MONDAY 30 TH OCTOBER 2024 – Sail to Broughton Island
Map
of Broughton Island
Most boats headed off to Broughton Island in a really nice 10kt south easter that allowed us to sail all 6 hours to the island . Adeluna ( Peter and Judith Mitchley ) left 20 minutes ahead of the departure time because Peter was “ too excited ” and Boree Creek ( Monica and Gary ) left 2 hours later because Gary “ was on holidays ”. Athena ( Owen and Linda ) also left a bit later because Owen was still recovering from his labours of “ servicing the loo , unblocking filters , rerunning halyards , rerunning a power circuit ”.
Sadly , Harlequinn II needed to sail back to Sydney to attend a celebrious NYE event prior appointment and Way to Go ( Gene and Judy ) also sailed back to attend a family funeral . Thanks guys for making the effort to participate to the extent to which you were able .
At the Newcastle stage of the cruise there were 16 boats in Newcastle Harbour and our ‘ scout ship ’ at Broughton Island , totalling 17 with Verve ( John and Jo ) and Albatross ( Greg and Marilyn ) to join on the 2 nd and 3 rd January respectively . Thus , a total of 19 boats participating in this year ’ s cruise . Whilst not officially on the cruise we were also joined by Friday ’ s Child ( Peter and Sue ) at Broughton sundowners and also at Fame Cove and Newcastle Yacht club . Verve were later to advise that they could not attend , although this loss was ameliorated to some extent by Friday ’ s Child de facto joining the second half of the cruise in Newcastle after coming back from Broughton Island to provide support to Leon and Nirvana during Leon ’ s recovery .
We were also joined by a further two RPAYC boats who asked to be part of the cruising division going forward . They were Shearwater ( Guido and Michelle ) and Amaranth II ( Paul and Lizzie ). Shearwater and Amaranth II also joined in for our NYE white party and crazy hats on the beach at Broughton Island and Amaranth II also joined us on 4 January 2025 aboard Heaven ’ s Gate for a birthday celebration . Amaranth II ( for those who are not aware ) is permanently berthed at RPAYC just opposite the Commodore ’ s car parking space .
Find of the cruise – Matt Curlew
In addition to acting as our scout boat , leading the shark diving expeditions and generally sharing local knowledge about Broughton Island , Matt also adopted the role of the Coal Shaft Bay parking attendant . Here are some examples ,