Bloody Northerlies

After the Clarence we headed north again towards the Gold Coast. This despite the persistence of the Northerlies. Every transient in the marina was heading south with the whales so we are definitely the odd ones out. But we had a good time in the region including an unlikely find - a good Mexican restaurant. Also visited the Yamba yacht club and had a few beers with the locals.

Sailed along merrily for about 5 hours and then the wind began to die and become variable. The helms person suffered the indignity of an involuntary 360 circuit in the middle of the night - no names, no pack drill. Motored (again) up to the Gold Coast seaway with a little bit of sailing possible in the last couple of hours. No problem crossing the seaway bar and we headed to Wave Break Island to plan our next move. That spot proved vulnerable to afore mentioned Northerlies so we upped anchor and headed down to Bums Bay which proved much more comfortable despite a crowd with the same idea.

Our tide calcs suggested an early departure to ensure we hit the shoal areas as close to high as possible. The seaway is a pretty run although in the three years since I was last there it has become more developed and busy. Marinas everywhere and boats anchored all over the place. Our calcs proved pretty accurate and although we graduated from those "about to hit the bottom" to "those who have" at Steiglitz we did no damage and power on fixed the problem. Lots of dredging going on all up the seaway so a good chance to test our day shapes knowledge. The dredge operators are obviously tired of dickheads so they have a big sign on each end of the dredge "PASS THIS SIDE". Sort of makes the shapes redundant really. 

We took an unusual route East of Macleay island into Moreton Bay which meant a long run into Manly but we made it largely on schedule around midday after a 12 hour run. They put us in a berth 2 doors down from where the boat was berthed when we bought it - full circle. 

Northerlies had almost beaten us and we discussed leaving he boat here for the summer but we then decided we'd press on and the next stop is planned for the southern end of Fraser Island. About a 22 hour run for us (against the Northerlies!) and we'll likely drop the anchor in Pelican Bay before traveling  through the Great Sandy straits - more tide calcs. After we get through the great sandies we'll terminate the 2016 jaunt in  Bundaberg where the boat stay till about March. We have to stop because we're running out of Hunter Valley reds, thirsty business this sailing 

Got the tides wrong!