I have a boat in Marmong Point Marina in Lake Macquarie and am looking for someone with sailing experience to help sail it to Sydney with myself. Any help or contacts would be greatly appreciated.
Select to expand quoteLazzz said..
What is the draft??
You might have a problem getting out at the moment.
It is 1.5 m
Has the dredging started yet?
What draft boats are getting in and out?
If only swansea had the tides im getting
I haven't been out in ages but as of mid June there was only 1m depth at zero tide at the "dog leg" which is probably less now!!
So anything over 1.1m tide should, theoretically, get you through the shallow bits with 0.5m leeway.
This Thursday or Friday the weather doesn't look too bad at this stage but the tides are against you.
You would be probably looking at around Thursday 25th but you would have to go down the channel the previous afternoon, to work the tide through the dog leg, & the stay on a pink mooring on the outside of the bridge for an early departure to get some water over the bar.
Who knows what the weather is doing then.
I would give Marine Rescue Lake Macquarie a ring & talk to them & also ask for an escort though the dog leg.
Here are some tips I use to help you plan your exit:
Plan your bridge opening for 2 to 4 hours after high tide. The ideal is 3 hours after for entering or leaving.
(Lucas's rule of crossing a bar between the 4th and 5th hour of a run in tide is a good one)
Always cross on a rising tide and preferably in the last quarter of the rising tide. (Applies to All Bars)
Try to choose the last hour or so of the run in tide to make your way out the channel; it's pretty fast, but easier to control not running into the bridge than with a run out tide. There is virtually no slack water, the change there is pretty quick and about two and a half hours after the stated high or low tide due to the size and volume of the lake.
Over the bar the bottom conditions do vary, but as a guide, the minimum depth on the line of the leads, is approx. 1.4 metres plus the tide height. Any sea/swell will of course reduce the depth in the troughs by approx. half the wave height.
The tide difference at Swansea Bridge is approximately one hour later and at "the drop over" the tide difference is three hours later than Swansea Heads.
Weekdays: From 6am to 6pm, one hour's notice is required to book a bridge opening.
Due to heavier road traffic no opening is available at 8am or 4pm weekdays.
Weekends and Public Holidays
Same opening hours as weekdays, except the 8am and 4pm conditions do not apply. A vessel should make a booking through the Marine Rescue Lake Macquarie Radio Operator first as this will assist the bridge operator to coordinate the marine traffic.
This is the latest on the Dog leg conditions:
Select to expand quoteCraig66 said..
Has the dredging started yet?
What draft boats are getting in and out?
The latest on the dredging is that it will be done by end of November - there's something on but I forget what it is!! 
Select to expand quoteLazzz said..
I haven't been out in ages but as of mid June there was only 1m depth at zero tide at the "dog leg" which is probably less now!!
So anything over 1.1m tide should, theoretically, get you through the shallow bits with 0.5m leeway.
This Thursday or Friday the weather doesn't look too bad at this stage but the tides are against you.
You would be probably looking at around Thursday 25th but you would have to go down the channel the previous afternoon, to work the tide through the dog leg, & the stay on a pink mooring on the outside of the bridge for an early departure to get some water over the bar.
Who knows what the weather is doing then.
I would give Marine Rescue Lake Macquarie a ring & talk to them & also ask for an escort though the dog leg.
Here are some tips I use to help you plan your exit:
Plan your bridge opening for 2 to 4 hours after high tide. The ideal is 3 hours after for entering or leaving.
(Lucas's rule of crossing a bar between the 4th and 5th hour of a run in tide is a good one)
Always cross on a rising tide and preferably in the last quarter of the rising tide. (Applies to All Bars)
Try to choose the last hour or so of the run in tide to make your way out the channel; it's pretty fast, but easier to control not running into the bridge than with a run out tide. There is virtually no slack water, the change there is pretty quick and about two and a half hours after the stated high or low tide due to the size and volume of the lake.
Over the bar the bottom conditions do vary, but as a guide, the minimum depth on the line of the leads, is approx. 1.4 metres plus the tide height. Any sea/swell will of course reduce the depth in the troughs by approx. half the wave height.
The tide difference at Swansea Bridge is approximately one hour later and at "the drop over" the tide difference is three hours later than Swansea Heads.
Weekdays: From 6am to 6pm, one hour's notice is required to book a bridge opening.
Due to heavier road traffic no opening is available at 8am or 4pm weekdays.
Weekends and Public Holidays
Same opening hours as weekdays, except the 8am and 4pm conditions do not apply. A vessel should make a booking through the Marine Rescue Lake Macquarie Radio Operator first as this will assist the bridge operator to coordinate the marine traffic.
This is the latest on the Dog leg conditions:
Thank you so much for the valuable information, much appreciate it!
Whatever you do don't use Marks Point Marina to help get you out. I did yesterday with near disastrous results. Get on the Northshore Yachts Facebook page and contact one of the guys who says he is getting some Northshore Yachts of up to 2.4 m draught in for the Toronto Motor Yacht Club hosted Northshore Yachts Regatta next weekend. I would offer to pay them to help you and I believe they use the alternate airport channel which branches off the more conventional channel just before the problematical shallow dogleg.
