Off To Lake Macquarie 21st August

Wednesday was the only day this week with a reasonable forecast for us to undertake the journey to Lake Macquarie, 35 nm north of Broken Bay. In fact we ended up covering 53nm as we left from the Royal Motor Yacht Club in the southern end of Pittwater at 6.30am and docked at the Royal Motor Yacht Club Toronto in the northern end of Lake Macquarie at 6.15pm. Roger and Carol O'Dwyer, friends from WA now living at Toronto, were there to meet us and direct us to a berth on the yacht club marina for the night.

The wind at the RMYC marina in the early morning was gusty from the NW and I thought we might have been in for a blow again, but all day the winds eased and were variable from SW to NE and no more than 10 knots at the strongest. We sailed all morning and then after lunch motored for the rest of the day. Just south of Moon Islet at the entrance to Lake Macquarie we noticed  a massive fish feeding frenzy about 1nm out to sea. As we were set to arrive at the Swansea Bar too early we decided to detour and see what was happening. What an amazing sight! We motored right through the school of large fish and they didn't even bother to get out of the way. This was the first visual evidence we've had of huge schools of fish still remaining in the sea.

We arrived at the Swansea Bar not long after low tide and had to circle for an hour and a half before we were confident that there was enough water for Rene to get through. The bar is reasonably protected by the headland and off-lying Moon Islet from the south east swell, but as there was little swell and no wind the depth was our only concern. Two hours after low tide we crossed the bar and followed the channel markers up to the courtesy moorings where we waited for 3/4 hour for 5 o'clock when we had booked the bridge to open. The bridge is operated by Marine Rescue Lake Macquarie and they use a loudspeaker to let you know that the bridge is about to open and to get ready to go through. It was then a matter of following the channel markers across some quite shallow water, 2.3m at lowest, up to the drop over into the lake.

The sun set as we entered the lake and we made our way to Toronto under direction from Roger at the RMYC Toronto. Luckily it was easy to find our way in amongst the moored boats to the jetty where Roger, Carol and a friend helped us dock Rene. We had a wonderful meal at the O'Dwyers, caught up on all the news, discussed the must see places in the lake and were invited to stay the night. I quite like our bed on the boat, we call it The Cocoon. The bed at the O'Dwyers was like a soft, fluffy cloud - lovely! Thanks Roger and Carol. You have made us feel very welcome at Lake Macquarie.