#78 NOW November 28, 2005, 1500—UTC +11 hours (New South Wales, Australia Docked (?) In Coffs Harbour (S30’18.2 E153’08.7). Temperature 81. Good Afternoon, So much has happened in the last couple of days that I must get out another NOW. If you haven’t guessed by now, I write these "things" for myself as much as anything. At 62, the old memory is not what it use to be and I don’t want to forget the wonderful time I am having. I think I left off in Iluka harbour, anchoring in a thunderstorm. Iluka turn out to be a great place to drop the hook. I gave it four stars for beauty and five for being a secure anchorage with its roomy protected waters and good holding. The next day when the tide was almost at its highest, I crossed the river over to the town of Yamba. It was a bit of challenge to get through the narrow and shallow channels. At times, I had less than 2 feet below the keel. http://www.smh.com.au/news/new-south-wales/iluka/2005/02/17/1108500196830.html Yamba is a wonderful little town, with great restaurants, stores and even a theater. Pride and Prejudice was playing, so why not enjoy an afternoon at the movies. Since I was in an indulgent mood, I stopped by the ice cream counter in a local store and asked for their one scoop for $1.80 Au. I am not sure what this young girl was thinking, but she just kept scooping it on and on. Seriously, I think she had a least a pint of ice cream on that cone! Well, I wasn’t about to tell her to stop! Now the challenge was to eat it all before it melted. I attacked that ice cream with the skill of an engineer repairing a levee in New Orleans. Not one drop hit the ground! Oh, how much fun the little things in life can be. http://www.yamba.nsw.gov.au/ I spent one night at the marina dock in Yamba and then went back to Iluka and anchored out so that I could get an early start the next morning. I put the para-vanes down due to some rough weather forecasted down the coast. A precisely 11:50 AM I crossed 30 degrees of Latitude. This is rather significant as it marks the passing from the Coral Sea to the infamous Tasman Sea. The Tasman is known for its bad weather and rough seas. Sure enough, I had not been in the Tasman Sea more than 10 minutes and it started to rain. Soon the winds had picked up to 30 to 35 knots with seas building rapidly. Lighting was everywhere and the rain came down in torrents. Visibility dropped to less than ½ mile at times, and at one time, my wind indicator hit 42 knots. Anticipating this, I was prepared with the para-vanes down and everything locked up tight. In addition, the entry to Coffs harbor is one of the few along the coast that is not over a river bar. Therefore, it was possible to go right in with the para-vanes down tell I got into some calmer waters. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasman_Sea Unfortunately, Coffs harbour was full, so they let me tie up to the fuel dock for the night. This morning they found me a place between a couple of old fishing boats. Maneuvering the boat into the spot and tying up to some pilings was a bit of a challenge, but I finally worked it out. A little help would have been nice. I hiked up some of the hills around Coffs harbour, taking many pictures. Then it was over to the grocery store to pick up a few things. The forecast for tomorrow is good so I will be off to Trial Bay. This may prove interesting, as it is an open roadstead. http://www.abc.net.au/backyard/shipwrecks/nsw/trial.htm Life is a Cruise, Larry -- Larry Rick Done Dreamin' Nordhavn 40 #33 Site: http://gricknet.homedns.org/Dads%20Web/doneDreamnHome.htm