Port Macquarie to Gold Coast - February 2016

Finally the time has come to say goodbye to Port and all my friends and head back to the Gold Coast . . .

Fete is looking a treat as you can see here with her new tender moored alongside, new sails and boom covers, plus all of the other work that we had completed over the 2 years that we have been here in Port.

The time has also arrived for those goodbyes to my friends here on the Th(u)rd Finger and around the Marina, some of whom are leaving Port themselves shortly and will heading up to the Gold Coast and points further north.

Rick and Marie aboard their Cat sv Shaggy & Stevie Jourdain to name but a few.

The crew have been organised and soon I will leave to collect them and bring them back to start the trip back up to the Goldie.

I know that when I leave I will surely miss my view of the Hastings River looking north from Fete's bow.

And I definitely know that I am going to miss our afternoon "Witching Hour" drinks on the Th(u)rd finger with Sparra, Mal, Steve, Sheryn, Nic & Dana, Rob & Chris, Ray, Bob and Dave and Sue, Scotty & Annie, Rick & Marie and the others that would join us from time to time.

At left, Nicola taking a selfie with me in the back ground & right Dave & Sue English's boat San Michelle and behind that Sparra's mv sParadise.

But Before we go any further with this blog, I wanted to let you know that Fete became an Australian citizen/registered vessel. The process was slow and long as I had to get a "Deletion" certificate from the US Homeland Security before AMSA would register her as an Australian vessel. As you can see here the wait was well worth it . . .

The time is almost here to head off with the crew for this leg already in place and raring to go. 2 of the crew you would have met before, namely Zom (bottom left), Russell (bottom right) & the last and newest member Tony (Tone) Foster.

They look eager enough to get going, so all we had to do was wait for a good weather window which was what Zom was looking for on his iPad.

Getting away wasn't going to be easy as I thought as the Th(u)rd Finger crew decided to have a little going away party for me but they called it a FOS party, meaning "F@#k Off Shaun" party.

As you can see here all gathered over a drink or 20 and they even had a presentation for me. I was really touched and greatly appreciated all their thoughts and memorabilia, one in particular. . . .

Rob Radcliffe at left making the presentation to me.

As you could have guessed .  . . yes, Shaun the Sheep.

Annie (Get Your Gun) Priest tagged me with this nickname right for day one on the Th(u)rd Finger and I am afraid it stuck.

But Shaun the Sheep now has pride of place in the dodger as you can see here at right.

The day had finally arrived - Sunday 28th February. High tide was approx. 12 noon and the bar was looking smooth as we surveyed it before returning  to the marina to get ship shape.

The weather was a little overcast, as you can see, due to the flow on from the cyclone that hit Fiji, (Hinton???) earlier in the month.

We were told that further north, Ballina to Tweed, were experiencing 3-5 meter easterly swells which should dissipate before we got there - time will tell . . .

So at approximately 11.30 am we set off from the Marina on our way back to the Gold Coast hoping that the weather would abate as we moved north.

As you can see from the pics above and to the right, it still wasn't a smooth passage thru the bar and at one point we had to nose thru a swell that was breaking just in front of us.

Russell had the helm and Fete went thru with no problem at all. I have experienced this before with Fete and knew that she can handle  this type of crossing.

Off we went heading north with a 1-2 meter swell from behind and around about 15-20kn's of wind.

During the FOS party, young Nicola, had a look at the worn-thru state of my thongs and asked what I was going to do with them.

We discussed what should be done and that was to nail them to the wharf, in front of my old empty berth, to give the impression that I had walked off and left them there, and as you can see here at left, that is exactly what Nic did and sent thru the pic for this Blog.

Thx Nic.

Off we went and it was smooth sailing throughout the rest of the afternoon and as the sun began to set on Day 1 I took this little snippet with Russell again at the helm. We were flying with Russell trying to squeeze every knot he could out of Fete, but we still had the engine running due to the conditions.

It had been a rough night and as you will see below, everything and all lockers were trashed and thrown onto the floor in all cabins.

Obviously the weather from the Fijian cyclone hadn't abated and we started to experience an easterly swell as well as the southerly up our arse. We also still had the wind coming from aft as well - felt like we were in a washing machine.

Day 2 started off dull but the sun came thru and everyone was on deck to get a bit of the sunshine. Even Tony who had hardly come up on deck thru the first day due to the conditions, but here he is beside Russell & Zom.

Later in the day we had some good weather and made many miles, but there was still a little chop as you can see above in this slo-mo.

The rest of the day went the same way, but when night fell, I was glad that we had the AIS up and working. On the 1st night we saw about 4 boats on similar courses to us and we altered way to make it easy for all concerned.

On the 2nd night we saw plenty of boats going and coming in both directions. But early in the morning, around 4am, a ship coming from astern on the same course did not change his course at all and was heading straight for our stern. Russell and I waited to see if he would alter course, but that never happened and we were forced to change course to get out of his way. 

Finally with dawn breaking we saw the old familiar skyline of the Gold Coast and motored on up to the Sea Way.

View from my Hope Island marina Berth overlooking the Tavern

It was approx. 10.30 am, 47 hours since we departed Port Macquarie, when we entered the Seaway &

 signed off with the VMR at the Seaway Tower and down to the SYC to drop Zom & Tony off before Russell and I headed back to our mooring at Hope Island Marina.

There ends another chapter in our blogs, but I thought I would finish this one with a little clip from the past . . . the clip below is from October 2013 when Russell & I joined Zom in bringing his boat sv Upstart from Roslyn Bay back to the Gold Coast and his hatred for Horseflies - have a look:- 

Once again that's all, so until next time . . . Cheers!!!