Episode 68 Brisbane to Port Stephens

 

For Episode 67 of our last blog post, we had spent 7 weeks on the Gold Coast.

The Iran war broke out, fuel was scarce (and crazy expensive) and we battled horrible weather, rain, floods, big seas offshore and constant southerly winds – making it impossible to head south on the planned route to NSW, VIC and Tasmania.

Additionally, we still had lots of jobs to do around Lorelei after the refit, fix and replace a lot of brand-new gear that wasn’t working and troubleshoot a failing fridge.

All the while negotiating the shallow and crazy busy Gold Coast waterways.

And to top it all off, the start of the Kimberley/Abrolhos Islands Cruise Ship season was starting, and Lisa was inundated with work.

We had a few fun times at South Stradbroke Island and got some work done at Jacobs Well, but overall, we didn’t really enjoy it that much and we were glad to leave.

Our route for this episode.

We had made the hard decision to abort heading south and instead stay in the Brisbane area until the fuel crisis was resolved - or we had a week of solid northerly winds.

We tried the southern island anchorages but still battled with the wind against tide dramas that plagued us on the Gold Coast, so we sailed north to the top of North Stradbroke Island to a protected anchorage that we know well called Myora.

Right the end of the last post, we celebrated our arrival there with sunset drinks – before an evening storm – again……

Saturday 21^st March – our first full day at Myora.

We woke to rain squalls, but it cleared and the wind had backed off.
We decided to brave the conditions and put the kayaks in to explore the area.

It was a high tide but falling rapidly with the large spring tides we had that weekend.

We decided to head into the mangrove area first and saw heaps of stingrays in the shallow sandy areas around the trees.

We ventured further along the coastline and wound our way up a channel into the Myora Springs.
This freshwater spring is a popular destination for tourists coming to island and can be accessed by road and water.
We were able to paddle right up to the springs.

It had changed a lot and there Is now a boardwalk and signage.

We were able to walk across the road to the old steps and hop into the spring.
It was super cold but the freshwater shrimp were still there and certainly not shy.
They were climbing on Paul’s shoes!!

We then ventured south to look at the shipwrecks in the area. 
They are mostly underwater at high tide but exposed at low tide.

Mid tide was perfect for the kayaks.

With the tide just high enough, we transited along the edge of the mangroves all the way around to The Little Ships Club which is a popular location on the weekends.

We didn’t fit the required dress code to enter the club, so instead we walked to Dunwich and got a takeaway lunch from the shops there.

We brought it back to the cemetery which was right on the water's edge and opposite the beach where we left our kayaks.

We had lunch on the grass under the lazy Koalas that were sitting in the Gum Trees overhead.

The half decent weather was short-lived, and, on the Sunday, it poured with rain.
We had many squalls with lots of heavy rain and high winds.

A small hobie cat sailing around the bay was hit with a squall.
It sent the cat over and the two people onboard battled for 20 minutes in the wild weather. 

Fortunately, a trailer boat fisherman passed them as the squall dissipated, and he was able to help them get it back up.

For 3 days it rained on and off – with the only upside being full freshwater tanks and the cockpit filled with lots of buckets and tubs.

Needless to say, 4 loads of washing got done on the first fine day. 

When the rain cleared, the boat was nice and clean outside, so Paul spent two days polishing all the stainless-steel outside, the hatch inserts and the new rigging screws.

They all came up very shiny.

Myora is a beautiful and protected spot, but it is very exposed from the W around to the NE.

When we had a short 24 hours of strong W-NW-N winds forecast, we had no option but to leave and head over to Horseshoe Bay at Peel Island.

It was only a few miles, so it wasn’t a long passage. 

We went down past the wrecks and the Little Ships Club.

We did manage to sail with just the headsail and the motor just ticking along at 1000 revs.

In the late afternoon we put the kayaks in and headed into the sandy beach for a walk, swim and kayak.

It’s a long beach so the walk and explore was great.

Lisa found a lot of broken up Turtle shell.

We decided to kayak the length of the beach and head into the protected NE corner.

Just as the sun was getting low, we paddled around to the wreck of the Platypus.

The sun had set by the time we got home. 

We had a nice quiet night there but the next day the wind picked up significantly with gusts up to 30 knots.

Boats from everywhere turned up to anchor and it became really busy.

It was still quite bumpy in the bay and a lot of the boats were moving around a lot.

The only one who was enjoying it was the foil boarder.

It was a difficult day Australia wide and for us on many fronts.

Sydney was coping a hiding with a massive swell from a big low that had developed off the coast.

Terrigal in NSW, where our house is, was belted with the worst swells since the infamous storms of 1974, which washed the caravan park and houses (just opposite Lisa’s family home) into the ocean.

We were a little concerned about that.

Additionally, Cyclone Narelle was battering Exmouth and threatening to hit our home in Geraldton in WA.

Paul’s mum was in full-on preparation mode and was breaking out the generator, packing away the outdoor furniture, bringing in any potted plants and generally locking the place down.

We felt so bad that we were not there to help.

Being a 2-story timber house on a sandhill overlooking the ocean, we were a little concerned as it is very exposed to the elements.

We watched for hours online as it tracked down the coast and battered Coral Bay before heading slightly inland.

Fortunately, the cyclone tracked inland behind Geraldton, and Mum only got winds to 30 knots.

The irony was huge amounts of rain above Geraldton and then huge amounts of rain south of Perth as it tracked down the coast.

Mandurah had over 100mm in less than 24 hours and flooded.

And in the end Geraldton got very little rain and only about 8-10mm at our house.

It was bittersweet.

After the intensely hot summer with temperatures regularly in the 40’s, we were desperately in need of rain for the plants and lawn – and to settle the dust….

Oh well – watch what you wish for.

And the crazy thing - it snowed heavily in the Australian alpine towns that day with record snowfalls for the month of March!!

Only in Australia.........

Our places at Terrigal and Geraldton had both dodged a bullet and we’d survived the strong wind warning in Brisbane on Lorelei.

What a day !!!!  

The sunset that night was quite nice but many of the boaters were on edge as it was forecast to swing back around to the SW and maybe even south during the night which would have put everyone on a lee shore and force most to move anchorage in the middle of the night.

Fortunately, it turned at about 9am the next morning – which was a Saturday.

We left early to get the best anchorage spot at Myora and managed to sail all the way back again with only limited engine running.

On the trip over to Peel Island and back we only used 4 litres of Diesel, so we were in full conservative mode with it being hard to get – and $3.60 a litre!!!

The wind stayed light for the day, so we dropped in the tinny and headed out fishing – but with the 6hp instead of the 30hp to conserve more fuel.

As we were putting in the tinny, there were Eagle wars going on overhead.
A large White Belly Sea Eagle had caught a fish, and the others were desperate to take it. It was very aggressive.

On the low tide we went into shore to pump nippers on the exposed sand banks near the island.

We also headed over to the shallow sand banks that separated the anchorage from the main channel and had a swim and a fly of the drone.

Lisa found lots of Starfish in the shallow sandy areas. 

As the tide came in, we were able to fish with the nippers and very light line.

We caught 7 whiting in total and about 12 other fish (mostly Grinners) that we threw back.
We flew the drone from the tinny too.

Each time we drifted past the cardinal marker, the Cormorants looked at us but didn't move.

Whilst we were out fishing our friends Chris and Helen, and daughter Alice came to visit in their RIB.

Chris (aka Muddy) was Paul’s closest friend when we lived in Brisbane and we spent a lot of time with them boating and kiting.

It was Muddy who really got Paul super hooked into kite boarding.

Paul took his camera gear in the tinny for the day and in the late afternoon, a flock of the Royal Spoonbill birds returned to roost in the Mangrove trees near the entrance to the Myora Springs.

We quietly snuck over in the tinny and managed to photograph them as we drifted in with the motor off.

We were a bit upset when a few flew off as we didn’t want to disturb them, but they simply flew around in a small circle and landed back in front of us again – which made for some great photo opportunities.

The sun was just starting to set as we headed back to the anchorage and Paul took some great sunset shots with the boats in silhouette.

Lisa filleted the whiting and we kept the fish frames for our crab pot the next day. 

We put the crab pot in the next morning and then decided to have the whiting for lunch in the cockpit with a bottle of wine.

In the afternoon we picked up the crab pot to discover 5 crabs in it – but 3 were jenny’s (females) with eggs, so we returned those to the water and kept the 2 males.
It wasn't quite enough for a meal, but it was a start.

Despite being a horrible week and tense Friday, we had the best weekend we’ve had cruising since we left Fraser Island 10 weeks ago.

Hopefully our luck is turning, and things might start getting a little better…..

Hopefully!!

Monday morning, we put the tinny in again and went over to check the crab pot.
This time we had 8 crabs and 5 legal males.

We were stoked!

We’ve always liked eating crabs and we both prefer Sand Crabs to Mud Crabs.

When we were in our early 20’s and lived in Sydney, we used to treat ourselves to crabs at a seafood restaurant called Fishmongers in Manly - and we've eaten them ever since.

That night Lisa made Chilli Crab.

The rain set back in again on Tuesday and we spent a lot of time indoors.

Paul got out the sewing machine and made some new covers and bags.

He made new sleeves for the outboard handles as the covers that came with the outboards left the handles exposed.

The most time-consuming job was a bag for the reefing lines which went onto the main boom.
It was an unusual shape and had to have a mesh panel for drainage at the bottom.

He also made 2 new covers for our kayaks.

The sunsets each night weren’t too bad with all the cloud about.

The Thursday evening before Easter was the full moon and it looked great as it rose over the hills of North Stradbroke Island.

Despite the weather, that evening the boats started to arrive on mass for the Easter Weekend.

By 8pm the bay had over 30 boats.

We expected there to be party’s and celebrations, but by 9pm there were no lights on any boats and you could hear a pin drop in the anchorage.

We figured everyone had had a tough week as most Aussie businesses were going through tough times with the fuel crisis, interest rate hikes, credit card surcharges cancelled that day and many more dramas. 

That night it rained on and off all night and by the morning we had caught over 200 litres of clean freshwater in drums and buckets on top of filling our main tanks.

Yippee – we had loads of water to put though the washing machine and get some clothes washed – if it ever stopped raining so we could dry them….

By lunchtime on Good Friday, there were over 50 boats in the Myora anchorage and overspilling into the Rainbow Channel.

Every man and his dog were there…..

There were a few boats that came unstuck and ran around on the sand bars as the large spring tides caught people out.

By sunset the wind had backed off and the rain had eased.

Paul flew his drone over the anchorage.

We also had another feed of crabs for Good Friday dinner.

On the Saturday the rain back off but the wind was up.

With the high tide, we put the tinny in and meandered along the shallow mangrove lined edge and went all the way down to Dunwich for supplies.

We did a big shop at the small supermarket and local butcher before returning.

The tide had turned, and on the way home we only had inches under the outboard motor as we navigated over the shallow sandbars.

We could’ve gone out into the deeper main channel but it was blowing 20 knots and very rough.

At sunset we had more rain, but the sun was poking through the clouds every now and then, making for some interesting photos.

Fortunately, the rain stayed away for the 8am fireworks display at Dunwich.

We could see it clearly from Lorelei and Paul was able to get some shots.

For the Easter Sunday, the wind was 30 knots, and most of the people in the Myora anchorage stayed on their boats to ride out the windy conditions.

With a week of possible (long awaited) northerly winds, we left Myora on the Easter Monday to sail downwind to The Sandhills which is an anchorage about halfway up the bayside coastline of Moreton Island.

This anchorage used to be our go to place when we lived at Manly in Brisbane.

Paul had the sandboards out and was ready to hit the slopes.
It was 4:30pm by the time we put the anchor down and it was a little bumpy so we decided against going ashore.

The forecast hadn’t changed and the north winds were even stronger further south, so we decided to start prepping for a run to NSW.

We made a stack of Thai and Indian curries to put into the fridge and freezer for meals at sea.
We also baked a few treats and made nut mixes.

The next morning it was onshore, so no going ashore again which Paul was a little bummed about.
Instead, we set sail heading north around the top of Moreton Island before sailing south down to NSW.
It was the first time we had sailed with the new mizzen sail, and Paul wanted to fly the drone and see how it looked.

We sailed up past Tangalooma and the Tangalooma Wrecks.
 Being school holidays, it was packed with boats and 4WD’s on the beach.

The camping areas further up along the island were also very busy.

There were a lot of small bait fish schools with larger fish busting up through them.

Looking back to Tangalooma was nuts!!!

Near the old whaling station, there were new houses and sandbagging that we had not seen before.

We passed a few large commercial vessels as we headed out and said goodbye to the beautiful Glass House Mountains that were in the distance behind northern Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast.

The top of the island is very shallow and we had a bumpy ride over the shoaling sandbars.

The surf break under the lighthouse was very busy with day trippers in 4WD’s.

There was a sailing cat anchored there which was bobbing around violently.
 

Once past the cape, we set sail with our largest spinnaker.
 We headed offshore over the edge of the continental shelf to get the stronger winds and the favourable EAC south setting current.

It was so good to have the new B&G wind gauges finally working and it was our first decent sail with them.

The gamble paid off and the wind increased in strength into the late afternoon and evening.

As darkness fell, the wind slowly went from NE to N then NW which meant we had to gybe and head back in.

As we gybed, we realised we were now heading due south which was perfect.

Additionally – we were absolutely flying and sitting at constantly 10-12 knots.

This constant speed is unheard of in Lorelei.

For sure we’ve surfed down waves faster than that but never maintained that speed.

It felt surreal.

We could only assume a fast south setting current, perfect wind and swell angle, new sails and a big spinnaker with a freshly sand-blasted and painted hull were all contributing to the speed.

We kept walking outside to feel if it the rig and sheet ropes were stressed or we were overpowered, but it seemed ok.

But we were dubious…. 

3 hours later and as we hit speeds over 12 knots, we decided enough of pushing it, and we dropped the spinnaker, dropped the mizzen, reefed the main and put out the new no.2 headsail.

It still felt very balanced but much more relaxed, despite still doing over 8 knots – which was just fine. 

By daybreak we were 45nm offshore in 4500m water depth and east of Byron Bay.

We couldn’t believe how far we had travelled in one night.

At daybreak the wind had dropped off, so we put the spinnaker up again – and carried it right through until midnight that night.

We saw a few container ships and even 2 cruise ships, but nothing came too close.

We did see an unusual drum that was floating with things tied to the side of it.
We didn't want to know anything about it......

At sunset we had very nice conditions, so we sailed on with the spinnaker up and a reef in the main just in case the wind did pick up.

 

Instead of picking up, the wind dropped out at midnight.
We lowered the sails and motored south.

Daybreak brought very calm and oily conditions.

There were lots of Shearwater birds both flying around and sitting on the calm surface.

We even saw an Egret, which was very unusual being that far off the coast.

We saw Dolphins, Pilot Whales and even False Killer Whales.

Paul decided to break out the trolling rods and tow some large pelagic lures.

We motored until about 2pm when the wind finally kicked in and we started to sail again.

We were east of Port Macquarie and decided to head slowly back towards land.

But that also meant heading towards the main shipping channel.

On sunset we came very close to a small freighter.

At sunset, we could now see land and the hills behind the town of Laurieton.

By 8pm we were in the thick of a large number of commercial boats.
The wind was increasing and we still had the spinnaker up.

We gybed to avoid a collision course with one ship and decided to drop the spinnaker and put out the no.2 headsail.

That angle then put us on a collision course with another container ship, so we waited until the last minute and gybed again.

It was getting hairy, windy and a bit nerve wracking.

We found ourselves squeezed in between about 8 boats that were all closing in on us. They wouldn’t have been able to deviate much in their course for risk of hitting one another, so it was up to us to avoid all of them.

We ran through so many potential angles of sail, but each one put us dangerously close to a ship.
It was getting a bit frantic and it was pitch black as the moon wasn’t up yet.

It was also getting very rough and Paul was getting sick.

As the boats closed in, the wind shifted about 20 degrees forcing us back out to sea further and making it even worse.

We quickly gybed back into shore.

The 20-degree knock now meant a 20-degree lift on the new tack.
 We were now running with the swell which was way more comfortable.

We thankfully sailed out of the hole we were in and past 8 of the 9 ships.

To clear the last one, it meant a daring push to sail across in front of its bow as it was travelling in roughly the same direction as us.

The wind and speed held, and we passed in front of it with less than a mile to spare.

We were ecstatic to see the light on the bulk carrier change from port to starboard, meaning we had passed over it and were now in safe waters near Seal Rocks

 Phew!!!!!!!

We held that tack and angle of sail all night and sailed through the heads of Port Stephens at about 4:30am.
Neither of us had any sleep that night.

We slowly sailed into the bay and stopped to fly the drone just before sunrise as the orange glow of the sunrise offset the silhouette of the headlands that flank the entrance.

We sailed west past Soldiers Point and anchored up in a bullet proof anchorage called Fame Cove.

We arrived at 6:30am on the Friday morning after travelling 520nm (965km) in 70 hours which was an average speed of 7.42 knots.

Needless to say, we had a decent cooked meal in the cockpit and slept most of the day…

Paul did manage to fly the drone over the cove before we went to bed.

When we flew the drone, we found a great little inlet up the back of the cove that showed potential for a kayak.

On the Saturday’s high tide, we put the kayaks in to explore the area.

We found lots of man-made rock groins around the edge and even a little BBQ & camping area.

The inlet was shallow with a lot of rocks covered in oysters, so we had to be careful.

We went up into the mangroves as far as we could until we were stopped by a rock bar and couldn’t go any further.

There was an old road on both sides of the rock bar.

On the way home, the wind had backed off, and we were able to paddle out to the rocky entry points of the cove and explore, before paddling back in towards Lorelei.

The sunsets from the cove are spectacular as the entrance faces west.

The next day, and following few days, it was blowing 20 knots from the west.

It is the only wind direction that makes the cove uncomfortable, so we moved 1nm over to the east side of Soldiers Point.

It was really windy on the crossing.

Once in behind the point, it was well protected.

We decided to kayak ashore to go for a walk and find somewhere nice for lunch.

We managed to find a Thai restaurant in the little shopping area.

For the afternoon, we walked around the track at Wanda Headland.

We saw the Young Endeavour tall ship come into the bay for the sail regatta.

Monday was the first day of the 3-week long Sail Port Stephens Regatta.
The event attracts racing yachts from all over Australia and even some international boats.

The first week is the premier racing division of the Commodore’s Cup.
The subsequent weeks are the cruising divisions, sport boats and even events for sailboards and smaller sail craft.

Monday saw 15 knots of wind and the course was going right past Soldiers Point where Lorelei was moored.

It was the perfect vantage point.

The next day we motored over to the Corlette anchorage which was closer to the shops and the turning buoy for the racing on day 2.

The turning buoy was rounded twice by the boats – once for a reaching mark and once again for a downwind returning mark.

Paul was able to take photos of them sailing both directions.

On the way tacking up to the mark, the boats came very close to Lorelei.

The wind was light at the start and became lighter during the race.
By the end of the race, the boats were only ghosting along.

In the afternoon we took the tinny into the beach and walked 20 minutes up to the Salamander Bay Shopping Village.

By the time we got home, the wind had dropped right out, and Paul was able to fly the drone at sunset.

Wednesday afternoon and evening was the Sail Port Stephens Street Party at the D’Albora Marina precinct in Nelson Bay.

As it was really calm, we took the tinny ashore and caught the bus into town for the event.

Coming home at night was cold and Paul had to swim out to the tender as it was high tide. He was shivering badly by the time we got home.
Needless to say, it was straight into the hot shower for him once he got back onto Lorelei.

The next day was the last day for the Valerie Taylor exhibition which was on display at Shoal Bay.

Paul grabbed his skateboard and went shopping at the chandlery and Jaycar before catching the bus to Shoal Bay.

The exhibition was very basic with only a few banners depicting Valerie and a few others about the local area.

It was a beautiful day to explore Shoal Bay.

Friday's forecast was for a 30-knot southerly blow, expected around 10pm.
At 5pm we packed down outside and tied down the kayaks and sups. 

The sunset was stunning with a near glass out.

The southerly did hit at about 9pm.

The large powerboat next to us dragged anchor for about 300m out into the bay, but we were fine.

By daybreak on Saturday, it was only about 15 knots and a nice day.

We decided to launch the kayaks and paddle along the mangrove lined southern shoreline which was very protected from the SW winds.

We went past a lot of oyster leases in the shallows.

The Mambo Creek leads under a bridge and into the Mambo Wetlands.
We ventured up as far as we could go.
The area is a sanctuary zone, and the estuary was filled with thousands of small prawns.

On the way out we could see the yachts from the last race of the Commodore Cup starting to round the headland and arrive in the bay.

We paddled out to watch them sail past.

Further into the bay was the rounding mark for them to head downwind and set their spinnakers.

With 15-18 knots of wind, it was exciting to watch.
Some of the faster race orientated boats were doing speeds over 20 knots as they rocketed past us with their asymmetrical spinnakers or code zeros.

We decided to set our kayak sails and sail downwind beside them.

Lisa won the “Sail Port Stephens Kayak Sailing Division"!
Only because Paul was not concentrating on sailing and taking photos instead…… 😊

We headed into shore to Soldiers Point for a leg stretch as we had been seated in the kayaks for over 3.5 hours.

The way home was into the wind the whole way and we paddled under the wharf before sticking close to the shore to escape the wind and chop.

We paddled over 9km and were gone for 6 hours.

By the time we got home, it was getting cold (and so were we...), so we put up the new rear cockpit cover to enclose the cockpit.
It was the first time we had used it (aside from trialing it on the hard stand in Bundy) and it made the cockpit so much warmer.

Lisa decided to make a hotpot soup in the cockpit for dinner, and it slowly simmered away while we had a few drinks and watched the sunset from inside our warm bubble.

So that's it for this episode of Lorelei's sailing adventures.

We are loving being in Port Stephens and all it has to offer.

It's sooo much easier to get to the shops, public transport, activities and move anchorages compared to Fraser Island, Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

We plan to stay at least a few weeks longer and start getting our dive gear out and hopefully for Paul, some kite boarding too.

Maybe even an explore offshore and some fishing/spearing at Broughton Island if the weather allows.

We are still committed to heading south - just very slowly.

So that's it for now.

Paul and Lisa

Yacht Lorelei