After nearly two and a half years with most of that time in Queensland, we’re now back in Coffs Harbour! We had a great trip south from Iluka after waiting for the effects of Tropical Cyclone Gabrielle to pass. It turned out Australia was lucky when compared with the North Island of New Zealand and parts of Vanuatu.
What took us close to 8 hours in our boat to cover the nearly 60NM can be viewed in the following video in about 90 seconds! Then keep reading if you want more details.
Heading south
We experienced a bit of swell, mostly hitting us from the east-south-east so it wasn’t too unpleasant, although we definitely haven’t become used to it yet. We were spoilt with the protection of islands and the reef when in Queensland.
During this trip, Robert had a short snooze and then while he was at the helm, I managed a solid 1.5 hours asleep and felt very refreshed. Generally the night before we go anywhere, I never sleep well because of all the things I’m thinking about!
Most of our journey was on a course heading south and we were lucky enough to be escorted by a pod of dolphins during the trip. I was trying to video them and accidentally bumped the jog lever, causing the autopilot to go off course, and you will see this in the above video at around the 44 seconds mark
During this trip we passed South Solitary Island on the eastern side. I took a lot of photos, and here are some of them, including the flock of birds fishing! If you’re interested you can read more information online about South Solitary Island.
Coffs Harbour International Marina
Once we’d rounded South Solitary Island it was an hour into the marina. Everything started to look familiar as we approached Muttonbird Island and saw the yachts’ masts in the distance. One of the marina staff (a new team member) came out to help as we approached our allocated berth. It was a tricky approach as we had to motor to ‘C’ finger and then do a 180° degree turn to come into the berth at C21 and straight into wind. Robert and I were wearing our headphones, and I had serious misgivings that we’d fit. Robert was guiding me as I couldn’t really see the sides and we made it in. BUT it was pretty obvious the berth was too small. While a 4.75m wide (beam) boat will technically fit into a 5m wide berth, this leaves little to no room for fenders and normal boat movements. The marina staff member realised this and found us a berth on E finger, which was much better. Except I then had to get us out of the tight berth. Fortunately, the wind did most of the work and gently blew us in the right direction to get out. In discussing this later, Robert said “I nailed it” and I felt pretty chuffed but I never want to do that again!
It’s been great here at Coffs Harbour so far, catching up with friends, going to a few restaurants, working through an ever-increasing list of things to do, and cycling around the area. Everything is great, except for the freaking birds that keep pooping on my bimini covers!
Where to from here
We’ve just extended our stay in Coffs Harbour because we want to get some solar panels installed on the flybridge. We have realised what a benefit they will be and will reduce the amount of time we need to run the generator. This also was quite evident during our stay in Iluka and up the Clarence River. It was also something we planned for when we had the stainless steel frame built and installed on the flybridge while we were in Townsville towards the end of 2021. The goal was to make it strong enough to support another frame and solar panels above it. So watch this space!
5 Responses
Hi Pam 😘 my first ever read and I’m so very impressed!! You do this as well as crossing very very well! Steve wanted me to do the same for our trip around Australia but I’m not anywhere near clever enough so have just made a simple WhatsApp group. It won’t do the trip justice but it will keep families and some friends informed!
Big hug xx Kerry
Great photo of the birds fishing. Sad story on the website link about the young woman who died on South Solitary Island in 1912, Lydia Gow.
Your plans sound good. Enjoy your time I’m Coffs Harbour. Thinking of you. Love Gerry & Sonja
Hi Pam
Wendy usually fills me in but I got to read your post first.
Sounds like everything is going great.
Save travels
Rod
Wonderful to hear you are getting closer. Hope we can catch up.
Wonderful pictures!