Report Number 5

Didn't leave Port Stephens on Monday, it dawned bright and sunny - much more like the Port Stephens we had come to see, so we headed off to explore it. Passed through Soldiers Point at 10.30, which we felt was a bit early to moor for the night. Wandered around the very extensive waterways until afternoon when we found ourselves in Fame Cove not far from the jumping off point for Myall Lakes. Stopped and studied maps and decided to go up the Myall River on Tuesday. Took dinghy for a trip up a small river (very small!!) and then went for a bit of a walk around the foreshores. Great place to stop at a well- protected public mooring with not a house for miles.

Onwards! Tuesday brought another beautiful morning, so off we went to Tea Gardens where we bought fuel (at $1.75/litre - cheapest in the Port, everywhere else is $1.99) and entered the Myall River. Day proved to be very long as we wound our way up the river with depths varying from 0.7 to 2.2 metres. This is scary because our boat (MV Jess, known affectionately as Jess) needs around 1 to 1.1 metres of water. However, we didn't run aground but the need to watch the depth finder continuously meant that I didn't get a chance to really appreciate the magic of the whole area, with its fantastic scenery of wetlands, river flats and occasional rainforest type growth, but Karen managed to photograph every tree so I will be able to enjoy it all later! Birds were everywhere all the time, especially on trees which had fallen into the water. There were a lot of trees which were leaning over the water and many that had completed the falling process. This made life exciting as dodging them took us out into shallower parts of the water way. Stopped for the night just before entering Myall Lake itself. Unfortunately, the public moorings didn't have any rope on them, so we dropped anchor - another great experience! The bottom of the river is covered with a very thick weed growth which totally confused our poor depth finder, which fluctated rapidly in a random way between 0 and 10 metres and everything in between! However, all went well and we had a magic night's sleep in total darkness (moon was quite new) and silence and stillness.

Up on Wednesday and off to the lake. Oh, no! Water was again a bit scarce in the lake, so we turned around and headed back towards home. Still enjoying the wonder of it all - the whole area seems to be from the dim distant past ages with its own completely natural eco system.

Our boating readers would have appreciated the thrill of skillfull navigation through shallow waters, especially when, after passing a navigation marker and lining up the next one, to find when half way to it that it stood up and flew away! Went back to Nelson Bay without further incident, moored, shopped for provisions and went out for dinner. BUT THEN! A combination of Westerly winds and Northerly seas caused poor old Jess to bounce and pitch and roll excessivey, so much so that we were both up at 12.30 to have a decaf and then retry sleeping. Had looked up the weather forecast on the internet and found that Thursday was going to be wonderful for our next leg.

Out of bed at 5.20 and on way at 5.43 in pitch darkness. Ran aground, (as one does!) but finally found the channel and headed out to sea into a rising sun. Then, as others before us have found, it became clear that the forecast was wrong. We proceeded to travel for the next five or so hours through lumpy water like Sydney Harbour on Australia Day, or, for those who haven't been there, like a washing machine. Arrived Forster/Tuncurry at 1.20 where the Costal Patrol were very friendly and helpful, getting us a mooring in the port on the Tuncurry side at the fishing co-op with our own jetty (one of the few positive side efects of the decline in the coastal fishing industry). At this stage we plan to stay here for a couple of days because the forecast is for unpleasant off shore weather for a while (why do we believe them?). And as of Saturday night we are very glad that we stayed - it has been REALLY windy and rough, but we are snug in Jess after enjoying exploring Forster and Tuncurry.

Cheers,

Karen and Warwick

Report Number 4

Well! Things went as planned for our departure from the Lake. We left the lake itself on Thursday, booking ourselves a 5pm opening for the bridge. It turned out that we were the only boat at that time, so ALL the traffic on the Pacific Highway stopped at 5pm Thursday JUST FOR US!!!!! We tied up to a public mooring just on the ocean side of the bridge and stayed until Friday morning when we shot out of bed at 6.40 and were on our way at 6.55. Bar was calm with no waves and little swell, but the ocean had a bit of a swell to the NW, about 1.5 to 2 metres. As we went along, the swell got a bit bigger, and shifted to the North. This would have been great if NSW had a straight coast line, but unfortunately we had to move a lot to the East as well as North, with the result that we had the swell coming at us from 45 or 90 degrees for the trip. This made it fun, but a little uncomfortable as we rolled and pitched our way along. Not too bad, though, the most we rolled was around 15 degrees - not enough to spill the Chardonnay,but only because it was too early to drink! Arrived at Port Stephens around 1.30, and moored at the public moorings outside the breakwater at Nelson Bay at 2.15. Tired, so just rested for a while before Warwick started work on the fourth report and the genset which has started giving us problems.

Weather ecame unpleasant overnight, with heavy continuous rain. Genset now OK. We took dinghy in to shore, looked around, did a little shopping. Spent rest of day reading, learning to splice and watching the activity on the water. Sunday the inclement weather continued, so we goofed off all morning and may leave the lovely Port Stephens in the next day or so and explore it thoroughly on our way back.

Love

Warwick and Karen

Report Number 3

Hi again! Hope you all managed to unscramble the dates in previous reports. Today is Wed 24th, regardless of when you actually receive it. I have managed to rebuild the address book but I haven't checked it thoughly, so if you don't get this, please let me know by replying to it. Yesterday and today were fairly quiet, though we did have a visit from Madeline (my sister) and Joe in the afternoon and then Margaret and Peter (friends from way back) at night. Madeline and Joe brought another little friend - a "scissor-grinder" (type of Willy Wagtail) who ate Madeline's cake with the greatest of pleasure. The trouble is that they didn't take their little friend home with them and he proceeded to behave like a 4yo, being very demanding and woke us up at sparrow's (or Willy's) this morning and he is still here tonight. Thanks, Madeline! Meanwhile, Mick (whom you met last report - he has a boat, a 47' Beneteau that he uses for charters around the lake and for going to the Whitsundays - the boat is named "Yesdear" and the tender is "Howhigh" - anyway, Mick reinforced what others had already told us, we needed to lift our dinghy higher on the davits. So we had a guy come today who cut the davits off and refitted them about a metre higher.

Karen has now almost finished the sorting and putting away of clothes and food as well as exploring the local shops and having a hair cut, while I have sorted all the ropes and things and learnt more about my phone and the laptop. We will go into the club tonight to watch the State of Origin (sorry, internationals - its a football game) and then travel around the lake a bit tomorrow before leaving on Friday morning for Port Stephens. We are hoping it gets a little bit warmer as we go North, but in the meantime thanks Debbie and Jo for the warm jarmies and thermals.

More later.

Love, Warwick and Karen

Our New Dinghy!

Report Number 2

Had some trouble understanding how to use the computer, so the following was actually written two nights ago. I will try to improve!

Ahoy, landlubbers! The intrepid duo picked up their new dinghy (Aristocraft 3.2m inflatable) on Thursday and arranged for Karen's son Ben to take us to Berowra Waters on Friday morning, leaving home around 7.45. We had somehow managed to generate another car full of items we couldn't do without, even though we had delivered heaps to the boat while it was at the jetty having the covers done. It took two trips out to Jess to shift all the stuff, but the "queen of the dinghy" didn't mind because she has fallen in love with the new one. It will almost certainly be christened Miss Jess II. On board and under weigh at 1041. Very smooth sailing to Little Patonga where we found an unused RMYC mooring and gave it and its owners the honour of having us use it overnight. Karen set about trying to find storage for everything while I rebuilt the control panel, setting the GPS and depthfinder more vertical, then celebrated with a bottle of very nice red and a special Karen dinner and went to bed with the alarm set for 5.30am.
Saturday we leapt (!!!) out of bed at 5.30, got moving at 5.55 and started our Northerly journey. Quickly decided to have alternate 30 minute turns at the wheel, and 30 minutes resting - the early start had a tiring effect. It was strange to find that at 8.30 we were ready for lunch!! Seas were mild, skies cloudy and little wind. Jess travelled beautifully and we reached the entrance to Swansea without incident. At the entrance, near Moon Islet, a pod of dolphins came to wish us well and then we entered the Swansea bar at about 12 noon. Up the channel and picked up the 1pm opening of the bridge, and into Lake Macquarie. Had good phone reception, so made contact with rels and friends, motored across to Wangi where the good book said there was a good mooring at the Workers Club (how appropriate!!!). Stopped there and then the real trip began. Met new friends, caught up with old ones, got visited by a nephew and his friend. Found that everybody knew everybody and generally got swept along in a rush of friendship. Plan to eat at the club tonight and have an early night, followed by a couple of days here at least. Then when we are ready, we will move on to Port Stephens.
Just one other thing - the phone came with a special cheap deal between 6 and 7 pm, so emails will generally be sent then.
Thanks again to everybody for their good wishes,
Love, Warwick and Karen

First Report!

Well - what planning! We chose Thursday which turned out sunny with a
light breeze and mild seas, a perfect day to leave on our adventure. We
didn't.
Why not? It wasn't the work on the electrics, John Harden from Hardtec
9948 8886, Sydney's leading marine electronics engineer worked extremely
hard for a several weeks including spending 3 days and 2 nights on Jess
(thanks Nerida for your patience and forebearance) to turn a large dish
of red spaghetti into a switchboard with every application having its
own fused switch and indicator light. It wasn't the new cover over the
top deck which Greg Dalkeith of Absolute Boat Covers 0416 234 766
completed on time and on budget and produced a Rolls Royce job. NO! It
was Australian Bass Angler, a boat shop at Penrith who failed to deliver
an off-the-shelf inflatable dinghy a week after we ordered it!
Thanks to you all for your thoughts and good wishes - we'll report again
when we get under weigh - or perhaps not!

Warwick and Karen

On a boat called "Jess"

This is a story about Karen and Warwick who set off on adventure up the eastern coast of Australia on a boat called Jess.

Some have seen her before she had her new top,

Some have seen her as she is

And some have never seen her,

But this is the lady we rely on every day - this is MV Jess!