Lake Macquarie

A little Optimus in a dinghy race on a big Lake

We took a few days TOIL at the end of  November after a very busy time at work to sail around Lake Macquarie.  This is our old haunt but we haven't been here for over a year as we missed the 2012 Heaven Can Wait Charity Yacht race.  The Lake  is great on our 20ft trailer sailer, Solar Mist, but Eileen misses the vastness of the open ocean (and a bigger boat).

Pittwater Weekend

Eileen at the helm

Great long October holiday weekend in Pittwater and the Hawksbury, north of Sydney. Eileen is at the helm in a stiff breeze after just rounding Lion Island.  Our little Solar Mist loves a stiff breeze.

Darwin - We made it!

Fanny Bay Darwin

We left Cape Hotham at 3am to catch the tides through the channel off Vernon Islands.  We arrived at Fanny Bay, Darwin at about 11am.  Dinner at a restaurant tonight (7 July) and the promise of a fresh water shower and a non-moving bed in a hotel.  The end of an adventure - 32 days at sea, 1380 nm, 52 night hours sailing - dolphins, crocodiles, sea turtles, sea snakes, fresh mackerel and tuna.  It was a delivery trip and we would have loved to stay longer at many of the places we passed and wished we had a better dinghy so we could have gone ashore to explore more when we did anchor.  But now writing this 5 months later we are ready to go to sea again - but in a bigger boat.

Liverpool River to Cape Hotham

Malay Bay

Change of Plans !! After listening to the HF radio weather forecast we decided to hazard a night time passage between the Goulburn Islands (saw a Navy Patrol boat anchored) and past Cape Cockburn and on to Malay Bay for an overnight rest before going on through the Bowen Straight on 2 July.  Heavy smoke with the burn off on Croker Island.  We rounded Danger Point and tucked in the little bay on the Western side for the night.  The next day we woke to strong winds so double reefed the main and made our way to Coral Bay on the north western side of Port Essington.  There was an Eco Resort there which was not that friendly to yachties, charging $25 just to set foot on the land or get some brackish water.  By this time we were running low on food and water so had to pay.

Eco resort Coral Bay

We had a two day layover here waiting for favourable winds.  Took a walk along the beach only to find out that crocodiles live in the Billabong just past the trees we were so happily walking near.
Finally we decided to make the run to Darwin, leaving Coral Bay at 10pm.  Moonlit night with no wind so we motored all the way. Around Cape Don at 2am the wind picked up and the seas swelled.  For the next six hours we had 30+ knots and wild seas across Van Diemen's Gulf.  By daybreak we were exhausted and found an anchorage at Escape Cliff on the western side of Cape Hotham.