Great night at the Oaks Hotel in Neutral Bay with Tony and Fiona. Food was excellent and the beer garden courtyard stunning with fairy lights adorning the trees.

Departed RSYS at 6am just as the Pacific Pearl was approaching Circular Quay. Half an hour later we turned left at the Heads with a welcoming Southeasterly breeze of 20 kts to send us North at 6 kts.

Plenty of vessels anchored and underway off Newcastle reminded us of Gladstone,  Mackay and Port Hedland.

Had a couple of storm cells pass south of us over Newcastle just before dusk when we were abeam Port Stephens. At midnight we were at Seal Rocks where we passed the Hunter 36 yacht Savannah from Bundaberg heading South. Dawn had us off Crowdy Head. We saw three whales breeching together as we passed Camden Haven. Passed Port Macquarie at 11am and elected to continue,  perhaps not the best decision as we had 20 kts headwinds and 2 kts of adverse current slowing us right down.

Robbie learns  why you don’t open the forard hatch at sea. I offered to keep it out of the blog if he bribes me with whiskey but he declined and remains confident the cruise director will find him a new dry cabin. Lovely sunset just South of Smoky Cape.

We finally reached Trial Bay at 10pm, over 40 hours since our departure time from Sydney. We decided to keep going as the anchorage was a bit exposed and we are seeing a weather window closing on Sunday onwards when the Northerlies set in for four days.