After an unplanned but pleasant week in Coffs Harbour the weather improved enough for us to leave on Thursday morning, so we promptly left close behind another yacht Escape Pod with Peter and Nicole onboard.

We leapfrogged with them all night but it did provide some comfort knowing that we weren't the only ones out there dodging trawlers and tankers!

We saw a sea turtle, cruising the EAC; another whale and quite a few dolphins. For the twitchers amongst you we have also seen sea gulls (boring!), a few albatross or maybe they were shearwaters (not sure as Jo is still twitcher in training) and possibly an Australasian Gannet or two... hmmm, next time she will have to have the bird book closer at hand.



After arriving in Southport we anchored in what is just known as "Bum's Bay" (due to all the 'Bums' that use to anchor there permanently; until they put a time limit on length of stay) behind the Seaworld Resort, exhausted but keen to get off the boat for a night we prettied ourselves up as best we could and went out to a lovely dinner at the casino with Jo's Uncle Ray and Aunty Diane.

We did try today to make our way up the Broadwater thinking we might take the inside route to Mooloolaba but after hearing a yacht call Marine Rescue yesterday to report that they had become stuck hard in shallow water mid channel near Jacobs Well, we ourselves only got as far as Jacobs Well before also touching bottom. Fearing this might be the case we had approached very slowly and were able to reverse off. We tried again 4 or 5 times to find enough water but despite being sure we were in the channel we kept hitting even though there is supposed to be at least a 2m of water and we only draw 1.65. With a low tide expected in an hour we made the decision to turn around and head back to Bum's Bay.

Tomorrow we will leave for Mooloolaba via the big blue to try and make up some lost time.