Port Stephens to Mooloolaba

27th May
At last we are ready to leave. The previous week has been spent readying the house and Billabong for our departure. The weather has been bleak over past 3 days and the forecast for today was right for us to leave.
We awoke at 6am and with clear skies and the sun breaking over the horizon. With breakfast ready we cast off the lines and motored out of the marina. We had breakfast on the way to the heads. Another RPAYC Coral Coast Cruise yacht, Cloud Nine, was leaving with us. They had 5 men onboard and we had dinner with them last night at the Mod Thai. There was a degree of comfort that another yacht was leaving with us even though they are a faster yacht and we would probably lose sight of them by nightfall. The wind was from the South West but not blowing hard in the bay. Could be a differrent story offshore. We motored around to Shoal Bay and raised the mainsail. Logged on to Marine Rescue and headed out through the passage on a course between Cabbage Tree Island and Little Island. Swell was at 2-3 meters so it was a bit rocky on the way out. We motor sailed for 1 hour until we were clear of the islands and the seas settled into a comfortable pattern. The swell was from the South East so it was knocking the stern around abit but the auto pilot was handling it well. With the motor off  and the No 3 jib poled out, we were gull winging our way North. The wind moved further South during the day but it was a comfortable 15 knots, so we were able to sail above our target speed of 6 knots. In fact we had about a knot of current pushing us North. We were actually doing 7.5knots speed over ground.
It was a very pleasant sunny day albeit a bit cool.
We settled down and had some lunch and continued to track North with Cloud Nine. They were slowly edging away from us with their bigger sail area.
This was to be Tamara's first night at sea on passage so it was best we eat early before dark and have everything washed and packed away for the night. We had precooked frozen dinner packs for the passage and for our first night we had a slow cooked lambshank stew. Very nice.
Night fell and the wind was from the South at 12 knots. Speed 6 knots. I kept the poled out No 3 flying to maintain our 6 knots. Cloud Nine was a speck on the horizon in front of us apoprox 6miles ahead.
I tried to get some sleep while Tamara was on watch. At 10pm Tamara went to sleep and I took over the watch duties until 3am when Tamara would come back on.
At midnight the wind had picked up to 20 knots so I rolled up the No 3 and continued under full main sail making good speed.

28th May

Tamara came on watch at 3am and I had a good 3 hours sleep until dawn. I awoke at 6am with sunrise and Tamara went to bed for a well earned rest. She had completed her first overnight sail. She was not scared and we had no issues.

To my amazement we were with in a nautical mile of Cloud Nine.  We had gone out to sea and picked up some extra wind and current going North and they put a reef in the mainsail for the night. We had done well.
By 7am we had notched up 160nm in 24 hours and we were abeam of Coffs Harbour. I had intended to stop at Coffs for 1 night but the weather was good and we were both feeling relaxed and rested so we kept  going to Southport.

On the helm growing in confidence.

It was a sunny day with the wind oscillating from South to South East and slowly abating. The wind dropped from 20knots to 8knots by nightfall so we had no option to furl the headsail and put the motor on.
By nightfall we were off Yamba and having a dinner of stuffed peppers with chilli. One of Tamara's best Russian meals. Cloud Nine had cleared out in front again and was a speck on the horizon. I estimate she was 7 nautical miles in front. They had caught a tuna and had shashimi for entre. I had decided not to fish for a few reasons. Safety was one and we had a lot of food on board and I did not want to have to do any filleting.
Our ETA Southport was 6am in the morning but we had had such an easy passage we decided we would continue on to Mooloolaba. We rounded Cape Byron at 10.30pm and the wind had died to less than 5 knots. Shortly after the wind came off the land from the South West at 10-12 knots and it dropped the temperature down. It was freezing with wind chill factor. Lucky I bought that sea rug from Whitworths before I left as that blocked the wind and allowed Tamara and I to sleep in the cockpit and still be warm.
We had the same watch pattern as the previous night with me taking over at 10pm to 3am. By 1am we were off Point Danger and I radioed Marine Rescue Point Danger and reported our position and let them know of our intention to continue on to Mooloolaba. ETA at Mooloolaba was 8pm.
29th May
The sun rose at 6am and while there was some sun there were also some very black threatening clouds around us with rain squalls on the horizon. We had passed Southport and were approaching Stradbroke Island. I heard Cloud Nine on the radio trying to report their position to the Seaway Tower at Southport. They contacted us and I relayed their position on to them. It was another surprise for us as they were 9 nautical miles astern of us. They went to sea during the night and the wind died on them and they had a knot of current against them. We stayed inshore and picked up a land breeze and motor sailed at 6.5 knots through the night.
It was time to put the fishing lines out. With in an hour we had 2 stripey blue tuna on board at about 3kilos each. We had shashimi for lunch along with miso soup.

Shashimi for lunch.

Rain squalls came and went and the wind would increase ahead of the squalls and then die down. We continued to motor sail along Stradbroke and Moreton Island. Dolphins were plentiful and many putting on a show jumping from the water in front of us and riding the bow wave.
We rounded Cape Moreton 12.43pm and set a course for Mooloolaba. ETA now 5pm. It would be good to get in before dark.
5miles out from Mooloolaba the seas were flat and the sun was warm on the skin. We had to avoid the big tankers moored off Point Cartwright and decided we should tidy up the yacht before entering port.

Time to celebrate

We rounded Point Cartright at 4.30pm and entered Mooloolaba breakwater. It was a short motor to Mooloolaba Marina where we found our berth. After a hot shower and a bottle of Champagne to celebrate Tamara's first over night ocean passage we joined the crew of Cloud Nine, who arrived and hour later with a plate full of Tuna shashimi and a bottle of NZ Savingion Blanc.

We will be docked here until Saturday when we will depart for Fraser Island on Saturday morning.
We are looking forward to our stay in Mooloolaba and meeting up with some of my PNG friends. They will join us on Thursday night for a meal and a drink or two.

We are happy to be in QLD sunshine

A few repairs are needed. We had  diesel leaking from the top of the tank which needs to be fixed and we have to replace one of the mainsail luff cars that broke in a gybe.

Log : 399.63nm   Elapsed Time  59 hours.