We're bound for Botany Bay

Port Stephens is on my list of places I would happily live when the farm get too much to look after. The harbour is twice the size of Sydney Harbour and around its shores is mostly undeveloped. Truly beautiful.
We moved Saltheart to Shoal Bay for a change of scenery and after a couple attempts of getting the anchor to dig in we checked out the town and climbed to Mt. Tomaree. It's an easy walk with excellent views. The anchorage is a little swell prone but makes up for it by having the best fish and chips we've had.


This photo was taken with a panorama feature on my camera, Saltheart is down there.




The forecast was for fair wind but some swell so we left earlier than planned to make sure we would be in Sydney by the 18th. There is no bar as such when leaving Port Stephens, but leaving with wind and swell against the outgoing tide meant the waves became steep and the bow went under more than a few times. There seemed to be swell coming in from about three different directions and with the wind waves it made for an uncomfortable passage, so much so that Wendy and Daniel became seasick, Daniel actual threw up. We pulled into Newcastle for the night and anchored off Stockton for some respite.
Newcastle is a very busy industrial port. We dropped anchor just outside the main channel and enjoyed watching the tugs maneuver massive coal and container ships in and out. We plan to stop here a bit longer on the way north, but for now it's south we go.

They look a lot bigger than in this photo

Leaving Newcastle was much more pleasant than the day before. There was a strong wind warning issued(winds 30 knots) but we figured we would but in Broken Bay by the time it arrived and to make sure we motor sailed in light winds for most of the day. It wasn't until the last hour that the white caps started to appear in numbers. We were anchored in Refuge Bay at about 4pm. This has been described by some round-the-world yachtsmen as the best anchorage in the world and it's easy to see why. There is total protection in beautiful national park. At the head of the bay is a waterfall that drops off a sandstone cliff right onto a small beach. Sydney siders pack this place out on weekends and when we were there more that half the moorings were taken.

From the top of the waterfall

At the beach, the waterfall is just a trickle due to the lack of rain

Today we received a call from an old friend that has just returned from Africa and is in Sydney recovering from malaria that he picked while he was over there. We motored down to Brooklyn and picked him up. We went back to the bay and spent an enjoyable afternoon swimming and just catching up.

Did not know my whiskers would be so grey

From here we will explore some more of the anchorage up Cowan Creek before entering Sydney Harbour on Tuesday or Wednesday. We thought about pulling into a marina while we were down there as we are not sure how easy it is to land and store the dingy in some of the bays and then get to public transport. We've been to Sydney many times but never looked at it from this point of view.


We now have an autopilot for the dingy. Amy stands up front and leans to the left or right to steer the boat.




port



hard to port



very hard to port