Brisbane Water 29th July

Time to leave lovely Patonga Beach for a while and venture into Brisbane Water which is another huge waterway that leads off to the north from Broken Bay up to Gosford. We motored between Lion Island and the mainland and headed to the east to Little Box Head where the channel into Brisbane Water begins. This is a narrow winding channel that Alan Lucas (Cruising The NSW Coast) recommended to  navigate on a rising tide, 2 hours before high tide. Wagstaff Point was our first interesting experience as the channel takes you to the far western side around  shallow ground jutting out from the point over which the tide was racing and swirling. The channel is well marked so it was not difficult to navigate, but care and a little research is needed to ensure a safe passage. Next came the Rip and Rip Bridge. The bridge at 17.4m left plenty of room for us to go under, but on approach it looks like the mast will hit the bridge and there is always a tense moment as it goes under. Our mast at 15m meant we had a couple of metres to spare.

The Rip is interesting as generally the channel has a depth of between 3-4m, but on either side of the bridge are two deep holes of up to 33m deep. Under the bridge itself the depth is only 3-4m. On the chart we had observed the symbols for whirlpools so we were keeping a good lookout for them. Certainly the currents in this area were exceptionally strong and as we motored through we could feel the water pulling the boat around. There wasn't any whirlpools, but you could see that it was possible that they would form at times. We continued on through the mangrove channels and around the sandbanks, low islands and oyster farms and at last found ourselves in the open area of Brisbane Water. Gosford City is in the northern end of Brisbane Water and we motored there and picked up a courtesy mooring for the night outside the Gosford Sailing Club. A totally windless evening meant  that it was hard to believe we were on the water when we went below.