Category: Australia (Page 4 of 5)

Exploring the Coffs Coast

June 24, 2020 / fiandadrian

By Fi

We arrived in Coffs Harbour International Marina on the 22nd of May, and as of writing this a month later, we’re still enjoying the atmosphere and the weather here in Coffs. We’re in no hurry to move, as the borders are still closed, and we’re waiting for the perfect weather window to head north to Yamba. Both Adrian and I have spent time on the Coffs Coast in the past. Me as a toddler learning how to swim and ride my bike, staying at my grandparents house in Toormina, and Adrian as a young adult training for the Canoe Polo team, and working a part time job when his parents lived near here. We were both keen to see some of the places we knew and loved.

But first, friends! With COVID19 restrictions relaxing a little, we had a welcome visit from some friends! We spent one day with some friends having little boat tours, eating some yummy burgers at the local chargrilled burger place called “Attitude”, and soaking up the warm winter weather with an icecream and going for a walk’along the jetty and foreshores discovering the history of the place. Then another day more friends and more boat tours! Was so great to see people!

“Coffs” was “discovered” by Europeans, namely John Korff, originally as a safe haven in 1847. Soon after, its proximity to fine timber was realised, and given the troubles of getting large logs onto large ships off the beach, a jetty was proposed. The jetty here was completed in 1893 (after a few set backs given the NSW coast’s ability to pick up the waves and winds and storm down on these settlements). Soon after this the walls of the harbour were also constructed, evolving into the marina and harbour we now see. There’s a load more history and well worth the trip here.

We hired some bikes, and took a loop ride around Coffs Creek which was gorgeous, and the next day did the 20km round trip to Boambee Creek, where I spent idealic summers learning to swim, discovering the crabs and fish, going for explorations with my cousins over the railway bridge and out to the scary surf beach. It all seemed a lot smaller now I’m grown. Bernie ran next to Adrian the whole way, and had a swim with us at Boambee Creek, and was still wanting more when we got back to the boat.

The next day we left for a quick trip to Sydney to see family, and on our way back north we couldn’t pass up an opportunity to visit Scotts Head. This is very close to where Adrian’s family lived and we got to catch up with more friends! The beach is off leash and so the doggies had a great time eating sand and chasing balls. We also took Bernie out to visit Eungai Creek Buffalo farm for lunch. Well worth the trip. We had their persian fetta, buffalo lasagne, and a buffalo curry for lunch, and took home some milk (which is delightfully creamy), extra feta and some steaks. So freaking yummy.

So then we were back in comfy warm Coffs, settling in to a routine of dog walking, boat jobs and making some yummy food with our haul from Sydney and the Buffalo farm. Here’s Bernie and I enjoying the off leash area at Coffs Creek. We still have his floating fetch things (“bumpers”) from when we were trying to teach him to be a proper gun dog. Given we all failed at gun dog stuff, the bumpers make great fetch toys. The Sunday marina markets here are excellent and we’ve loved the fresh veges, macadamia nut spread, pickled garlic, cured meats, bananas and avos. Adrian’s also taken some time to connect our AIS (the system that means we can see other boats and they can see us) to our old, but big VHF antenna, make the outside speakers work with the VHF radio and also install me a new magnet board so I can collect magnets because I love it, and I don’t know why – but every place we go I get a magnet, for years now. I have hundreds and just started a new board for our cruise.

After all the land based travelling, both of us were keen to get out on to the water again, and so we planned a nice day to sail out to South Solitary Island to do a loop and take a look. The island, whilst not overly “remote” (you can see it from land easily) would have been a harsh place to live when people were occupying it. The shore is basically sheer cliffs all around, and to get people and goods onto the island, they had to pick calm seas and also build a large crane, the remnants of which still remain. Now, if there is work to be done, or the rare tourist is booked to visit the island, a helicopter is used. The island has a lighthouse, and it is the lighthouse keeper and their families that occupied this island for almost 100 years up until 1975 when the lighthouse was automated. It is a very special marine sanctuary as well, and given how it is fed from the East Coast Australian Current, contains a variety of temperate, sub tropical and tropical species. We saw a green sea turtle and numerous whales and birds on our quick trip.

Speaking of protect marine areas, the Coffs Harbour Marina is also a protected area, and there are strict rules on fishing and pollution in the marina. These rules have meant that on our little walks out of the marina we have seen an abundance of marine life in the clear marina waters. We have seen spotted eagle rays, mullet, bream, mangrove jacks, flathead, dolphins and a bunch of colourful tropical looking fish that I wouldn’t hazard a guess of the name. Apparently wobbegong sharks also frequent the marina. We never could get a good photo, so here is a beautiful sunset.

We also took time out to visit the botanic gardens. Once a dilapidated landfill site, the place has been transformed into a wonderland of landscaped gardens and plants from all over the world. I was particularly in love with the super healthy roses, and Adrian took this fantastic picture of an upturned tree. There was even a family connection as John Wriggly (Adrian’s mothers cousin) created the original design for the botanic gardens in 1979.

Every day we are planning our trip to Yamba by checking the weather in PredictWind (our weather program). It will be a longish day – about 12 hours, and we need to time it perfectly to get through the Yamba bar at the best time of tide, which is 3 hours after low tide. This is when the waters are at their best to navigate over the sand bar, and into the Clarence river. Coffs has treated us so well, and I can see why we so easily spent a whole month here!

Guess the anchor location?

June 12, 2020 / fiandadrian

By Adrian

I snapped this photo of the chart plotter after 24 hours anchored at Broughton Island. It shows how the boat moved as the wind changed direction. Any guesses where the anchor is?

If you look closely you can see where we came in checking the depth and looking for a sandy spot to drop the anchor, and then looped back with anchor ready.

Over the next 24 hours the wind swung around the compass and we stayed up watching the anchor and the conditions.

When we drop the anchor we reverse against it to make sure it digs in. But what happens when the wind or tide spins us in the opposite direction like this? A good anchor (hopefully the new one we have installed) will pull up and then reset in the new direction. But there are examples where they don’t reset with very messy consequences. Anchors drag along the ground, taking the boat with them, potentially into neighbouring boats, or onto ground.

In this case we started 160m off the beach with 30m to the anchor. The wind was blowing from the south, which means if the anchor was to drag, we would drag out towards the sea which is the safest option. So when the wind blew us round 180 degrees (which we were expecting and ready for) we would end up 100m from the beach if the anchor stayed stationary. This is a lee shore and its not ideal.

We watched closely for any anchor drag. As best we can tell the anchor moved less than 10m as we spun around and it dug in again. A good result and hopefully it work as well in mud and other substances.

Laurieton to Coffs Harbour

May 25, 2020 / fiandadrian

We tied up to the pier outside the United Servicemans Club in Laurieton. Its free for a few days and they have a hot shower and toilets…very welcome. Oh and a coffee shop. And ordinarily a club serving cold beers, but in COVID19 world, its closed of course.

Most days someone came to the pier to say hello to the visiting yachties. Some days we did little else but talk to and learn from these more experienced sailors. From the young guy who had sailed a Janeau 36 from Sydney to Gladstone, the local who knew the safe line across the bar to the guy who grew up in Sydney building his own boats and competing in Sydney to Hobarts.

The BIG news was Fi’s fishing success. After a bunch of just under the limit bream, this chap turned up for lunch, lightly fried with some salt and pepper.

We went for a big walk to the Dunbogan Boat Shed for coffee and beyond to the surf beach where Bernie was delighted to run, splash and consume large amounts of sand. We were picking up little piles of sand posing as poos for a day.

Of course there are always a list of boat jobs to complete. After arriving at Laurieton we found water in engine compartment. Like, a lot. The bilge is almost always dry in Addictive, but we found that after long periods of following seas the engine bay has some water (Fi is editing this and says “a lot”). We soon traced it to the cockpit drains that needed re-sealing and tightening, which was straight forward apart from the contortions required to reach around behind the inside of the cockpit.

A weather window appeared for us to leave and head up the coast to Coffs Harbour. Crossing the Laurieton bar and arriving at Coffs in the day light meant sailing overnight again. The bar was mostly calm as we crossed at 4:30pm

We headed up the coast towards Port Macquarie as the sun set. Not enough wind to sail but knew there would be a be blow during the night.

By Hat Head the wind had picked up and we were under sail again, but soon reefing down the sails and then dropping the main as the wind increased to 20-25 knots, with stronger gusts. It quickly became like the set of one of those old movies where they throw buckets of water from just off camera. Fi stayed indoors and watched the chart plotters and placated Bernie as Adrian watched the sails and seas, and enjoyed the good test of his foulies.

The wind moderated before dawn and as the sun rose we increased sail and had a beautiful sail up the mid north coast. Bernie was invited on deck to sniff a new part of the world and clean up the crumbs from snacks consumed during the night.

At about 10am we entered the harbour at Coffs and headed straight for our assigned berth. After a long salty night we savoured some champagne and oysters for breakfast and a well deserved snooze.

We’ll likely stay in Coffs for a few weeks. Fi spent summer holidays here with her family and so we’re planning a nostalgia visit to Nan’s old house, and Boambee Creek where she learned how to ride a bike and swim. So far, the burgers are excellent, the fish coop is fresh, and the beach is doggy friendly and off the lead so Bernie is getting some great running and swimming in!

Broughton Island to Laurieton

May 20, 2020 / fiandadrian

Laurieton was going to be our first bar crossing in NSW to enter the Camden Haven river. These shallow river entrances can be very dangerous to cross (google NSW bar crossings for some great youtube fun). There are safer times to cross when the swell is low and the outflow from the river is not strong.

To arrive in daylight and 3 hours after low tide we needed to leave Broughton island at around 11pm and arrive about midday the next day. After pulling up the anchor we followed our waypoints between shallow shoals and out into open ocean. I found it surprisingly easy to get off course on a dark night with no landmarks.

There were several other yachts heading in the same direction that kept us company for most of the night. AIS again proved invaluable in determining how far away they were as this is difficult to judge from their lights. We navigated way off the coast where there are less hard things to run into.

We had good steady sailing conditions all night. Dawn brought schools of dolphins to accompany us along the coast.

We put a fishing line out but seemed to attract more birds than fish. Fortunately no birds managed to catch it, also, no fish.

Perpendicular Point provided shelter from the southerly swells to drop the sails and line up for the bar crossing. Whilst the bar crossing was uneventful, there were still people there filming us crossing, presumably expecting some event. Despite being tired we managed to smile, wave and look suitably nautical in our brand new foulies.

This is view toward the breakwaters on either side of the bar. There were no breaking waves, but it was not nearly as flat as it looks here.

After a short motor up the river the Marine Rescue team directed us to the pier in front of the United Servicemans Club where we tied up, enjoyed our arrival beer and relaxed. We reflected on our passage, and noted that we got a lot of things right such as our sail plan, but we also learned a lot, such as not to kick out the autopilot power cord while attempting to reef the headsail in the middle of the night, going the wrong direction towards land, really fast. But overall, first overnighter, first anchoring in open water and first bar crossing…tick.

Port Stephens and Broughton Island

May 16, 2020 / fiandadrian

By Fi

Fame Cove – Port Stephens

We spent a few days in Fame Cove, enjoying the serenity of this quiet little bay. Eagles flying overhead, fish jumping, and the daily visit from a pod of dolphins who would come in and get their breakfast.

We spent our days fishing, finishing off some boat jobs, looking around the creek to the end of the bay that was only accessible in high tide, and watching the amazing sunsets. It really was the bay for sunsets and every day they continued to amaze us.

Left: Cooked blue swimmer crabs
Right: Processed crab

We caught 2 good sized blue swimmer crabs one morning and enjoyed them for lunch. The recipe is stir fried blue swimmer crabs courtesy of the Sydney Seafood School cookbook. We had to ad-lib a bit as we can’t duck to the shops to pick up the perfect ingredients, but the substitutes worked, and with such fresh seafood, a cold glass of wine, and a beautiful vista, who cares!

The Auto-Tiller repair was one job that we needed to prioritise, as we knew our next leg would likely be an overnight and we need our third crew member on overnight passages particularly. Coming up from Newcastle, the auto tiller repeatedly jumped out of its cradle, which was distracting. Adrian fashioned a new mount for the end of the tiller from some marine ply we have onboard, and some epoxy and fibreglass. Its not pretty, but its super solid and that’s what we need.

Left: Bernie looking soaked after an accidental fall in,
Right: Bernie swimming to Fi on Addictive from the beach

And not to be outdone by the sunsets, seafood and boat jobs, Bernie took it upon himself to have 2 unapproved swims, the first, when he decided to jump into the dingy, then while trying to get back on board the yacht, fell in, and the second when he was on the beach with Adrian, he decided he would swim all the way back to his Mum on the big boat. Adrian couldn’t keep up with him rowing. He had a great time that day, not so much when he accidentally fell in. Little guy is getting more and more confident with his new lot in life which is great.

Shoal bay. Addictive is in this photo on the right hand side, second boat in.

Shoal Bay – Port Stephens

After a few days of chill at Fame Cove, we set sail for a little bay on the southern side of Port Stephens near the entrance called Shoal Bay. We sailed all the way there, enjoying some really perfect conditions and a sunny day. After picking up a mooring ball, we had some fish and chips and a coffee on shore, then went to walk up to the headland. Unfortunately with COVID19, the walk was closed so no luck. Instead we tried our luck at fishing in the clear waters there. Also no luck. Until next time little fishies.

Broughton Island

Shoal Bay is close to the heads of Port Stephens, meaning the next day we could just pop out the heads, travel up the coast for a couple of hours and arrive at a gorgeous island called Broughton Island. The sand was white, the swells were low, the water was like glass and I couldn’t wait to get onshore and explore. Its a bird sanctuary, so little Bernie was confined to the boat with a peanut butter filled Kong, as Adrian and I went and explored. After trying my hand again at a little fishing onshore, it seemed like I would have more enjoyment in the water itself, so after a tentative moment of “ooooh, it is a little chilly” I got used to the cool water and enjoyed a little float in the turquoise.

Rounding the island to our anchorage on the left

We spent about 32 hours here soaking up the sounds and smells of this gorgeous place. Our next leg, however, was calling, and so time for some final planning and checks, for our departure at 11PM on the 13th May. This leg, we will sail from Broughton Island, overnight to Laurieton, which is just south of Port Macquarie, and just north of Taree. Its our first overnight sail by ourselves, so we’re a little apprehensive and over preparing, so watch this space for our write up of our experience!

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Newcastle for a while

May 7, 2020 / fiandadrian

By Fi

We arrived at the Newcastle Crusing Yacht Club marina at about 6PM on the 27th April. We were pretty tired after a big day in conflicting seas, so put the boat to bed, had a nice hot shower and some take away Thai food – and a beer.

We would spend the next 8 days tucked up in this lovely marina, exploring Newcastle and naturally, doing boat jobs. Here we are safely in our berth.

While in Newcastle, we went for some pretty big walks. I never realised how lovely Newcastle was. I grew up not far away in the northern most suburbs of Sydney, and always perceived Newcastle to be an industrial town dedicated to big ships and coal. What we discovered was a gorgeous city with amazing coffee and food (OMG the oysters), beautiful views and ocean pools, and parks and gardens to walk through.

The “Bogey Hole” (shown here) is a super cool ocean pool built by convicts around 1819 for Major James Morrisett, the Commandant of Newcastle at the time. It was of course unfortunately closed due to COVID19 (as were the beaches, museum and most shops).

We took a long walk to a chandlery (about an hour each way) to get a new fresh water pump as ours had packed it in completely just before we left Pittwater. It was a cheap water pump and therefore we replaced it with something more robust. And in particularly exciting news, I had a tea cosy made by the wonderful Alie Jane designs so my tea in the mornings stays warm in the pot. I’m rather beside myself with happiness for such a simple improvement! Plus its cute.

We chose to stay in Newcastle for longer than we had planned (and enjoy hot showers), as just after we arrived, the winds picked up to gusts between 20-35 knots for a few days, and once that calmed down, the seas were up to almost 4m which in our sized boat isn’t really an option to be going out in (for us, for now anyways). We started planning out leaving time once we saw the swells were due to drop. We still want to head north so that we can get into QLD as soon as we are able to when the border opens. With that in mind, we mapped out some options for a few north heading trips, the first one being to Port Stephens. So, after some preparations and provisioning we left at 9AM on the 6th May, dancing around a couple of freighters as we exited the port.

Military jets buzzed along the coast at low level heading to nearby Williamstown airfield. Adrian captured this absolutely stunning shot of two low flying jets passing overhead.

We arrived in Port Stephens to a welcoming party of a pod of dolphins! We elected to enter at low tide as time leaving Newcastle coincided with this, and also we knew then the tide would be coming in so if we were to touch bottom, we’d eventually be lifted off. As it were, following the lead lights that guide vessels in to port, and then following the marked channel, keeping a good lookout and checking the chart and chart plotters, we made it in with no issues and no anxiety. Future port entries up the coast will be over bars, and so we will be planning things differently for them.

We have chosen to stay at a mooring in a place called “Fame Cove” which is a lovely protected area. Now that we are here, we will review our plans to head north based on the presiding weather conditions at sea. We’d like to go to Broughton Island, as well as get the chance to look around Port Stephens.

Pittwater to Newcastle

May 2, 2020 / fiandadrian

The day had come, and we planned to leave the gorgeous cliffs, flat waters, fish (no fish) and vistas of Pittwater, and head north. We were originally hoping to drop in to Lake Macquarie but a safe entrance on a rising tide would have meant travelling through the night or arriving in the dark which we’re not so keen on at the current point in our sailing adventure. So we picked a day with favourable southerly winds and aimed for Newcastle.

We use a program called “Predict Wind” which provides us with 4 models of how the winds (amongst other things) will affect our journey, and therefore which course we should take and when we should leave. 3 out of 4 of the forecast models had us hoisting the sails and sailing most of the way, leaving at 6am and arriving around 4pm, but the 4th model was correct and we motored much of the way in rolly seas and arrived at dusk.

We noticed this tug that seemed to be pulling a barge gradually catching up with us. Using AIS really helped us with working out which direction they were going and whether or not we’d have a collision. As they passed behind us the ‘barge’ turned out to be the retired Manly ferry ‘Lady Northcott’ being moved to Newcastle.

The final couple of hours almost made up for the motoring (and queasiness) with a a great sail past all the massive ships lined up to enter Newcastle harbour. Although Fi is frowning, she actually really enjoyed this moment on the helm! This is concentration face.

What happened to our flat water sailing in Pittwater?

Adjusting to life on a small boat

April 28, 2020 / fiandadrian

We wake up in some beautiful spots and don’t need to change our background to some exotic location when on Zoom meetings. But whats it like living in a space smaller then many peoples living room?

Washing up at home was stacking the dishwasher. On the boat we have been experimenting with water conservation to see how long we can last without going into port. Washing up is one of the biggest uses of water so we have been washing in salt water (we have lots of that) and rinsing in fresh water. Much less water but its also slow even for two people.

Showering every day…I remember that. To save water, most days we basin wash with a towel and have the occasional camp shower on deck. Bernie gets most of the showers as he has been doing most of the swimming.

Toilets that flush? We have a composting toilet that is really just a box with a fan and some compost. Its surprisingly odourless and just requires a quick turn of the handle after each use. Emptying the wee bucket is a more smelly task! Overall we think its much better than the smells of many (especially sea water) toilets on boats and has freed up lots of storage space (we use that for Bernie’s food so he appreciates it too!).

Living in a small space means everything takes longer as it needs to be set up and put away. Before we set sail we fold up the dinghy, stow the outboard, put everything away inside, fold up the sun shelter, tie down the freezer…you get the idea. The boat converts from a house to sail boat but it all takes time. The biggest adjustment we have found living in a smaller space is making peace with the extra time everything seems to take.

Life would be much easier in this 55ft $2m world cruising boat that pulled up beside us, but for now we are enjoying the challenge of making a small space work for us.

First week out – living on a small boat

April 17, 2020 / fiandadrian

Our first week cruising around Pittwater enabled us to really get to know “Addictive” even better, plus experience how we can change from living in a nice sized house to a small boat. We were able to get more comfortable with our battery consumption, water consumption and food consumption.

We discovered we don’t eat as much as we thought we would (always good to overcater), but that the fresh food we were able to store served us well and there was no wastage. We used about 50 litres of water, which tells me we likely weren’t drinking enough! The batteries can support us easily on sunny days, but a few days of cloud will mean we would need to have run the motor, which we likely will anyways as you can’t sail all the time.

We tried fishing, and discovered we’re not at all that good, although we had success with our crab pot and got a fantastic sized blue swimmer crab which was great with a lemon soy dressing, shallots and some rice noodles. We bent a few forks trying to get the meat out so we’ve since purchased some proper crab eating implements with the hope we can catch some more. Adrian also had some oysters we shucked off the rocks in a little bay which were fresh and delicious! Given he survived, I’m planning to try them next time.

Bernie is settling in really well and having no toilet issues at all, and getting some good swimming exercise. He adores the water, but I don’t so adore salty wet dog inside much to his dismay. We need to keep absolutely on top of this as he’ll bring a tonne of salt and dirt into our small living area which won’t be nice, so he gets rinsed off, made to sit outside until dry, then groomed a little before I’ll let him inside. He’s handling it fine. I’d have to do a whole separate post about doing his business. Its been a journey.

So in conclusion, things are going well and all our preparations have paid off. We definitely need some more guidance on fishing techniques, locations and lures and fortunately have a wealth of knowledge available in my step dad who has since given us two tackle boxes of his fishing gear, and some much needed words of advice. So here’s to the coming weeks and catching some actual fish! Fishing challenge to be continued…

We left the dock!

April 7, 2020 / fiandadrian

We left the marina in Pittwater late Sunday afternoon as the weekend boats were heading back home. It felt good to finally be those live aboard people and not the weekend sailors.

We had a wonderfull sail up Pittwater and the Hawkesbury was deserted. We tacked up the Hawkesbury in a warm evening breeze not worried about arriving after dark as we know this area well.