We came into Port Stephens at 4-30 AM last Saturday morning in 2 to 3 metre following waves and pouring rain, Surfing waves.
Couldnt see any thing,
Tide or
current was running sideways, It was about half tide,
I just followed the Markers on the
GPS, With great difficulty, It was bouncing all over the place,
I couldnt see the channel Lights clearly,
Tied up at a Pink
Mooring ball at 5-30 AM, Dutchmans beach,
I had just done 5 hours hand
steering in 40
knot winds and very high choppy seas,
Coming up from Cronulla, We were out 20 Nmiles, But I changed course and came in closer to shore which reduced the size of the waves we were in,
But that added about 15 or 20 miles extra to the journey, Approximately, About 3 or 4 hours,
We were doing 11 knots at one stage, Motoring and half the
Genoa up,
I wasnt going to sit out there and wait for the
weather to improve,
The hand
steering was because the Autopliot and
GPS just couldnt keep up with the violent course changes we were encountering,
Cheers, Brian,