"HELLO TRIM"    A CRUISE TO PORT HACKING BY MV "AQUABELLE"
                                 'AQUABELLE' is a custom 57ft Ocean Alexander owned by the Greenhalgh Family
                        
                                                                                                                                                               
                               
 

numbers, cruising advice;  and  flora, fauna and bush-walking references. By email’ing John at hello.trim@optusnet.au or calling up ‘Hello Trim’ on VHF Ch 16, contact can be made with others cruising the Port and its environs.  ‘Trim’ is of course a salute to Flinders’ remarkable sea-going cat;  with George Bass, Flinders explored and took soundings  over the entrance to Port Hacking in March/April, 1796.  A cruising pennant is available, showing Trim in black over a yellow field, to identify those enjoying the Port in this way.   NSW Maritime also has a map showing the locations of Courtesy Moorings throughout Port Hacking at www.maritime.nsw.gov.au/docs/recboat/mooringmap-porthacking.pdf  (although those in the beautiful SW Arm are omitted).    Alan Lucas’ Cruising Guide to the NSW Coast (5^th and 6^th editions...earlier editions give very limited assistance) is as always essential for safe navigation and sound anchorage advice.
 

       Aquabelle left Bobbin Head at 1530 on Friday, 17 December intending to overnight on the Club mooring under Barrenjoey Headland. 
  At 1730 we found a non-member boat had taken the mooring and was locked up with her owners apparently ashore.  The Admiral had
  reservations about this as an overnight anchorage anyway, so instead the Club mooring in The Basin was picked up. The golden afternoon light
  and warm water saw the crew swimming off the boarding platform before enjoying the Admiral’s Chicken Korma dinner on the flybridge.

                                               
                             'The Basin' Mooring                                                                The 'Crew' enjoying a swim
 

Saturday (Cont'd)

After a swim and hot showers back aboard, at 1530 it was time to pick up that tide and make for our first evening anchorage.

Port Hacking is notorious for its sand bars and shoal waters, but channels are in fact very well marked.  The only tricky area is a massive sand bar at the mouth of Burraneer Bay, which has to be cleared to gain access to Port Hacking proper. The RMYC Cruising Guide plots the current best route across this sand bar:  it is re-produced with the kind assistance of RMYC’s John Barter below.  With just enough tide for Aquabelle’s 1.7m draft and the depthsounder taking itself off-line in protest, we soon found ourselves back in better water.

 
South West Arm, which reaches well into the Royal National Park,  was Aquabelle’s first-night destination.  The head of navigation provides a fine anchorage: a mill pond, protected on all sides by National Park.  Public moorings here are provided by the National parks & Wildlife Service but are maintained by the RMYC and have a feature we should perhaps consider for our own Club’s moorings:   a pair of ropes off each.  This allows a single vessel to be bridled to the mooring;  and for raft-ups, the first two vessels each get a bow line.

We arrived here at 1630; the warm early evening made for a fine fly bridge BBQ of tiger prawns & watermelon salad.  It had been a long and busy day so the crew turned in for an early night and a sound sleep.
   

Up the River with a Paddle...and a 5hp Outboard:  Sunday

    Sunday, 19 December brought an overcast morning and still, cool conditions.  We left the SW Arm mooring at 0815 and entered Port Hacking proper, circumnavigating Yowie and Gymea bays and checking out waterfront mansions, fishing shacks and what appeared to be a scale model of the Parthenon!

Lucas shows an anchorage just inside the entrance to the Hacking River, against the Eastern bank, but Aquabelle could find nothing here to suit a 15m motor cruiser.  Instead, we took up Lucas’ alternative anchorage 70m north of the North Cardinal mark at the entrance to the Hacking River and at 0930 had breakfast on the hook here.   A tide equal to draft is needed travel the length of the Hacking River and tide times were not with us, so at 1030 it was into the tender and off up to the head of navigation at Audley.   Aquabelle’s 15hp tender outboard was in for a service and we had a 5hp on loan from TQM’s Gino.  Even so, it was only a 40minute run.  With a bit of common sense, a tender can leave the channel and cut most bends safely enough and approach  within 30m of the weir at Audley (no  closer:  submerged rocks are immediately below the weir). 

 The best strategy is to turn back from the weir and land the tender at the small beach at Reid’s Flat, where an extensive park with picnic tables, etc will be found.  The well-prepared will have a Thermos of coffee or a picnic lunch to enjoy here after a 5 minute walk back to Audley’s historic sites. The 1930’s Boat Shed remains in near-original condition and Federal Government funding is restoring the Dance Hall building on the opposite shore, with re-opening planned for July, 2011. 

        

     We were back aboard Aquabelle by 1300 and as winds stiffened and swung NW, we rounded Lightning Point and passed courtesy moorings in Farnell Bight and Dark Bay before picking up one of three in Carruthers Bay.  This would be a delightful spot on a fine Summer’s day, tucked in as it is behind a sand spit shallow enough to invite knee-deep fishing and wading.  




      
 

   We had lunch here but a strengthening Northerly and the threat of early evening thunderstorms caused us to move again, this time to the Southern side of Gogerleys Point, where we found the picturesque Warumbul Bay. A small beach and picnic area invite a shore visit.    Perfectly protected from the Northerly,   we enjoyed a passing parade of boats of all shapes and sizes decked out for Christmas...including the reindeer on cabin-top shown here ..with their crews very definitely in party mode. Steady rain at 1800 saw things settle down and we had the anchorage largely to ourselves for the evening.

  

     On Monday, 20 December the mooring was dropped at 0700 to allow Aquabelle to make the top of the tide for the crossing back East over the sand bank off Burraneer Bay.   The day was clear and sunny but the Westerly was soon blowing 15-20kts and temperatures were only in the high teens.  Shelter was sought in the SW corner of Hordens Beach off Bundeena, in the hope the wind would blow itself out or at least, shift to the SW.  It did neither, staying just N of W and gusting up to 30kts; Marine Rescue Sydney relayed the Bureau’s Strong Wind Warning upgrade to Gale Warning.  We couldn’t identify any anchorage E of the Burraneer sandbank where Aquabelle would be sheltered from this wind so the crew gave up plans for a day of swimming and snorkelling ( but see below for the intended anchorage for this).  
     Instead, we decided to go early into the recently re-built Cronulla Marina, at the S end of Gunnamatta Bay.  The passage plan had been to stay at this marina overnight anyway:  close family live nearby and we’d invited them to join us on board for dinner on our last night.  A berth had been booked a week before leaving Bobbin Head and a call to the helpful marina manager, David Oostdam (0419 204 163), confirmed coming alongside early wouldn’t be a problem.  It proved to be the right decision:  the Westerly was blowing a full 40kt+ gale as we came in at 1030 and this persisted until 1600, when it dropped back to 25kts and finally to 10kts by 1900...where it stayed overnight.   
   
   But the day was by no
   means lost.  Cronulla
   Marina is superbly
   located:  out its entry gate
   & 100m through a small
   park takes the visitor to the
   Cronulla train station and
   one end of Cronulla’s main
   shopping strip, where we
   had no problem finding great coffee (Grind Espresso, Surf Road) and
outstanding fresh seafood for the evening feast (Notaras Seafood, 47 The Kingsway).  The Skipper noted a hardware store right at the beginning of the shopping strip too, which could be handy for visiting cruisers. 
  
                 

 Following the shopping strip all the way East brings up Cronulla’s famous surf beaches (emptied of beach lovers by the sand-blasting wind when we visited!). 

Returning aboard, Aquabelle’s washer and dryer were employed on towels and sheets while the vacuum cleaner, hot water heater, dishwasher and every other AC appliance on board was brought into action to test the shorepower limit.

Once Aquabelle had been readied to the Admiral’s satisfaction, we set off again by foot through a series of parks and walks that run the full E side of Gunnamatta Bay.  A netted swimming enclosure begins (or finishes) this walk.  A Fisheries Research Station is passed at the Bay’s entrance and on rounding, a cove known as Salmon Haul is brought up.  This has small sand beaches, clear shallow waters and rocky outcrops and would otherwise have been our swimming and snorkelling destination.  Day-time anchorage just off looks feasible and would be well protected from Northerlies. 

Further along, the look-outs and information plaques at Bass & Flinders Point afforded the Ship’s Girl another history lesson.  We returned aboard from this point, getting back to the marina after a two-hour round walk, but we could have continued on around the cliff-top paths all the way to the Cronulla surf beach and then back to the marina via the shopping strip....probably a three-hour round-trip easy-grade walk that would be a great stretch of the sea-legs. 

Back at the marina, we discovered another Ocean 50 Ocean Alexander motor yacht was berthed just a few pens along from Aquabelle with new owners aboard.  Visits to each other’s vessels ensued with the usual conversations about planned upgrade projects.  Then our visitors arrived for dinner and finally, another long and happy day was over.

   

 

      For once, we were in no hurry to leave the marina in the morning.  The marine forecast indicated big seas early on but promised these abating late morning, so the crew busied itself on shipboard chores and making ready for sea.  The empty forward water tank was left that way and the aft water tank was topped off to maintain a bow-up trim.  Each cabin and head was checked and stowed against rough conditions.  The flybridge was tidied away and extra tie-downs secured the tender.  The heavy Portuguese bridge hatch was swung closed. 

Dock lines were let go at 0845 under clear sunny skies and a cool 15kt Westerly and we cleared Port Hacking into open ocean at 0905.  Waves had been blown out flat by the Westerly and a 3m swell of moderate period was running from the South....no problem for stabilized Aquabelle and the crew soon settled to the very pleasant motion of being out at sea again.  A pod of around a dozen dolphins raced across the surface of the inky-blue to jostle for position in our bow-wave:  something that happens often but never fails to bring smiles all round. 
   
  

          Botany Bay’s container terminal with Sydney
            CBD behind, from sea off Cape Solander
 

    Making slightly better speeds with less water and fuel weight and a breeze on our aft quarter, we were off Sydney Heads by 1055 with the swell reducing to 2m and by 1230, with the swell down to 1m, we were E of Barrenjoey Head making our turn into Broken Bay....just 3 hours and 25 minutes of sea-time.  By  1400, Aquabelle was back in her berth at Bobbin Head, having made just 7kts against the tide from Lion Island.

Though for us the seas had settled quickly after a windy couple of days, we reflected on what a good destination Port Hacking would have been for a Bobbin Head boat, even if the weather had deteriorated further.  A vessel could be left safe and secure in Cronulla Marina and her crew could simply take the train  home, returning the same way when a weather window re-opened.  And with Botany Bay and Port Jackson both available en route, offering protected anchorages against all wind directions, a change of sea conditions or an un-well crew-member need not be feared.

All in all, Port Hacking offers BHCC members a great 4-day cruising destination, with a variety of waterways and anchorages to explore....and history lesson opportunities aplenty.
               
                                               *   *   *

Aquabelle’s next short cruise, date still to be determined, will be to Lake Macquarie. She is always happy to convoy with another
vessel(s) for the sea legs.

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