The very low tides of the last few days gave me an opportunity to map out the rock garden with it's hundreds of possibly deadly rocks.
Please note the old inside post (star picket) that used to mark start of the rock garden (the bottom left corner of the above image) is no longer visible. It has been broken off at just below water level and remains a deadly spear for the unwary. I will try to sleeve it in the next day or so.
The outer post is now orange as us old farts could not see the white poly one when sailing back towards Novara. If you pass close to this coming back make sure you don't drift below the line from it to the rigging area/car park. many rocks and the broken star picket await those that do.
On the plus side there aren't any obvious rocks ( maybe some small ones hidden by the carpet of agae/weed drying in the sun) between the star picket and a line to the green roof as long as you stay west of that line.
There is another orange post marking the northern end (apex at top of image) . But be careful if you do inside runs down the len Howard channel as there are some rocks just past it if you were thinking of rounding up and heading back out into the estuary.
Thanks for that yoyo, all we need now is a way of loading those coordinates into a gps so an alarm goes of when straying in there.
Thanks Yo-yo, be happy to help out when I get back. Makes me cringe to think of the possible outcomes of running into something like that. Already cost me a fin box replacement, after becoming geographically challenged due to it's removal (intentional or otherwise).
The pies have ALWAYS been better at Novara. Just watch how many tradies stop at Novara instead of miami.
Well here's where all the posts were, so there may be a few more sharp rusty stumps just under the water.
Did not notice any stumps other than the one I mentioned , the second one Mike one the bottom right corner is gone but rocks remain.
So is this area easily identified while on the water? I'll be dipping my toes in here for the first time over Christmas.
Well now the outside marker is painted orange it's a lot better than it was. A lot depends on sun angle, if you're looking at the sunny face it's easy to see, but in one direction this won't be until you've passed it. Looking behind you and seeing it on the estuary side is always a bit unnerving.
The one sighter that's easy to see is the big green roofed gazebo at the shore of Len Howard reserve, (where the pic icon is on my GE image above), the rock garden is straight out from there. It's just judging how far out that's the problem.
And I think the existing orange post is the extreme SE one on my image, I think it's the extreme southerly one that's missing, so you need to allow 20-30m clearance from the post.
DONE!
Now we will see if the down pipe sleeve survives the waves of a good seabreeze tomorrow or just breaks off where the star picket support ends.
Pepe, in my wandering around in circles today to find the star picket, it seems there are still a couple of decent rocks south of the picket to test the construction of your board on :-))
Select to expand quoteyoyo said..
DONE!
Now we will see if the down pipe sleeve survives the waves of a good seabreeze tomorrow or just breaks off where the star picket support ends.
Pepe, in my wandering around in circles today to find the star picket, it seems there are still a couple of decent rocks south of the picket to test the construction of your board on :-))
Good one Yoyo, great work!!
I'm sure some of those posts didn't have star pickets inside them, maybe they're the missing ones?
Mike, I got the offcut of downpipe from a builder who when I told him what it was for said he uses the posts to tie to when crabbing..no wonder they break.
Thanks for the work Yoyo, having fallen foul of the rocks her before this is a great help to all who sail the area.
It is a pity the posts have been damaged by people who do not understand their purpose.
Select to expand quoteyoyo said..
something for cruising the shallows on a cushion of air...
There's Clingons on the Starboard bow, starboard bow Jim.........
