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!