Left Port Stephens July 11th with the goal to get ourselves over the Queensland border whilst still open, the weather of course is not cooperating with an east coast low holding us up in Port Macquarie for 8 days, with Dave and Mike onboard never a dull moment, lots of cooking, hiking, a game of squash, golf for the boys and awaiting the low to pass so we could safely exit the Port Macquarie bar which had some pretty wicked waves and swell compared to when we arrived.

Due to the delay we were starting to get concerned that a second wave of COVID1 19 would result in the QLD borders being closed so we decided to do an overnight to Yamba and skip Coffs Harbour, as it turned out Coffs ended up being a stop because the two boys on shift at 19:30hrs decided to tango with a fishing pot that ended up jamming our autopilot steering resulting in a few stressful hours of being at the mercy of the wind and sea as we were unable to steer until I managed to unbolt the auto pilot from the steerage links and limped into Coffs to evaluate if there was any damage.  Arrived at midnight and up early to review the rudder, put back the autopilot and after a good evaluation carried on to Yamba for an overnight stop.

We finally crossed the Queensland border into the Gold Coast Seaway with border passes and coast guard permission and notification, YEAH!!!!
We made it into Qld by one week before the border closed again to protect the COVID extension into Qld

Quick stop at Gold Coast up the inside passage ( Dave was really considering putting a $2.00 deposit on some property he eyed on the way up but unfortunately he wasn’t sure where the other $21,999,998.00 would be coming from) to Blakesley and over to Raby Bay for a big hug from momma!

Terri flew up for a two week vacation and Mike who crewed us up from Sydney said goodbye with a weekend visit from his wife Helen in Raby Bay, fun time was had by all.

It poured with rain for a couple of days and after celebrating Terri’s birthday with the family on July 28th, we set off for Tangalooma wrecks for the fab sunset and a head start on our trip to Mooloolaba the next day.  We were not disappointed at the calm wrecks and sunset, good to be back in the warmer weather.  Next day was a transit through the sandy banks and the gi-normous Spanish mackerel fish that got away (haunted me for the rest day and night) we arrived a Mooloolaba for a few days visit with Mike and Helen in their neck of the woods, again lots of fun and thanks guys for entertaining us we had a blast and loved the markets and dinner at home, most importantly the patience Mike had to teach me how to do my own oil change – see you in the Whit’s hopefully.

Mooloolaba to Double Island Point for the night, 17 other boats anchored in the bay preparing for the perfect bar crossing the next morning (however, a crap night on the anchor with little sleep by all).  Uneventful bar crossing hooray and I got to lead 2 other monohulls over which wasn’t quite my plan, oh well.  Garry Anchorage thank goodness was calm as….. and some lost sleep gained back, quick hike, sundowners on the beach with some fun loving yachties and off we went round Boonlye point the next morning, feel like I am an expert at it now.  Lucky we managed to see, spot etc lots of whales check out the video so close to us.

Kingsfisher Bay was a stop to dump garbage and didn’t stick around cause the bar and showers were closed due to COVID, damn… hiked to Lake Mackenzie, anchored off big Woody Isle and then off to Urangan so Terri could undertake her trip home after QLD yet again closed the borders due to the second wave…….

Hi to everyone, especially my honey who is still in CDN, hope that changes soon