Sunday 24 March Broughton Island

Finally we have the promise of a southerly wind tomorrow, albeit light wind, to enable us to move on up the coast. Today the wind is light and we decided to go out to Broughton island, five miles outside the headland, stay overnight and then an early start next morning. Exiting Port Stephens is easy with very little swell coming into the bay and a 3 knot current pushing us out.

We stopped in Esmerelda bay on the south side and at the invitation of a departing cruise boat, picked up their mooring ball for the night. There are numerous mooring balls near the beach but they are only strong enough for small boats and not beefy enough for us. For the first time in 4 weeks we are in clear water. Both in Broken Bay and Port Stephens the water was stained brown from the tannins of the trees following heavy rainfalls. Here it was clear, blue and inviting. I grabbed mask and snorkel and went for a swim along the rocks and saw a wobbegong shark, small and coloured like army camouflage. David donned his scuba tank and gave the hull and propeller a polish. He saw a ray of a variety he's never seen before. There were a few barnacles to be scraped off the bottom of the keel and lots of the on the SSB radio grounding plate which can't be antifouled.