WEEK 5 - UP DATE

Monday 11/10/10 - Well things are looking better the Shipwright finally came and removed the pully and that was all. Our hopes fade yet again as the new parts haven't arrived yet and we are left in the dark as to what or when things are going to happening next.

Wednesday 13/10/10 - yeah, Brett the Deisel Mechanic turned up nice and early: unanounced still in our jammies, to fit the new pully for the altenator and promised to be back the next day to do the Service.

Thursday 14/10/10 - Elaine heads off to the hairdressers for some much needed colour work while Brett got the Servicing of the motor underway. Later in the afternoon Elaine had to head off to Sydney for the evening leaving Rod to amuse himself for the evening it was tough choice........Hello PUB!!!!!!!

Friday 15/10/10 - The winds have arrived and by 2.30am they have hit 43.5 knots and Elaine isn't happy as the boat is leaning over way to much for her liking. This turns out to be one long night with Rod pacing the dock until @ 8.30am keeping an eye on the ropes not only for our boat but the 60 foot steel yacht in the pen next to us which was sitting approx a foot and a half off of us and looking like it was coming to join us at any minute.

Saturday 16/10/10 - We caught up with Lionel & Steve at Vue's for Cocktail hour or 2 maybe 3 but who's counting.

Sunday 17/10/10 - We organise ourselves and decide over a couple of drinks that we would head off in the morning and stay the night at Broughton Island so we can make an early start for the trip to Port Macquarie on Tuesday morning to make the high tide later in the day.

Monday 18/10/10 - Things start off looking good, the weather is nice the wind is good and we are on our way to Broughton Island. We get there and things aren't as good as first thought. The swells coming into Esmeralda Cove from all directions and are rolling quite bad which is making it unsuitable for us to go in and anchore up so we head around to the east to Coal Shaft Bay and the same thing is happening so off to the north side to pick up a mooring from Providence Beach only to find that the waters although they look beautiful are way to shallow for us. After a few minutes of consulting we decide to push on and head for Port Macquarie.

It is now 1.30pm on Monday and we have plenty of time to get to Port Macquarie for the 7.00am high tide on Tuesday morning. It turnes out to be a long long freezing cold night. Rod has the job of getting us there mostly to himself while Elaine has combination of mild sea sickness and sleep deprivation. We get to Port Mac in the early hours @ 3.00am and have to circle around off shore waiting for the tide to come in to allow us to enter the harbour at 6.30am with help from Marine Rescue to guide us over the bar and along the channel to the Marina.

Thursdsay 21/10/10 - Elaine heads off shopping for new boat shoes........... anyway you can tell from the photo that these aren't really what Rod had in mind!!!!!!!!

Friday 22/10/10 - We head off in the tender for a bit of sightseeing and low and behold we end up at the bottle shop. With a couple of cases loaded we venture back to the boat job complete.

Saturday 23/10/10 - We become members of the Panthers @ Port club as this is going to be a bit of a regular hangout we may as well receive discounted meals, drinks & entertainment. Membership fee recouped after first day!!!!!!!!!!!

Sunday 24/10/10 - Today we decide to tackle the scenice walk of the area along the shoreline from the Marina into town along the breakwall past Town Beach up to Flagstaff Hill Lookout to Oxley Beach and back into town for a much needed brunch and back to the Marina. Lucky for us we got this done in the morning as by mid afternoon the clouds came rolling in and we had a change of cold winds and rain a good time to snuggle up and watch a movie.

Monday 25/10/10 - Back to our local haunt Panthers !!!!!!!!!! Over lunch and drinks we come to the agreement that we will be staying here until 6th November for tidal reasons and then heading off to Coffs Harbour. Elaine has booked herself in for a much needed pamper day with a facial and massage tomorrow. We have booked ourselves tickets to see The Highwaymen on Saturday night and Melbourne Cup celebrations on Tuesday 2nd November and a lot more excercise is needed.

The trip to Coffs is @ 72 nautical miles and roughly 11 hours sailing. We intend to stay at Coffs for a period of approx 3 weeks due to the fact that we have to fly back to Sydney for proir engagements. Elaine will need to stay in Sydney until @ 14th December and Rod will be returning to the boat solo on @ 30th November to sail to Southport. As this trip is 152 nautical miles and @ 25 hours of straight sailing at 6 knots this is too long for one person, So anybody wishing to give him a helping hand for this part of the journey please let him know. The date on leaving Coffs after 30/11 is flexible if you are interested.