Heading north, from Our overnight at Port Stephens, looking at my chart of Hawke Harbour, Foster the bar entry looks shallow, any local knowledge please?
or what's the next nearest anchorage past there, lovely conditions right now.
cheers Richard

It's ok, you have to go on the tuncurry side, there's pilings to tie up to, the anchorage area is a bit concerning with a strong current and s low bridge. NSW sailor has a good handle on it

I was in there a couple of weeks ago and it was a nice spot. Not much swell around when I was there but bar is fairly well protected anyway.
There is a tidal flow inside but I sat on one of the two public moorings near the bridge on the Tuncurry side and it was fine. There are also some pylon berths there if you prefer that but I found the moorings easier and think anchoring there would be fine as long as you made sure you were well set due to the low bridge being pretty close to the anchorage spot.
I left very near low tide and don't think I saw the sounder dip below 3m in the channel.

Amazing thanks you guys, my older chart made the depth sound scary for 2 metre draft. Really enjoying the weather, could be more easy to make the passage easier
but still lovely conditions, on the hook in Coal Shaft Bay off Broughton, neat place
cheers Richard

At Broughton 2yrs back there was a public mooring in north cove and the fishing was superb

Woko,
Broughton is a special place, fish thrashing around off the stern, BIG fish!
walked the island, almost broke an ankle in the abandoned bird nests, I had to carefully walk past some birds nesting on the track, they were happy to let me by.
Very nice Anchorage in Coal Shaft BY for N winds, a great S Anchorage in Provenance Bay to the North.
i will be happy if the Whitsundays lives up to this place!
Thanks for the local knowledge on Foster
we will see were we get tomorrow!
cheers Richard




Bonitto caught on a close tack in near Anna Bay on a small skirted lure, tasty as!

Always try to enter Forster on a rising tide as the ebb can run up to and over 5 knots. There is a big lake behind that has to empty!
Enter to avoid any pressure waves between the walls [usually on the south side] then head over to the Tuncurry north wall just past the sea swimming pool.
Stay close to the wall, watch your depth gauge, once you straighten up to go pass the fish co-op there is more room, but it does shoal towards the south. With the new public moorings in place these are definitely to be preferred over the fishing boat wharves which are not designed for yachts [extreme caution and at least 3 crew and long lengths of mooring rope are needed to make the use of the wharves easy.]

Forster is an all weather port except when the swell at the entrance gets around 3m. This is usually an east swell, all others are usually ok. Check with MR Forster for conditions when passing Seal Rocks because if you have to run north to Crowdy Bay from Forster a NE'er will be on the nose.

Woolworths is a short walk into Tuncurry and F&C's are available at the fish co-op. Fuel is available at the co-op but I have never needed fuel there so cannot confirm availability.

Better than Crowdy Bay which has no facilities except for the surf club shop.

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Stockie said..
Heading north, from Our overnight at Port Stephens, looking at my chart of Hawke Harbour, Foster the bar entry looks shallow, any local knowledge please?
or what's the next nearest anchorage past there, lovely conditions right now.
cheers Richard

After Forster/Tuncurry, Camden Haven Inlet, Trail Bay, Coffs harbour, Iluka, then overnight to the Seaway.

I heard somewhere one of the courtesy moorings at Tuncurry is in fairly shallow water and may not be able to be used by deep draughted vessels?? I can't remember where I heard that. The RMS may of addressed that by now??
Theres a servo in Tuncurry 5 to 10 minutes walk from the anchorage.

Update, we have past Foster, running at 6 Kts in a NNE with a big Southerly brewing up behind us, die in between 16:00 & 19:00 so looking at Crowdy Head on the North side as a camp.
We wont make Camden Haven till way latter, so what is Crowdy like in an expected Southerly?
cheers Richard

i reckon its great in there. i used the fishing co op jetty. they are super nice there and have fuel. i also love that mooring thats right near the sand bank. never anchored in there though.

Nothing at Crowdy Bay as the Fish Co-op went bust and if you are in there now I think you will be there till at least Tuesday at the latest?

You definitely won't be going anywhere tomorrow [bars will be dangerous] and things really don't calm down until Tuesday which will give you about 24 hours before the northerlies come back for some time, so you have to decide whether you want to be in the Camden Haven Inlet, Port Macquarie [bars not so good in a swell] Trail Bay [open to the north roadstead ] or you may make Coffs Harbour Marina.

Look at the RMS Bar cams to see what the bars are doing. The weather forecast will change but for the next few days I don't think anybody is going anywhere unless they are being paid!

Sector and NSW,
we are tied up at a wharf, in Crowdy, it was dark when we arrived, but guessing it is the old CoOp? If Camden is a safe entry, we may make for there tomorrow, subject to the Southerly, it is supposed to calm down for the arvo. But we will be cautious about leaving here, in a hurry!
cheers Richard


Nice Northerly sailing

Gday Stockie, this is the Camden Haven bar at 0845 this morning with maximum ebb flow.
Its pretty flat butthe swell is supposed to increase this arvo.
It should be no problems, best time to cross would be 1500 to 1700, there won't be any breaking waves across the bar. Follow instructions on zulu waterways. But if your worried at all, leave it til tomorrow, swell should decrease by tomorrow arvo.
The walk tothe Crowdy Hd lighthouse is nice, the cafe at the Crowdy beach surf club should be open today for lunch for a very good burger.
Cheers

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Stockie said..
Sector and NSW,
we are tied up at a wharf, in Crowdy, it was dark when we arrived, but guessing it is the old CoOp? If Camden is a safe entry, we may make for there tomorrow, subject to the Southerly, it is supposed to calm down for the arvo. But we will be cautious about leaving here, in a hurry!
cheers Richard


Nice Northerly sailing

Crowdys awesome. Be sure to make sure you adjust your lines accordingly

Blue Moon and Steve,
we loved Crowdy, did the light house, nice to see what was guiding us last night in the dark! We took advantage of the SW and are presently transiting to Trial Bay tonight
much easier downwind with the swell, we will clock a 100 for the day, cruising between 7 - 11 kts on the sled rides.
tacking down wind at around 130
Camden is on my list on the way home, looks very inviting.

Trial bay should be good. We got in there at 3am. Was so nice and calm in there after a bit of a blowy southerly . Enjoy!

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BlueMoon said..
Gday Stockie, this is the Camden Haven bar at 0845 this morning with maximum ebb flow.
Its pretty flat butthe swell is supposed to increase this arvo.
It should be no problems, best time to cross would be 1500 to 1700, there won't be any breaking waves across the bar. Follow instructions on zulu waterways. But if your worried at all, leave it til tomorrow, swell should decrease by tomorrow arvo.
The walk tothe Crowdy Hd lighthouse is nice, the cafe at the Crowdy beach surf club should be open today for lunch for a very good burger.
Cheers

There is a live RMS web cam on Camden Haven entrance(and all the other hazardous bars) which you can access via any mobile phone.

www.rms.nsw.gov.au/maritime/using-waterways/web-cameras/camden-haven.html