Broken Bay to Port Stephens

The engine trouble wasn't all that bad, as it turned out, and fixing it only took a bleed and a new washer. I'd also managed to drain both batteries, so it wasn't until mid-Tuesday morning that everything had been put back together and we (Tony H. and I) finally sailed, with mum and Steve Y. waving us off.

The Port Stephens course was about 70 nm (after allowing plenty of offshore room - there are always cargo ships queued outside of Newcastle, and as we were going to be sailing overnight, I wanted to be well outside of them). We had a steady 10-15 knot southerly in the morning and made an excellent start, broad reaching NE out of Broken Bay then sitting on an easy NNE leg until late afternoon, making better distance than I'd anticipated. Around sunset a squall overtook us, and we lost the wind in its wake, and a lovely day's sailing gave way to a slow, wet night. A visit by a dolphin around midnight perked us up a bit.

Despite the slow night, we made it to Port Stephens around 0330. We really hadn't been keeping ourselves well enough fed (a lesson learned, for me) and were quite exhausted by then, but prudence dictated holding on until morning before entering the Port. We napped in shifts and tacked back and forth between Little and Boondelbah Islands for a couple of hours. Tony shouted down to me at dawn, calling me up on deck - a pod of dolphins had arrived and were playing around the boat, and they kept us company for a while as we turned into the harbour.

Hot showers, hot breakfasts and catching up on sleep took up the rest of the day - mum drove up from Sydney for a visit, and lunch in Shoal Bay. We were looking at another overnight sail starting the next day, I thought, but left the detailed planning until the morning.

Did anyone note that tornado, smashing Lennox Head? The weather didn't exactly cooperate with my plans... four days later, I'm still in Nelson Bay. Poor Tony has gone back to work, so missed out on a lot of sailing: poor reward for his invaluable assistance getting ready and moving. I owe him some cruising through the reef.

The nasty low seems finally to be moving off to a safe distance, so tomorrow I'll be setting off again - a day passage to Forster. An early start calls for an early night, so let me close with some photos:

Broken Bay to Port Stephens