We are away

We finally moved onboard after a hectic week travelling  to see mum for Christmas. We loaded the car with the last of the things we could think of and late in the afternoon of the 30th we moved to Mobbs Bay for the night. Michael joined us and shouted us hot chips and scallops. We took the kids and dog to the beach and Michael took me back to the car in the dingy so that he could drive it home in the morning.  Wendy made some pan cooked bread and we made some wraps for tea.

Wendy making some bread

Saying goodbye

In the morning nobody had breakfast, I didn’t want to risk it because I knew I would be seasick and after a stroll on the beach it was time to say goodbye to Michael. Amy sang him a song and Wendy had a cry and he drove off to wave to us at the bar. 



Bye Michael, we love you

Michael looking happy (freedom)

Everybody was finding their sea legs and in the afternoon we decided to stay the night in Yamba. We dropped anchor  in the river on the Iluka side and went ashore and had hot chips at the pub. Later we ate home made pizza, stayed up to watch the fireworks.

 

Flying to Coffs

A few hours of calm

Wendy and I decided we are going to try to have a jog in the mornings when we can, so we started this morning, just a couple of hundred meters in the sand.
The alternator belt was screaming again when we started the motor so we replaced it with another before we weighed anchor and crossed the  bar. The passage started of  a little uncomfortable then the wind died down in the middle of the day, then in the afternoon it picked up to  20-25 knots and we were averaging 7.5 knots over the ground often reaching 8.

At around 18:00 we arrived in Coffs Harbour.  Earlier we rang for a berth for 3 days in the marina but they couldn’t fit us in for that long. We thought about anchoring in the harbour but with the depth sounder playing up we decided to grab a berth for a night. We went and got some hot chips and Wendy scored some free bread rolls from a shop that was closing for the day.  We went back to the boat and ate them and I downloaded a software update for the depth sounder and it seems to be working ok now.

Daniel and Amy made a start on their school work so they have a head start when school officially starts in February. Amy's workload seems about right but Daniel looks like he might have to be putting in 4 hours a day which is way more than we imagined.

We are staying here till Friday when the wind swings around to the north.