Accomplishing more jobs in a week than we'd normally knock off in a month, we thoroughly enjoyed our week in Newcastle. Although we'd promised our son to be in Newcastle for the week he'd be there with his work, we needed fill in a week, to escape and do some 'cruising'. Port Stephens, just 25nm away and the oft spoken of birthplace of Captain Paul's catamaran 'Wendera' beckoned. A week of floating about and escaping the 'big smoke' seemed very appealing.
Leaving it all behind.
Busted!
so we asked the VMR to inform the Port Authority.
Nobby's Head.
Yes, truly.
While 'noserlies' were not forecast, we found the wind a bit fluky as we progressed through the Stockton Bight. We also seemed to encounter a number of eddies in the current, so progress was a bit stop-start, stop-start and the sea state a little strange. Our cutter rig makes tacking annoying as the headsail has to be almost completely furled to get it to cross over during a tack. Our rum ration was earned for the day and eventually we said 'bugger it' and motored in.
Dramatic land forms on the way in.
Although the entrance to Port Stephens isn't actually a bar crossing, there is quite a tidal current (rip) and towards low tide, some of this stuff really stands up on the sand banks.
After all the hustle, we were happy to stay our first night in Shoal Bay despite it being quite rolly. (Rolly Shoaly they call it). We started off on one of the 4 public moorings but due to the full moon and extremely low tide (plus the rolling) we decided against floating on a wet lawn and flirting with trouble, anchoring instead, in some deeper water on the other side of the jetty. It gave us a better view back through the entrance, the better to enjoy the full moon rise over the foot of Mt Tomaree.
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