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Upped anchor and motored up to Tangalooma.

The morning saw a hearty breakfast of Bacon and eggs cooked up by the first Mate while the skipper threw the dingy off the fore deck and lugged the little 5hp outboard onto it’s transom. After eating we gingerly disembarked suprised at how difficult this exercise was without the false courage we had last time. The dingy motored nicely into the almost pristine beach of Lucinda Bay. After lifting it well clear of the likely tide height we walked along the beach watching a small school of dolphins fishing along the edge of the gutter.

Returning to the boat I hooked the dinghy on for a tow up to Tangalooma resort. We went out and around Dring Bank in case the sandbanks had moved since charted and motored North.

The entrance into Tangalooma is marked by 2 sets of leads which I though I’d take Holdfast through.

We found the first set of leads buried in the shrubbery – you couldn’t see them until you were nearly in line. The second ones weren’t much easier to find and I would have been much more concerned without the GPS’s guidance.

Following the leads with a strong cross tide was interesting and much harder than I thought it would be, and it was even more challenging on the way back out later looking back to shore over my shoulder while keeping an eye ahead – a bit liking backing a trailer I thought.

We went up to the wrecks slightly north of Tangalloma resort and anchored. I launched the dinghy and went for a low powered zoom around the wrecks and the fishing folk – a good photo opportunity as well.

I need to get better at the whole trip planning thing. I climbed up aboard, pulled the motor up and hoisted the dinghy back onto the fore deck before tying it down. I rang Manly Boat harbour to arrange a mooring for the night as Jacqui had an early morning flight to Sydney to catch. That organised I sat down to work out a quick route and realised that we had 17M to do and the current boat speed with motor was only 5 knots. There was still only skerricks of breeze around and we were against the tide - extimated eta was well after dark.

Ater discussing with Jacqi I reorganised our plans and booked into Scarborough marina - still 13M away but we were able to go across the tide to acheive better speed over the ground. Holdfast arrived at 5:05pm just after the marina office closed. I had contacted Mike from the Boat sales office and he arranged for Simon from his office to come down and help us dock. I manged to drift Holdfast in just about OK still getting used to a boat 5 times heavier but slippier.  

Mike showed up soon after at our berth with a bottle and a chat which was nice. He lent us his car later on so we grab some supplies locally which was greatly appreciated.