On March 6, Zenitude left Cammeray Marina towards Port Stephens. Oscar and Murray, our friend and ex-crew, left the mooring just before 11:00 AM for an 87 miles short trip to Port Stephens. They arrived in Shoal Bay at 2:30 AM and dropped anchor to rest and wait for daylight before continuing to Cove Marine in Oyster Cove.
Leaving Sydney, the first part of the trip was good, with excellent following winds. After reaching Newcastle a series of squalls together with the cold wind made the last 20 miles quite miserable. It was also miserable wet with very poor visibility the next morning, making the 12 miles from Shoal Bay to Oyster Cove. The result is that they lost the tide's window to haul out Zenitude. Haul out had to wait for next day.
Our idea is to leave Zenitude in Cove Marine, Port Stephens, in the dry, while we go overseas for 2 to 3 months. The plan is to do all needed work (antifoul paint plus all the small things in our two pages long 'to do' list) when we are back from overseas and before leaving for our sail north to Whitsunday Islands.
At this point we don't know for how long we'll stay overseas. As soon as we have a good idea we'll post our sailing plans here.
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