28 - 29 April 2012 – Enroute from Port Stephens to Forster 45 Nautical Miles with layover

Fame Cove Sunset - best anchorage

Warren Photographing the Sunset Fame Cove

More Fame Cover, Port Stephens great courtesy moorings

I have decided that I really love the staying in port part of sailing hehe.  Sleeping in until 8 am.  Cup of tea in bed, reading.  Then up to cook scrambled eggs, toast and tomato for breakfast.  Meeting other yatchies doing what we are, exchange emails and notes.  Using our onboard washing machine (thanks Pat and Al, we bought this with you at a Caravan and Camping Show years ago).   

Looking back to  Broughton Island

So today we look like real cruising yatchies with the washing hanging out.  All the walkers, talk to us and tell us they are jealous, especially when we were on the deck enjoying coffee, the sunshine  and doing the washing.

 

Exited Port Stephens at 7.15 am yesterday, 28 April.  The wind was not kind to us all day.  We sailed on a port tack almost all day.  Swells were not much more than a meter for most of the day, however the wind built up in the afternoon.  Dolphins escorted us out of the harbor, then at about 9 am we had a large pod playing in our bows and showing themselves very close to the surface.  Sited a couple of hammer head sharks to port, just showing their fins.  Then about lunchtime, a huge pod of dolphins played with us for quite a while. Warren hadn’t seen dolphins in the wild before, so was very exciting. 

Captain Chums checking on things

Not too rough today LOL

Was great to sail up the coast and see the landmarks we had been visiting and camping at or talking about for years.  Broughton Island,  Seal Rocks, (past Myall and Smith Lakes), Sugarloaf Point and then round Cape Hawke into Cape Hawke  Harbour and into the safe harbor of Tuncurry.  They have really good Visitors berths here, so we can jump onto the jetty and walk into town within a few minutes.

We ended up motoring the last one and a half hours so we would get here before dark and made it in at 5 pm.  The two novices were very tired, Captain although weary, was still sparking.  Nice quiet night other than those pesky little crustaceans who chat to each other all night (thank you so much Jaylene Medhurst for those great little ear plugs you gave me years ago).

Its about to rain, so a lazy afternoon reading in bed is on the cards.

26 April 2010 – Destination Port Stephens – 7.30 am

Well, the weather reporter did say that seas would be THREE metres, they were at least FOUR – talk about being in a washing machine.  I understand now why some people climb Mt Everest – always thought they were idiots. 

 Well we went up Mt Everest every few minutes then down into the Grand Canyon the next minute.  Warren and I found it very tough, Ian wasn’t thrilled but very relaxed and calm and enjoyed himself, other than when we were helming and did the wrong thing.   Now that the adrenalin has left our bodies we feel like champions.

The Chart Plotter (GPS) is marvelous – great to see us getting closer to the destination even if we were screwing around everywhere most of the time.  I didn’t get sick – yeah!

Midgee being returned to windChalmer

 

 

after abandoning ship

We were anchored in Fame Cove (through the Port Stephens Heads at 1 pm) by 2.30.  Just as we were anchoring, Midgee decided to abandon ship.  Away she went swimming for shore – what a shock, a Catamaran coming in enjoyed the drama.   She had a nice swim and walk (probably in a National Park) and then the captain rowed her back – she is now sound asleep.

Think we might have a layover or not proceed until the swells die down a bit.  Haha

This was published while sailing from Fame Cove to Shoal Bay near Port Stephens.

25 April 2012 – ANZAC DAY - Time to exit Lake Macquarie

Up very early today – maybe the stress or is that excitement woke us at 4 pm, we were tied up at Sunshine Wharf after Ryan, Nerrine and our beautiful four granddaughters came to give us a farewell dinner of soup, buns and pavlova.  How amazing, is that with their busy lives.

We had booked the Swansea Bridge to open at 10 am, so after waving goodbye to Kent, Kristin, Hamish and baby 7/8ths, and Kristin’s Mum and Dad we motored off to get to our appointment.   

Saying bye to family

Midgee Ready for sailing

First Meal cooked  aboard Lasanga

Sandbanks abound through the Channel out to sea, so all hands on deck checking the depth sounder and following the markers.  We motored through to a mooring, where we ate the heated lunch – my first attempt at cooking a meal on board!!   

The weather forecast wasn’t amazing, however we decided we needed to go, so had a very rough and windy, but not bad trip into Newcastle.    Warren – our cabin boy – self named, and myself downed Travel Calm tablets and off we went through the Bar which is also hazardous for a yacht with 6’8” draft.  Made it through the bar with a great send off by the airforce (ok, yeah, it was ANZAC DAY).

Warren and Midgee

Anchored inside the Newcastle Guide Wall  at Pirates Point,  Stockton side as Ian thought it would keep us out of the wind, which it did.  Great quiet night with an occasional fog horn and a few waves to ruffle our feathers by some of the larger ship traffic.

13 April 2011 - Preparing to leave our home for about five years

Flowers from our wonderful friend Chez

It’s incredible how the build-up of material possessions over 48 years takes so much time to sort.  Particularly when you have had a large house, garage and huge shed to store it all and the kids moved out years ago.  We are almost to the stage when we don’t want to set an ETD (Estimated time of Departure) as new  jobs keep popping up.

Our lounge, dining table, recliner chairs and lots of other assorted items have gone off to the op shop.  Oh yes, also the two spare room beds.  So Ian and I now live in one room plus the yacht!

We moved out to the windChalmer for two days and one night last week – emptied all the lockers.  Then sorted and filled them again, writing down in our book what is stored so we can find it quickly.  Once out on the yacht, I am going to key this into the laptop, so we can do a quick search and find.  We actually have lockers without stuff at the moment.  

We brought back to shore anything we didn’t need  as we don’t want to clutter the yacht.  

We have built the fence around our backyard with two gates for Kent and Kristin’s children, dog, cats and chooks!  Today I am the apprentice base mixer while Ian is gyprocking a section between Kent and Kristin’s cottage kitchen and family room.  Whoever built this had such a small space between the rooms – so we cut them out, inserted a large metal beam and opened up the kitchen.  Looks great now, just getting the gyprocking finished, also packing firewood into the trailer and cleaning.

Between all this I have been baby sitting and keeping up with other family commitments.  

Ian has about two days of things to make before we go, then we can really get sorted. Oh yes and we can't go yet as our lovely granddaughter Ameeka Mae turns 4 next week.

So this is retirement!