Syndey to Coffs Harbour in a Piver 31

[dennisail]

Well Lake Maquarie to Yamba to be exact.

Hello people. A friend and I are going to sail his 31" up the coast these xmas holidays. The idea is to get it back to Brisbane where we live early next year. We are leaving it at Yamba for a month or 2 to complete some more work on it.

We are going down to do some final checks and preparation and some testing on the lake this Thursday, and we have allowed 2 weeks to make the trip. This will be our first longer trip through open waters.

We have all the usual gear, good maps, GPS, EPIRB, life jackets, tender, flares, radios. 2 sets of anchor chains and rope. The boat has been fitted with a 20 diesel.

I'm looking for some advice on this journey from some experienced sailors. Specially regarding the east Australian current and what winds we can expect at this time of year on this part of the coast. Currently there are good southerly winds all the way up the coast. We hope they hang around. How fast does the current move, and how does the distance from shore effect the velocity of the current?

Any other advice on other matters would also be great, such as equipment etc.

Thanks Dennis.

[Factor]

Done the trip many times, and Did a similar trip in a similar boat at a similar timeof year. My previous boat was a Kendrick 9 mt tri. It was in Port Macquarie (not lake macqauaire)when I bought it and I sailed it to Brisvegas after purchase. Did Port Mac to coffs in one day light run and then coffs to brisbane overnight.

Winds should be predominantly south east by then, but your distance is short enough to have a good window forecast.

The East Australia current is south setting and location varies but if you stay inside the 50fathom/100 meters depth line you will miss most of it. Gung ho racers will hug the beach - my track on that delivery trip had me around 30 meters depth mostly.

Officially chart AUS 812 indicates a 4 knot south set at the 90-100 fathom line.

a good first day may be Lake MAc to port stephens - short and easy. A long second day would be to Port MAc and then its a long easy day to coffs and Its a nice easy (longish) day from coffs to yamba as well.


Lucas - cruising the nsw coast would be a valuable pre read. It has excellent info on bar entrances and the unique nature of each of them and is a good planning tool.