Newcastle

[Kyle]We only had two days of forecast tailwinds over the next week or so. That meant two days in a row of pushing southwards without the usual rest day in between that I at least strive for.

The sail to Newcastle - along the long sandy stretch of Stockton Beach

That’s okay, our next stop was going to be at Newcastle, which is generally billed as a “must miss”, or at the very least as an “only to the extent necessary”. The gist of all of the cruising info is that Newcastle is a big port full of heavy shipping and has nothing of interest to toy pleasure boats. All of the available waterfront is taken up by commercial wharves and the only possible places to anchor are just out of the channel under the continuous punishment of pounding wakes.

Well, they’re wrong. It is true that Newcastle has an almost continuous procession of big ships and that the port is really there for them, so to speak. However, the town itself looks very quaint and walkable. On both sides of the harbor, there are large sections of parkland with paths along the waterfront.

We anchored as the only boat in a luxuriously wide spot that was out of the channel on the inside of the turning basin for the ships. Our patch was big enough and shallow enough that no out of control ship could get anywhere near us without running aground and we couldn’t hit shore without dragging a long way.

That wake thing was also a myth. Big ships being maneuvered into our out of their berths by tugs do not throw wakes of any kind. The only wakes we saw were from powerboats full of fishermen in a hurry to relax. They all ignore the speed limit signs because they can’t read. The thing is, since Newcastle isn’t really a pleasure boat port, there’s fewer of them than in other, supposedly nicer areas.

We were really upset that we didn’t have enough time or energy left in the day to go ashore and have a look around. Had their been just eighteen more hours of tailwinds in the forecast, we would have happily delayed for a day to do so. As it was, we had to content ourselves with watching the bustling industry of the wharves and the afternoon Hobie Cat races of the sailing club right beside us.