Location: Just north of Coffs Harbor 12 miles off the coast NSW S 30:13.901  E153:21.686

As dawn broke this morning over the little harbor of Tuncurry, Tracy and I un hitched from the pylons and did a 180 degree turn Tracy did really well, in a tight spot and current. We headed out over the bar with an orange sun rising directly in front of us over the sea, the birds were out, and a little breeze. We had to leave early to get the morning tide, and we did  know at that stage what our plans were.

The morning was great swell not to bad at 6 feet long period from the south so running behind us, and the wind built to a steady 15 knots so we had the sails out and made good time up the coast at 8 knots. At lunch time we were off Port Macquarie and 60 miles under the belt for the day, we saw whales breaching next to us. Alex just laughs and watches for him it is such a natural site to see whales travelling with us, he does not realize how luck he is. The sun was out good speed and sea behaving, we did games with the boys in the cockpit, which they love.

But I looked at the forecast and saw that we would have 15 knots on the nose tomorrow afternoon so we decided to keep going but the wind died and seas became lumpy. Tracy struggles with these decisions as she would like to day sail, and we have good ports, but with storms again planned for the back end of the week, the har choice of doing a run through to Yamba direct was made.

It is now 3 am in the morning I am on the back end watch, last time I wrote on night shift it was off Nycoyia Peninsula in Costa Rica on our hardest night session, with storms around us, big wind and seas, tonight there are only stars, a 8 knot win, and little lump sea. We are making good progress, and our decision is also confirmed by 3 other sail boats who made the same decision to get north while we have a chance, so they are travelling with us.

The stars are so bright, and rich and thick in the southern hemisphere compared with northern we saw last year. Sean and I were out on deck earlier identifying them.

It’s nice to be out here again, dolphins like torpedoes   shooting around us.

All goes well, we hope to be in by mid morning into Yamba