Sunday 15th May 2016: After four days of packing up the house, loading the boat and a number of farewell dinners, we started the day with a hearty breakfast and had coffees with some friends who came to see us off.
We cast off the RMYC breakwall at 8:45am. There was a fresh Westerly blowing and after hoisting the sails, Esprit took off like a racehorse. There were a number of friends on their boats sailing out with us to the Barrenjoey lighthouse to wave us goodbye.
The beauty of a Westerly is that it blows off the land on the Eastern seaboard, resulting in an almost flat sea. The result is a quick passage and in the 15-18 knot breeze we were sailing at 8.5 knots. We had logged on to the Marine Rescue service with an ETA at Lake Macquarie for 7 hours later to coincide with high tide at 16:20, to cross the bar.
We had a school of dolphins following in our wake for about 30 minutes, which was a good omen. We logged off at 15:00 after 6 hours, to cover the 37 nautical miles at an average of 6.2 knots. A great day’s sailing which beats a day at the office. We tied up at a mooring in Lake Macquarie for a cup of tea and some Tim Tams.
