Janet here. We left Laurieton yesterday morning, crossing the bar without any problem tho there was a swell and the odd breaking wave. One of these dumped onto our friends Chris and Gillie when they left 20 mins later and broke their dinghy, which was stored upside down on the foredeck. The swell was big and wind fairly strong, so it was quite a hectic sail to Trial Bay, where we overnighted. Thank goodness the two courtesy moorings were unoccupied, so we could pick one up and Chris and Gillie the other. Anchoring in the bay would have meant even less sleep than we had on the courtesy mooring, where we rocked and rolled the night away.

We left Trial Bay at about 8.30am with a very murky sky, still biggish, intermittent rain squalls and wind on our bum, which never makes for a great sail. Luckily we got into Coffs Harbour at 14.00, as it has been pouring virtually since then. We intend staying here a week or so to catch our breath and get on top of some maintenance issues.