Back to Lake Macquarie 21st to 23rd September

Although the weather forecast said we should expect SW winds at 10-15kn and this was directly on the nose, we thought this was an opportunity to sail the 13nm back to Lake Macquarie. Motoring east down the harbour was much more pleasant than the way in and there were no ships to dodge. Once outside the channel we pulled up the main and set the jib and off we went. The light SW winds enabled us to glide past the surf beaches and see clearly some lovely views of Newcastle. It was an easy sail although we gradually found ourselves going further east than we liked. After tacking back towards the long Nine Mile Beach we began to point higher and finally, with a northerly change in the light breeze we made the Swansea Channel easily. The timing was perfect and the bar smooth with more than 3m depth. Peter rang the Marine Rescue and organised for the bridge to open for us in an hour. There was a small problem, a crash on the bridge, so we had to wait on the courtesy mooring while the authorities cleared the road and the resultant traffic jam also cleared.

The delay at the bridge made us an hour later than we wanted to negotiate the upper part of the Channel. We were anxious not to touch the bottom as we had on the way out. The tide was flowing strongly, but although the echo sounder once hit 1.9m and Peter thought he felt a brief slow down we made it back into this delightful lake. Where to go? After some thought we decided that Murray's Beach was a good idea and we'd treat ourselves to breakfast at the café on Sunday morning. What a treat! Gorgeous venue and yummy breakfast.

When Peter put the anchor light on the night before it would not work. He checked the wiring and came to the conclusion that a new globe was needed. Luckily we knew that there was a Bias Marine store at Belmont so we motored over there after breakfast to buy a new globe. LEDs do not necessarily last that long. With the new globe in hand it was my job to winch Peter up the mast. This is not an easy job and one that I never look forward to, partly because it is difficult and partly perched at the top of the mast in a canvas chair on the end of a rope is a vulnerable place to be. It seemed to take ages and I had instructions to flick various switches to test the job. Then swearing!!!! Lots of it!!! The nasty little Chinese globe fell apart in Peter's hands. Down he came and of course we had to repeat the whole exercise with a replacement. I will point out that this required a 200m row ashore and then a 2km walk to the shop and back. Not to mention the whole mast procedure all over again. This time it worked.

We are now anchored off Toronto for a day or two, relaxing and deciding what to do with the next couple of weeks. We have still not been down to the south end of the lake, Chain Valley Bay, Wyee Bay and others. Kilaben Bay is around the corner from Toronto Bay and we have not been there either. We're also looking forward to meeting up with Maureen and John and Judy and John at Hawkesbury River on the 3rd Oct. We are planning to take the ferry to Dangar Is for lunch - one of our favourite spots. The Tall Ships are coming to Sydney on the long weekend in October and we intend to take the train down for the weekend to check out the celebrations. Leisha will only have a couple of weeks to go by then. Exciting times!!