More Port Stephens, avoiding Cyclone Alfred

4-15 March 2025

We’ve spent more time in Port Stephens than we expected to, due to the weather. Cyclone Alfred made landfall near Brisbane and there were some wet weather hitting us as a result. Hence we took to opportunity to spend a week in a beautiful marina, The Anchorage, and got some good walks in and also met up with some new and old friends. The Port Stephens area is so beautiful, so it really didn’t matter that we saw more of it.

Fingal Beach and Spit

The Anchorage Marina

We had a great week in the marina, with a mix of rain and sunshine. They had a free courtesy car for marina guests which we used to go shopping and for a couple of excursions.

The manager of the Woollstonecraft Men’s shed, Ted Day, and his lovely wife Johanna came to visit us one day. They have a holiday home near Tanilba Bay, which they drove us to and provided lunch. Ted showed us his workshop and the small boat he was building. Very nice!

In the marina we also met a lovely couple, Stuart and Sanne, who is doing a similar trip to us going north along the coast. Sanne is Danish and Stuart Aussie, and they are sailing from Bateman’s Bay on their Oceanis “Vanetta”.

Trip to Broughton Island

As the weather improved we headed north 8NM to Broughton Island where we spent a rocky and rolling night in Coal Shaft bay. Our ‘Flopper stopper’ helped, but not sufficiently to stop all the rolling. The wind was from NE but there was a swell coming in from the S which got bigger during the night.
We thought we’d try the northern anchorage, where there’s also a public mooring, although the mooring was taken and we didn’t feel safe to stay the night there as it was a lee shore and the NE wind kept building up. Hence we continued our trip and had a quick look at Esmeralda Cove where we couldn’t find a good anchorage (there are a number of private moorings there belonging to the few permanent residents on the island), so hence back to Port Stephens we went.

Jimmys beach, Tea Gardens and Hawks Nest

We anchored RaRa outside Jimmy’s beach and then took a long walk in the morning to Tea Gardens and also did some food shopping in Hawks Nest before heading back to the boat for a well deserved swim. It was a sunny 30 degree day.

Dinner with Flo

On Friday evening we had a fantastic dinner with great friends from MHYC. Martyn and Anna had taken Flo up to get some boat works done on The Cove Marina. The Poyer’s in Lemon Tree passage is definitely worth a visit if you’re in Port Stephens, serving maybe the best seafood in NSW!