how much they have developed in responsibility and capacity over the past few months.
We hadn’t really planned a stop in Newcatle but a yachtie we met in Pittwater told us of an excellent spot to tie up right in the town for only $25 a night. We didn’t think we’d be lucky enough to find any room there but as we came in we were told that there was plenty of room and which berth would we prefer! We headed for the berths feeling very pleased with ourselves! As we came in to them though we soon saw that it would be no simple task to get in to what was a tricky and fairly tight spot. The main problem was that we couldn’t come in forwards – there wouldn’t have been room for the bow sprit before getting to the wharf wall – we slowed right down and looked at the berths, talked through the options and decided to reverse in, something we have never actually done before. As always Peter did an amazing job of negotiating a tricky manoeuvre and got us close enough for Erina to be able to deftly jump off onto the jetty and then Liam and I threw her a rope and as we drifted around, she pulled us in. We did a perfect job! I thought back to all those times we made such a mess of coming in to jetties at first and thought what a very long way we had come!
We ended up right in the heart of the cafe and restaurant area of town just to the west of the main street and really, who could ask for anything more! Close by we also found a bunch of shops and even a place to buy the bow and arrows Liam has been looking for for months! We enjoyed a couple of lovely days, refilled the water, replenished all our supplies and got our batteries totally recharged and then off we set for Port Stephens a couple of days later.
We arrived in Port Stephens yesterday mid-day, after a lovely sail up with some variable south east wind. We had the main sail, the stay jib and the fore sail up and made some pretty good time. We rounded the corner into Port Stephens just on mid-day and sailed over towards Nelson Bay where we were able to pick up one of the three courtesy moorings that we had read about. These, like most of the others we’ve made use of in NSW are rated to 20 ton and 20 knot of wind. We plan to stay here now until Monday when a wind shift is forecast to bring some calm seas and easy conditions to head up towards Forster and the mid-north coast.
It truly is wonderful to be underway. Properly underway. Our primary destination at this stage is Brisbane where we hope to spend a bit of time before heading up into the Whitsundays for the winter. And so far it’s definitely so good!