Weekend Sail to Bobbin Head

[MartinRocliffe]

Launch or "Betty R" from Patonga on Sunday. Narrow ramp with good sandy beach either side. Then had a very relxing Sail & Motor up the Hawkesbury, into Cowan Creek towards Bobbin Head (Empire Marina) within Ku-ring-gai National Park.
Beautiful scenery, and a great day to be out on the water.
Photo link below.

http://s883.photobucket.com/user/mrocli ... 4656623386

Overnighted on board, in the Empire Marina, then set off home Monday am.

Wind picked up and swung from the expected NNW 10kts to a SSE at 15-20kts. This made it impossible to retrieve from Patonga. I could get safely onto the beach, but too much cross wind to make a safe Trailer retrieve possible.
So I dropped my wife off on Beach so she could drive 15 mins to home (without trailer) whilst I motored across Broken Bay into Brisbane Water and towards Woy Woy. Broken Bay was "hairy" with Southerly winds, large Rollers and the sand bar near the entrance to the Channel. Not fun
It was like a mill pond at Woy Woy, so derigged before my wife arrived with car, so I could retrive trailer and get boat out.
Long day, and very tiring.
Cannot believe how wrong the Weather Forecasters are round here. I checked 3 sources, all woefully wrong
Oh well, put that one down to experience. Still enjoyed the weekend, but I thing my wife prefers
Martin

[bartmac]

Sea breezes from lunch time on are notorious on Brisbane Waters....we used to ride them all the way in to Gosford ye ha.Was checking out boats at Gosford sailing club on Monday....there was a Mac for sale
You'll find as the land warms the air rises and the air off the sea will fill the void...hence sea breezes and if you are lucky a southerly buster as we used to call them

[Mac26Mpaul]

retrievals in no wind or cross current are simple with this boat. Just drive it on like in the sales video. but in a cross wind or very strong current, forget it. If you don't have a jetty/pontoon, you need to attach a stern line for your admiral/first mate and hope they are strong enough to hold the weight at the wind grabs it.

As I have said before, out of all the money I have spent on this boat, the best by far was getting the local metal shop to make up some good strong side rails for my trailer. Driving it on in good conditions is now simple,,, but it makes life SO MUCH easier in the bad conditions too - especially on the exposed ramp with no pontoon where I launch 99 percent of the time.

Rather than back the trailer right in, I back it in about half way. Then with the help of the missus we walk the boat along the beach and I hop on the trailer and sneak the bow around between the guide rails so it cant go anywhere, hook the winch strap on and then get in the car and back the trailer the rest of the way into the water and then pull the boat with the guide rails holding it for me.

[MartinRocliffe]

I'll definitely look at upgrading the Trailer. It needs work anyway, so now is a good time to do several jobs on it.

I viewed the Mac 26x for sale it Gosford a couple of Months ago.
It was OK, but needed new Electronics and several $000's of TLC to make her sound and sea worthy.
Had she been cheaper, I may have been persuaded, but the owner wasn't interested in doing a deal at the time.

I looked at the Boat Ramp at Mooney Mooney (Hawkesbury) yesterday. This looks excellent, with two ramps an a central Quay. Waters between there and Berwora look quiet and sheltered, so good for my Wife.
Going the other way (towards Sea) I'd need to drop the mast to get under Power cables and the F3/M1 Road Bridge and Old Pcific Highway Bridge.

Martin

[bartmac]

We have launched at Brooklyn but decided not to leave our vehicle in the Mooney Mooney car park for nearly 2 weeks and used a private yard in Brooklyn with car/trailer storage...also there's a book on the Hawkesbury...don't rely on power line heights in the book especially higher up as we found just above Wisemans Ferry...up to there its ok....we sailed back from there,only dropping our mast for the big bridge