anchor all afternoon.
We’re anchored just off Sea World at the entrance to “Bum’s Bay” and a few of the
boats here do make the name rather appropriate.
I’ve been watching the other boats in the bay all facing obediently into the southerly
that’s been gusting through at 15 – 20 knots.
Not Wind Wanderer.
She prefers to take it side on. At times she certainly has a mind of her own but this
time I was puzzled, until I took a look at the tide table. We are just far enough out of
the bay to catch the incoming tide. Our design in profile has our full keel deepest near
the transom (back end). We also have a high bow. So in effect we had the tide dragging
the keel’s stern end with it upstream and the wind catching our high clipper bow on the
opposite side, holding us at 90 degrees to the other boats.
There’s always one, and that’s our Wind Wanderer.
We left Nelson Bay on the Wednesday after Easter and decided to do a straight run with
2 overnighters to Coffs Harbour.
The NSW coast has quite a few rivers that can be entered for stopovers along the
way but they have notorious sand bars that have to be negotiated. It means getting there
on the flood (rising) tide, and enough after the low to let the over run effect dissipate ie. the ongoing outward flow that continues after the tide has turned.
The outflowing water meeting the incoming tide builds steep, rough conditions. so at least
half the flood tide is not available entry time.
Then wind and swell direction comes into it too.
It’s tricky at the best of times and in fact we listened to a rescue taking place over
Easter weekend. We picked up the Westpac Rescue helicopter on the VHF radio as they
were heading north to the Camden Haven River where 3 people were in the water and a 4th on the
rocks after their fishing boat capsized.
The one on the rocks was unconscious and in fact died.
Many years ago I was crew on a yacht and we came very close to wrecking in a big swell while entering there.
Not surprisingly we have decided we’d avoid those river entries in anything but perfect conditions.
Our Nelson Bay departure time had us arriving in Coffs Harbour around 7 am on the Friday morning. The wind dropped off and we ended up motor sailing both days. By hugging the coast
we were able to use the sporadic counter currents to the main East Australian Current that
sweeps down the entire coast.
By late afternoon on the Thursday we'd been wrestling with wind and current most of the day
and were feeling drained.
We were just off Hat Head and the chart shows a small bay in the lee that makes a reasonable anchorage in certain conditions. We decided to go in and take a closer look.
The swell wasn’t too bad and the beach pretty so we anchored for a good night’s sleep. It
meant getting to Coffs late in the afternoon rather than early morning, but still a daylight entry.
At 7.10 the next morning we got a phone call. It was Coffs Harbour Marine Rescue.
We hadn’t checked in with them at 7.
I could feel the anger rising but managed to remain civil. He was only doing what they’re
trained to do, but we don’t sail to anyone’s schedule and the thought of having to log
in and log out at the start and end of each coastal hop is just way too big brotherish.
I can understand the benefits if things go pear shaped but we sail for the freedom.
We entered the breakwater- enclosed harbour at 5pm and dropped anchor. It was the
lumpiest, rolley, most unpleasant 4 days we’ve spent in one spot in a long time.
The frequent rain storms didn’t help either.
But we caught up with Alan and Joan on Camelot again.
The next hop was to be Southport via the very good Gold Coast Seaway entrance that
was cut there some time back. A possible option was a stopover at Iluka/Yamba but it
meant crossing the bar into the Clarence River.
We had a weather meeting on Camelot with a few other skippers heading north, on the
Monday evening and the conditions for an Iluka entry looked reasonable for late Tuesday afternoon. Thursday would be better sailing north, but bad timing for the bar crossing.
We decided to make an early Tuesday departure, the rest favouring Thursday.
At 6 am we were pulling up anchor and who should be heading out too? Camelot, and not
too far behind us Peter and Liz decided to come too.
It was an all day motor sail again for all of us. I expected catamarans to do better in the light
air but they were on motor all the way too.
Camelot got to Clarence River ahead of us by an hour and the over run was still flowing out.
It looked reasonable to them so they decided to go across anyway.
It gave them a big scare with a big sea. In fact Alan felt he lost control of their boat at one
point but soon recovered and they made it into the calm water with no harm done, other than Joan’s nerves.
When we got there the benefit of the rising tide was having an effect and the swell had gone
from steep to rolling. We had furled our sails and started lining up for our run in when we
noticed a big sports cruiser hovering near the entrance. It turned out he was waiting for a
couple of fishing trawlers to come out, so we did a 360 and fell in behind him.
The trawlers bobbed all over the place coming out and when we saw the cruiser go over the
bar he did it with engines roaring.
Our engine doesn’t roar. It sort of hums the tune in a leisurely base tone.
We upped our speed as we felt the swell lifting us and we kind of wallowed in.
Each swell gave us a little surf before escaping ahead of us and handing us to the next one.
Within seconds we were over the bar and in calm water.
Given the circumstances it was a perfect crossing.
The part of the white knuckle ride Sandy found most frightening was the feeling
of the boat surging on the swell, together with the close proximity of the rocky
breakwater. It was a totally unfamiliar experience for her and I probably would have
felt the same way if the wheel had been in someone else’s hands.
Sandy navigated as we picked our way up the river and into the mill pond water of
Iluka’s harbour. After rockin’ an’ rollin’ in Coff’s Harbour it was bliss.
The next evening we were invited to join the crews of a number of boats migrating north to warmer weather, on board Arkaydes, Rick and Val’s Lagoon (catamaran).
It was a great evening and of course we all talked boats and sailing. Sandy is still getting
used to being seen and admired as an experienced ocean-crossing sailor on these occasions.
She’s got the experience and the miles, even though she hasn’t been sailing for as many
years as many of them.
The Clarence River is navigable for about 40 miles inland with small towns and villages along
the way. We were tempted to explore, but our current destination is the Great Barrier Reef
with its crystal water and coral islands. We’ll explore Australia when we’re old!
On the Thursday morning Camelot came by and told us they were going up the river for a
few days and had booked a bridge opening for midday.
We spent a bit of time studying weather forecasts, tide etc and realized we would need to get
going immediately to get the best bar conditions, or sit there for 3 or 4 days.
We decided to go.
The bar crossing was fairly kind and we didn’t pick up swell until we were well clear of it.
Once we got the sails up the boat steadied and in spite of forecasts of no wind, we had a
great run for the rest of the day. It did die in the late afternoon and we motor sailed on and
off most of the evening.
I had managed to get a few hours sleep when Sandy woke me with a huge cloud mass just ahead on the radar. Within minutes the wind picked up and we decided to reduce sail by furling the yankee. As I was winding it in the wind flogged it wildly and the sheets cracked like whips
against the doghouse. The new sheets we put on in Lake Macquarie are a looser weave than the
old ones and much more comfortable to work with, but the downside we discovered is that they snagged the split rings on the lifeline ‘gate’ and we instantly had a gap.
The whipping sheet also broke the teak base of the portside nav light, but at last the sail
was furled and all we had to do was ride out the storm.
Even though the rain was pouring down Sandy curled up on the other side of the cockpit to try
to get some sleep. She was just dropping off when she let out a shriek like I haven’t heard since
a flying fish landed on her chest.
No marine life this time. Just small tsunami from rain that couldn’t get off the doghouse roof
fast enough so decided to come through the sliding hatch. It hit her right on the butt and I was
still rolling around laughing when the boat rolled and the tsunami dumped about 1000 gallons
on my side. My turn for pirate language!
But the storm eventually passed and a few hours later we made our soggy way into the Southport Seaway at 9am, crept south and set our anchor at the mouth of Bum’s Bay opposite Sea World.
This will not be a quiet anchorage!
Until next time…