Sunday morning in Fame Cove
Sunday 23 March 2014
Saturday 22 March 2014
Lake Macquarie to Port Stephens
Last week the weather looked good enough for us to head on up to Port Stephens.
Getting out of the lake meant we needed to wait for the bridge to open which they do every hour between 6 AM and 7 PM except during peak hour so 8 AM and 5 PM miss out. When we go through the channel there is a couple of knots of current going one way or the other depending on an incoming or outgoing tide and we need to cross the bar on an incoming tide.
Once we've got that bit sorted we need to make sure that the weather in the ocean between Swansea and Port Stephens is good. We’re looking for minimal swell, hopefully behind us and either a cross wind or following wind and nothing nasty on the forecast.
Wednesday, 19th March fit all of the criteria and when we talked to Marine Rescue at Lake Macquarie they confirmed that it was ok to sit on one of the moorings overnight. (They have 2 moorings on the inside of the bridge for people waiting to go out and 3 on the outside waiting for people to go in).
On the Tuesday night we took the last bridge out which was about 10 minutes before last light and stayed on the mooring overnight.
We had an early start on Wednesday morning between first light and sunrise and had crossed the bar by 7 AM. It was supposed to be light northerly early in the morning followed by a light southerly in the afternoon.
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/114886658647201208021/albums/5993742890153555361
End result was the northerly died early and the southerly was late so although we had the sails up all day we hardly got any assistance and we motored all the way up. By 3.30 PM we were turning left into Port Stephens and that was where we met the southerly. Had a good sail inside Port Stephens and we finished the day at 5.30 PM in Salamander Bay with a beer.
Getting out of the lake meant we needed to wait for the bridge to open which they do every hour between 6 AM and 7 PM except during peak hour so 8 AM and 5 PM miss out. When we go through the channel there is a couple of knots of current going one way or the other depending on an incoming or outgoing tide and we need to cross the bar on an incoming tide.
Once we've got that bit sorted we need to make sure that the weather in the ocean between Swansea and Port Stephens is good. We’re looking for minimal swell, hopefully behind us and either a cross wind or following wind and nothing nasty on the forecast.
Wednesday, 19th March fit all of the criteria and when we talked to Marine Rescue at Lake Macquarie they confirmed that it was ok to sit on one of the moorings overnight. (They have 2 moorings on the inside of the bridge for people waiting to go out and 3 on the outside waiting for people to go in).
On the Tuesday night we took the last bridge out which was about 10 minutes before last light and stayed on the mooring overnight.
We had an early start on Wednesday morning between first light and sunrise and had crossed the bar by 7 AM. It was supposed to be light northerly early in the morning followed by a light southerly in the afternoon.
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/114886658647201208021/albums/5993742890153555361
End result was the northerly died early and the southerly was late so although we had the sails up all day we hardly got any assistance and we motored all the way up. By 3.30 PM we were turning left into Port Stephens and that was where we met the southerly. Had a good sail inside Port Stephens and we finished the day at 5.30 PM in Salamander Bay with a beer.
Sunday 2 March 2014
And we're off
So this morning Stephen dropped us off in the centre of Canberra and we took the bus to Sydney central station and then a train up to the boat. No more car for us.
We've got friends coming up this weekend and we’re kind of hanging around waiting for good weather and then we’ll go up to Port Stephens. There is a boat yard at Oyster Cove where we can haul the boat out and have it cleaned and anti fouled for a reasonable price. We’ll get that done and then look at moving further north.
We've got friends coming up this weekend and we’re kind of hanging around waiting for good weather and then we’ll go up to Port Stephens. There is a boat yard at Oyster Cove where we can haul the boat out and have it cleaned and anti fouled for a reasonable price. We’ll get that done and then look at moving further north.
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