Savage River to Shelburne Bay- Hmmm ,to stop or not?

Savage River to Shelburne Bay( 62nm)

Underway by 0115 from Savage River, we had a good run to Shelburne Bay arriving at 1130, averging just over 6kts for the run.
The wind was good, holding a nice ESE at 10-15kts.
So what to do? The forecast as far as we could ascertain (which wasn't exactly up to date as we still have no  working HF or internet, so was reliant on best guesses) was the SE change was coming.
Close in at Shelburne Bay would give us protection from the SE, but we would be no better for weather updates, other than Mk1 eyeball.How many days would we be here for if we anchored now? If the wind swung any more to the East it was going to an uncomfortable anchorage.

So of course the answer was, onwards, onwards.

We tacked our way out of Shelburne Bay having decided not to anchor but to continue  on as far as we could before the SE'ly arrived.

We then sailed through Paluma Pass, the passage between Cape Grenville and the Home Islands group. I have never been through here before and was intrigued to see that there was a  house on the south western side. Talk about remote living! 3.5nm further south from this group is Haggerstone Island ,which has a resort on it, which gets rave reviews from fishers and is marketed as a luxury private island resort.Well it would certainly be private!

Flying at 8 kts
 shortly before it came to a grinding a halt in 25kts on the nose

Whizzing along in splendid fashion, of course once we had passed through Paluma Passage,leaving in our 8kt wake the final shelter spot of  Margaret Bay on the northern side of Cape Grenville, the wind began to build in strength from the East.
Half an hour after clearing Paluma Passage it was seriously time for a second reef in the mainsail   and then just before dark the third reef went in as the wind hit 25kts. Ah ha , here was the SE'ly.
For the next 9 hours we laboured on into the SE'ly.  We were now aiming for the shelter of Portland Roads Anchorage, a famous spot for trawlers to anchor at, when  waiting out the SE'ly blows .From Piper Reef to Portland Roads, a magnificent distance of 23nm, and it took 9 hours! Eventually about 2200hrs we just stowed the mainsail, furled the jib and pushed our way slowly into the weather, with the motor(s) alone.  The pretence of sailing long gone.

Cape Grenville to the  sanctuary of  Portland  Roads

At 0315 we let go the anchor in the wonderfully protected bay at Portland Roads. There were no trawlers in the bay, not surprisingly I guess, as there are so few licensed trawlers left these days, compared to the hey day of Portland Roads as an anchorage in the 70's and 80's. There were 3 yachts we could identify and a fourth unlit vessel.
We anchored conservatively, a good distance away from the anchored yachts who were tucked up right under the shoreline and turned in, after what had in the end been a 26 hour day. We would reassess things after a sleep and in daylight.