Want To Buy: Charts - Sydney to Brisbane

[lamita]

Hi, Lookign to buy charts Sydney to Brisbane.
Cheers Len

[Boracay]

If you're not going further than 2 nm offshore then the NSW Waterways Authority maps are legal.

No matter what you choose I'd strongly recommend getting the Waterways maps for every port and river between Sydney and Point Danger. They can be Downloaded or Brought for $6 each.

For Point Danger to Brissie we used the "Beacon to Beacon" book of maps put out by Maritime Safety Qld. Available most bookshops. Absolutely essential if taking the inland route from Southport to Brisbane.

I'd also strongly recommend getting Alan Lucas' "Cruising the NSW Coast" and "Cruising the Coral Coast".

The other piece of kit that we found essential is a plotter mounted at the helm. We used the a Standard Horizon plotter with the C-map wide area chart.

Oh, and a well calibrated depth sounder is essential (nice to have 2 seconds warning!).

[ozskipper]

I have no charts for sale, but Crawfords Mariners Atlas is a must have imho. Its really handy if you have to stop in at an unexpected port. Plus its great for planning.

[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?

[BlueSun]

Hi lamita

We just did this passage (south to north) and didn't often go further offshore than 2nm, although across some of the larger bays it may have been as much as 5 or 10. When heading North it pays to hug the coast to avoid the East Australian Current. If you're heading South the opposite applies - if you can catch the EAC you can get a great boost!

Have a great trip!

[lamita]

Would love to know where you stopped on your way down. I have been told you can do the trip with no over night sailign required which sounds great for first timers? Bought the Paul Lucas book hoping it would suggest anchorages/ports to stop at as an itenerary but didnt have. Any nfo woudl be appreciated.
cheers

[BlueSun]

You could probably do it without any overnighters, although you'd have to stop at a couple of open roadstead anchorages along the way and/or get lucky with timing of the tides to get over some of the river bars.

Let me think... our stops were as follows:

• day-hop to Broken Bay/Pittwater
• overnighter to Pt Stephens (easy entrance)
• overnighter to Pt Macquarie (tricky bar)
• day-hop to Trial Bay/South West Rocks (an open roadstead, but comfortable in anything but northerlies
• day-hop to Coffs Harbour
• overnighter to the Gold Coast seaway

We chose to do the overnighters- Im not sure you would have to if the tide times worked out. Byron Bay is apparently an OK open roadstead in the right conditions, but we didn't stop there. I highly recommend stopping at Coffs Harbour - no bar crossing, you just sail in and drop the anchor near the jetty - heaps of room.

Try not to be too worried about sailing at night. We're pretty new to this cruising caper ourselves, and Ive actually come to really enjoy it, especially with a clear sky and full moon. Having AIS and radar makes it much less stressful as you can confirm the position and heading of other boats - lights can be very deceptive at night!

Check out our blog below if you want to see more about where we've been.

[lamita]

Did you have AIS reciever only or also a transmitter? If even all of us smaller vessels only use a reciever we could easily collide itno one another!

I am looking at a Raymarine product that can have the reciever only function and was wonderign if that was all i needed.

[BlueSun]

An AIS receiver is better than nothing, but if you can swing it a transmitter is great. I have seen large container ships adjust their course because they have spotted me on AIS. If we weren't transmitting we would have had to call them up on VHF or changed our course (neither is a big deal, but still its nice not to have to, especially at night!)

For ~$750, AIS is one of the best investments we've made.

[BlueSun]

PS we have a standalone AIS unit which integrates with our Lowrance head unit.

[Dragon Lady]

Get yourself an I pad and a Navonics chart plotter App, make sure it is a 3G model. It will may things a lot easier.
Forget the radar.
The AIS receiver might be a good idea, don't expect the ships to get out of your way so I don't know if a transmitter is worthwhile.
If money is a consideration go the Ipad over the other stuff.

[BlueSun]

Radar is definitely a luxury, but it sure is nice to be able to confirm exactly how far away those boat lights are and which way they're heading! And as lamita said, the more of us with transmitters, the better it is for everyone else. We love our Navionics App for Android, but only use it for planning and as a backup for our primary head unit.

[tpkas]

Hi Len,

We're just back from a north and then south Lake Macquarie to Hervey Bay trip. We used the Crawfords Marine Atlas (get it from Bias or Whitworths). We also have a little netbook computer running OpenCPN and Cmap charts (which you can get easily from the internet). Also we have an older Raymarine chartplotter. If you have a smart phone (or an Ipad) you can also get Navionics charts which you can use for planning to a limited extent but they are a great backup and don't cost an arm or a leg. For this latest trip we also installed a ACR Nauticast AIS Receiver Only which is only $149 from Whitworths, talked to both the laptop and the chartplotter and is hightly recommended (by the way, probably cheaper to install a separate aerial for it rather than buy a VHF duplexer)

As far as places to call into if you want to avoid any overnights after Southport there's Ballina, Yamba, Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie, Laurieton, then probably Broughton Island or Port Stephens, Newcastle,Lake Macquarie and finally Sydney (all the way to Botany Bay if you want). This last trip we did two through the night passages to avoid any bar crossings and went Port Stephens to Coffs then, after a couple of days off, to Southport and the same going back south. I have crossed the bars at all of the other places on previous passages and as long as the weather is OK (ie. wind, seas and probably most importantly the tides) you should have no issues. I'd avoid Crowdy Head as it really is set up for the fishing fleet with oyster encrusted piers and limited berths (previous experience there!).

As this is your first time leaving Morten Bay the safest way to sail down the coast is to wait for suitable weather, the next safest thing you can do is then to wait for suitable weather ... get my drift .

If you're planning to go in the next month or so you'll see heaps of whales on their southward migration ... and they know where the EAC is going south ... and how to avoid it going north.

Enjoy and good luck to you.

Brian

[Carlisle Spirit]

I have also had great success with the Transas application ( called iSailor)

I use it as backup

I have a full Raymarine suite running chart plotter , autopilot , AIS and radar. It uses Navionics

In my experience the Transas charts have more detail and are more up to date than the usd 30 k system which must run Navionics

All for usd 25!

The app itself for iPod iPhone and iPad is free

Put it in a waterproof pouch and its excellent for double checking chart detail

Carlisle Spirit

[tpkas]

Hi Len,

forgot to mention Trial Bay but I now see Blue Sun has mentioned it. We've anchored both overnight in the bay itself and also gone into the Maclay .. (or is it Maclean River? ... anyway..) that flows into Trial Bay which again was a non event although if the weather turns a bit you can get stuck there for a while waiting for the bar to settle down.

Regards,

Brian