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 .