Timing is Everything

Our arrival time at the Gold Coast could not have been delayed another day with an impending storm forecast - 3-4M+ swells and 30Knot winds. We were not in the least unhappy to get settled in out of harms way at the Hope Harbour Marina and found ourselves on a very sociable marina finger. That is to say, we think we all had livers in the same condition.

ANZAC day was the next day and while our isolation, in what is essentially a suburb on canals, didn't allow us to attend a dawn service, our jetty neighbours Barb and John, were keen for a drive and to show us around their terrain. Ironically this entailed driving along the same stretch of coastline we'd just sailed past 24 hours previously. It was reassuring, to say the least, to know that we'd dodged the weather we witnessed.

 

The Bloke in the frame with Barb and John.

 

Wild southerly view from Point Danger towards the entrance of the Tweed River.

 

The Captain Cook memorial stands astride the NSW and Queensland State border

and above the Point Danger Marine Rescue control centre.

More symbols of devotion on the coastal walk.

 

Evidence of the ANZAC Day observances at Currumbin earlier in the day.

Elephant Rock on the Currumbin Beach decorated with poppies made from the bases of PET drink bottles by local school children, symbolizing a river of blood, is decorated like this annually. There were many story boards along the beachfront too but the Digger Koala was an eye catcher. Sadly, the weather prevented much of the usual participation by the Surf Club members at the Dawn Service. The surf was UP to the extent that surfers were being towed into waves by jet ski's.

 Coolangatta Airport is very busy and planes fly very low over the headland.

More about Leg 64 - Iluka to the Goldie

A ticket for a flight from a location that you've not yet reached is a bit of a push factor and we'd already delayed our departure from the Clarence River by 24 hours due to some inclement clouds and storm cells off-shore the day before. A couple of yachts left, but 4 waited and we had to plan for the incoming tide, over-run and daylight. By this time it was too bad if our arrival at the Southport Seaway might be at night. We'd either stand-off of go through: it's well dredged and illuminated and so long as there wasn't a swell running (not predicted) we could negotiate it. If we didn't get out today we'd be trapped since a storm was predicted and big swells pushing up the coast in advance of it. Not negotiable. It was time to leave.

The Bloke studied the track of our entry into the Clarence River a few weeks earlier and made a couple of small adjustments and shared it as a GPX file with the crew of Tramontana, who like us, had not experienced the most elegant or composed of arrivals and were also on a deadline for a flight to Perth. By this time we'd learned that the Leads into the river are for BIG ships and not for peewits like us and if followed, would take you directly through the breaking water. Nice!

Tramontana pulling out ahead of us.

Our little convoy scurrying out through the bar and turning north.

  

The fishing trawlers were in a rush to cross the bar too.

 

Goodbye Iluka -Yamba Marine Rescue tower and Yamba Lighthouse

We all slid out very nicely and with that obstacle behind us, hoped that the forecast for NO WIND might amend itself so that the overnighter to Southport might not be a total motorfest. It was a motorfest of course! We tried a bit of motorsailing but in the main it was just a case of metal sailpower.

Clouds piling up over Balina

 Tramontana motorsailing beneath Cape Byron

Cape Byron

We reached Cape Byron, the Easternmost point of the Australian mainland right on dusk and enjoyed the sight of the headland with lighthouse silhouetted by the sunset.

 

We'd been warned that the shipping is busy rounding Cape Byron. 

Our AIS equipment revealed we were SIX - SEVEN abreast! 

Illuminated almost as brightly as the near full moon that we were both sailing beneath, the Dawn Princess was undoubtedly offering quite a different night cruise experience to our own. Their's was all lights blazing and most probably extensive available menus in multiple dinning rooms and restaurants.  For us it was a case of minimum light to preserve night vision and only a chicken curry with saffron rice plus cucumber raita on offer, served outside in the cockpit. Oh, and they were traveling at 16knots to our 4!

Dawn Princess cruising past.

The loom of Coolangatta and Surfers Paradise prepared us for our arrival at the Seaway. At first we slowed down thinking we'd wait until dawn to make our approach but a message from Tramontana to advise their safe transit reassured us and we motored in at the darkest hour. The moon had set and the pink of dawn was not yet visible. We trusted our instruments and peeled our eyeballs for the red and green channel markers to guide our way through the serpentine channels to the Hope Harbour Marina on the Coomera River. As dawn approached local boaters/fisherfolk were moving about with confidence and speed. Horrifyingly, not all had proper navigation lights operational and a couple of times it was necessary to shine our torch on them! It took over an hour to crawl our way to the Hope Harbour Marina, worrying the whole time that we'd run aground. Suddenly it was dawn. Phew. Queensland at last. We think we were on the NSW coast for 1 year and 3 days!

Zofia at rest now for1 month!

Leg 64 - Iluka to The Gold Coast

It's been 12 months since we arrived on the NSW coast. It's time to head for Queensland. We nearly left yesterday but today's the day instead.

The tide will be running in at the bar by now and there's nothing left to do but post this and pull up the anchor and wash, wash, wash the chain as it comes up. See you later and thank you NSW for everything! The bloke even left a bit of himself here.

Yowzers! An Anchor Drag

There's a school of thought that 'If you think it; do it'. This thankfully doesn't apply to the general world or it would give licence to a lot of sociopaths, rather it's what happens on board in the context of managing  your boat. For instance, if one senses a change in weather conditions whilst sailing and suddenly think 'Oh, maybe we should reef the sails', the idea is to do it immediately because the second time you think it, it's probably already too late!

Screenshot of our GPS enabled Anchor Watch program.

We were originally just swinging about in the tide.

The weather forecast for Iluka/Yamba was for strong winds overnight and we discussed how much chain we had out and whether we should drop out some extra rode. We decided that our existing 30m in 3-4m of water was a more than adequate ratio. Feeling satisfied, The Bloke turned in while I watched the next exciting instalment of Vikings. The wind chirped up to 30kn waking the Bloke. We checked our GPS enabled Anchor Watch program and confirmed our position and noted that our anchor chain was by now stretched out. Hmmmm??? Chain's no good in the locker. Let's drop out another10m and sleep soundly, we thought.

On with the motor to enable the anchor winch, headphones, deck light and head torch. Off with the snubber. This required 1-2m of chain to be pulled in to release it. Ooooops, we were in the middle of a squall and pulling on our anchor. This activity was just enough to unsettle the anchor flukes and KAPOW off we shot like a stone in a catapult!

 

Luckily, the anchorage was almost empty meaning that we didn't collide with another boat. We chucked out another 10m to halt our drag and then assessed where the heck we were relative to all potential hazards. It was a black night of course and we were very disoriented. We decided that 50m of chain was a much nicer number and re-positioned ourselves and re-anchored during a lull in the squalls.

Yup, definitely a case of "Chain's no good in your anchor locker" and "If you think it once, just do it straight way - before it's too late"!

Clarence River Cruise - Step 6 - Maclean to Iluka

Returning to Iluka concluded our meander down the magnificent Clarence River. Stopping the traffic on the Pacific Highway to raise the Harwood Bridge was only possible before the morning rush hour so an early start was required to be in position for a 06:45 opening. Happily, the chap turned up right on cue to release us to the seaward reaches.

We were greeted to a cracking dawn sky

Waiting for the Harwood Bridge to lift a span.(Image courtesy of Brenton Walker)

Up it goes - Sorry for the hold up commuters!

Once we'd returned to the Iluka anchorage we found Sans Souci had slipped in during our absence. We'd last seen Juliana and Hugh in Eden exactly a year before and experience informed us that all thoughts of an AFD (Alcohol Free Day) we now quite out of the question.

Hello, long time no see!

Surprise Visit

Being barely a 3 hours drive south of Brisbane proved too tempting for Lucas and Amy not to attempt a surprise Birthday visit. The Bloke was kept entirely in the dark and was shown no sign that there was anything out of the ordinary occurring. The Bloke himself had declared Maclean as our Friday destination. Our journey back to Maclean from Ulmarra completed in a day rather, than revisiting Brushwood and Lawrence. Now it was just a matter of maintaining radio (phone) silence and not giving it all away. Amy and I had been hoping for a Maclean rendezvous for 5 days, I hadn't even had to manipulate a thing!

Lily, Lucas, Tom and Amy hiding and ready to reveal themselves.

The is only one word to describe The Blokes face: GOBSMACKED!

An enthusiastic novice mariner. Lily jumped into Marilyn without hesitation.

One moment little miss. Life jackets please!

 Tom steering the pirate ship on Poppa's lap

Lily taking a turn.

Great work Team Oldfield!

Finding A Living Legend - Alan Lucas

Ulmarra is the home port of the Australian Coastal Cruising legend, Alan Lucas. He's authored multiple yachting publications and cruising guides. Our Cruising the New South Wales Coast: A sailor's guide to the ports, anchorages, rivers and lakes of Australia's First Sate, New South Wales, has been our 'Bible' over the last 12 months whilst we've sailed from Eden to here. The Bloke is already studying Cruising the Coral Coast (first published in 1968) which will come into effect when we reach our next destination after Iluka and across the state border into Queensland.

Alan Lucas aboard SV Soleares.

We were delighted to see that Alan's ketch Soleares was anchored and a few locals at the pub conveyed in hushed tones that the legend was in town i.e. on board. As it turned out he's a typical cruiser and didn't need to be asked twice to accept an invite for sundowners. Unfortunately we didn't meet his wife Patricia as she was away. Conversation was long and lively. 5 hours went by in a flash and we poured Alan and Brenton into their dinghies and shone our torch on them until they indicated that they were safely back on board their own vessels. Phew!

Brenton, Alan and The Bloke.

The morning after the night before.

Not the hair of the dog. Just coffee at the Pub.

After the coffee heart starter we went our separate ways, the Bloke to buy a paper and a second coffee. When we returned to Zofia a little package was sitting on the transom. Alan had made a visit and this was his calling card!

 

The most recent of Alan's publications.

Signed by the legend himself.

Feeling very chuffed as was Brenton because he received a copy too!

Clarence River Cruise - Step 5 - Brushwood to Ulmarra

Although the City of Grafton is just another 6nm away we think we'll call it quits now that we've reached the heritage listed village of Ulmarra. Obstacles to our progress include a road bridge at Grafton plus overhead power lines. We need 19.5m clearance. Although people have encouragingly proposed that we attempt to pass beneath them closest to the river bank, and claim that we'd slip under just fine, we're not messing with it. We're content with the distance traveled.

 

Carolyn noticed our track went inland and wondered if we'd suddenly been loaded on a truck.

As we've gone further upstream the water salinity has decreased and we're floating on only slightly brackish water. Further upstream at Grafton the salinity was recently tested and proved to be sweeter than most acceptable domestic tap water! The Bloke is hoping that the freshwater will terminate the critters that might be adhering to our below water surfaces. He won't be swimming to check on account of more warnings of shark nurseries!

Crew of Zofia aboard Marilyn.

Photo courtesy of Brenton Walker - SV Promise II

Our plan was coming together nicely. Our vision was to celebrate The Bloke's birthday at the Ulmarra Hotel. We ticked the box and were accompanied by Brenton, a cruising contact first established in 2014 in Port Lincoln (and with several touch-points in between). It's a relatively small community, and yachts keep playing tag up and down the coast.

View of the upgraded Ulmarra jetty.

 Do you think planners have allowed for the once-in-a-100-year flood event?

 Cute little ANZAC Memorial Park on the riverbank and next to the jetty.

Just one of many lizards supervising the Blokes Birthday lunch.

Ulmarra Hotel - A classic country pub.


J's Garden Cafe.
The best coffee in town!

Clarence River Cruise - Step 4 - Lawrence to Brushwood

Known as 'Brushy' to the locals, this became our next stop. Coincidentally this little town also had a pub so The Bloke elected to sample some unscheduled Fish and Chips as part of a pub lunch. How nice to be anchored with cows as our nearest neighbours!

Curious cows supervised Zofia while we docked on the new floating jetty opposite the pub.

Anchored at the fork of South Arm and the main Clarence River Channel.

  

The Brushwood town Triangle. Perhaps geometrically rectangular.

 

   

Early morning river mist.

Zofia in the mist.

Courtesy of Brenton Walker.