Sydney to Southport – speeding in southerlies

19/5/2025

We set a cracking pace from Sydney to Southport 419 nm in 10 days, thanks in part to the procession of southerly fronts that have been gracing the east coast of Australia. After more than 2 weeks enjoying the delights of Sydney, catching up with family and friends, taking a ride on the new, super fast Metro and finally getting our AIS & VHF transmission sorted (3rd time lucky), we could finally restart our push north. There has been lots of motoring, in fact more motoring, and more diesel usage than our Atlantic and Pacific crossings combined! But hey, if we waited for perfect sailing conditions we might still be in Hobart. The weather has been very challenging to deal with since we left rainy Sydney.

All stations: Sydney to Southport

Pitstop in Pittwater (19 nm); Saturday 3 May:

The lagoon

One of the locals

Private beach at The Basin

We motored from Sydney to Pittwater, picking up a mooring at the Basin. It’s one of our favourite spots and we had a lovely sunny afternoon, walking ashore to stretch our legs, check out the wallabies and chat to the local rangers. It was our last sunny day for a while! Of course we watch the election coverage and pay our respects to Antony Green!

Pittwater to Shoal Bay, Port Stephens (72nm); Sunday 4 May

A 4am start, in the dark and following our track out of the mooring field and we are on our way to another favourite spot. It’s an easy entrance into Shoal Bay where we pick up a mooring. On Monday we head ashore to walk around Tomaree headland and along the lovely beach. As a treat in the evening we have been invited to dinner with locals Tad and Robin, who are the former owners of SV Bisou, another Helia, whom we met in Panama. Tad and Robin were our fabulous line handlers for the Panama canal transit and it was great to see them again and catch up on the gossip, now that they are land lubbers again.

Shoal Bay to Broughton Island (14nm) Tuesday 6 May

After all the recent rain the water in Port Stephens is very brown, with lots of “stuff” floating in it. Not the nicest of vistas, and definitely not inviting for a swim. Its a beautiful sunny day so we motor over to Winda Wappa, but turn our noses up here too and turn our bows out of the harbour and head across to Broughton Island, in search of cleaner water. On the way we pass by Cabbage Tree Island, which many offshore sailors will be familiar with, and we end up anchoring in Coal Shaft Bay. Here the water is beautiful, crystal clear, and an almost tropical blue. We head ashore on the SUPs to take a walk along the beach before exploring the craggy coastline. There are rays in the shallows and abundant fish jumping around the bommies that line the bay. Later on we take the dinghy around to Esmerelda Cove, which is the next bay to the east. It’s a long and super protected bay, with a few fishermen’s shacks, and from here we can walk over to the other side of the island and take a look at Providence Beach. The tracks are a bit swampy from all the rain, but still passable. Its blowing from the north this afternoon so it’s much better to be on the south side. The water is lovely, warm and refreshing. So pleased we came over for the afternoon and definitely on our list as a stopover on our return journey.

Broughton Island to Forster 36 nm; Wednesday 7 May

An early start again to push north and for the first time come into the Coolongoolook River at Forster/Tuncurry. It’s a straightforward entrance, but we call VMR anyway. We have also checked out the webcam in advance. Their rescue vessel is towing another small runabout back through the entrance, so we wait for them to pass us and follow them in. The public moorings are taken but just as we anchor, one boat leaves so we quickly up anchor and grab the mooring. The river is very brown after all the rain and the tide runs through here very quickly. The moorings are close to the bridge and traffic noise, but this settles later in the evening. We head over to the Tuncurry (north) side for a wander around and a quick supermarket run (we always say “we don’t need much…” but end up with more than we can comfortably carry). Late afternoon we take the dinghy over to the Forster (south) side and walk around the river side park until we find a pub and have to stop for a cleansing ale. As we get back to ITIKI the tide is in peak flow and must be running at around 3kts! This does make it a bit challenging to get the dinghy onto the davits, particularly after a the pub visit… We have dinner aboard as we are/were planning to stay a couple of days here – ooops spoiler alert!

Forster to Port Macquarie 53 nm; Thursday 8 May

Bouncing along at Tacking Point

Well on waking in the early hours of the morning and consulting the weather forecast it was decided to depart. It doesn’t look that bad (famous last words…) We have a southerly forecast at +/-20kts, which is fine and dandy, although pretty bouncy with waves on the beam. It was a bit bumpy coming out of the entrance of Forster, which left us wondering about the Port Macquarie entrance. It was a long and uncomfortable day with numerous rain squalls passing over us. We sadly tore our main on the RADAR reflector, trying to do a downwind reef and ended up motor sailing with just a headsail after that. As we approached Tacking Point we messaged our friend Sue who lives at the beach there and she took a picture of us bouncing along. It doesn’t look like a lot of fun. Once we rounded Tacking Point it felt like someone had turned off the weather. Surprisingly protected! Again we radio VMR who log us off and direct us to the free moorings. With rain squalls continuing, Sue bravely comes to join us for a cuppa and a catch up.

Port Macquarie to Coffs Harbour; 71 nm Friday 9 May

Smokey Cape

Well there is no rest for the wicked and today was meant to be an improvement on yesterday but it actually turned out a bit worse. Winds were stronger and the swell had built, and those rain squalls continued. As we were passing South West Rocks, and the iconic Smokey Cape lighthouse, we messaged mum’s neighbour Lyn. As conditions were no good for a stop at Trial Bay she came out to the headland at Little Bay, with the binoculars, to wave to us. We later read that around the time we were passing, there was a massive drug bust and a boat was intercepted off South West Rocks carrying a huge amount of cocaine, with arrests at South West Rocks as well! Its lucky for Lyn she did not look too suspicious up there on the headland with binoculars looking out to sea!

Surfing into Coffs

With the big swell running the entrance into Coffs was an exciting one, surfing the rolling waves into the bay. As the bay opens up the waves dissipate somewhat until you get closer to the shore and then build again - it’s better being inside the bay than outside, but only just. We pick up a mooring on the north side of the long wooden pier, where we are literally just behind the breaking waves and body surfers off the shore. It’s a bit disconcerting. Rain squalls and southerlies are continuing for a few day so we decide to give ourselves a break over the weekend.

Saturday head ashore with a plan to pick up some booze at Dan Murhpys – don’t judge us... We get chatting to a local guy on the dinghy dock and he kindly offers to run us up and back in his car. How lovely! Especially as the rain showers continue. After dropping off the booze we walk up to Mutton Bird Island. It’s still windy and rainy but the view is amazing and the sea still pretty wild. Glad we are not out there! The marina here is getting a much needed makeover, now that it is in new hands, with all of the aged, floating docks and piles being completely replaced, and the eastern end (formerly known as Siberia) has been cleansed of “shitters” and is still being dredged. After our walk we have enough energy left in our legs to make it to the local pub and decide that Fish and Chips is in order, washed down with a cleansing ale. Time to head back to ITIKI for a nap!

A short break in the weather

Sunday the horrible weather continues. We manage to put a patch on the tear in our main between squalls so it will be useable at least for the next leg. There is a local market on in the park which is great as it saves a trip to the supermarket for fruit and veg. We walk along the foreshore, along the pier and out to the southern breakwater before returning along the beach. The rain has backed off and the weather seems to be improving so we can push north again tomorrow.

Coffs to Southport 154nm; Monday 12 May.

Bouncing out of Coffs

Well we haven’t done an overnighter for a while and the skipper assures me this will be the last one for a while. We leave our mooring around 9am and put the main up in the harbour. It will be great to leave this rolly harbour anyway. The wind is forecast to be 15kts from the SE. The swell is still significant and the waves rolling in across the entrance are pretty scary looking. We hoist the main with waves pushing us back into the bay, and wait for a couple of biggies to roll through before heading out. Still the sphincter rating is quite high, although not as bad as the 3.5m waves we had coming out of Middle Harbour over Easter! Of course it turns out that the wind is coming from the SW and so after lots of involuntary gybing, partly due to the swell pushing us around, and not having a vang, we decide to drop the main and go with 2 headsails for a while. With squalls and building winds we are on the edge our range, so we furl the gennaker just before nightfall, which of course means the winds drop right down - Murphy's law of sailing. The Volvo goes on and we motor sail the rest of the way to Southport, arriving just after 9am Tuesday morning. The seaway webcam is not the best but conditions look ok, and local VMR describe conditions as “moderate” whatever that means… Anyway we pick a gap between incoming waves and Keith expertly hand steers us down the centre of the channel, wondering all the while where the leads are!

Beautiful one day, Queensland the next...

Southport Seaway

We drop anchor opposite the Southport yacht Club and make contact with Kev, a friend from Sydney who is now working at Bosun’s Locker chandlery. Kev has kindly arranged a new anchor chain for us, which should arrive today. Meanwhile there is still no rest as we busy ourselves with removing the mainsail. This takes a couple of hours and is hard work, but as you know our skipper is a very driven man! The work involves detaching the sail at the tack and clew as well as removing all of the reef lines and battens. Once we get it down and onto the deck, we can flake and brick it so that we can take it ashore for the sailmaker to fix. It’s exhausting work and the chain has just arrived, so we must keep going!

We up anchor, hosing off the industrial-strength, icky sticky black mud from our old chain and anchor and come alongside at the loading zone on the end of the fuel dock. We nudge our bows close into the marina dock in front of us and Kev brings the chain around the front of the boat in a trolley.

Unchained in Southport

And so begins the interesting exercise of removing the old chain and installing the new. What could possibly go wrong… Well a few things, but we have already brainstormed these, developed a risk management plan and preventative strategies... Very importantly we need to secure our anchor to the boat before detaching the old chain from it, so it doesn't fall in the drink. The rusty, and now muddy old chain is led out of the anchor well, over the trampoline and cross beam and off onto the dock into a waiting trolly. I am having to lift it up and out from under the windlass whilst standing on the old wooden breadboard that is protecting the edge of the anchor locker, passing it over an old fender while Keith, who is ashore, feeds it down into the waiting trolley. We try not to get too much mud and rust onto the trampoline! The old chain is almost completely out when the down button on the windlass controller decides to stop working! Keith comes back aboard to detach the chain at the bitter end and to manually pass the remaining chain off the boat and into the trolley. At this point the old chain decides to jump out of the trolley and go for a swim, the weight of it causing its exit into the water to build up momentum as it descends into the murky depths of the marina. This could be a disaster! Keith springs into action, takes a Tarzan-like leap, swinging off the bowsprit, onto the dock stepping and onto the trolley, stopping the chain with his foot, averting the impending disaster. Phew! Mind you it would not have been the end of the world for the old chain to end up in the drink rather than in a skip bin, although maybe somewhat environmentally irresponsible, and we would have been in trouble had the marina’s trolley gone with it!

We give the anchor locker a good clean out with soap and water and then we are ready to take the new chain aboard, thankfully a much cleaner process than getting the old one off! The new chain is sooo shiney, it is practically glowing! It will be a shame to drop it in the awful Broadwater mud! We drop the mainsail ashore for the sailmaker to collect, refuel the boat and head back to the anchorage, where we can finally catch up on some sleep. Just a couple of hours nap before heading out to dinner with Kev at the Southport Yacht Club. Missions accomplished, now we can continue north.

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