July 12th Swansea, Lake Macquarie (hard by the RSL, just a moments dingy ride away)

Yesterday while holed up in the Hawkesbury escaping gale force winds our first visitor on board; Pam’s cousin Grahame tracked us down from the first Blog we posted. He came roaring up in his speed boat from Cottage point, where he lives, to visit us down in America Bay. Coffee and cake then Grahame left to appropriate more companies and Twin Spirit motored down to Akuna Bay for lunch. We contributed significantly to the NSW economy by refueling for the trip. We may have to sell our kids into the white slave trade but we’re now carrying enough diesel to reach the Qld border (whoever he may be!) The high winds made tying up at the fuel wharf tricky but we managed to complete the operation without incident, if you don’t count Pam whipping Nick in the schnozzola with the mooring line: Some of our company have kindly suggested it was an accident.

Chilly start to the morning of the 12th as we headed out past Lion Island at 7.30 with the mercury at 4.5 degrees, we turned north into the East Australian Current with the Fairy Penguins barking goodbye and good luck. A beautiful day, smooth seas and a fair nor- westerly breeze, an uneventful 5 hour cruise at an average 8.5 kts until we turned left into the entrance to Lake Macquarie. The estimable Cap’n Sparrow, relieving the Admiral at the helm as he struggled into his extra large women’s life jacket for the crossing of the Swansea bar suddenly cried out “Whaaaales” and before ‘Curvy’ could get the camera focused a huge Humpback breached barely 20 meters from our boat’s portside and nearly swamped us with the wash as it fell back into the water. Minutes later he did the same thing only meters to starboard. What a fantastic sight so close to the boat. “You wouldn’t be dead for quids,” said Lil, ever the philosopher, “unless of course he launched beneath the boat, now there’s a thought.”

The Admiral finally got into his life jacket about the time he needed to remove it again and after being told by the others of the many splendid sights he’d missed whilst struggling with his safety kit, predictably said poo, bum, wee and even worse things that can’t be reported here. Fortunately the outburst seemed to calm him down and he managed to guide us to a transit mooring just shy of the bridge at Swansea and even closer to local RSL. There was soon a hearty lunch of spicy snags and potato salad before Lil and Pam went off to stretch their lovely legs. The Admiral and Sparrow for their part went directly to the afore-mentioned “Arie” to exercise their elbows, their right to a rewarding beverage and of course to commune with the locals.

More tomorrow as we sail for Port Stevens some 40 nautical but nice miles north.