We are planning a couple of over nights at Jerusalem Bay then Refuge Bay near Pittwater. Are there visitors moorings there or do I need to anchor?
Thanks!
There's 3 or 4 moorings in Pinta Bay, a small bay on the left as you enter. You can anchor at the head of Jerusalem Bay, I never have but have seen others so cant comment on suitability.
Mike
My favourite spot on cowan creek and really all of broken bay
There are 3 national parks moorings in pinta Bay just to the side of Jerusalem Bay
I prefer to anchor up the end of Jerusalem just before the shallows
It does get very shallow towards the end of the bay
It's very well charted on navionics
It's worth going up the end of the creek in a dinghy on high tide
Was just in Pinta bay a few weeks ago, fantastic spot. Took the SUP up the creek, never seen so many jellyfish in my life, the water was like soup.
+1 for Pinta, and for Refuge Bay - pretty much take your pick - yes, they are mostly private/club moorings, but at this time of year its mostly empty- particularly mid-week (flying any club pennant will fool many 
). I like to go deep up into America Bay near to the waterfall. Moorings to starboard will get the morning sun earlier.
If you go here:
www.nsw.gov.au/driving-boating-and-transport/using-waterways-boating-and-transport-information/navigation-and-communication/boating-maps?utm_source=seabreeze.com.au#toc-hawkesbury-riverbroken-bay-maps
and download the '9a-cowan-narrabeen' map(PDF, so you can keep it offline), you'll see all the public moorings in the whole system. Have a look at Smiths Creek if you can - very nice
You gotta go to the end of Jerusalem and anchor (it is pretty deep) and then climb up jump rock and jump off it, look for the rope. It is about 8 metres up and takes a bit of chutzpah to jump off. Do it at high tide if you are a wimp like me. Make sure you go ashore and wander up the path towards the highway. You meander up through a creek, lovely rainforest, wet schlerophyll. If you look carefully on your left about 400m before the bridge over the highway, there is an old track that leads to aboriginal carvings. They are getting very faint now. The were easy to see 30 years ago. Watch and of course don't walk on them.
But if you really want to see carvings, go to Americas Bay, tie the dinghy to the sign that says "Don't use this path", then climb the steep path and head up to the top of the waterfall and beyond. Great views from the waterfall of your boat. Then continue up and there is a small sign telling you where the carvings are. BUt if you really want to see well preserved carvings, the steep walk up from the Basin is the good one, great carvings with nice signposting and boardwalks there. (We love looking at carvings you can tell)
Ok - one more Jerusalem Bay story. About 14 years ago, my boys and my wife were down at Refuge and we said we would kayak to Jerusalem and they could take the boat on their own, all grown up like. So they dropped the mooring in Refuge and we pottered around as they motored away - feeling like good parents to let 15 year olds take the 38ft cat away (they had lived onboard for 3 years). We slowly kayaked along and then, with them way out of sight, I remembered, I had replaced the chain recently but had not added rope to the end or tied off the bitter end. I remembered that Jerusalem was quite deep and thought maybe I would find the boys tied up to a mooring in Pinta with the anchor and chain on the bottom. When we arrived all way good. Kankama was sitting well anchored with the bridle out and the boys awaiting our arrival. How did things go? I asked. Then they told me they saw the bitter end of the 33 metres of chain pop out of the windlass and start rolling down the 2.4m catwalk. They were good kids and grabbed the end and hauled it all back on and tied the boat off. Needless to say, I spliced some rope on after that, chagrined by my own stupidity and proud of my sons. So splice your chain to a long rope and tie the bugger on before you get to a deep (15m) anchorage like that in Jerusalem. CheersPhil
