WEEK 4 Gold Coast to Fraser Island

After leaving the Gold Coast we meandered up the inside waterways to Russell Island with the hope of catching up with Laurie and Kay, our "old" (only you Laurie) boating mates from our trip up here in 1994 and 95 when their little Tony was about 2.  Great to see little Tony again, now over 6ft and 21 and not forgetting dear little Jane (also not so little now) The always welcoming Griffins picked us up and took us back to their home for dinner where we met a lovely lady called Sue who lives on her beautiful boat in Malaysia, actually in Kota Kinabalu where we spent a week once on the way to England. We were telling her how a movie scene was being shot at the time we were there, in the hotel we were staying in. Starring Danny Glover and Gene Hackman, we still have photos of Danny in the pool with his arm around Grant who was about 10 at the time. Not to be outdone, I have a photo of me with the lovely Gene Hackman, it was very exciting at the time but the movies "Bat 21" was a bit of a fizzer.  It was nice to have a KK connection and hear of Sue's boating adventures in Asia. She travels home to Australia a few times a year and it was lovely to meet her and we had a great night, and a  great dinner with great friends.

After an IGA visit at Russell we again took off along the waterways heading towards Brisbane and had a night just off the beach at Peel Island.  Same again the next day, spending the night out on the point of Bribie Island ready for an early take off for Mooloolaba.  We passed Caloundra and did a left hand turn at the Mooloolaba breakwall.  Gave Grant Kenny a wave as we passed his mansion (sad Lisa's gone) and had a lovely free tie up on a private pontoon thanks to Bill & Jill who we met and became friends with while boating up to the reef in '94.  They were a wonderful help, getting Col to Whitworths for a new marine radio (other one sort of died on us) as well as having a hot yummy roast lamb dinner ready for us. Again, sadly, just like the Gold Coast we have to leave straight away and head for Wide Bay Bar and Fraser Island. (Your fault Trude, (only joking) it's foot down on the pedal as we zoom up to the Whitsundays ready for your visit onboard) It's at this stage that we start to relax a bit more with the worst behind us (we hope). From now on right up to Cooktown, Lizard Island etc. there are 100's of little islands & reef to hide behind if we have to.

I have to say that at this stage fabulous Qld is not living up to it's reputation of "beautiful one day, perfect the next".  It's more like "grey, cold and drizzle one day, greyer. colder and more drizzle the next".  To top it off, strong winds are on their way.

FINALLY IT'S GOODBYE NSW & HELLO QLD

I always said I hated "doing" the NSW coast. It well and truly lived up to it's reputation with seas like we've never really seen before and luckily we did not have to experience thanks to secure and safe Coffs Harbour marina.  Finally we escaped early last Sunday with beautiful, quite glassy conditions on a nice gentle swell.

What a difference a day (or 12) makes

Byron Bay lighthouse kept us company through the long night

Mt Warning

This must be Surfers Paradise

Of course in true boating style things started to change as it came onto dark - as it always does.  We had a very eventful, rather uncomfortable night with up to 25knt W/SW but at least we weren't bashing into it.  Capt.Col was head down in one of the engines from 8pm till he gave up at 3am with an Impeller breakdown. Much helpful phone advice from Grant in FNQ, the International Impeller Expert did not even solve the problem, but at least Col (aka Mr ex-Bunnings (Steve) father-in-law) of course had a new spare Impeller on board, (as you do) it's just that he could not manage to insert the temperamental silly little Impeller.  At 10am the next morning I "nicely" (as you could imagine) ordered Captain from the engine room and in exasperation decided there was only one answer to fit a square peg so to speak in a round hole.  Place small piece of Teak timber I found &place over the top of half fitted Impeller, take one hammer in the other hand, deliver two whacks to piece of timber and BINGO, problem solved, Impeller fitted, fixed and all engines GO.  As Sue, my good  friend & ex-boating mate (won't be ex for long) (other half of B2)so eloquently put it  "when in doubt, give it a clout" - works every time as she well knows (think Byron Bay anchorage 2002)  Speaking of Byron Bay.  Capt Col remarked that we were the first people to see the sunrise that morning being the only ones at that time off Australia's most eastern point.  Kept going the long slog past Mr Warning, Kingscliff, Tweed, Coolangatta and as is the norm for us, darkness appears as we start hunting for the Gold Coast Seaway entrance lights, amongst the thousands of pretty coloured twinkling Surfers Paradise lights dotted along the ocean front.   As one does at Seaway entrances, I had to, figuratively speaking, "jump ship" & leave Col to navigate on his own as I was not going to miss watching "The Voice" Grand Final. Important things first.  Finally we got a cosy little spot in the mudhole (it's nice really) near SeaWorld and as we were zombies at this stage after being up 48+hours I don't remember much more than a hot shower.  When we did open our eyes next morning it was this that we saw out our bedroom window. We love the Gold Coast.


Due to our 2 week delay we have sadly had to leave straight away & it's all steam ahead up the inland waterways to BrisVegas. Mez I"ll put the kettle on, better still, pop a cork.  More Gold Coast later, on the way back. Trying then to get to Moolooaba (Bill, here come the Mexicans) & beat the northerlies due Thurs.  Trudy & co are due the Whitsundays in under 3 weeks, thinking we won't quite be there by then, but see how we go.

Out of my bedroom window - We've always loved Surfers 

WE LIKE COFFS HARBOUR, BUT 10 DAYS LATER......this is ridiculous

Well, we never did get away on Saturday. It's now Wednesday and we have become a permanent fixture here at the Coffa Harbour Marina. The waves are still crashing over the break-wall, but we manage to dodge them each day as we go for our daily walk to check the ocean and/or go for little outings into town for lunch or a shop.  Other than that, it's been extremely cosy inside the boat thanks to Col packing the bar heater and we have had a lovely, restful, almost 10 days.

The long weekend here at Coffs was H U G E and luckily for us, most of the fun and games was centred down here at the lovely big park right next to the Marina.  There were lots of great markets and excellent food stalls, 60's revival bands with many people, young and old dressed in their finest and at times hysterical 60's gear.  Col enjoyed checking out about 100 beautifully restored cars from the 40's, 50's and 60's including finding the replica 1957 Chevrolet that he borrowed from his father to take me on our first date when I was 16.            O M G ...... unbelievable.

Grampy's 1957 Chevvy -  We went to the "Pictures" on our 1st date

As Yamba and Ballina bars from past experiences are quite YUCKY, we are planning very carefully our exit from here which will hopefully be an approx.140nm track straight through to the Gold Coast Seaway. Like we said last week, Friday or Saturday looks pretty good, with seas settled right back down again. Only time will tell.

Hoping our next news will be from Surfers Paradise early next week.

COFFS HARBOUR

Enjoying the rest in Coffs Harbour Marina sheltered behind Mutton Bird Hill.  Fish Co-op is right here, so we are enjoying some fresh seafood.  Have had a few walks along the breakwall, the seas of course are horrendous.  What is it about Coffs Harbour and us. Once before we had been away north on the boat for 6 months and were very excited to get home to the kids for Christmas.  Sure enough, similar situation as now, with huge seas and we were stuck here for 10 days. I"ve enjoyed today however, with my not so new interest in  photography & trying to hone my skills with the new camera and new telephoto lens. Thought I did a pretty good job getting Col about to be drenched along the breakwall.  Todays 6 & 7m waves on a 5-6m swell are down to 1.5 -2m on Friday, (piece of cake) so we will be looking at probably Saturday or even Sunday to head off again.

Should have looked behind Col

You're going to get wet

Not wet socks again

You can just see the waves coming over the entrance rock wall.

Somewhere 18km out from Coffs Harbour we have to get around Sth Solitary Island.
Iolanthe, remember that very LONG night 10 yrs ago.

SWIM IN THE OCEAN OFF HAT HEAD

How very lucky are our friends and families. Not one blog a day, but two. Could not resist sharing in telling you all how damn clever Capt Bligh aka Col is. He is so damn clever, he can sail the whole Pacific Ocean and manage to collide with the one and only damn Fish Trap in the whole damn ocean and get it wrapped around the damn propeller. With knife in mouth, undies and socks on, (socks durrgghh) over he goes.

Hope Helen doesn't  bump the go fast throttle. Better
 hang on
to that floating buoy Jacques Cousteau (Good name WJ)

Big fish float ball there Jacques

Bingo, he had success, all systems go and now at 7.30pm with a nice big full moon we have passed Trial Bay Gaol with about 6 hrs to go till we head into Coffs Harbour to sit out the "as big as Sygna" storm that is approaching tomorrow. That information was relayed to us via Weather Station Mia who also read out a beautiful poem to us about whales that she wrote today.  This one is for you precious, also for Tahla and all the boys. Love Nan Nan & Pop xx

WHALE DAY -9am off Laurieton

Who would have thought 10 years ago on our last trip north that I could now take my whale photos and at the same time send them, straight away over the net to all my very "lucky" family and friends.  You actually are all lucky as I have condensed 47 photos to just a few.
Here we are leaving the river at Laurieton at 6am this morning and within half an hour out to sea our very large friends appeared to give us a wave. We are soon about to pass Port Macquarie and keep going through the night till we get to Coffs Harbour sometime very early tomorrow morning.

Leaving Laurieton at dawn (yes I"m actually up)

There she blows

HELLO HELEN

DAY 4 - LAURIETON Sunday

Just missed the light again as I "surfed" the boat into the Laurieton river entrance as Col got the sail down. Ten years since we were here last and what nice surprises we have encountered. Lovely brand new jetty wharf right at the United Servicemen's Club where you can tie up for FREE, get a key for a long hot shower and go into the club for Roast Pork and shared Banana Split. We are liking this life so far.

Us tied up at safe & sound at Laurieton United Servicemen's Club

This Sunday morning it got even better. Col walked to town to the Servo with his trolley & 2 x 20ltr empty fuel drums and was back within minutes. Why??  Servo lady said "take our car, it's raining and we often lend it to Yachties"  How unbelievable and nice was that. Talk about first class customer service. Col has just gone back with a bottle of wine. We are thinking we have to get out of here around lunch and do an over-nighter & high tail it to Coffs so we can settle in comfortably if we have to wait out some predicted strong winds. Port Macquarie bar is a known nightmare spot (Sue, remember Mahalo coming to grief there)  and I don't fancy anchoring and bobbing around in the surf under Trial Bay Gaol (which we've done before)(OK if the wind is right) so Coffs it has to be.

OVER AND OUT

DAY 3 - Into and out of Forster

We just missed the daylight as we went into Forster/Tuncurry for the first time ever last night. Now we know why we’ve always avoided that particular Entrance, Going in at 6.30pm last night in the dark, the flood spring tide was running at 6knts and at one stage Col had to turn sharp right across the flow/current and almost felt he had no control of the boat. (Not really he now tells me)  As we were heading perilously close to a block wall at the time, this did cause us a moment of slight concern. This morning when leaving, we of course waited till the tide stopped and had no trouble at all. It’s smooth as smooth motor sailing today on just a nice gentle swell, lots of dolphins, not much wind, bits of rain around but all good. Col’s doing some little jobs here and there, like a nice little timber shelf on a bracket to hold my power inverter, screwing in the bracket for the Epirb, checking batteries etc. etc., . I”m busy as well, daily crossword done (tick), cleaned up galley (tick) rested knee (tick) made morning tea then lunch (tick) you get the picture. Have to fit in Nanna nap, 110 Ebooks & my daily hour of crocheting on little Liam's "blankie".  Oh and also today I've taken the 5th phone call from our little 7yr old Mia.. Last call was to tell us they didn’t win Netball 10 –3, it was 11-3. So funny. Glad it’s not us paying the phone bill, John that would be you.   Heading for Laurieton.
OVER AND OUT

DAY 2

Off Dudley - a fat old lazy seal resting in the sunshine on ship's rudder. Hope that's not me in 6 months on the way back.

We "flashed" our way from Dudley to Nelson Bay at 11pm. Here's Bligh with his trusty Led Lensor H14 which Trude and the kids could see all the way for hours.  Had a tear on our last "flash" Trudles. 

Decided not to go into Port Stephens as seas were fairly flat with light breeze.  It made the going a bit slow, specially as we were head on into some pretty strong current.  Had moonlight till about 2am but then it was pitch black & we were hoping the whales were not deaf & could hear our engines. We were  both up till 3am then decided we'd share hour on, hour off. Col hit the sack at 3 and was up on the dot at 4am and off I went for my turn.  Oooops, opened my eyes at 8am.  Poor Col had let me sleep, probably feeling worried about me as I had earlier had a little mishap. My one dicky knee is now 2 after I fell down the 2 steps into the saloon with good leg twisted back & under. Swore I heard a snap as something "went".  I"m no Jessica Watson it seems, but soldier on I will do. A good book, a lie down and a chocolate will help.

Had morning tea off Seal Rocks, heating up the Pea & Ham soup now for lunch and will spend the night at Crowdy Head (jealous Sue???) or Laurieton.  Miss our sailing mates on Iolanthe, she "LOVED" Crowdy Head (not)

Hope Palm Cove is good Liss & Steve. Enjoy lunch with Nina.

Hey Sonny Grant, tell Andy the MOTHERSHIP is O N    H E R    W A Y.

Over and Out