Noon Position: 27 58.2 153 28.2 E
Course: SE Speed: 4.5 knots
Wind: ENE F3 gentle breeze
Sea: slight Swell: SE 1.5m
Weather: sunny, warm
Day’s Run: 4 nm

A reasonably favourable weather pattern for heading South has at last presented itself. So, we got underway this forenoon to make the most of it. By the time we got the anchor up the waterway was, as usual, a chaos of jet boats, para-boats, tinnies, PWCs, helicopters and any other sort of noise-making and wave-generating machine you could think of. I was certainly happy to be on my way. Having said that, I have enjoyed my short stay in the Gold Coast, getting a little bit of maintenance done – a bit of bright work in this instance, topping up victuals, and generally relaxing ashore in the afternoon and on board of an evening when all the tourist activities, apart from the odd base-thumping party boat, had quietened down.

Forty minutes of motoring through the white-water chaos saw us out of the Seaway’s entrance into the clear, clean, sunlit blue-green waters of the ocean, leaving the noise and chop behind us. We now have a gentle NE breeze carrying us into and over the low swell from ahead. The forecast is for mostly favourable winds with a high pressure system over the Tasman Sea. However, some trough lines are going to complicate the picture so, as usual, we will take what we get and make the most of it. I am aiming to make directly for Sydney where, with a little luck, I expect we should arrive sometime late Wednesday or Thursday.

All is well.