There is nothing like spending time with good friends both on land and at sea. Here are a few snippets of our activities over the past few days and lots of photos, so make yourself a cuppa and read on.
Our friends Waz and Lisa live on a beautiful 20 acre property on the outskirts of Port Macquarie. We anchored in front of their place on the Hastings River on Sunday and spent three days with them. They have a few head of cattle and we were quite taken by a couple of little calves and a lovely wooly adult. They also have a wonderful garden.
When came time to leave, Waz could not resist coming sailing with us to Coffs Harbour and rearranged his schedule. Lisa had to work unfortunately! We thought we would have to motor on the first day, but we sailed most of the way to Trial Bay, enjoying gentle conditions. We saw lots of whales, fished and caught a bonito, which provided sashimi for dinner for all of us including the pussycat. Sunset was to die for.
The sail to Coffs Harbour the next day was terrific. Early morning start in mist, sails up straight away. And then the conditions picked up and it was ON: over 20 knot SW, choppy seas, everything flying inside the cabin, the boys had to double reef the main in a hurry, two whales were breaching next to us forcing us to alter our course, and a yellow fin tuna caught itself on the trawling line and had to be hauled on board. It all got a bit exciting! Then as quickly as the wind and sea picked up, things quietened down and we had to motor sail the last bit to Coffs.
When two of these breach repeatedly, it is quite daunting!
Sashimi tonight, and tomorrow night, and the night after!
Look at that fisherman! Well done Waz!
The boys shaking off the reefs!
Waz then had the big job of filleting the tuna on the sugar scoops. With so much fish, what better thing to do but to have a feast on Take It Easy. Lisa drove up from Port Macquarie, and we invited another set of friends who live near Coffs, Elgar and Claire, to join us for dinner. Waz was our hero, preparing the tuna for sashimi and making sushi rolls – a huge task! The six of us had a superb meal together, exchanged lively stories and thoroughly enjoyed each other’s company – a fantastic way to end an excellent day.
We are in Coffs Harbour while the northerlies have returned. The water here is now 20.5 degrees – balmy! It is still chilly in the mornings and at night, but things are looking up!
Sv-Anui 
I’d love to try the Tuna! Beautiful photos. 😎👍🏻😬
Raw tuna is beautiful – it just melts in your mouth, John!
Sounds idyllic, glad you’ve reached nice weather, it’s freezing here!
Hi Maree, it is getting better – shorts here during the day, but still chilly in the morning. Two or three more hops and we are in Queensland! Next stop is Iluka/Yamba.
What a great sail, lovely pics from land and sea. Great fishing Waz, yummy Japanese
Hi Susie – Waz did a ton of work – so nice and we learnt how to do sushi rolls!
Fantastic Chris! The panoramic shot with the sail boat in the middle is my favorite. Enjoy yourselves! 🙂
So glad you like that one HJ. It was a really nice setting with the mountain range on sunset.
Swap you your water temp. Ours is about 11 degrees. We have made it in to a dock at Port Lincoln so the larder can be filled so we will not starve. We have the right wind direction.. it is just the wrong strength.
Phew! That’s a good thing done. We are not swapping water temperature… just escaped from that in Tassie. We want warmer!
So do we!!
The boys look very relaxed putting the 2nd reef in . Always enjoy your photos & updates .
Cheers John
Ah they are relaxed because they are taking the reefs OFF! You should have seen them struggling to put them on… Waz was getting a lesson. Should have taken a shot of that, but was too busy dodging the breaching whales! Glad you enjoy our posts, John. Thank for the feedback.
It was great to catch up with you guys! What an added bonus having that fresh sushimi for dinner …. yumm! Thanks to Waz for his sterling culinary efforts!
Hi Elgar and Claire! Yes it worked out really well. Glad you enjoyed our fresh catch. All the best for the months ahead.
Good things-especially warmer water. Will think of you leaping ( or lowering gently ) into that inviting water.
Haven’t dared yet Ann! May be this weekend.