Category: Sailing

Cruising New South Wales

We, like many other sailors in Australia before us, aspire to spend our holidays in Sydney. To do that, we needed to get from Townsville in October to Sydney in December. And cruising New South Wales is quite different from cruising in Queensland. While the coast is beautiful and some of the anchorages are lovely, Queensland spoiled us, aside from the catastrophes.

Our Route Cruising New South Wales

We spent almost two and a half weeks cruising the 430 miles from Gold Coast to Sydney, where we’ll spend the holidays.

Sydney Harbor bridge and Opera House
It was exciting to sail into Sydney Harbor

From Gold Coast we sailed to Yamba, from Yamba to Coffs Harbor followed by Port Macquarie. From Port (as it’s called), we sailed to Broughton Islands for one night, before moving on to stop in Newcastle. Our friend Greg sailed straight from Newcastle to Sydney, but Brian and I wanted to explore some other ports, so we extended our trip.

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Cruising From Gold Coast to Brisbane

After a week enjoying the fun activities in Gold Coast, we started sailing north. We’re trying to get to the Whitsundays and Great Barrier Reef where it’s warm even in the winter. The East Coast of Australia is ideal cruising grounds. We only need to sail a couple hours between stops because there are so many nice anchorages. Cruising from Gold Coast to Brisbane is about choosing which beautiful anchorage to stop in and for how long. Here’s where we went.

Leaving Gold Coast

The first leg of the trip, leaving Gold Coast, was the trickiest part. Depths are shallow in the inlet, and you’ve got to take care with shifting sands and tides. A superyacht which was also docked at Southport Yacht Club when we were there went aground in the area just north of the marina.

Sunday afternoon is a busy time to be in the Gold Coast Broadwater, and that’s exactly when we left the marina. The bay was full of pleasure boats, other yachts, jet skis, tour boats, and fishing craft. We were behind the wheel the entire time navigating all the obstacles.

sand bar, pelicans, Gold Coast
Sand bar in the Gold Coast Broadwater

Once we got several miles outside of Gold Coast, the traffic eased significantly. Later that first day, we had to navigate underneath electric wires crossing the bay between the mainland and Stradbroke Island, which was a little nervewracking. We don’t often have to navigate under wires, but we did it!

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The Sail from New Zealand to Australia

I am still recovering from the sail from New Zealand to Australia. It was one of our longest passages and a challenging trip. The good news is we made it, and are now basking in the warm sun in Australia!

The Route from New Zealand to Australia

Our sail from New Zealand to Australia covered over 1200 nautical miles. We departed from Bay of Islands Marina in Opua, New Zealand aiming for Southport Yacht Club in Gold Coast, Australia.

Map sailing from New Zealand to Australia
Our route across the Tasman from New Zealand to Australia

Our route took us from the Pacific Ocean north up the east coast of New Zealand and then west along the north of New Zealand into the Tasman Sea to Australia. The Tasman Sea, known as “The Ditch” in sailing circles, is infamously rough due to the currents of the Southern Ocean colliding with those of the Pacific. So yes, we expected rough wind and waves and that’s what we got.

Rough Seas

From the first day until near the end of our passage, the waves were like a washing machine. Also known as confused seas, the waves came from every direction. To make it even more uncomfortable, there was no break between waves. The incessant confused waves made me sick a few times the first night and next morning, and I continued to feel sick for a couple more days. It wasn’t until late on the third day that I felt human enough to spend time inside the boat and to eat anything besides crackers.

A rainbow on the sail from New Zealand to Australia
We saw a few rainbows on the passage.
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