Ok - this leg was not the best time we've had on this trip. After a terrific few days in Southport, including side trips Kingscliff, Byron Bay (great), Mt Tamborine (underwhelming) and a Sea World visit (terrific) , we headed out through the Gold Coast Seaway. Having checked the weather obsessively prior to leaving, everything looked in our favour ie. winds and seas dropping.
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| Sea World |
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| Sea World - how great are dolphins? |
Well, the seas didn't drop and after a really uncomfortable day heading into a southerly wind and swell, we headed into our night sail. Around midnight and off Yamba a squall came up with winds around 25kts. It was pitch black and raining. We sat in this for 3 - 4 hours despite our best efforts to move out of the squall using the radar. It was freezing. We had blankets and doonas on deck which were now all wet. So any exhausted sleep had to be found on wet pillows, cushions and under wet doonas. What fun!
We briefly discussed turning back and heading into Yamba but with the bad weather heading into an unfamiliar river was not the safest option. So we kept going and I counted down the hours until daylight. Sunrise found us wet and cold off the Solitary Islands north of Coffs Harbour. Under good conditions this part of the trip would usually take 2 hours to arrive in Coffs Harbour. Our trip took 6 hours. The good news was we did eventually arrive - hooray!
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| Coffs Harbour from Mutton Bird Island |
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| Islands of Coffs Harbour from Mutton Bird Island |
Sorry I missed this post! I truely understand what you were feeling. I can say I am lucky and we didn't have the rain...glad you arrived safe though
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