Gold Coast to Port Macquarie

The time had arrived for Fete to take the trip down to Port Macquarie but  I would not be able to go with her this trip.

Grumpy (Ian Knight)  & Zom (Mike  Daly) 

Day 1: Monday 24th February 2014

Yes, finally, the time had come for Fete to make her way down to Port and once again I rounded up the motley crew, whom you have already met in other blogs. Namely Zom from sv Upstart & Grumpy off mv Outward Bound II seen here at left gorging on a beautiful lunch cooked by the World renowned seafaring chef Russell (Ian Waymouth).

What (Craig Waugh) & Grumpy

Also joining the trip is "What" (Craig Waugh) off sv Manatee - you may remember him from a previous blog from the "In-Between Times" blogs, when we celebrated the now famous Boof Arm Street parties at Southport Yacht Club, where Grumpy's son, Tony and his band were thrilling us to live music while we devoured our Sundowners . . .

Russell (Ian Waymouth) 

And lastly, as mentioned before, Russell - the World famous Action Hero & seafaring chef of the equally renown world famous mashed potato, steak and greens fame.

This is the crew who were to bring Fete down to her new home.The scheduled day of departure was to be Monday 24th February, subject to weather, and if the mast repair was finished.

The crew was primed and ready to go and after a couple hiccups with the repairs - off they went on this new adventure with Fete.
Russell & Zom boarded Fete on Sunday 23rd and motored her down to Wavebreak Island, in the Southport Broadwater at lunchtime so as to be ready to collect the rest of the crew early the next day for the trip.

 They arose at 0345 hrs, started the engine & weighed anchor to pick up the remaining crew. 0555hrs - heading up Broadwater only to see this magnificent rainbow (left) - crew (right) happy to be on the way.

Out through the Gold Coast Seaway with all sails up and heading south at 5 knots . . . logged onto VMR and gave ETA to Port Macquarie of 0700 hrs on Thursday 26th February... approx 50 hours of sailing ahead to cover the 220 nautical miles based on Fete's average of 5 knots.

1100 hrs (1200 NSW Time) - off Point Danger, the border of Queensland & NSW and due to day light saving the hour difference in the times.

 (Pics courtesy of Images of Pt Danger off the Web)

Cape Byron on starboard quarter

Arrived off Cape Byron 1700 hrs ESDT. Wind increased to 10-15 knots E/NE and speed up to 7.5 knots. Zom had the camera in hand and the clip above is his handy work which will tell you more than I can so have as look.

Anticipated time to next waypoint, Ballina was 2000 hrs that evening and as you can see, with Day Light Saving, it was still very visible.

Next way point is Yamba and the expected ETA would be around 0200 hrs the following morning, day 2.

Day 2: Tuesday 25th February

0911 hrs - Fete was situated just north of Coffs Harbour and doing 8 knots. She  traveled faster than anticipated, although  they had been motor sailing since leaving the Gold Coast Seaway.

ETA Port Macquarie would now be 1730 hours the second day or the 25th February 2014, at which time, it would be a trip of around 35-36 hours, a staggering 15 hrs earlier than the anticipated 50 hrs sailing. 

Fete doing 8 knots just north of Coffs Harbour

View from My apartment looking north

While the crew sailed Fete down to her new home, they kept me up to date with their position, so I went back to the apartment, after work, to wait for that white spec on the ocean. As you can see from this little clip above, my apartment has great views over the Hastings River Bar and out to sea and this northerly aspect allowed me to pick up Fete on the horizon and gave me time to make my way down to the mooring to greet them.

Fete at her temporary mooring . . .

Fete arrived at 1730 hrs and the guys, with a little help from the crew at the marina, was tied off in her temporary mooring for the night. The happy crew were already into a couple/several Sundowners and happy to be back on land. They looked relaxed and couldn't wait to have a shower and get their land legs back.

Damaged mizzen which can be repaired

We had a brief chat about the trip and they advised me that the mizzen had blown out and the headsail's UV strip needed re-stitching, but they didn't want to tell me until they got down to Port.

All in all they said  Fete sailed well and while they had the mizzen up, she seemed to steer herself, which bought back memories of the San Francisco - Hawaii crossing where she performed exactly the same.

Now it was off to the apartment for a shower and then out for a good meal and a few drinks . . . and more importantly a good nights sleep before they headed back to the Gold Coast the following day . . .

My deepest thanks go to Russell, Zom, Grumpy and What for the care they took to bring Fete down to her new home and the manner in which they looked after her -  I am truly indebted.

There is an adjunct to this tale which will be bought to you in a future blog, but due to the fact that I am currently restrained by legal requirements I cannot elaborate beyond this point but rest assured I surely will enlighten you after this is all over  . . .