Noon position: 33 44.1 S   151 24.6 E
Course: NE Speed: 5 knots
Wind: SSE, F4 - moderate breeze
Sea: slight Swell: SE 2 meters
Weather: sunny, mild
Day's run: 15 nm

Yesterday I attended RANSA's prize night where, after forty years of membership, I was awarded life membership which naturally I was very happy to receive. This morning, I got up early and attended an ANZAC day dawn service, the first time in many a year. Then, with a fresh S'ly forecast for the day, I made the most of my early start and with Ada's assistance we topped up Sylph's fuel and water tanks, secured the Walker Bay 8 dinghy on deck, and got Sylph ready for sea.

Once Sylph was ready, Ada cast off our dock lines, waved us farewell, and we proceeded up the harbour, wing-on-wing, with a fair breeze off the starboard quarter. At the Heads I had to drop the pole and reach out to the ENE to clear North Head then, once clear, we bore away to put the wind once again back on our starboard quarter. I procrastinated for a while as to whether to reset the jib on the pole or to hoist the spinnaker. In the end, with the nice steady following breeze, I opted for the spinnaker and we have been running nicely for the last couple of hours with the windvane self-steering doing a good job of keeping the spinnaker drawing.

As mentioned in my previous post, the plan is to make for Port Stephens to visit a friend who I have not had the opportunity to catch up with for several years. We are making good an average speed of around five knots (I suspect we are experiencing some contrary current) and our ETA off Port Stephens is 0600 tomorrow.

All is well.