October 2005 Archives

Just for the record, we're back home. We crossed the Camden Haven bar without incident and had a wonderful short sail back to Crowdy Head. At sunrise the following day (Sunday), we left for Port Stephens, with the pelicans watching procedings from their special perches above the jetty lights.

Because of forecast strong winds, we left Port Stephens early (1 am)on Monday and had a relatively uneventful trip back to Pittwater. We didn't get as far north as we had planned due to the weather conditions, so we'll have an excuse to try again soon!

We hadn't expected to be in Laurieton for a week, but it worked out well. A convenient jetty, close to amenities and Camden Haven is a very pretty place. So while we didn't get as far north as we had hoped, it's been a relaxing couple of weeks. Today, the weather is looking good for a move across to bar toward home. High tide is not until 1100 hrs, so we'll just move to Crowdy head today. Tomorrow we'll make an early start from there, expecting to be back home on Monday.

We're still in Laurieton/Camden Haven. The wind has been very strong and from the wrong quarter to continue up the coast. We've now decided to return to Sydney at the first opportunity. That looks like Thursday morning at the earliest. So today we rented a car to see a bit more of the region.

Behind Laurieton is North Brother, a mountain which rises steeply from the coast. The above picture was taken from a lookout near its peak. It is one of the most breathtaking coastal views I have seen. Near the top of the picture you can see the waves breaking over the bar near the entrance to Camden Haven. Te Moana can be seen near the bottom, moored alongside the jetty at the RSL club.

We arrived in Camden Haven on Friday just in time. The moment we pulled alongside the jetty at Laurieton, an enormous thunderstorm broke loose. It had everything, hail, thunder and heavy rain.

Yesterday, Mum and Dad joined us for lunch on their way back from Arrawarra, where they had been on holidays for the past two weeks. It was great to see them still enjoying their holidays together

The weather is not looking good for the next few days, so it looks like an extended stay in Laurieton. That's not so bad, mind you. We're comfortable on the jetty of the Serviceman's Club. The surrounding are very picturesque and still largely unspoilt. We're enjoying our stay here.

We were planning to go direct to Camden Haven from Broughton Island yesterday, but the weather suddenly deteriorated during the morning and we decided to seek refuge from the stiff North Easterly(25-30 knots)by pulling into Crowdy Bay. Crowdy Head is a little fishing village about 60 km south of Port Macquarie. As you can see in the picture, it has a small harbour with a visitor's jetty, a welcome sight when we came in here yesterday. We'll go on to Camden Haven late today or early tomorrow.

We moved on to Broughton Island today to give us a headstart tomorrow morning for the leg to Camden Haven. Broughton Island is just eight miles northeast of Port Stephens, so it was only a short passage. We anchored in Coal Shaft Bay, which is reasonably sheltered from the swell and southeasterly breeze.

One of my daily chores is to take Jake, our dog ashore for a "walk". Unfortunately, taking the inflatable ashore, I picked a beach with a bit of a surf. Yes, I was unceremoniously dumped from the dingy. Bummer... Jake managed to stay in the dingy, although he got thoroughly wet, just like I did.

Well, we arrived safely at Port Stephens around 4 pm. It was an uneventful trip, motor-sailing all the way. We'll stay at Nelson Bay until Wednesday, when we'll move further north.

Last night we moved up to the Basin, ready for an early departure from Broken Bay. The strong westerly wind, which we've been getting for the past few days, finally turned into a gentle breeze overnight. We've decided to go to Port Stephens today, where we hope to stay at the marina at Nelson Bay until Wednesday. Currently (8 am), we're a few miles off the coast near The Entrance, on smooth seas and making good headway with a little help from a couple of Volvo auxillary sails.

Joy and I are taking Te Moana north, along the NSW coast for a few weeks to celebrate the start of the warmer weather. With a bit of luck and favourable weather, we hope to get up to Yamba and perhaps even Grafton. I adapted a spreadsheet which the club distributed a few years ago with distances between NSW ports into a Cruise Planner. If anyone is interested in our schedule or in building their own, you can download it here here.

We had hoped to depart from Broken Bay today, but the wind is from the North at up to 30 knots. Tomorrow is sounding better, with the wind turning to the southwest for a nice run up to Pt Stephens as a first leg. I hope to make regular entries to this weblog over the next few weeks, using my new Mobile Internet connection from Telstra. In Major centres it provides broadband-like speeds, while in other places is uses CDMA 1x which is a shade faster than a conventional modem and should works for most of our journey at sea. I'll let you know how well it works.