Its 0500 and the lights of Sydney are ahead and we should enter the harbour in another hour. Its been a long leg from Camden Haven a little over 24 hours and a sleep will be most welcome, This is the last entry in my log and its been yet another great adventure. My crew have been great and we have seen a bit more of Australia from a different direction. How lucky am I to have Heather who does not mind me going off on these little adventures from time to time.
Cheers Phil

The Chinese meal was good and we had a quite night at anchor. Touchwood, Xdream, Oasis and Kirralaa left Camden haven at 0600 and had an easy crossing over the bar at low tide. My current plan is go straight through to Sydney which will involve and overnight sail arriving about 1000 tomorrow morning. We will asses the latest forecast later this afternoon and a stop at Port Stephens is a possibility. Conditions aboard are good at the moment with a light SE breeze forecast to go into the North later in the day. Geoff and I spend most of the time reading and stick our head up every 15 minutes to look around for other boats. We had 2 whales within about 20 m as left Camden Haven and have just had several pods of dolphins jumping out of the water around the boat

This time of the year you can usually count on your fair share of NE winds but I am afraid we are getting everything else and most of it from the wrong direction. There are a lot worse placed to be caught out by weather than Laurieton. Last night we had a strong southerly hit us about 0100 and that made things a bit lively for awhile but the anchor did its job and we had no problems. The forecast for tomorrow gives a faint chance of getting away but we will wait for the latest update this afternoon. All pretty quite on board with lots of reading. I have introduced Geoff to some of Michale Connolly's books and he is hooked. Happy hour on our boat this afternoon and then I think Geoff and I will go ashore for a Chinese meal tonight.

Yesterday was a mixed day and we set off at the planned 0400 into a pitch black morning without even a hint of moon. We had great sailing in a nice SW breeze as far as Smokey Cape and then the wind dropped away completely. An our later the wind came in from the SSE which meant motor sailing but still very comfortable. Later in the afternoon we hit a 1.5 knot current against us and that stayed with us almost all of the remaining trip. The weather had been good all day but about 2 hours from Camden Haven it closed in and was raining as we crossed the bar.We saw lots of whales yesterday and try as I might I could not get a photo of them. I am not sure just how long we will be here as the weather is not looking very co operative at the moment.

We had a wonderful sail from Yamba to Coffs Harbour yesterday in moderate NW wind changing to 20 knots from the NE. We arrived at Coffs Harbour at 1530 and had a small drama when the head sail would not furl due to a halyard wrap but after a bit of frantic activity all was well. I usually go into the marina at Coffs which has very narrow berths and is difficult to get into so this time anchored in the outer harbour and had a very comfortable night.We departed Coffs at 0400 with a run ahead of us of 82 miles into Camden Haven. We currently have a light SW breeze and are motor sailing on a flat sea doing 7 knots.

We stayed anchored at Grafton for 4 days and it was a very enjoyable stay. The jacaranda festival most probably needs a bit of new life but it was a very friendly place. Each day we went ashore and looked around plus we spent quite a bit of time sitting around and reading. Each afternoon it was happy hour and on Friday night we had a BBQ ashore hosted by the local yacht Club. We ate out a couple of nights and there is quite a selection of places to eat. Last night Jan and Pete came aboard for dinner and we had a great night of chat food and wine. Jan and Pete are on the final leg of their annual pilgrimage north from Victoria and are keen motor homers.At 0600 this morning we took John ashore for his bus trip back home to the Sunshine Coast. We will miss him on board as he always has a joke and a smile and is a very positive person.After John left we started the trip back along the Clarence and at 1300 we are anchored back in Iluka ready to start the sail back to Sydney tomorrow morning.

With a strong east coast low forming and 30 knot plus winds forecast we decided to stay in the same anchorage for the day and wait out the weather. The day started with good weather but the rain and cloud soon rolled in and with it came the cold air from down south. After a walk and look around it was a lazy day aboard reading. Happy hour was on "Wave Sweeper" then into the pub for dinner which was very good. This morning we will leave at 0700 and go straight through to Grafton. I cant add any pictures at the moment as my Internet connection is slow but should be OK when we arrive at Grafton. All is well on board and John will leave Kirralaa at Grafton so if anyone wants to do the trip back to Sydney with us let me know.