Hi everyone, I'm a relatively new sailor (yacht) although confident in the ocean and boating most conditions. I have been planning a trip North and now I'm three weeks away from my departure time and trying to figure out how to get there and what can hurt me or the boat along the way haha. My boat is 13m and the draft is 2.13m so planning not to get high and dry if possible. I've done the Eden Sydney Leg but the rest is unknown. I do have good electronics, charts and also have books like Lucas and Robs passage planner but thought it would be great to hear some advice from you guys that have done this trip at this time of year.
1. I've set a month to get from Eden to the Whitsundays - what are your thoughts on that goal?
2. like the idea of day passages. is this really possible and where is it just a good idea to push through the night? Yamba to Goldcoast looks like a very early start?
3. ANY INSIGHTS FROM SYD to Whitsundays would be appreciated and warmly welcome.

cheers

Troy

Kankama said..
Some random thoughts in the short time right now.

One month Eden to Airlie may be a bit short but it can be done. But why the timetable? You will have much more fun if you have a destination but not a time OR a time and not a destination. You should NOT have both if you want to have a good trip.

If you want friends to come then allow them to select a time and then you say "About a week out I will let you know where to fly to". Don't tie yourself to a time and place and have friends flying in - bad news and stressful if the wind starts blowing hard the wrong way.

The Whitsundays are nice but make sure you start cruising as soon as you cross the Wide Bay Bar - I recommend new sailors fly their more reluctant partner and family up to Rainbow or Tin Can and gently potter around the straits and Platypus Bay for a week getting sea legs. It doesn't get magically better after Sandy Straits - everywhere is great - if you have the mindset.

Keppel is great for walking - almost no islands better, great beaches, but not so much coral, so you walk and swim there. Island Head is remote with huge beaches so you walk and have great fires on the beach cooking potatoes there - but you don't swim - crocs perhaps.

I like to think of the NSW coast as a delivery - your boat can only get you to one spot - Broughton - you can't get to by car. So if you are looking at getting some mates on board - get them to do this with you and just get sailing. Have a rest at the Gold Coast (but with your draft maybe you will be keeping to the channels) and then plug up to Wide Bay where you can slack right off. No reason to go to the Whitsundays - they are great but it is better to have a great trip and turn around at Percy (I love Percy but I can dry out in the lagoon) rather than turn the trip into a delivery trip special - all deadlines and no fun.

We almost never night sail - our cat can average 7 knots easily (usually about 8 on the chart) and she surfs very well too. So we can plug in about 70 miles fine and just surf in if the bar looks a little dodgy. But you may not have the legs or the bar crossing ability to do that. From Eden you have Bermagui (bar okay) Batemans Bay - no bar to stay in the bay, Jervis, new marina near Kiama, Botany Bay, Sydney, Newcastle, Port Stephens, and then a big one - Broughton to Camden Haven/Port Mac if it is nice or Coffs. Yamba next and then maybe all the way to Gold Coast.

Go when the weather is good and stop when it isn't. Use Windy and BOM to plan your days a few days ahead so you stop one day early or push ahead to get to a nice spot rather than end up say anchored in Coffs in a huge blow - much better to be in Iluka and be able to get off the boat. (Although Coffs marina is fun in a blow - if the marina is safe)

You forgot Port Hacking you can easily spend a week or 2 in there alone. Great advice Kankama. A bit to add is to also think about the return leg. Can be tricky to find a weather window until later in the year to get you around the coastline bend up north and into a southward heading.

A few more potential stops;

Moruya River has a very narrow entrance but from memory it does 2.1m at half tide - check that though since it's been a while. The river becomes complicated around Preddys Wharf (noted on Google Maps) but if you end up sheltering for a while I think you can sneak up river to the town with your draft. There's a Woolworths 200m from the river if you need to stock up.

Northern side of Broulee south of Batemans - great shelter from southerly swell (although a bit exposed to southerly wind due to the low height of the sandbank) and good all the way to NW. OK in a normal nor' easter. The water shoals some way out so check your depth sounder.

Barlings Beach, which forms the northern side of the same bay, is good in NE but can be a bit puffy.

The beaches on the northern side of Batemans offer good protection from a NE but not from much else and there's normally a bit of a roll. Just to the north west of Reef Pt can be good. We loved what Google Maps called Quirriga Beach but it can get some surge. Unlike the other northern BB beaches you're normally OK in Quirriga in a W or NW even of decent strength.

The normal anchoring spot in BB is off Snapper Island but it's not great in any particular wind. I don't know the current state of the bar. The river has serious wind against tide issues so if you go over the bar, the marina is the best bet.

There's a small supermarket on the beach inshore of Snapper, and big supermarkets just near Flatty Pier up the river near the town.

Ulladulla Harbour is compact and short on swinging room. Best to go alongside near the co-op or southern breakwater. Can be a very convenient bolt hole. The wharf near the boat ramp is too shallow for you.

Kiama is very small and has significant surge almost all the time. Access to the breakwater is hard. Not a great stopover.

I've heard good stuff about Shellharbour marina.

I've only done a brief day stopover in Wollongong but it seems a decent overnight spot.

Port Hacking/Jibbon are great.

Getting into Lake Mac at 2.1m is normally a real hassle. Newcastle offers the yacht club or you can take a right hand turn and anchor off Stockton for a quick night on the pick.

In Port Stephens (where our boat is) I'd avoid Shoal Bay - it's as shallow as the name implies and we call it "Roll bay" because of the swell that gets in. The swell also often invades the northern side all the way to the two public moorings off Winda Woppa, by which time the water is pretty flat. I think you may only fit on the western mooring - we find the eastern one too shallow at 2.1m.

If sheltering from a big southerly you may find a spot at Nelson Bay but Salamander Bay's southern shores are less crowded and more reliable. The eastern side of Soldier's Point, particularly near the higher ground to the south, offers excellent shelter from a big winter westerly, as does North Arm Cove's western side. Fame Cove is surprisingly good in W and very good in everything else. As with North Arm Cove, look out for a muddy anchor.

The Broughtons are fantastic in NE breezes but Esmeralda seems to be the only option in a winter westerly and it's narrow and crowded with small-boat moorings. We briefly tried out the bay near the marked (but overgrown) "South Track" on Google Maps further to the south inside Esmeralda and it looks like it has lots of potential in a W and keeps you from the tangle of moorings further up the Cove.

I've never taken a boat into Crowdy Head but it looks well protected from S and W from ashore.

If day hopping, I'd look deeply into leaving before dawn so you leave an anchorage you already know, and arrive in your new anchorage with plenty of light. In winter you'll often get a lovely but chilly offshore land breeze with flat water early in the morning that gives you a great reach while others are sleeping.

Chris 249 said..
Moruya River has a very narrow entrance but from memory it does 2.1m at half tide - check that though since it's been a while. The river becomes complicated around Preddys Wharf (noted on Google Maps) but if you end up sheltering for a while I think you can sneak up river to the town with your draft. There's a Woolworths 200m from the river if you need to stock up.

Chris great information in general but I am a bit more cautious than you about going into Moruya township with a 2.1m draft. Last time I was there I talked to the skipper of a 2m draught steel boat that was having difficulties getting out. He kept grounding in the higher spots in the river. At that stage he was making his own survey of the river with a sonar equipped tender trying to find the path out.

At 1.4m draft I need at least a mid tide for the long slow passage to Moruya.

Kankama said..
Some random thoughts in the short time right now.

One month Eden to Airlie may be a bit short but it can be done. But why the timetable? You will have much more fun if you have a destination but not a time OR a time and not a destination. You should NOT have both if you want to have a good trip.

If you want friends to come then allow them to select a time and then you say "About a week out I will let you know where to fly to". Don't tie yourself to a time and place and have friends flying in - bad news and stressful if the wind starts blowing hard the wrong way.

The Whitsundays are nice but make sure you start cruising as soon as you cross the Wide Bay Bar - I recommend new sailors fly their more reluctant partner and family up to Rainbow or Tin Can and gently potter around the straits and Platypus Bay for a week getting sea legs. It doesn't get magically better after Sandy Straits - everywhere is great - if you have the mindset.

Keppel is great for walking - almost no islands better, great beaches, but not so much coral, so you walk and swim there. Island Head is remote with huge beaches so you walk and have great fires on the beach cooking potatoes there - but you don't swim - crocs perhaps.

I like to think of the NSW coast as a delivery - your boat can only get you to one spot - Broughton - you can't get to by car. So if you are looking at getting some mates on board - get them to do this with you and just get sailing. Have a rest at the Gold Coast (but with your draft maybe you will be keeping to the channels) and then plug up to Wide Bay where you can slack right off. No reason to go to the Whitsundays - they are great but it is better to have a great trip and turn around at Percy (I love Percy but I can dry out in the lagoon) rather than turn the trip into a delivery trip special - all deadlines and no fun.

We almost never night sail - our cat can average 7 knots easily (usually about 8 on the chart) and she surfs very well too. So we can plug in about 70 miles fine and just surf in if the bar looks a little dodgy. But you may not have the legs or the bar crossing ability to do that. From Eden you have Bermagui (bar okay) Batemans Bay - no bar to stay in the bay, Jervis, new marina near Kiama, Botany Bay, Sydney, Newcastle, Port Stephens, and then a big one - Broughton to Camden Haven/Port Mac if it is nice or Coffs. Yamba next and then maybe all the way to Gold Coast.

Go when the weather is good and stop when it isn't. Use Windy and BOM to plan your days a few days ahead so you stop one day early or push ahead to get to a nice spot rather than end up say anchored in Coffs in a huge blow - much better to be in Iluka and be able to get off the boat. (Although Coffs marina is fun in a blow - if the marina is safe)

Thanks a million for your input Knkama! So nice of you to share all this with me!! I've given myself a month to get up there have a month in the Whitsundays and then I'll put aside 4-6 weeks to get back to Eden. I'd like to take longer but this year that's all I can do haha

nswsailor said..
Have a look at my blog, it has most of the anchorages north of Camden Haven Inlet [Laurieton}.
Oh and Crowdy may be a bit shallow for you as the proposed dredging has not taken place yet.
Blog:
sailingseaka.blogspot.com

Cheers NSWsailer I'll defiantly check out the blog and thanks for your input!

scruzin said..
+1 for Shellharbour Marina, if it is a marina you're looking for. Much more affordable than Sydney marinas, and with good public transport options. If you do pop into Sydney Harbour though, there are plenty of places where you can anchor for free.

+1 for Crowdy Head, which had free water (at last count).

A few more tips at:

blog.arribasail.com/2022/10/cruise-george-town-to-shellharbour.html
and
blog.arribasail.com/2023/01/cruise-shellharbour-to-southport.html

Love it thanks mate!

EastCoastSail said..

Chris 249 said..
Moruya River has a very narrow entrance but from memory it does 2.1m at half tide - check that though since it's been a while. The river becomes complicated around Preddys Wharf (noted on Google Maps) but if you end up sheltering for a while I think you can sneak up river to the town with your draft. There's a Woolworths 200m from the river if you need to stock up.

Chris great information in general but I am a bit more cautious than you about going into Moruya township with a 2.1m draft. Last time I was there I talked to the skipper of a 2m draught steel boat that was having difficulties getting out. He kept grounding in the higher spots in the river. At that stage he was making his own survey of the river with a sonar equipped tender trying to find the path out.

At 1.4m draft I need at least a mid tide for the long slow passage to Moruya.

Good information, thanks for that.