February 2020...

Ross and his friend Phil, joined Ray and myself at Southport YC the morning that a cyclone was tracking toward Lord Howe Is from Noumea. Despite the lovely calm night Ray and I had bringing her down from Brisbane, shortly before meeting time, the heavens opened big time. Nevertheless, we headed out into large rolling seas, heavy rain but not too much breeze and I kept on thinking about my delivery last year on Cygnet leaving the Gold coast in similar conditions and how it fined up around Byron. Hoping for the same, and as luck would have it, again the conditions abated. There was a southerly forecast in a couple of days so the plan was a stop over in Coffs. We did find a significant leak which turned out to be the stern gland so another day in Coffs for parts and off again. Just south of Seal rocks I felt the engine wasn't quite right and decided to stop it allow it to cool and check it over. After finding a few issues which I attended to, on attempting to restart, the starter wouldn't engage so into Pt Stephens to fit a new starter motor. Running out of time and also anther southerly due to hit in a couple of days, we decided to leave Sea Mist in Pittwater for a few weeks before regrouping to continue down to Melbourne.

So far we've had a fun trip and a lot of laughs with Ross and Phil. Unfortunately Ray won't be able to do the next leg but I thank him for his great effort and especially during the intense storm off Newcastle that Tuesday evening.

June 2020

Well we planned to regroup in a couple of weeks but Covid 19 came along and told us otherwise....

Eventually Ross, Phil and Paul (replacing Ray) and I met again at RMYC Broken Bay and headed south. We had a seamless gentle if not quite cold trip with a quick stop at Bermagui for fuel and a superb Italian meal at il Passaggio (thank you Ross) and then 6 hours rest at Refuge Cove awaiting the last of a strong westerly to blow through before we rounded Wilsons Prom. This leg we had virtually no issues apart from yet another fuel blockage (after running so smoothly for days) but now very familiar with the system managed to clear it quickly and get back on track.

Thank you again to Ross and Phil for a most enjoyable delivery and wishing you all the best with the restoring of your beautiful yacht.