8 lighthouses in 18 hours
Well known for beautiful beaches and rugged sandstone vistas, the coast of New South Wales makes for some magnificent sailing. I’ve been cruising it for decades and it’s always an invigorating challenge that takes some planning for there are few safe harbours along the way.
The coast is exposed to the Tasman Sea and the coastal winds are notoriously inconsistent, ranging from thrilling to frustrating and, on occasion, downright frightening. With no prevailing winds to rely on, yachtsmen are often at the mercy of complex currents and sudden weather events, including the abrupt southerly change fondly known in the Australian vernacular as a ‘southerly buster’. There are also ferocious weather events called East Coast Lows – intense low pressure systems that form off the coast. But sometimes you get lucky, as I did on this solo voyage. In late summer, I sailed south from Newcastle to Jervis Bay in conditions so perfect that I had time to sit back and contemplate 200 years of history of each lighthouse along the way. Mooring to mooring it was a journey of 160 miles.
With a predictable summer north-easterly breeze on the aft quarter, I set sail in , my 38ft Robert’s sloop, but as expected the breeze faded at sunset. I was still about 16 miles north of Sydney Harbour when the wind threatened to becalm me near the Three Headlands, at the entrance to Broken Bay.
