Still Coffs Harbour

Well it has been a very disappointing and frustrating week. We sailed out of Coffs last Wednesday (21st) bound for Noumea. We had a really good sail for most of the day and were just getting ready for our first night at sea when the autopilot stopped. We re-engaged but it kept dropping out. We had the same issue about a year ago and we really did think that it was sorted.

After a bit of debate we reluctantly decided to turn back for Coffs Harbour to try and get it sorted out. That took us 16 hours of hand steering to get back. It soon became apparent that there was no one in Coffs Harbour who could sort the problem out. The last week has been spent making phone calls to various "experts" up and down the coast and crawling around the boat with the multi-meter measuring voltages and resistances.

We are now fairly convinced that the problem lies in the drive but by no means certain. The plan is to try to head up to the Gold Coast and try to get it looked at there. However, on top of everything we have now discovered a diesel leak in the engine and so are delayed in departing until we sort that out. We have pretty much abandoned hopes of sailing to Noumea.

At least Coffs Harbour is a nice place to be stuck in, with plenty of facilities nearby and some nice neighbours on adjacent boats.

Coffs Harbour

We safely arrived into Coffs Harbour Marina early yesterday morning. We had to slow ourselves down quite considerably so as not to arrive before first light. It turned out to be a good decision as it took us four attempts to get into our berth even in the daylight, due to the wind and the skipper being a bit rusty with docking.

X-Pat berthed at Coffs Harbour Marina

Since we arrived we have been cleaning up and getting all of our diesel tanks full ready for the next leg of our trip. We also enjoyed an evening out yesterday at the King Tide Brewery. We can recommend most of the beers!

The Brewery - every port should have one!

This morning we visited the Sunday market, which was just a short walk from the marina and enjoyed a BLT and cheesecake cones for breakfast, followed by doughnuts. It's a tough life cruising.

Winter Cruising

The weather has got cold again here in Sydney and so it’s time to head north. 

Today we brought X-Pat into the dock at the Quays Marina and loaded on enough provisions to keep us going for months. We have now left and are on a mooring at the Basin. Tomorrow we plan to run through our safety checks and test out our new dinghy.

X-Pat at the dock fully loaded and ready to depart

The weather forecast is currently looking good for us departing Pittwater on Thursday (15th) for Coffs Harbour and then onward to New Caledonia next week. We will try to keep you up to date with all our adventures!