Greg and Leisha Visit 3rd - 5th August

Coffee excursion at Dangar over we left the mooring and circumnavigated the island before motoring back to Patonga Beach to meet Greg and Fine Gold. Fine Gold is Greg and Leisha's (son and daughter-in-law) 27' Vancouver that they sailed back from the UK a couple of years ago. Leisha had other commitments so Greg brought Fine Gold up by himself. We both anchored in front of the Patonga Pub and adjourned for late afternoon drinks before dinner on board Rene. My latest concoction was Chicken with Mushroom and Paprika Sauce - YUM!

On Sunday we heard from Leisha that she was catching the bus and train up for the day. We were to meet her at Pearl Beach for morning tea, which we did and then we all walked back over the range to Patonga Beach for lunch. Spent the afternoon lazing about and then saw Leisha to the bus at 4.10pm for the trip back to Sydney.

Greg had a bank holiday today, Monday, so we waved him off after breakfast and made our way over to America and Refuge Bays. These bays are chocked full of private and club moorings along with a few courtesy moorings and it is easy to understand why. America Bay is surrounded by very steep thickly wooded hills. High sandstone cliffs jutting out of the vegetation render any exploring ashore out of the question. This bay would be totally protected from any adverse weather raging in from any direction. Refuge Bay has a couple of small beaches that invite landing and exploring. On the south side is a high sandstone cliff that has a waterfall spilling over into a small beach stream at the bottom. We grabbed a mooring nearby and sat outside in the sunshine and ate lunch whilst the splash of the waterfall broke the silence.

After lunch we decided to motor over to Brooklyn for the night as we both felt in need of a hot shower. While we were there we bought fuel for the dinghy, washed the clothes and enquired about the possibility of leaving the dinghy there overnight while we went to Sydney to collect a water pump kit that Peter ordered on the internet. The storekeeper thought there would be no problem in accommodating Lily for the night.  Brooklyn Marina is an excellent spot to catch up on the jobs as most of the services are here at the one spot. The only thing Brooklyn doesn't have is a supermarket. Gosford is only a short trip on the train, the station being right next to the marina.