Iluka to Byron Bay
Wednesday 1 of June 2022
We decided to make a very early start out of yamba because even though the tide wasn’t right, the web cam show that the bar was dead flat and navagatable. As we headed out we were pleased to find that this was the case. despite the hour there’s a number of small fishing boats heading out with us but there was no visible waves making the crossing a delight. It was freezing both of us having donned our big fluffy jacket, it felt great to be on the water again and heading north.
I set some fishing lines soon after we passed the bar and was soon awarded with a strike. A beautiful stripped tuna was soon in the boat as well as lots of blood. Soon after getting this one in, we had another strike on Julia which Nola brought in. 2 from 2. I put the lines back out again had another big strike but was unable to bring it in as it was too big and we were going to fast, just as well as we have enough tuna to last us for a while. I cleaned them on the move - a challenging task and one that l will need to work on - as cutting a slippery stiff fish with a long sharp knife on a moving boat is an interesting exercise.
Soon after turning left we had a pod of whales swim close to Our starboard side, this was the first group of many that we saw on the trip to Byron. It is such a privilege to share the water with them.
After a few hours the wind shifted more favorably, so we set the sails but still needed a little diesel assistance to keep moving at a reasonable speed.
Our plan was to try and make Byron early in the afternoon and the weather reports were looking great to anchor off the beach, get a night sleep and head towards the Gold Coast tomorrow.
This was one of the days I was really looking forward to, about 15 years ago, when we pulled our kids out of school bought the turtle and hit up the east coast of Australia we stopped in Byron bay and early in the morning got up to see the sunrise over the most easterly part of mainland Australia. When we were up there we saw a yacht sailing around Cape Byron and it was one of the visions that kept with me all this time as being something I wanted to do. Today we were going to do it. Cape Byron is an imposing rocky outcrop with a large white light house on top and from the sea is beautiful and majestic. We have our sails out and as I had envisioned years ago, we’ve sailed around the cape and fulfilled a dream.
Entering Byron Bay we found that the swell was minimal and joined another yacht that was anchored off the main beach on the west side of the bay in sun about 7 m of water. There were waves breaking on the beach but where we were was very swell. Putting out plenty of scope and setting the anchor alarm we went to bed delighting in having achieved one of my life goals.
