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 very dirty from all the raining and also the timing of the tidal water to enter the Yamba bar wasn’t great. Plus we had an urge to get further to Queensland, so we skipped Yamba this time.
Thursday morning the swell, which had been over 3m was down to around 2m, but we were still a little nervous to get caught in big waves coming out of the harbour. We waited until our friends (two Swedish boats and one Finnish) had left without any dramas, and then we set off at 10 in the morning in a light drizzle. According to the weather forecasts the wind was going to die down and the rain stop. In reality the wind increased and was 18-26 knots South all the way, and also it never stopped raining… We don’t trust weather forecasts anymore… The trip went well though and we reached our destination in 23 hours, averaging 6.5 knots which we think is quite fast for our boat. We sailed the whole 150 nm, which was also our longest passage we done on the boat.
The scariest moment was when we had a fishing boat on collision course with us in the pitch dark night. They had very strong lights on, but it was near impossible to judge what course they were steering and how fast they were going. They didn’t have AIS turned on and we don’t have a radar. We’ve learned that fishing boats don’t care about any other vessels on the sea. In the end we managed to avoid them by doing a sharp detour and going behind them. Apart from that short adrenaline kick, the journey was uneventful. We just kept trying to stay dry and as alert as possible to any potential dangers. In the future we will need to improve further on our watch system, ensuring we both gets enough rest. For one night only it still works to stay awake though.
Enter Southport and sunshine
After dropping anchor in ‘Bums bay’ and a couple of hours sleep mid morning, we woke up to sunshine and blue skies (for the first time in about 2-3 weeks). It felt fantastic to be able to dry out the boat, clothes and equipment. We went for a long walk around the area and could see the effects of Tropical Cyclone Alfred on the beaches. Diggers work day and night on moving sand around.
Socialising
The first night we met up with the crew on Matilda and Platon for a nice dinner at the Surf club. We parked the dinghies at the dinghy dock and took an Uber to and from the restaurant.
The second day/night we spent on the north side of Wave Break Island where we had drinks with our German/Danish friends Sybille and Bo on the catamaran Sybo. In the morning we ran aground, on sand, while leaving the anchorage. Luckily it was at very low speed and soft ground and we got clear in a matter of minutes. After checking out the waters outside Southport Yacht Club (massive boats here) we went back to Bums bay and anchored next to Saoirse, a Swedish boat.
Platon and Matilda have now continued their journey north, but the third Swedish boat, Saoirse, with solo sailor Thomas, has joined here after he finished his engine repairs in Coffs. The plan is for a dinner with him tonight.
