The weather kicked up the last night we were anchored in Lake Macquarie with a storm dumping 36mm of hail and rain in less than 20 minutes. Hit the small yacht club hard.



Luckily got away with only a bit of water ingress.
Next morning it was anchor up at 0500 dark to get up the shallow Chanel for a 6am bridge opening.



Picture taken from One of the 2 boats we are traveling with SV Arkaydes and SV Bluglass as Moor R&R heads out through the bridge to the bar.



Arkaydes heads out across the bar.



Bluglass heads past a ship anchored awaiting entrance to Newcastle harbor for coal.



We were joined along the way for half an hour by a large group of dolphins.





Anchored in Sugar loaf Bay, Seal Rock by 1530 for the night.



The next day we needed to arrive at Camden Haven by 1300 to have the correct tide over the river bar, so anchor up at 0500 in the pitch Black and head off awaiting the sunrise. It made a brief appearance.



But was then supplanted by clouds and storms running up the coast. We even had a couple of water spouts go past us.



1300 we entered Camden Haven and picked up one of the 2 free moorings where the yachts are in the bottom right of the attached picture.

Final shop for food, fuel and alcohol done yesterday. Now last bit of boat prep and cloths washing, then top up the water tanks. One more sleep and we cast off at 0500 dark tomorrow to make an exit through the Swansea bridge at 0600.

Then we point the boat North.



The weather looks good for next 5 days (will see how long that lasts) up to Iluka / Yamba for a week or so on the Clarence River.

The first day was Lunch at the Rathmines Bowling club which over the past 12 weeks has become home away for home (if we had one that is) needless to say I won another meat tray just to round off a good thing.












The next day group headed South on Lake Macquarie yesterday morning in a forecast light 8-12 knots from the aft. At one stage the fleet had over 20 knots of true wind on a very spirited beam reach going past Pulsar Island. You have to love the BOM.



We all assembled at Sandy Bay down the Southern end of the Lake Macquarie, where the crews made there way ashore for a BBQ Lunch.



This was followed by fun and games, the names of the games elude me, but one of them involved poking and prodding a large pile of wood till it fell down then picking it up.





The next game involved flinging two golf balls tied together with string at a rail. The third had teams throwing large wooden battens at small wooden blocks placed in front of the opposing team. Is it just me or is there a bit of a theme to these games.



We then all headed back up to the Northern end of the lake for the evening. I promised not to mention that one yacht arriving at Wangi Wangi finally noticed the dinghy that was following them when they departed the lunch stop was no longer following them.
A few miles of back tracking and another member had salvaged the dinghy and had it in tow. After a brief discussion on salvage rates and value, the dinghy was re-united wit the owners. Did I mention that "SV Heather Mist" has a very nice dinghy (still).

As the sun set over the Wangi Power station (decommissioned) a small group ended up at the Wangi Wangi Workers Club for
their Monday Chicken Snity special $10 including a glass of beer. (We must have looked very hungry) as each plate came out with 3 schnitzel per person. Another great day enjoyed by all.

Mammatus , meaning "mammary cloud", is a cellular pattern of pouches hanging underneath the base of a cloud, typically cumulonimbus rainclouds, although they may be attached to other classes of parent clouds. The name mammatus is derived from the Latin mamma (meaning "udder" or "breast"). According to the WMO International Cloud Atlas, mamma is a cloud supplementary feature rather than a genus, species or variety of cloud. They are formed by cold air sinking down to form the pockets contrary to the puffs of clouds rising through the convection of warm air.

This was the Southern edge of a storm that passed North of us at dusk last night.












The Shag Island Cruising Yacht Club Season of Sail kicks off today at the Rathmines Bowling Club, guess I will have one last chance at the meat trays before heading North for winter later in the week.

Back at Styles Point, was going to say it feels like home away from home, but seeing as we have no home at present I guess it is home. Another hard to take sunset.



I noticed the spare motor dinghy cover on Clear Horizons with just the addition of a couple of lines appears to be passing a message to any body behind them.



Yesterday we headed in to Newcastle with Audra and Steve, needed some spares and oil to do next engine service.



After shopping we stopped for some lunch down on the wharf next to the Maritime Centre.





We then took a drive up to the cliff tops.







Spent quiet a bit of time watching them assemble the hang gliders, then leap off the cliff.



Yep you guessed it another "starting to be not as rare as they used to be" shot of Paul walking. In my defence I was walking towards a bar and restaurant at the time though.