Episode 72 Lake Macquarie to Sydney Harbour

For Episode 71 our last blog post, we had spent 6 weeks in Lake Macquarie on the NSW Central Coastal area.

It’s the largest tidal lake in the Southern Hemisphere.

We had spent our time fly fishing, kayaking, exploring the smaller townships around the lake and catching up with a lot of friends and family – both onboard Lorelei and land-based outings too.

We also went to Sydney and picked up our new custom made diving wetsuits and drysuits from Seatec Aquasuits. 

At the end of the last post, we were ready to leave the lake to sail south to Sydney, but the big issue was getting out of the lake through the shallow channel system that stretches between the lake and the open ocean.

It was frustrating as we had 15 knot northerly winds which were perfect for sailing south – but we simply didn’t have the tide depth required to get out through the shallow channel.

We had to wait until the spring tides returned and that was a week away. 

Our route for our last week in Lake Macquarie

It ended up being a busy week with lots of activities.

Initially, the weather was superb with warmer conditions, no wind and only a little cloud cover.

The sunrises and sunsets were great too.

 We had a few fly fishing sessions in the local area around Bonnells Bay.

We had a BBQ with close friends Craig and Terese at their house and thanked them for looking after our car for the time we were in the lake.

We did a final shop at Wangi (our last for a month) and had a great Saturday night listening to live music from the local club with glass out conditions and a full moon.

We visited Lisa’s sister Sue and picked up our parcels from her and topped up on both unleaded petrol and diesel.
Thank goodness we didn't need too much fuel - it was hideously expensive.

We spent an afternoon detailing and cleaning the car before taking it to Terrigal for storage.

Then if was off to Lisa's cousins house for morning tea and lunch at Terrigal.

Their house is directly opposite Lisa's old family home on Terrigal Lake where she grew up.

The new owners were doing a multi-million dollar renovate (and massive expansion) of the house. It was huge and a bit sad for Lisa to see.

Paul flew the drone over the house and got some photos of the lake (which was out as it was open to the sea) and looking south towards The Haven.

After morning tea, we visited The Haven.
It’s an area we know very well. We did our first dive course there, used to launch our trailer boats to deep sea fish and dive out of there regularly and surf the point when the swell was up.

Terrigal and The Haven has changed soooo much in recent years and for a Monday lunchtime, it was packed!!! Apparently, it always is nowadays…. 

We went for a walk on the new boardwalk which links The Haven to the Terrigal Beach and the town.

There was a Fur Seal on the rocks below the boardwalk that had been there for about 4 weeks now and was a major media sensation.
It's even been named - both Terry and Sandy by opposing groups.

People were travelling from as far as Sydney and Newcastle to see it lazing on the rocks.

Ridiculously, they had closed the local ocean swimming pool and the beach access to protect the animal.

It’s Neal the Seal (google that up if you don’t know about it) all over again….!

Upon returning, we left the Bonnells Bay anchorage and headed north to Myuna Bay to ride out 2 days of strong winds and rain.

We spent the time indoors washing, cleaning, cooking, sewing and Lisa spent a day hooking our navigation laptop computer into the new B&G navigation system so we could share additional information between the 2 systems. 

Paul had a heap of sewing to do and made some new covers for the sailing sheet lines, furler drums and repairs to clothes and his flyfishing stripping basket.

With just 3 days to go until departure, the wind back right off to only a light easterly wind.

For most of our time in the lake, it was westerly winds, so we predominately stayed on the western shoreline of the lake.

We’d always wanted to fish the sand flat areas close to Swansea and the lake’s entrance and now we finally had the chance.

It also put us very close to the channel for exiting the lake.

We anchored in front of the local caravan park and we surprised to be the only boat there.

Paul had to be very careful flying the drone as the local (and quite busy) airstrip was very close by.

We had amphibius planes, gyrocopters, helicopters, skydiving planes and even stunt planes all flying overhead.

Over 2 days we did 4 fly-fishing sessions with each being 6 hours apart to fish an hour each side of both the top and bottom of the tides.

The low tide ebb was around 4:30pm which was perfect timing for that late arvo, best time to fish.
The warmer weather and virtually glass out conditions certainly helped too.

We did see some fish busting up and birds working over the drop off in the deeper water and tried to catch one during the morning session, but they were moving around quickly and we very wary of the outboard motor noise - and the other boats that also turned up.

On the lower tide, we were able to drift along and sight cast to the fish as we could see them clearly.

Lisa caught an unusual Bar Tail Flathead which are not very common unlike the popular Dusky Flathead that are found throughout the lake.

The only reported catches of them in the lake are around the Swansea entrance sand flats - exactly where we were.

Just before sunset on the first night, Paul hooked a large fish that stripped line off him and in a rookie mistake, he tried to stop the run and ended up snapping off at the shock tippet leader.

He was not happy! It would’ve been the largest fish we’ve caught in the lake.

Additionally, he lost his favourite fly that was working well.

So that night it was out with the box of fly-tying gear and we made 6 new Clouser Minnow flies to replace the lost one.

The irony was, we changed flies the next day to smaller shrimp patterns and caught fish on those instead.

The ability to stay out until after sunset and not freeze to death was fantastic.

It was certainly warming up.

On the 1^st of September, we finally were able to transit through the Swansea Channel.

We were simply going to use our track that we came in on to go out the channel, but when we rang up the Marine Rescue to book the bridge opening, they asked about our size and when we told them, they told us that we were definitely getting an escort.

Thank goodness we did as the channel had moved with the shifting sand bars and it was different to when we came in.

There were planes and helicopters coming and going as we went past Aero-Pelican.

 

The bridge transit proved to be pretty straight forward and Lisa was able to guide us through.

The journey south was pretty good.

We had to motor for the first hour and hugged the coast to go past Catherine Hill Bay and its old coal loader wharf.

Sadly, it is being demolished very soon, so it will be the last time we ever see it.

We have dived under it and surfed through the pylons heaps of times when we were younger.

Once the wind kicked in, we set the main and spinnaker and headed offshore to take advantage of the fresher wind.

We managed to get a good look at the Norah Head Lighthouse before we headed too far offshore.

There were a few whales about and we had a few spy-hopping to see us cruise by as they must’ve known we were there but we didn’t have an engine running as we silently glided by.

Down off Copacabana, we gybed over and started sailing in towards Broken Bay.

About half way in, the wind went from NE to WNW and we had to drop the spinnaker pretty quick and then unfurl the no.2 headsail.

We went from sailing downwind to being on a very tight upwind beat.

It did slow us down somewhat, and by the time we entered Broken bay, the sun was setting.

We were able to see the iconic lighthouse on Barrenjoey Headland and the Young Endeavour tall ship moored at Patonga.

There was a bit of swell invading the bay, so we decided to head further down toward the Hawkesbury River system and pulled up to a mooring at Fishermans Beach in Cowan Creek.

It did mean arriving well after dark, but it was a much nicer night with only a little roll.

 

Yippeee!!!! We were finally in Broken Bay,

 

Broken Bay is the mouth of a few different major waterways – The Brisbane Waters, Pittwater, The Kuring-gai Chase National Park and the Hawkesbury River system.

In the corner of the Bay is half-tide rocks which is the shallow channel which leads into the Brisbane Waters system and a waterway where we grew up on and Paul learnt to sail there.
Sadly the channel is too shallow for Lorelei and the Rip Bridge is too low for Lorelei to pass under.

Pittwater is the gateway to Sydney’s ritzy northern beaches and is jam packed with luxury waterfront houses, stacks of marinas and thousands of swing moorings filled with private boats.

The Hawkesbury River System is very long and home of the iconic and world renowned Bridge-to-Bridge Waterski race,

It is over 100km long!

Sadly the first bridges are a major freeway and train bridges and are only about 10nm from the mouth and way too low for a yacht to pass under.

The final arm is the Kuring-gai Chase National Park which incorporates many different arms like Cowan Creek, Bobbin Head and Akuna Bay, just to name a few.

Our route for our time in the Kurangi Chase National Park

This is a world class boating destination albeit right around the corner from Sydney’s Northern Beaches.

We planned to explore as much as possible mid-week and hide for the weekends when it got busy.

At 6am on our first morning there, the sky was red outside, so we jumped up to watch a fantastic sunrise.

Paul flew the drone when there was enough light to get some faster shutter speeds.

On the quaint little beach just in from Lorelei’s mooring, we could see a few large Monitor Lizards (Goannas) roaming along the sand.

So we decided to go and explore and take our walking gear and cameras.

Paul took his large 600ml lens in the hope he could get some full frame shots of the Goannas without scaring them.

The irony was once we were sitting at the picnic table putting on our shoes, 2 Goannas came in from both directions right up to our feet.

They saw each other and starting fighting right under the table and only inches from us.

Cheeky things!!!!

We decided to go for a bush walk up onto the rocks at the end of the beach.

It was very dense scrub with lots of grass trees packed close together.

Note the Goanna waking across on the sand at the right

We did manage to see a lot of small native flowers of all colours.

There was one massive Sydney Red Gum tree that had long branches that went all the way out to the ground.
It had a huge raptors nest in the top branches that must have been 2.5m across.

The higher rocks offered great views to Lorelei and across the inlet.

On the return, Paul spied a large sandstone cave up on the ridge.

The area within the Kuring-gai Chase National Park has a lot of Aboriginal Artwork both as painting and petroglyphs on the local Sydney sandstone. 

So the cave was like a red rag to a bull for Paul (who used to be a Kimberley Guide and specialised in Aboriginal Rock Art).

Sadly, after a lot of bush bashing and climbing, we found the cave – but no art.

By the time we got back down, we were covered in pollen and were sneezing and coughing from it. 

So we stripped off and jump in for our first swim for Spring.

After a yummy lunch, we were supposed to go for a kayak or SUP, but Lisa opted for a lazy swing in her hammock instead. 

We did manage to go for a late arvo flyfish along the sand flats which was a lot of fun in the glassy conditions.

Next stop was just a short motor across the waterway and into Refuge Bay.

Refuge Bay and the adjoining America Bay (not named by Donald Trump…!!!) are without a doubt the two most popular bay’s in the area.

They are filled with literally hundreds of moorings. Most are private and are owned by boating clubs, marinas, individual owners and a few public ones.

We were lucky enough to have the bay to ourselves as we wisely went there mid-week.

The highlight of the bay is the wonderful waterfall that has about a 30m drop.

 

It was quite cold but very refreshing.

Close to the waterfall is a plaque from the WW2 historical maritime mission of the MV Krait – one of the most daring missions ever in wartime history – and they succeeded!

The Krait was moored at Gosford for a long time when Paul was a child and his dad took him to do a tour of it.

Additionally, Paul used to take guests to Krait Bay in The Kimberley in WA (which was where the Krait left Australia to travel to Singapore) when he was a Cruise Director on the expedition Cruise Ships.

The area has lots of engravings in the soft sandstone of boat names from around 1920 to 1980.

 

When the wind turned to the west and came in at 30 knots, we decided to run further up into the Kuring-gai Chase and headed towards the protected Smiths Creek.

On the way we had to motor past Cottage Point.

It is a very small but affluent suburb with a few expensive waterside restaurants and marina services.

The local homes are beautiful but very exposed to bushfires.

We looked at the first bay called Stingray Bay in Smiths Creek but it was still a bit exposed, so we decided to head further down and found nobody in the more protected Twilight Bay.

There were lots of great looking sandstone caves and overhangs up high and overlooking the creek.

Someone had a bit of fun with the base of a fallen down tree on the water’s edge.

I think the same people must've had a sense of humour and played with the 8 knot sign.
Surely the bay is not for cats only.....

When we got there Lisa said she smelled smoke.

We flew the drone to see fires on the ridge line a few kilometers away.

After a bit of research, we found out it was a controlled burn from the National Parks Rangers.

The problem was it put ash all over Lorelei.

That combined with all the coal soot from Lake Macquarie and the lack of rain, and Lorelei’s decks (and solar panels) were filthy. 

When the wind backed off and the tide rose, we went for a kayak to explore both the bay we were in and the last bay of the system – Kindred Bay. 

We explored Stingray Bay first before heading down into Kindred.

The sandstone rock outcrops on the way down were awesome.

Like most bays in the Kuring-gai National Park, Kindred had a shallow sand flat at the end and a creek going further up.

However, on the higher tide, the creek went for miles.

We decided to paddle up as far as we could go.

The mangrove trees lined the creek making the water protected from the wind and glassy.

 

It got tighter and tighter the further up we went.

In the end and after about 2km of creek paddling, we simply ran out of water depth.

On the return back to Kindred Bay, we found heaps more awesome weathered sandstone formations and even a few caves we could kayak into.

All in all, it was a fantastic 10km paddle and probably our best one since Fraser Island.
 

With a strong wind warning from the west coming soon, we decided to leave Smiths Creek and find a more suitable anchorage.

After a bit or searching, we decided on Waratah Bay at the top and off to the side of Cowan Creek which leads down to Bobbin Head.

There were Cormorants sitting sunning themselves on every mooring in the bay.

It was a very nice location but you could hear the car traffic from the freeway near Berowa.

We woke on the morning of the strong wind forecast to a beautiful sunny day with no wind – and it stayed that way….

So we decided to go fly fishing in the bay and have a look at the wreck at the end of the bay. 

At 4pm we had alerts on our phone of weather warnings.

The Blue Mountains and Penrith had just been hit with 120km (60 knot) winds as the front went through.

We knew we had about 10 minutes before it hit.

We packed everything away, secured the kayaks on the deck and had the engine ready to go if required.

We sat outside and waited.

Then something really wild happened.

All of a sudden, hundreds of long spider’s webs started floating all around the bay and Lorelei.

They were getting caught in the rigging and all over the things on the deck.

Then the dust came shortly after that – along with pollen and white things that look like Dandelions.

Then the wind hit at 4:30pm!!!

The noise as the wind approached was unbelievable and like something out of a movie. 

It came from Bobbin Head and funneled right down through Cowan Creek.

The trees were being thrashed and the water was whipping up like it was in a mini tornado.

It was frightening.

And all the while, Lorelei stayed protected under the headland and we only got around 20-25 knots.

And only 200m away it was funnelling though at well over 50 knots.

We were soooo lucky.

We didn’t even think of taking photos – there was just too much going on. 

An hour later the wind had died, the new reports had come in about 1000’s of homes without power and sadly a jumping castle incident at a kid’s party.

Sadly it was also a Saturday afternoon and there were lots of boats on the waterway of all shapes and sizes with Father’s Day being the next day.

Our friend Anita was sailing at Pittwater on her yacht and had to ride out the storm as they couldn’t even get into their marina berth after one failed attempt due to the wind.

On sunset, the sky went weird and we had a pink sky with unusual rainbow-like spikes.

The frustrating thing was – no rain.

We now had coal dust, bushfire ash AND dirt & cobwebs all over Lorelei!

On the Sunday we decided to leave Lorelei safely where she was and head down to Bobbin Head early in the Tinny to beat the Father’s Day rush.

It was the first time we had used the 30hp motor and sun canopy in ages.

There was a lot of sandstone rock walls, not only at Bobbin Head but small pieces in the surrounding bays and shorelines.

We went for a walk and had a look around.

We also dropped into the marina and enquired about 18-20m berths for Lorelei – just in case.

The staff were really lovely and we were surprised they did have 20’s available, and for a very reasonable price for Sydney.

On the way home we flew the drone over the area and the Marina.

With the amount of people at Bobbin Head quickly increasing, we decided to leave the walks until a quieter day – and that was the next day.

We went for a flyfish on the Sunday arvo as the wind died and the water glassed off, but it only last for 30 minutes and the wind came back and was coming straight into the bay.

So we quickly packed up, lifted the tinny and took Lorelei down into Cowan Creek closer to Bobbin Head. 

We found a few options of bays with moorings, but settled on Houseboat Bay, which was opposite Apple Tree Bay.

Apple Tree Bay

On the Monday morning, we took the tinny to Bobbin Head early for a bush walk.

We had planned to do the mangrove boardwalk and rainforest first, but just as we got there, a bus load of private school kids turned up, so we aborted.

Instead we decided to walk 3km up to the Kalkari Information Centre at the top of the national Park and close to Turramurra.

It was a steep stepped climb for the first 800m before it turned out onto a nice plateau to stop and have a look at some overhangs and caves.

There were lots of wildflowers along the way.

From there it was a wider and easier walking trail.

The Kalkari Discovery Centre was great and had a great display with a lot of history of the area and a 1km walking loop.

The Sydney Red Gums were shedding their bark and leaving a heavily dimpled skin underneath

The volunteer rangers were all out and about as half their population of Kangaroos had gone missing when the storm hit on Saturday arvo.
Then the place was packed with people on Father’s Day, and they hadn’t seen them since.

The centre has an 8ft high barbed wire and electric fence all around it, so they doubted they would be able to get out that way.

The staff were perplexed as to where they were.

We did see a few though.

When we got back to Bobbin Head, the school kids were in a different section of the park, so we headed to the boardwalk.

It has a great suspension bridge and boardwalk through the mangrove system.

The path also went past a series of Aboriginal petroglyphs that are well known in the area.

We got to the rainforest section at about 4pm and it was very quiet.

The low light made for excellent photo opportunities.

By the time we got home, we were beyond exhausted.

It had been a long day and about 10-11km walked. 

That night another strong wind warning was forecast, this time a 25-30 knot southerly was forecast at about 8pm.

Right on sunset, we moved only 50m from one mooring in the bay to another.

The new one was very close to the southern shoreline, but offered a lot of protection from the south with the high hills overhead.

The downside was, we were in a back eddy by the morning and we woke with Lorelei’s davits only being about 6ft from the trees on the shoreline.

On the afternoon of the highest tide, we put the kayaks in an did a paddle up the creeks at both Apple Tree Bay and Bobbin Head.

We did a quick paddle around Houseboat Bay to have a look at more of the sandstone rock walls.

The Apple Tree creek was only a short one but it was interesting to go under the bridge and had a look at the amazing hand carved sand stone walls.

The main wall was 100’s of meters long!

We also stopped at the wharf for a walk around the area and over the bridge.

The paddle to Bobbin Head was about 1.5km down Cowan Creek and it was a little windy, but once we got under the road bridge, it was glassy and protected from the wind.

The inlet divided into 2 arms just before the mangrove boardwalk suspension bridge.

We went under the bridge first and up past the boardwalk.

That arm went for another 2km and it was very scenic with lots of steep shoreline with huge trees, amazing rock formations, rock orchids and wildlife.

A little further up the water depth shallowed and the last 500m was only 60cm deep or less.

The last 50m was awesome as there were a lot of rocks within the waterway and we had to dodge and weave through them until we couldn’t go any further.

About 20m from the end, Paul saw a large water monitor (lizard) jump across the waterway from one rock to another.

He quietly spent 10 minutes trying to find it but couldn’t.

Funnily enough, Lisa paddled into shore and was standing on the bank waiting for Paul when one walked out onto a rock right next to Lisa and sat there and looked at her.

Lisa thought it was very funny and it didn’t even move when Paul turned up and got very close for a photo.

We saw another one on the rocks just 10m away.

When we got back to the intersection, we took the other arm as well to explore.

With the higher tide we were able to kayak right up alongside the mangrove boardwalk.

This arm was smaller and not as long, but still very scenic – and came to a rocky end.

The final 2km paddle home was an effort - particularly as we had just paddled over 10km and walked 10km the day before. 

When we got back, we were surprised to find it was only 4pm (we thought it was 5pm), so we quickly packed away the kayaks, got changed and motored 1 hour to Yeomans Bay as there was another strong wind warning (this time a southerly) forecast for the next day. 

It was crazy cold overnight with temperatures in the 7-degree range.

We woke at 5:30am to heavy mist over the water and a soaking wet boat.

 We weren’t too keen on the cold snap after almost 2 weeks of warm weather, lows in the teens and peaks into the high 20’s and even one day at 30!

When it finally warmed up at 10am, we flew the drone and then put the tinny in and went and pumped nippers on the sand banks at low tide.

As the tide turned, we fished the sandy drop-off and started catching whiting.

Just before the wind hit, the barometer fell and the fishing went nuts and we were able to get a great feed of whiting.

Then the fish stopped biting, the temperature plummeted and the wind hit.

Fortunately, we were only 100m from Lorelei and were able to get home pretty fast and pack down for the rest of the day.
 

The next day Paul woke at 3am – sick!

Headache, vertigo, fever and cold.

It was cold again. Overnight the temps were back to around 7 degrees and he couldn’t warm up. 

So, we had a lay day and slept in.

By midday Paul was feeling better, but Lisa was getting worse.

Lisa made breakfast and Paul ended up making dinner.

It had been an overcast, windy and cold day so we didn’t feel like we’d missed out on too much.
 

The next morning, we were both a bit better but still not 100%.

We moved only 500m from Yeomans Bay to Castle Lagoon.

It is a small keyhole style bay, but very picturesque with only 4 moorings and no anchoring room due to the deep water.

It is Paul’s favourite bay in the area and the bay where he had his 21^st birthday on his dad’s boat Portseeker.

We decided to have a day on Lorelei as we recovered and waited for the overcast and cold weather to pass.

 We set about finally putting together a series of new scuba regulators.

We’d had the parts for ages and simply hadn’t got around to doing it.

Our scuba teddies, Bruce and Rolly were very happy, they hadn’t dived in ages!

We made a new main set each with tech diving long hoses and matching twin 2^nd stages.

We also made a 2^nd set each with only a single 2^nd stage which was for our pony bottles or if we used a twin tank set-up.

They are the first cold water/ice-diving regs we’ve ever owned or built so we hope they work well in Tassie and NZ.

The little bears are our "Scuba Teddies - Bruce (the moose) and Rolly (who has a life ring around his tummy)"

Lisa brought then back in about 2004 when we drew the short straw to run the Christmas and New Year dive liveaboard trip in Cairns.

For festive fun, we cable-tied them to our scuba gear and took them diving, which the guests thought was grand.

With all the salt water, we seriously did not expect them to last very long.

Well 20+ years and over 3000 dives each in 30 countries, and they are still going strong.

They are much loved and go on every dive we do. 

They should be honorary PADI Master Divers.

After lunch Paul also built the new Nauticam /Nikon D850 underwater camera systems.

The macro setup was huge and seemed massive to capture things like Nudibranchs which are only a few centimeters long.

There is both a Nikon 60mm and 105mm macro lens option.

It’s our first experience with the new to the market Backscatter Strobes (after using Ikelite strobes for decades) and strobe snoots so it will take a bit of getting used to.

The wide angle set up was a lot quicker and easier.

It also has 2 lens options, a 10mm fisheye and a 20mm prime.

They will both need a few dives to swap around with float arms and arm lengths on the strobes to get the buoyancy just right so that it is neutral.

That afternoon we found the answer to our illness.

Paul had opened the rear windows in our bedroom for ventilation and right next to it was a full outboard motor fuel tank with the breather valve wide open. It was putting petrol fumes right through our bedroom which made us sick.

 

When we were back to 100%, we went for a long kayak explore on the high tide.

We started in Castle Lagoon and headed into the corner where the waterfall is.

We took dive booties in case we wanted to do a walk or climb, but after a look at the water course, it was full of oysters on the shoreline and the rocks were moss covered and slippery.

We decided not to attempt the climb.

It was a pity. Paul used to climb it as a teenager and wanted to do it for old times sake.

The paddle down into Yeomans Bay was fantastic. It was super glassy with reflections everywhere.

We were able to paddle over the shallow sand flat that we had pumped nippers on a few days prior, and get right up to the end of the creek system.

It was so beautiful at the end with a rainforest style water course.

In the other corner of the bay, we found an awesome sandstone rock that was covered with a large amount of honeycomb weathering.

Paul went for a small walk but still decided not to tackle the slippery rocks too far in.

With the great conditions, we decided to paddle out of the bay and into the main channel and head towards Cottage Point.

As we paddled along the steep foreshore, we spied a tiny little piece of sand sticking out under a rock ledge and stopped for a leg stretch.

As Lisa looked up at the sandstone, she spied a great rock art panel that was only 3m above us.

Paul was so happy. There is a lot of evidence of indigenous occupation of the area and lots of walks to petroglyph sites, but this was the first ochre rock art we had seen. 

We tried to google it and there was no info, so we figured not many people would know about it.

It is certainly not a area that you would anchor in or has public moorings.
Ironically, it is in the main channel and hundreds of boats would drive past it each weekend.

We went around past Cottage Point and down the inlet towards Akuna Bay.

It’s the only inlet within the National Park that we had decided not to take Lorelei down into so it was fun to explore a little way down in the kayak just to have a look. 

The number of Jellyfish at the entrance to the inlet was just nuts.

They were everywhere and very thick.

On the way home, we decided to cross the channel and headed back to Castle Lagoon along the opposite shoreline to have a look at the vertical sandstone cliffs and many undercuts and cave systems close to the edge.

When we were about 200m from the lagoon, Paul spied a petroglyph on the rocks.

It was a vertical panel which was different to the mainly flat panels that are popular to visit.

We got home after a 9km paddle and decided to have a Saturday arvo BBQ in the cockpit and make burgers using a butane burner (because Paul couldn’t find the new regulator and hose for the BBQ on the back deck). 

It was another cold but peaceful night onboard, but we woke at 7am to heavy fog all around.

By 8:30am the fog cleared, but when Paul flew the drone to see how many boats were in the surrounding bays we wanted to visit, he was surprised to see a lot of fog still down the main channel towards Broken Bay.

All the moorings were full looking back towards Yeomans Bay. Thank goodness we visited it mid-week and had it all to ourselves.

We moved at 9am with the intent to move into Jerusalem Bay but it was packed with large boats, so we stopped and put an anchor down in a pretty little place Sylvena Cove at the head of the bay to wait for the Sunday traffic to go home before we headed up.

The Sunday night sunset was fantastic.

We woke Monday to a glass out but a lot of smoke from more controlled burn-offs in nearby Smiths Creek. Great – more ash all over the boat – to add to the coal dust, existing ash, dirt, dust and spiderwebs!

We decided to launch the kayaks and paddle around Jerusalem Bay and Pinta Bay to see it it was worth taking Lorelei into the bays for an overnight stop.

It was super glassy at the start with great reflections.

The shoreline had high sides with some weather sandstone areas and lots of fallen trees in the water.

Being a spring high tide, we were able to kayak over the shallow sand bars and get right up to the end of the creek systems at the end of the bays.

On the way home we found some sea caves we were able to kayak into and ledges we could paddle under.

It was another great 10km+ paddle, but we decided we didn’t need to take Lorelei into the bays.

So instead, we lifted the anchor and headed into America Bay for the evening and prep for a big day the next day.

 

With a strong wind warding forecast in 2 days-time and due to blow for 3 days, we decided to tackle the 2 big walks we had left to do on our wish list.

The first was the America Bay track.

Just as we were about to leave, Paul smashed his knee onto the companionway door padlock and ended up with a bruise down the side of the knee. 
We left anyway and it was super glassy heading to the shore.

Then as we got to the trail start, the shoreline was packed full of rocks and oysters making it difficult to get to shore, amore importantly, safely moor the tinny for the day in all tides.

After a lot of mucking around we finally were able to get Lisa ashore, rig up a roving and sliding anchor system and once ashore, pull a line tight which takes the tinny offshore and back out to the anchor and tie it off to a tree.

We’ve done it many times overseas and in croc prone place like The Kimberley, but it was the first time we had set it up since returning to cruising, and we were a little rusty.

 

The climb to the top of the waterfall was wild, steep, overgrown and nothing short of a goat track at best!

Once at the top we got lost 3 times trying to find a safe way to get 75m across to the top of the waterfall where we knew the main trail started.

We finally made it. What a start to the day!!!! 

The view from the top was incredible and looked right across America Bay.

As we were flying the drone, a large water monitor raced up to it as it was flying very low and was not at all afraid.

We also saw more lizards in and around the small waterfalls on the top of the plateau.

As we started the walk trail up to the carpark, we spied a red sign that stated the track down to America Bay was closed.

We that certainly explained the overgrown and dangerous climb we just did!!

 The rest of the walk was better, but still not the easiest walking trail.

It was steep, large steps and lots of exposed roots systems and wash-outs.

We did see a lot of nice wildflowers.

Further up, the track did meander across the watercourse a few times which was nice.

We also saw our first snake for the day.

 

About 1 km in, we started to see small side tracked leading to flat sandstone escarpments which had Aboriginal Petroglyphs carved into them.

 

We found 3 different locations with each having a series of engravings.

Most were quite large engravings with the largest being more than 5m in length.

The information on the web said they were not very easy to see and not nearly as good and the Basin site a few km away, but we thought they were great.

When we got up to the road (which is actually the start of the America Bay track for those coming by car), we then walked 1.7km along the road to the next walking track which took us down to the well-known Basin petroglyph rock art site.
 

This site was well set up with lots of information and stone paths making it very easy to access and interpret.

The site was ok and not a large as we thought it would be given the info on the net.

In comparison, we thought the less popular sites at America Bay were just as good, if not better.

The walk home was a bit if a mission.

Paul’s knee was hurting, it was getting hot and the steep steps down were bone jarring.

At one of the fresh water pools on the America Bay track, we stopped for a foot soak and a well-earned food & drink break.

The bush bash back down from the waterfall plateau to the tinny was brutal and Lisa spent a lot of it going very slow and often was on her bum to go slow over the steep rocks.

The plan was to stop for lunch on Lorelei and then head over to the Infinity Pools at the Refuge Bay Waterfall site, but it was 2pm already, so we decided to head straight there and do the second climb back-to-back.

We had already been to this waterfall a few weeks earlier, but only for a swim & a dunk under the falls and didn’t take decent footwear to tackle the climb.

 

We thought it would only be a short climb – 50m into the climb and we were already half way up.

But then it meandered along a track below the vertical rock face and away from the water fall.

A first we thought we had gone the wrong way but then soon discovered blue ribbons tied in trees indicating the track direction.

On and on it went and turned into a steep, overgrown and rocky track.

Eventually we got to the top, but then had to walk back along the top on the escarpment back towards the waterfall.

We found a little side track that led out onto a big stone ledge with awesome views over the bay.

 

Eventually we reached the infinity pools that were set back from the top of the main waterfalls section.

After walking up the watercourse and past a few different pools, Lisa found one with a sandy bottom and just big enough for a dip.

She shared it with a stack of freshwater shrimp that had big red claws and nibbled on her toes.

The climb down was arduous!

It was steep and we were tired, so we slowed down and chose our footing safely.

By the time we got back to Lorelei we were stuffed!

We had trekked about 11km with about 4km of it being steep climbs or descents.

We thought about simply staying in the bay, but with a strong wind warning out and an overnight front expected to hit at 11pm, we decided to leave and head back Yeomans Bay to to ride out the 2-3 days of windy weather.

It was an ok night but it was SE instead of the forecasted SW winds which had us very close to the shoreline by daybreak. 

So, we left at day break and headed to Houseboat Bay near Bobbin Head.

Where when vowed to relax and stop.

Well that didn’t happen!!!

We ended up filling the water tanks with half a ton of fresh water, did 6 loads of clothes washing, baked a slice, tidied the boat, did some maintenance, and had a nice meal in the cockpit.

The next day we did sleep in but ended up doing a lot of research about Sydney Harbour (our next destination) in the morning before finding out the strong wind warning was cancelled and there was 3 days of light and variable winds forecast before a southerly change.

So we packed up quickly and set off for Sydney Harbour on the afternoon NE seabreeze.

We passed the Lion Island before rounding Barrenjoey headland (and its iconic lighthouse) and set sail south.

We could see the steep headlands all the way down the coast that interspaced the northern beaches.

There were dolphins playing in Lorelei’s bow wave and birds all around.

Surprisingly, we didn’t see any whales.

 

We went past the suburb of Collaroy which is where we used to live in our early 20’s when we worked in the city.

The city skyline was just starting to show over the top of Manly as we sailed further south.

As we rounded the famous North Head, we could see the skyline in the background.
 

Lorelei also played chicken with a large cruise ship as it exited Sydney Heads just as we were entering.

The cliffs of North Head looked impressive and we could see across the passage to South Head and Watsons Bay.

As was the tradition 100 years ago, vessels were required to head into the harbour and around to Quarantine Bay for clearance.

We thought it was fitting to do the same and went past the old restored buildings of the Quarantine Station.

We couldn’t believe our luck we headed into Quarantine Bay and found one of the 3 public moorings was empty, so we took it.

It was a Friday afternoon and the place can be crazy busy on weekends, so we were very lucky.

We were also right next to a Little Penguin colony and the only Little Penguins in Australia that have a colony on the mainland.

We packed away just in time for a drone fly to look over the city, up towards Manly and to Quarantine Bay.

The sunset over the city was pretty awesome too.

We were off to a great start for our next adventure – Sydney Harbour.

So that it for this blog post.

It’s been the first full blog post for this cruising session as Lisa's retirement has allowed alot more activities than the past posts.

 

A great 4 weeks in the Kuring-gai Chase National Park waterways.

50km of kayaking, 30km of hikes, some whiting and fly fishing and finally getting around to tying some flies, building some new scuba regulators and putting together our new underwater camera systems.

Oh - and Lorelei is still covered in coal dust, bush fire ash, dirt, spider webs and salt water. 
I never thought I'd say this - but I hope it rains soon - and heavy downpours - and during the day so I can get in a wetsuit and break out the scrubbing brush !!!!!

 

Cheers for now.

 

Paul and Lisa onboard Yacht Lorelei.