From the Whitsunday Islands, we ran 960 miles south to the Hawksebury River system just north of Sydney. What started out as a side-trip, mainly for a convenient place to leave Dirona while we travelled back to the US, turned out to be a memorable part of the trip. The scenery and anchorages there were beautiful, but the real surprise was the town of Gosford. We went there planning to stop just for a few nights, and finally dragged ourselves away after ten days.
Highlights of the Hawksebury River adventure are below. Alan Lucas’ Cruising the Coral Coast had excellent advice–his large-scale charts were particurlarly useful for entering Gosford and navigating the upper reaches of the Hawksebury River, which are largely not covered by our C-Map or Navionics charts.
 |
Refuge Bay
Position: -33.5976, 151.2486
We stopped for our first night at popular Refuge Bay–described by some offshore sailors as one of the most beautiful in the world. That might be a bit of a stretch, but it is worth a multi-day stay. The anchorage has good shelter with bluffs all around and a waterfall and small beach at the head.
|
 |
Gosford Sailing Club
Position: -33.4387, 151.3379
The active Gosford Sailing Club holds a race every Wednesday in the summer. We were anchored just off the finish line and enjoyed an excellent show–we haven’t watched a sailboat race from Dirona since the Hawaii Yacht Club’s Friday night races. The sailing club takes their racing seriously–non-racing members apparently are defined as “non-sailing” members.
|
 |
Lady Kendall II
Position: -33.432055, 151.338884
The people of Gosford are among the most friendly we’ve encountered on what is becoming a fairly long trip. We had a great time chatting with some of the locals on board the Lady Kendall II. The man to James’ right is the Gosford Ocean Cruising Club port captain. This does not sound like a stressful position–a British boat visited Gosford about three years ago, and we’re apparently the only other foreign boat since. :)
|
 |
Tom Slingsby
Position: -33.432055, 151.338884
Gosford local Tom Slingsby was out in an Oracle Team USA Moth class sailing hydrofoil. The five-time Laser world champion was strategist for Oracle Team USA’s America’s Cup winning team, and currently is stategist, helsman and sailing team manager for when Oracle next defends the cup.
|
 |
Hydrofoil
Position: -33.4373, 151.3413
On a dinghy tour of the bay, we saw someone assembling what looked like another Moth class sailing hydrofoil. We went ashore and met Joel Castle, brother-in-law of Tom Slingsby, who’d we’d seen out sailing a Moth yesterday. Joel just had the foils faired and painted, and was reassembling his Moth. We spent ages watching Joel sail around the bay. The Moths are exciting to watch, especially as they come up onto the foils, but look incredibly difficult to manage.
|
 |
Racing
Position: -33.4387, 151.3379
In addition to the Wednesday twilight race, Saturday is an even bigger big race day for the Gosford Sailing Club. Well over fifty boats were out today, including the Laser and Etchells fleets. We had a good view of the action from Dirona.
|
 |
Gosford Sailing Club
Position: -33.4369, 151.3417
David Slingsby, a Gosford Sailing Club director, invited us to the club for drinks after the race. We had a great time chatting with the group about sailboat racing and our trip across the South Pacific. Surprisingly, David’s wife Mavis, seated opposite James, also is from Seattle.
|
 |
Four-Island Cruise
Position: -33.578024, 151.319927
Allan Draper invited us as his guests on the Lady Kendall II for their Four-Island Cruise. We had a wonderful day touring the Hawkesbury area–even at eight knots it took the better part of a day to see it all.
|
 |
Foiling camp
Position: -33.068345, 151.589315
Gosford Sailing Club director David Slingsby offered us the opportunity to meet the defending America’s Cup champions, Oracle Team USA, who were at nearby Lake Macquarie for Foiling Camp. Read more …
|
 |
Hawksebury River
Position: -33.47775, 151.08910
We finally pulled ourselves away from Gosford to explore other parts of the Hawkesbury River system. The scenery along the Hawksebury is striking, particularly on this stretch between the Dharug and Marramarra National parks.
|
 |
Wisemans Ferry
Position: -33.37983, 150.98938
The ferry at Wisemans Ferry is the first of two cable ferries crossings that we will pass going upriver. When the ferry is docked with its flashing yellow light off, the cable will be lying on the bottom and it’s safe to proceed. We’d crossed a cable ferry before in the dinghy, but never in Dirona–it definitely had our attention. This particularly crossing was busy enough that two ferries were running about every ten minutes, so we didn’t have much time to pass.
|
 |
Calabash Bay
Position: -33.5859, 151.1158
We anchored for the night in beautiful Calabash Bay with the Marramarra National Park to our north. We were on the park side of the channel, with houses in the distance on the other side.
|
If your comment doesn't show up right away, send us email and we'll dredge it out of the spam filter.