Picking the weather

So this is what makes a nice smooth and safe trip.  I’m looking for the swell to be less than 1.5 metres and in a favourable direction.  The bar at Swansea is open to the North East so really the only bad direction is a North East swell.  Anything from the South or South East is protected by Moon Island.  Ideally a cross wind from the West would allow us to sail down there but hey sometimes you have to take what you get, if the head wind is less than 10 knots then it’s not too bad. 
The other thing we need to take in to account is that the water is still coming out of the lake 3 hours after the low tide so we’ll leave the marina at Newcastle at 0600, be rounding Nobbys head on the way out of Newcastle at 0700 and then be down to Swansea in time for the bridge opening at 1000.  By that time the water should have finished coming out of the lake and be just about to change round to going in. Means a minimum of current in the channel.  And you thought it was easy .

Mooring in Lake Macquarie

This morning we had breakfast at

Toronto before catching up with Glenn from NSW maritime.  We went out with him on the maritime boat so we could pick a spot for a mooring where we’ll leave the  boat semi permanently.  About half an hour while we toured up and down the foreshore and then we’d picked the spot.  We’ll get in contact with a mooring company tomorrow and by the time we’re ready to leave Newcastle it’ll be in.
The spot we’ve picked will give us a reasonable amount of protection from the winter South Easterlies but not much from the summer North Easterlies.

Easy run from the F3 freeway and we’re only 100m or so from the shore so it will be a pretty easy commute from Canberra.

And the alternator needs fixing as well

So the starboard (on the right if you’re standing at the back of the boat facing forwards) tacho has not worked for ages and I finally got around to looking at that last weekend.  The tacho reads the slight changes in voltage from the alternator and the needle moves based on how fast the alternator is spinning.  That is of course assuming that the alternator is putting the right output on the wire going to the tacho.
You’d think that the alternator is working fine if you’re able to get 50 Amps out to charge the batteries but all indications were that the alternator was the problem.  Unfortunately there were no markings visible so I had no idea what type of alternator I have other than 12 volts.  Anyway, cutting a long story short I've now removed the alternator and found that it is a 90 Amp alternator (which explains why one of the three phases is not working and I can still get almost 60 Amps).
On Tuesday it’s off to the shop for that to be repaired so that the tacho will work again but probably more importantly we’ll be able to get 90 Amps in to the batteries when we need it.

Woohoo! Newcastle at last

Yesterday we finally managed to leave Lake Macquarie and get up to Newcastle.  Mel arrived just after 0800 and we left the dock at Marmong Point at 0900 so that we would make the 1100 bridge opening at Swansea.  I was hoping that by then the low tide (0837 at Swansea Heads) would mean  that any current would be pushing me back in to the lake away from the bridge. 
This is the channel that I needed to get through before crossing the bar.

As it turns out there was still about 2 knots of current going out of the lake.  Not unmanageable but still more than I would of liked. Anyway, timed the run to the bridge to perfection and we went straight through. Concentrating on getting through the channel.

And the bridge we’re about to go through with a green light for me.

Uneventful crossing of the bar and a very pleasant 3 hour motor sail up the coast and we get to Newcastle.  And then to finish off a very good day we get welcomed into Newcastle harbour by these guys.

(Wasn't that nice, a whole post with nothing about engines )