Want To Buy: Charts - Sydney to Brisbane

[ozskipper]

Originally Posted by lamita

Thanks for replies. I have purchased Allan Lucas book for NSW.

Would i also need the Waterways maps showing entrances aswell as the Lucas book?

Also going up the coast how far out would you sail? Further out than 2nm?

On another forum i saw someonwe saying the Bellinger portfolios are good maps to have. However on emailing them they are mostly 1998. Does this matter the age of these when it is coastal sailing not harbour?

This is first time we have sailed outside of Moreton bay so want to be prepared.

Looking at buying a Raymarine chartplotter with ais reciever and undecided if we need radar if only coastal. Your thoughts?

If you straight line it, from Port Stephens to Broken Bay, you will end up around 15 miles off Newcastle for example. Straight lining between South West Rocks and Coffs, you will be about 9-10 miles off. So you will definitely be more than two miles off for a lot of the time..

Radar will suck the juice on the boat. If you have lots of money to waste and a good set of batteries go for it. Otherwise, I would suggest that you just keep a proper look out like the rest of us. Its not that hard. If the bearing between you and the other vessel remains constant, you are going to collide. If it changes in a constant direction, you are most likely ok :-D

I would have the waterways maps , Crawfords and The Lucas book if I were you. The more info the better.

[Boracay]

Unfortunately the Ballina Webcam is out.

We were stuck in Yamba by some bad weather so we drove to Ballina to have a look. It was horrendous. The bar has the worst reputation of any on the coast. Only with perfect weather and maybe not even then.

We followed Alan Lucas' advice on bar crossing to the letter. Worked out well, but I'll probably give the Mooloolaba bar a fair bit more respect next time.

We stayed overnight at Trial and Byron Bays. With good weather they were great. Again we followed Alan Lucas' guide which is necessary as the best places to drop anchor are somewhat counter intuitive.

[lamita]

Thanks for your replies. We are pretty set on a Raymarine Chartplotter - e97. However a sales person bought to my attention if i got a watchmate ais transponder it will lay over the chartplotter when on, but at night i do not need the chartplotter on to have the anchor alarm or alarm of another boat too close. Thought this was handy to know as we are not sure about how much electricity the boat holds/charges until we have been out in her awhile.

But my concern is two of you above mentioned or hinted that navionics haven't good maps- and this is what my raymarine runs on. So are you suggesting i use two sources of maps?
cheers

[Teeto]

We are heading down that coast in a couple of weeks. Third time for us. Just replaced the old chart plotter and bung radar for the combined Raymarine e7. Looks great. Navionics charts (gold ) are excellent. Have used them on the laptop for the past 2 years with C Map on the old plotter. Found Navionics to be more accurate and clearer.
We have AIS receiver only and find that plus radar to be very reassuring at night.
You can do the NSW coast in day hops but you can't be in a rush. If you go into a barred anchorage, be prepared to sit there for over a week waiting for the swell to be low enough to get out - and that flood tide might be in the afternoon so you must be prepared to sail at night.
We have sailed an overnighter from Port Stephens north, only to find Port Macquarie breaking right across and had to keep going to Coffs.
This piece of coast is not quite as friendly as QLD, but rewarding if you line all the ducks up correctly.

[JNoel]

Before you purchase anything on charts check out the navionics viewer on there web site. It will give you a look all the areas you want befor you buy a chart.