Newcastle and Port Stephens

As first light was rising, at 5.20am, we slipped our mooring in Coasters Retreat and left Broken Bay, heading north for Newcastle. We aren’t often up and about at that time of day, so watching the sun rise on the horizon over the ocean was pretty special! The crisp, clear morning blossomed into a lovely day with light winds, and so we alternated between sailing and motoring.

Eleven and a half hours later, we were safely and securely tied up to a berth at the Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club. The first thing I did was go and check out the showers. Swanky little individual bathrooms that looked newly renovated, with an enormous, powerful showerhead and unlimited hot water, it was absolute heaven. Then we walked into town and dined in at an Indian restaurant. It’s the small things in life…..

Now that we had decided to put down the hammer down, and move up north a bit faster, we only planned to spend one day in Newcastle before moving on. However, Mother Nature had other ideas. When checking the weather forecasts, we realised that a pretty big front was on the way, predicted to arrive later in the week. We weren’t going to be going anywhere fast! So we decided to spend an extra day in Newcastle, before moving to Port Stephens, where we would wait out the storm.

The first day was very rainy, although not cold, and we ran errands and did laundry. It was a lovely treat to be plugged into power, and have hot water on demand. The second day was absolutely beautiful; warm and sunny. I have to say that Newcastle really surprised me and it has some lovely areas, including several ocean pools, lots of beaches and a lovely harbourside precinct. We hiked over to the Mereweather Ocean Bath, had a quick swim and then wandered back along coastal tracks, past lots of beaches to the Breakwall. The sun was setting over the harbour as we made our way back to the boat, and those glorious hot showers!

We left Newcastle, heading for Port Stephens, on a lovely sunny day, with the ocean about as flat as you can get it. Sunshine, light breeze, calm waters, my kind of day! We were sailing along slowly in the gentle breeze and I was sitting up on the bow, when I saw an almighty splash in the water out of the corner of my eye. I paused for a second, then realisation sunk in. There’s only one thing that could be! Whales! ‘BREACH!’ I yelled out to Matt. He rushed up on deck. There were several humpback whales only a few hundred metres from the boat. We could clearly see their dark bodies in the water and their big spouts of air. And then they put on a little show of breaches. We managed to catch a couple on camera. Very very cool! We were both ecstatic.

Then the wind swung around to the NE, directly on the nose, so we turned the motor on and pretty much motored the rest of the way to Port Stephens. The sun was beginning to set as we negotiated our way through the entrance, and followed the channel lights through the bay to Anchorage Marina, where we had phoned ahead to organise a berth. I was up on the bow with our strongest torch, and thankfully the water was incredibly flat as Matt manoeuvred Cool Change into the tiny marina and our designated berth.

The next day we were welcomed to the marina by Patrick, the manager, ‘knocking’ on our door with a gift bag of goodies. In the daylight, the marina looked pretty fancy and we were wondering what we were up for cost-wise. Turned out to be fairly reasonable, and cheaper than Newcastle too. We discussed the impending weather with Patrick and he assured us that we were welcome to stay for as long as we needed. A further check of the weather forecasts told us that we weren’t going to be going anywhere anytime soon. We resigned ourselves to that fact. It’s all part of the journey, learning to go with the flow.

And so we made the most of the mild weather, wandering into Nelson Bay via some gorgeous tracks along the beach and out to Nelson Bay Lighthouse. Stopping at a dive shop, Matt booked onto a dive for the following Wednesday, out to Broughton Island to hopefully see some grey nurse sharks. This was Thursday and we thought that surely the worst of the storm would have passed by Wednesday. It was a deceptively warm day, and there was an eerie calm about; ‘the calm before the storm’ we joked. It certainly was that!

The wind began late that night. It was super strong and the boat began rocking a bit, even in the shelter of the marina. The weather front had finally arrived. The howling wind was to last for five days. I have never been so grateful to be safely tied up in a marina and I didn’t care what it cost!

The next day was declared a ‘boat day’ and apart from a short walk into Salamander Bay to stretch our legs and have a coffee, we spent the day on the boat reading.

On Sunday, Matt assembled the bikes and we cycled out to Anna Bay to see the famous sand dunes. The largest coastal sand mass in all of NSW, it was a vast area of sand formations, and with the strong winds, sand was flying everywhere.

We cycled back around the bay via Birubi Point, One Mile Beach and a stop at Fingal Bay for fish and chips. Although we had to eat our lunch on the beach, as the restaurant had reached its designated numbers of patrons, Matt had a schooner of beer while waiting. His first beer in a glass, since all the restrictions started. Happy boy! After six and a half hours, and almost 40 kilometres of cycling in the strong winds, I was pretty exhausted. And the long hot shower later that night was highly appreciated.

For the next two days, as well as the wind constantly howling, it also rained pretty much non-stop. It got cold too and my thermals and winter woollies came out. I pretty much didn’t leave the boat for those two days. I don’t remember this being in the brochure!

Finally, the rain stopped and although it was still windy, we were busting to get out and about, so we cycled out to Shoal Bay and to Tomaree Head. The Tomaree Head Summit Walk gave us incredible views of the entrance to the bay, and we watched in amazement as the ocean churned and huge waves rolled through the entrance, where we’d passed through almost a week ago. Unless things settled down pronto, we wouldn’t be leaving for a few days yet.

Unfortunately, Matt’s dive was cancelled as the swell was still too big. He compromised by going for a snorkel in a sheltered area nearby; Fly Point, near Little Nelson Bay. That evening we met Brooke and Nick, a couple on a motor yacht several berths up from ours. We invited them for onboard for a few drinks. It was lovely to be socialising properly, and having a face to face chat. They toured our boat and then we went and checked out theirs. From Melbourne, they’d flown up to buy their boat and been stranded by the restrictions, so were living on the boat in the marina. We all agreed we’d much rather be up here in Port Stephens! They are also thinking of heading up north so might catch up with them somewhere in QLD.

The next day dawned clear and sunny and we moved on from the delightful Anchorage Marina, after filling up with diesel and fresh water. We motored around to Little Nelson Bay and just missed out on the third courtesy mooring. So we anchored beside the three other yachts already there. I blew up my SUP and paddled to shore to do a small grocery shop. Then I took the SUP over to Fly Point, the marine reserve where Matt had snorkelled the other day. Absolutely incredible, it was teeming with thousands of fish.

Incredibly, we saw a whale spout in the bay, only a few hundred metres from the boat. Amazing! The sky glowed orange on our final night in Port Stephens. We’d been in the bay for nine nights, and we were both itching to move on. The winds and sea state were predicted to be pretty good for our passage to Forster-Tuncurry the following day.

Adventure isn’t hanging off a rope on the side of a mountain. Adventure is an attitude we must apply to the day to day obstacles of life.

John Amat