3-6 April After completing our longest, and wettest, passage yet, we have arrived on the Gold Coast, south of Brisbane. Here we’re enjoying the sunshine and drying out the boat and our clothes. The sail from Coffs to Southport Initially the plan was to stop over in Yamba (Illuka), however, the Clarence river is still…
Coffs Harbour and Sydney visit
23 March – 2 April After a relatively non-rolly night in South West rocks we headed off north to Coffs in calm sunny conditions with a light breeze from behind. Pretty perfect conditions, and we reached Coffs harbour in the afternoon where we stopped in the marina. The weather was not to last unfortunately. Good…
Onwards to Port Macquarie and Trial Bay
16-22 March 2025 Last days in Port Stephens We were waiting for the light NE winds to change and we knew from the forecast that a fairly strong southerly change was approaching. So we were waiting, and preparing ourselves and the boat, for the next leg of the trip. Port Macquarie On the 17th the…
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…
First week, Port Stephens
25 February to 2 March 2025 Passage sail from Pittwater to Port Stephens We had an early 6am start from the Basin in Pittwater to ensure we made Port Stephens in daylight. The winds were from the South and fairly strong, 20-25kn, and there was some rain at times, so we had all our wet…
Leaving Sydney
22-24 February 2025 After a nice breakfast with Oliver at Le Coq and Fish Saturday morning, we wandered down to the Wondakiah marina, to cast off. This marina has been very good for us, conveniently located 15min walk from home, although we won’t miss all the swallows who have made our boat their favourite toilet.…
Preparing for our first longer cruise
Susanna and I are about to embark on a longer adventure, sailing north towards the Barrier Reef on S/V RaRa. In preparation for the upcoming journey I have tried to document some of our preparations to the boat in particular below. There are also some significant changes to lifestyle, decluttering of our unit etc, but…
28 August 2022, Sydney Harbour
Sunday 28 August: We arrived at the marina in the morning for a Sailing Breakfast Cruising talk, topic ‘how to use a multimeter’ – it was very good and interesting. After the talk we prepared RaRa for a sail and left the marina at 12.00. Sunny and perfect NE winds and we sailed straight out…
20-21 August 2022, Back onboard for a weekend sail
Niclas and Sanna left the marina at 10.30 and set sails and sailed due East out of the Harbour. We sailed for an hour straight out to sea and then returned back and sailed south down the harbour and then under the Harbour bridge towards Barry Island. The wind died down as we passed Milsons…