After checking the weather again late last night, we decided that leaving Pittwater for Lake Macquarie was probably not a good idea, given the unpredictability of the closing weather window. With that, we enjoyed a sleep in without any rowers shouting or cockatoos screeching to wake us up at some ridiculous hour of the morning. Once we surfaced, we moved to Refuge Bay in order to be protected from the approaching strong northeasterly winds.

There were a few things, though, that struck us immediately about this bay. Firstly, there are only four public mooring balls, but the bay is filled with approximately 200 "club" mooring balls when there isn't a club in sight, there's no road to get to a club, if one existed and, with the exception of only three other boats in the anchorage, the mooring balls are vacant, making it a little difficult to comprehend why good anchoring space for transients has been eliminated. We're not sure what we're missing, but it feels more like a floating "ghost town" which we found all rather bizarre.

Secondly, it's been a long time since we've been in an anchorage that is so quiet we can hear the silence and found ourselves whispering to each other. Not even birds, especially the cockatoos that made such a racket while we were in Roseville Chase. It is definitely going to take us a while to readjust to the serenity of our sailing life again after the hustle and bustle of Sydney. Not having a very good cell phone or data signal is most certainly adding to the withdrawal symptoms.

Thirdly, while we'd hoped to crack out the paddleboards, we spotted the most enormous jellyfish we've ever seen, so bang went that idea! Instead, Elaine started writing our next website article and Roy busied himself by cleaning the heat exchanger of the starboard engine.

With news that our revised visas had been approved, dinner and a movie wrapped up the day.