Iluka to Port Stephens

It has now been twelve months since we sold and packed up our house in Brisbane and moved onto Arjuna. Over recent weeks many miles of slogging south have brought our voyage close to completion, but the adventure is not quite over yet.

 

On Tuesday 30th December, we headed off from Iluka at the very crack of dawn, so we could cross the Clarence river bar at high tide. Along this section of coast, it's all about getting across river bars at the right time and in the right conditions.



Life jackets are compulsory when crossing river bars.



Anchoring at the mouth of the river for a few days had given us a good  education in how tidal overrun worked in the Clarence. We had a good run out over the bar a bit after high tide. The southern section of the bar was a lot shallower than the northern section we had entered across and the waves were stacking up, even though they weren't breaking. 

 

Our destination was Coffs Harbour, where we planned to spend just one night before heading on to Port Macquarie the next day. The forecast was for a 10-15 knot nor'easter and we hoped to leave Coffs early to time our entrance over the Port Macquarie bar at high tide in the afternoon.  But we woke to a 20 knot sou'wester which meant we were never going to make the bar at Port Macquarie in time. We turned off the alarm, rolled over and went back to sleep.



Third mate leaping off the Coffs Harbour jetty

So New Year's Eve was spent in Coffs Harbour, where we had front row seats for the fireworks. Coffs put on a spectacular display, despite a terrified, trembling thirty five kilograms of golden retriever sitting on my lap. The crew had a fantastic time swapping salty tales with the legendary 8 year old marlin fisherman on the neighbouring boat.

New Years Day was the next leg to Port Macquarie. There was now no wind to speak of, but a reasonable swell, which made everyone a bit green as we had to motor through it all day with the sails flapping uselessly. The bar was rough coming in but without incident. 

 

Port Macquarie was packed out with boats but the marina manager kindly let us tie up overnight at the fuel wharf until we could get out of there on the next high tide. We waved to Nana who was watching us online on the Port Macquarie Bar webcam http://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/maritime/using-waterways/web-cameras/port-macquarie.html as we headed out of the Hastings River and on to Crowdy Head. Crowdy was just a short 30 nautical mile hop down the coast: a big sigh of relief leaving Port Macquarie, as that was the last bar crossing for the journey south.

Entrance to Crowdy Harbour

You may remember the Captain's description of Crowdy Harbour from the trip up the coast. It is a tiny little man made harbour on the northern side of Crowdy Head. It's so small and such a backwater, it's not even marked on our chart plotter. It has a north western entrance which protects it nicely, and best of all there is no bar to cross to get in. The harbour infrastructure has fallen into disuse since the commercial fishing fleet departed to fishier climes. The fishing coop, which was the only commercial enterprise in the village, went bust a few years ago. The final twist of the knife for this community was the closure of the primary school at the end of 2014, after the number of children attending fell to a grand total of three.



The public jetty has been condemned but there are still pile moorings on the north eastern side of the harbour as well as the now defunct fuel wharf next to the abandoned coop, which is where we tied up. Leesit, a fellow cruising Beneteau we had first met in Far North Queensland, were already sitting on the wharf and kindly helped take our lines, but they were soon off on their way south.

Fishing off the wharf, Crowdy Harbour.

There's very little happening in Crowdy Head. But it's a lovely place to sit back with a view to the north of the "Three Brothers" and the harbour itself is full of sea turtles and fish. Each afternoon a pod of dolphins promenade inside the harbour. All very relaxing and charming . . .

 Crowdy Head fisherman

 

. . . until the Captain did himself a serious injury attempting to lift the Salty Dog up onto the wharf in the dark before we set sail in the morning. We put him back to bed and tried to nurse him back to health with ancient sea remedies. But by the time we had applied the tincture of seaweed and cracked the medicinal rum, the Bureau of Meteorology had issued a strong wind warning. So we ended up cooling our heels for three days at Crowdy, fishing, going to the surf beach and on walks up to the headland while the Captain's health slowly amended.

Walking up to the Crowdy Head lighthouse.

Last Saturday we stood on the headland and watched the racing yachts beating into the north easterly in the Pittwater to Coffs yacht race. We heard Team Australia had an equipment failure and lost their $500,000 mast. After the wind died and the Captain recovered, we headed on to Port Stephens, picking up a public mooring at Nelson's Bay. And right there on the mooring right next us was the poor, sad, dismasted trimaran.

 

Team Australia - looking half a million dollars worse for wear.

We took some friends over to Jimmy's Beach for lunch and had a beautiful afternoon with six children and a dog playing cricket and fossicking on the sandbar. 

 

Fossicking at Jimmy's

 

Any blue rings?

 

The Salty Dog has many long term fans who have been asking after his health since he came aboard ...

The sea air seems to be agreeing with him and is making his coat curl. He has found his niche on the boat and staked out his favourite spots. It is strangely disconcerting to look up from inside the boat and see a large, furry creature lying across a hatch, until you remember that he is on board. He doesn't particularly enjoy open water sailing, although he seems to be looking a little bit less uncomfortable with each successive passage and we have been trying to keep the distances manageable for him. But the lifestyle at anchor seems to more than make up for it.