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santanasaga said..
Not a good day to cross ballina bar...

Yes, this is taken from the lookout just under the lighthouse, near the surf club. You can see north wall of the river in the background. The breaking waves are approximately 200m off the end of the wall.

I came into the tweed river one night in the early 80s in our 38 ft cat. We had been living in the Currumbin estuary in it and crossed that bar often. This was before gps. I was Solo and straining to find a red Light on the end of the Seawall and all the background lights of tweed heads made it harder. I couldn't see the rock walls at all and then spotted a faint red light which I assumed was on the end of the southern wall and maybe 2 miles away. I steered towards and slightly to the right of the faint red light. Suddenly I went past the light and was right in the river Turned out it was a fishermans cigarette I was looking at. Luckily he was on the End of the south wall and not the north or I would have been on duranbah beach. Easier now with gps but crossing bars at night is not the best idea.

^^^ That's confirmation bias at it's best for you. I use to see it all the time on navigation exercise's when I was a flying instructor, "yep, you saw everything you wanted to see, but it just isn't where we are".

It is worse when in similar to your case you are under a bit of stress.....

Yes after 3 days of battling north from Evans head against wind and current I was pretty reluctant to spend another night at sea. Luckily there was not much swell across the bar. Would have been safer to wait for daylight the next morning.

Good info here thanks everyone. Any advice re delivery skippers for Brisbane-Sydney. With a new boat (Duncanson 34 1982) I'm inclined to employ some experience and guidance to get it down to sydney. Just wondering best place to look for skippers?

Planning again

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Bundeenabuoy said..

Ramona said..
bluepeteraustralia.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/passageplanner2011.pdf

Romana,
That's really great

I planning a week north around 25 Aug.
Anyone interested in joining me on their boat?

Going from Sydney?
sad to say you won't get very far if your planning to go and then be back in 7 days?.

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BlueMoon said..
Going from Sydney?
sad to say you won't get very far if your planning to go and then be back in 7 days?.

Might get as far as Newcastle day hoping but even that may be a stretch!