Swansea to Port Stephan’s, 41nmThere was a decent weather window for the return trip back to the Camden Haven arriving, however 4 to 5+ metre seas for the Monday encouraged delaying departure until Tuesday, a gentle W to NW wind was predicted for Tuesday, with seas easing from 3m to 1.5m
Greg from Felicite
, had accepted an invitation to come along for the trip to Port Stephan’s, I was a little worried about having crew, I don’t have crew very often, so I was a bit worried about how I would go with the extra responsibility involved etc. But more importantly I was worried about my mast as apparently when Greg goes sailing on various yachts, the poor yachts have a tendency to spontaneously lose their masts
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Late afternoon on Monday I moved Blue Moon, East along the Swansea Channel through the bridge opening & onto a courtesy mooring on the east side of the bridge, for an early start the next day. In hindsight it would have been better to of stayed on the lake side of the bridge as there was some swell rolling through during the night from the large swell during the day. At least it got us used to the sea motion.
- Moon rise over Swansea Bar
- swansea moonrise.jpg (38.82 KiB) Viewed 5069 times
I rowed into get Greg at 1900 from the Swansea RSL car park, & back to the courtesy mooring against a sweat-inducing incoming tide.
- Moon setting, early morning behind Swansea Bridge
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Next morning we logged on with Marine Rescue with an ETA of 1900, & dropped the courtesy mooring at 0650, another yacht around the 40ft size left a few minutes before heading Sth & onto Port Lincoln SA. The bar was quite flat (it was a gentle out-going tide), once well clear of the bar, we shut off the engine & raised full sail, it was fantastic sailing conditions, a W’erly about 10-12kts.
Soon we could see some high peaks, that we thought might be Tomaree & Yaccaba Hds, were they….weren’t they….?, we both changed our minds until we placed a bet on it!, Greg I still owe you that beer!
They turned out to be some inland peaks.
The lovely wind continued until mid-morning when all of a sudden it stopped….just long enough for me to consider turning on the engine….Greg suggested holding off on the engine for a few minutes, it was very pleasant ghosting along with plenty to look at as we were East of Newcastle. Sure enough it wasn’t long & the wind returned as a WNW, & gradually built to be around 15-18kts, gusting to around 20kts, we reefed the mainsail a couple of panels for a while.
Just as an aside….On the Monday, Greg drove me out to Redhead to look at the large swell & seas, & on the way back we stopped in at Marine Rescue Lake Macquarie radio station overlooking the Swansea Bar, they are a very friendly group of people running a very professional operation, I was completely blown away with the way the volunteers run the radio base, they are very open & forthcoming with plenty of useful information, for example: I learnt the repeater station for them & further bases up the coast, & also that they monitor these frequencies ( Marine rescue Lake Mac’ is VHF 80), so if you find yourself out of range on VHF16, if you know (which you should!) the repeater channel for your area you still stand a good chance of contacting Marine Rescue.
After a perfect lunch (heated up leftover Satay rice
), & an impromptu MOB drill (Greg’s hat flew off), late afternoon eventually saw a NE seabreeze, which was probably only 15kts but against a Northerly back current (even the bulk carriers, were facing away from prevailing wind), had developed a short steep chop, which forced a course change (How good is our hand steered course? Just ask us!
, or look at the track plots. Each of us taking turns steering for 30mins or so).
(Bearing graph & Google earth shots courtesy of Greg's GPS)
- Blue Moon Speed bearing plots.JPG (75.05 KiB) Viewed 5069 times
I wanted to be East of the Pt Stephans lighthouse at 1700, estimating our destination is about 60mins from there, after our forced course change we were not getting any closer, so we turned the engine on at 1545.
Doing only 1.8kts at first into the chop
, there was plenty of looking at our wake, then at our speed on the GPS & back & forth, until the seabreeze gradually eased (as did the chop slightly) & I increased the engine RPM’s as much as I dared, to increase our speed.
We were East of the lighthouse at 1715, with daylight fading quickly, we decided to come into Port Stephan’s on the entrance leads (instead of ducking in close to Tomaree Hd, & into Shoal Bay), It would be a good exercise as I couldn’t pick up the leads when I exited PS in the dark, on the way Sth.
It was totally dark as we continued along the lit entrance lead, you can see (from the track log) we pre-maturely headed off the lead & into Nelson Bay, after looking astern, the swell was still quite high, (the entrance shoal must extend for some distance west of where they are marked on the chart), so we quickly returned to the lead until we were sure of being far enough in the channel proper.
- Blue Moon Pt Stephens Entry.JPG (108.04 KiB) Viewed 5069 times
We slowly came into Nelson Bay & picked up one of the two courtesy moorings (both were vacant), & logged off at 1845.
We had arrived mast intact & no mechanical problems, Greg must have been a lucky charm, as that was the first time I had run the engine for a few hours with-out some sort of mechanical hiccup.
We rowed ashore for a lovely Thai meal, & then retired back to the boat for tea & coffee.
Greg caught the bus back to the Lake the next morning.
Thanks Greg it was a pleasure to have you aboard, & I thoroughly enjoyed your company
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Well that’s my version of the trip anyway
, Greg may have a different version…
- Blue Moon Lake Mac to Pt Stephens.JPG (99.7 KiB) Viewed 5069 times
is, on the website, so I'll just put up a few photos 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpZf00Q2bLw 
