After a few carefree days in Southport which also included couple of anxious phone calls home to our bosses and parents we were now very much behind our "intended cruise plan" ( the word schedule is very taboo in cruising circles, to use it even in whsipered tones is to tempt weather fate and most certainly doom one to all manner of storms and mechanical hold ups).

We left Southport in the middle of Melbourne Cup festivities in company with Whimaway to again take advantage of a very small weather window and had an uncomfortable start to the passage beating into large but decreasing seas. By the time Jo and Sophie went to bed however conditions aboard had improved considerably, by the early hours of the morning we had a warm westerly at 15 knots and with sheets eased and the moon shining as Dolphins swam past us and it was a magic sail. I put in my Ipod and decided to not wake Jo for her watch.

In planning this trip I had expected to enjoy the pretty places we would see, the islands and the beaches, to have fun meeting the new people we would meet, however it was these quiet but magic moments on sailboat moving easily before the wind and the moon that I had not expected.

We entered Coffs Harbour in the afternoon, had a very enjoyable dinner at the Yacht Club with Whimaway and thought about how much had changed in the short few months since we had last arrived tired and terrified in Coffs Harbour after our first overnight passage.