We lifted anchor, which seemed to take Dean forever. I suppose we’ve never put all our chain plus rope out before. The wind seemed to have died off which wasn’t in the forecast, 5-10kn W & 1m swell from SE. We had a comfortable motor sail with 2 reefs in the main & our No. 3 headsail. We could have shaken our reefs out but knew the wind would pick up. We rounded the reefs off Point Danger a first light, this gave us the perfect angle for a broad reach, motor was turned off, “Harry” was turned on and we sighted the Gold Coast in the distance.

NSW to QLD waters

 

It was a little rough coming into the seaway, there were no breaking waves but the swell was going to be on our side if we followed the leads. We had to aim Time Flies carefully, it was a little scary for me as I felt like we were heading straight for the breakwater. Dean was a star and once we were in the water calmed and I could breathe.

We headed around to “Bums Bay” near Sea World but it was very crowded and we didn’t want to anchor near the seaway so we decided to go into Southport Yacht Club a day earlier.

45.82 nm, 11 hrs, avg speed 5 kn, 5-10 kn W, 10-15kn W, total motor sailing 8.5 hrs.