To Yamba
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Wed 13 Apr 2016 22:56
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To Yamba, New South
Wales
   We left our visitors ball and the beach vista of Nelson Bay, Port Stephens at just after
half past ten for the two hundred and seventeen mile journey to Yamba – our last
stop in New South Wales before crossing into Queensland. As per our visit to
Maritime Rescue yesterday, we logged our details with Elizabeth and as we passed
by we radioed in giving our destination and expected time of arrival. The lovely
people here would log us with Yamba and we are to log off with them on arrival.
Soon we were passing through the ‘big rocks’ at the
entrance to Port Stephens – one to the left and two to the right.
 Sails up, engine off, a beautiful
afternoon as Port Stephens faded behind
us.
  What more can a girl want – a wonderful view.......as himself puts the towing generator
out.
   After lunch I lost at backgammon. Bear
put a reef in the main as overnight we are due some
fickle winds. Zeddy Bear.
 A pretty
sunset to our left behind the coastline.
 During the night I had plenty of chums passing out at sea to keep me happy, that
and a good Jeffery Deaver audiobook.
 Day two dawned nicely enough but most
of the day we had sloppy waves and a swirling sea. One wave was big enough to
completely cover Beez, needless to say things got a little wet in the cockpit.
As soon as darkness fell we could see lightning a way off in front of us. Then
the rumbles of thunder seemed to go on for ages. During the night we had squall
after squall, rain never stopped hammering down. In the middle of thunder and
lightning (about two miles off) we were thrown all over the shop. Beez
Neez just pulled her blinkers down and cantered through it. By morning the
wind had ‘steadied’ in the mid twenties. Bear phoned Yamba Maritime Rescue to
ask if we could enter. “Come in close and take a look for yourself. Okey dokey
then. Bear did manage to pull up real time webcams, things look pretty do-able
but if things were pear-shaped we took the decision not to do anything risky –
as we don’t know the area – and plough on to Southport Seaway another ninety
miles. We were quite pleased to get to Yamba. Things
looked OK but we went the long way around the shallows and took the bigger girl
entry.
 The
entrance was interesting. After fighting into wind so Bear could take the
main down, I had to overshoot and angle back, heading toward the southern wall.
We had to take at least one wave full on the side, I chose the third in a series
and then gunned it in. Just as the gap between the walls opened I saw a red blob
– a chap in a kayak........... He was good enough to keep looking back and when
he saw us fighting our way in, he had the manners to stay put so we could aim to
miss him.
 After fifteen minutes we made it to
the far wall and things went smooth. We caught a peek of the
lighthouse, apparently a really nice one to visit.
 The northern
wall was taking all the wave energy but it never looks rough in
pictures.
 The first time we have seen one of
these bar warnings. Like a good boy and girl ours
were on.
 Later we saw that Yamba was voted
“the best town in Australia”, cannot wait to
explore.
 We crossed some shallow bits, all accurately marked on our
charts..............
 ................. entered a second breakwater and found a nice spot with point six of a
metre below us.
 Beez Neez is now safely
anchored in Iluka Yamba – just by the comma on the
Google Earth picture. Tonight we celebrate Beez fifteenth birthday and
raise a glass to Brent and Carole.
ALL IN ALL FIRST DAY
STUNNING, SECOND DAY A CHALLENGE.......
A JOURNEY OF MIXED FORTUNES BUT WIND WITH
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