Winter Westerly Pattern - Finally

Fingers crossed the winter westerly pattern has clicked into place.
Water quality at Birubi is crystal clear at the moment with the temp not to bad either.
Tomorrow and the rest of the week look promising wind wise. I'll try and grab a shot after work (if I can get there before dark) for those thinking of making the trek tomorrow.

Wednesday report: sailed from 2:30 - 3:30. Only 10 knots at first, slightly offshore, and waves to stomach high. Used my big sail (5.6m) for first time in years? at Birubi. Just strong enough to get out and catch waves, but nice waves, I got more aerials in the first 30 minutes than in a whole season at Nobbys (NE). 10 to 15 knots from 3pm to 3:30 then died.

Brendan? Nope.

Yeah poor old stomach never gets a mention, despite waist and chest high being okay. I was tempted to write one foot because that's how us cool surfers talk, measuring the backs of waves (as you do). For the record, the biggest one was chest high (I got scared and landed my aerial out the back of it).
Anyway it was a nice change from the usual Birubi 30 knotters. Looks like there could be more mild ones in the next few days.

The swell is too big for Birubi today, but there's a wave inside Port Stephens.
www.rms.nsw.gov.au/maritime/using-waterways/web-cameras/shoal-bay.html
For safety (and pointing advantage in a westerly) it's best to wait for the tide to be coming in. Today it turns (low tide) at 1:47pm, but you have to wait an hour or more for the current to change.
If anyone is interested in sailing it let me know.

If you'd seen the camera on the day I posted you'd have seen where they break off Shoal Bay, but you might have to wait months to see that again. The waves break in the middle of the port rather than on the shores, though there is a beach break inside the northern headland. On Google Earth you will see sandbars a bit south of the middle. They show up better in certain shots - scroll through the historical shots. The position of the bars barely change over the years. The first break is a few hundred metres inside the southern headland. It is deep there so they only start breaking at maybe head high. For them to be that size within the Port they would generally require a larger swell at the open beaches, and an easterlyish direction. Then the waves run inland getting progressively smaller, but there are shallow banks, almost dry, off Nelson Bay, so there's often a small wave there, despite it being 4 kms inside the Port. On a big day, waves can break at many spots between those two areas.

There are lots of good beaches to launch from. In a W or E wind you can launch from either side (N or S) of the Port. In a southerly the northern side is best. Southern side is possible but it tends to be in the wind shadow and require sailing back upwind.

Birubi today: good wind but too big for comfort. Not breaking inside the Port because the swell is from the south. Possibly a wave at the break inside the northern headland but you can't tell even though the camera looks at it. But you can still have a blast flatwater sailing inside the Port. A westerly is less gusty there than on Lake Macquarie and probably most other spots.

Birubi was pretty good today with good size sets and 20-30kts.