We left Coffs Harbour about 6.20am and headed for Yamba, about 54nm away. There is a front coming up from the south but we should (eek!) get in before it reaches us, if it does make it that far. It was a very peaceful trip and we moved from the Tasman into the Coral Sea today, a milestone we had been looking forward to, as it means more tropical weather, right?? In fact, in some ways it was eerily peaceful as there were no dolphins, very few birds, very little swell....the only activity were the occasional fish jumping out of the water, reminding us that there is a whole lot going on beneath the surface that is not visible ....a little like humans really (she says being philosophical!). Di tried her hand at fishing again, trawling a line behind the boat but with no luck this time.
We arrived at the entrance to Yamba at about 4pm with no sign of the bar, confirming our timing was right. Di did a great job again of navigating us into the Clarence River and through multiple sets of leads to the yacht club, its quite a convoluted route up and around to where we were berthing at the Yamba Marina. There are a couple of options of places to stop here, the other being Illuka. We were greeted at Yamba by a few of the local including the cruising person's guru - Alan Lucas. He is responsible for many of the very useful cruising guides that those with the pleasure of this activity use as a reference. He also had his boat "Soleares" berthed at the Yamba Marina. We got our key, showered and headed to the biggest bowls club in the world (to quote Mark) for dinner. Surprisingly the dinner was good but we were a little tired so caught the Bowls club courtesy bus home...noice!! We are spending 3 nights here so a cruisy couple of days ahead before our last leg from here to Southport.
So there was no early start the next day (Sunday). I meditated and got up in time to do the dishes and meet Mark and Di at 8.30am for breakfast at the Marina Cafe. They got up, had showered and done the washing. The Marina Cafe had quite a good selection on the menu and a nice spot in the sun to enjoy the food and coffee. I had delicious corn fritters and this with good coffee set the tone for the day. We walked all around Pilot Hill and the Point and were grateful we weren’t trying to come in today. The views were quite spectacular. We found the town and did a lap, discovering a gourmet grocer that had some exotic items such as Persian fairy floss and Indian sweet potato dip. We bought some “essential” supplies from here and headed back to the boat for T-bone steak (courtesy of the Coffs Harbour Yacht Club!) for dinner.
I awoke Monday feeling a little shady after being led astray last night. It began innocently with a couple of glasses of white wine, but noone warned me the good red (actually in a bottle!) would be pulled out of its hiding place! What is one to do? It would be rude to refuse, but why, why did I say yes to the port, eek!! Having declared myself a sugar-free zone a few days ago, I am now also a port free zone!! We also realised that we had forgotten to watch the motogp and missed a great win by Casey Stoner. The combination also created a very strange dream indeed but some things just need to stay on the boat. So the day started slowly, awakened again by the need to change the gas bottle (as had happened the first morning after I arrived)! Noone can argue with that if coffee is required. We had a fantastic lunch at the Pacific Hotel. A meal of pasta was just what I needed to soak up that port! The pasta was delicious and with a magnificent view over Main Beach, watching the thunderstorms out to sea (feeling for the yacht we could see out there) and watching the surfers and boogie boarders having a great time, it was a very pleasant Monday lunch. We also noticed that due to the large surf and ebbing tide the bar looked a whole lot more menacing than when we made our entrance on Saturday. We walked home in search of the recreation centre that had a yoga class on but to no avail. We didn’t realise until we got home that we almost got there but had turned around just a schmidge too soon. We did go far enough to see several kangaroos sunning themselves on the sports fields nearby. 
The rest of the day was spent relaxing, chatting to Jense, a German guy who had been sailing mostly on his own for the last 8 years. He was working on getting his AIS going (boat tracking system that allows you to see the positions of other boats/ships and them to see you) and it seemed to be working after some testing with Mark. He also told us of saving a turtle that had got itself stranded after laying its eggs. As they are so big and heavy he had to use bamboo poles to try to lever it into a position where it could use its flippers to move again. His daughter told him he would get good karma points for this...I have to say I agree! We welcomed another boat, Southpaw, in quite late in the day. They were just overnighting and then heading out early in the morning. I went off to my first yoga class in sometime. Walking along the river path I wished I had brought my camera as the moon was almost full and it lit up my path completely, it was beautiful. There is something smooth about moonlight. I had snacks for dinner (but still no chocolate!) and Di and I watched Offspring which gave us a few laughs. Tomorrow we head to Southport, sadly my last leg!
No comments:
Post a Comment