Leg 63 - Trial Bay to Iluka via Coffs Harbour.

Sometimes, a situation calls for flexibility in plans. What began as a straight forward 35nm day-hop up to Coff Harbour, ended up a 90nm over-nighter as far as Iluka. As with the previous day, the little junk rigged yacht Arion, departed a little ahead of us and acted like the target for us to catch. Despite it's considerably smaller size, it goes like a rocket.

We watched the local fishing fleet arrive at dawn and assemble at the Macleay River Bar waiting for enough water to pass. Radio broadcasts had been alerting Mariners that the leads were no longer accurate and extreme caution was required. It's not often that commercial boats stand off, the tide at the very least, needed to be right up to make the River mouth navigable.

 

Fishermen cleaning their catch while waiting to cross the river bar.

Overall, sailing conditions were glorious with 10-15 knots of SE'ish wind plus 2m swells from the E and SE which didn't end up competing against one another too much. The current that we'd encountered the previous day coming up to South West Rocks/Trial Bay seemed less in play and we were in a new weather forecasting zone. Goodbye, Macquarie Coast. Hello, Coffs Coast!

While the day settled itself from a somewhat blustery start with short period of 20knot gusts, the main came in and out a few times to compliment the heady. Instead of turning into wind to roll in the main, we got lazy and merely furled it in, resulting in a poor wrap. We were 'found out' soon after when attempting to pull it back out again. It jammed. Here are 2 approaches for resolution.  The Bloke's way: pull it harder to force it out. The girlie way: roll it back in a couple of turns to loosen the jam and try again. What do you think?

We reached Coffs Harbour right behind Arion and tried calling the local Marine Rescue but there was no reply. No matter, they'd be called again after we had anchored. We circled the recommended anchoring area while being lifted up and down by 2 metre swells which then surged up the beach. The Bloke and I took 2 minutes to sum up the situation. We were only going to stop for a meal and a bit of kip with a plan to head out at 22:00 to enable a dawn arrival with incoming tide at Iluka/Yamba. There was no way we'd rest in these conditions and besides, right now, sailing winds were perfect and forecast to drop away overnight. The Take it While it's Going motto kicked in. We had plenty of suitable food for an overnight passage as I'd half guessed it as a possibility and we'd have a full moon from sunset onward courtesy of Easter!

Inside the Coffs Harbour southern break wall - Just to proved we'd been there.

We had another go at contacting Marine Rescue Coffs Harbour to inform them of both of our arrival and change of plans but being unable to reach them, phoned Marine Rescue Trial Bay instead. Sorted! 45 minutes later Coffs Harbour radioed. Alarmingly, the operator could not hear our transmission. No problemo, we phoned them instead, but then we became concerned. What if our radio was not working? Not a good thing in an emergency. The outcome? Radio working just fine. The operator had the volume down and couldn't hear ANY transmissions of any kind. Lol!

Passing inside South Solitary Island.

There was plenty of 'marine furniture' to negotiate north of Coffs Harbour with shoals and obstacles like the charmingly named Pimpernel Rock. If we passage through here again we might head outside all this as the uneven sea floor created mysterious eddies. We did however benefit from a counter current which together with the wind, which did not drop away after all, plus the push provided by the SE swell, had us making a much quicker journey than we needed. As the nautical miles melted away we furled our heady further and further in an attempt to slow down until it seemed that we were flying little more than the UV strip having mastered origami with sail cloth. Arriving early was pointless. The Bar needed to be visible and a minimum of 3 hours after low tide to avoid over-run.

  

Sun down: Moon up.

By the time we were in position to cross the bar the sun was just up, the swell was now 2m and was  from the north. At the last moment, the wind swung to off-shore. The Northern entry had been recommended and although the southern approach was clearly a no-go, the north was smooth, until that is, we were at the point of no return. The fishing fleet were on their way in too and we took a position in the convoy and fanged it to sit right up the 'jaxie' of a boat we were confident would know their way in. Grateful that the Bloke had tightened the belts on the motor in preparation for this crossing, the 54hp metal topsail didn't let us down. Where did those waves come from? It was like being shot out of a cannon and we were doing 9.5kn at one stage.

 

Assessing the bar at dawn.

We are not sure if this bar is really a much longer one than the others we've crossed or if it was illusory. Time seemed to stop and we thought this nasty ride would never end.

Our track into Iluka.

 

 

The Bloke's shaking hands after we'd anchored.

The doctor ordered a nip, even if it was only 07:30 am.

Then a second, 30 minutes later; followed by bed rest.

We'll stay in Iluka until after Easter, then explore the mighty Clarence River for 2-3 weeks. By then, we'll hopefully have forgotten all about this bar crossing!

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