Clearing in to Coffs Harbour, New South Wales
We are Aussies aboard our Australian registered yacht “Storm Bay of Hobart”, and recently cleared back into Australia at Coffs Harbour on the mid-NSW coast. We had a good experience of clearing in there.
Published 8 years ago, updated 6 years ago
Unfortunately right now, due to an extreme storm in winter, the marina in the inner harbour is closed. They expect it to reopen end of October 2016. Email the manager admin.coffs@starmarinas.com.au to check on reopening.
We had to be in the outer harbour (which is less protected but good in any offshore winds, i.e. westerly). There are two (free of charge) mooring buoys between the old wooden jetty and the breakwall of the inner harbour, (30 18.3S, 153 08.6E), easy to see on both cmap and navionics, which are both accurate for entry into Coffs. We arrived in the dark, as usual… and it is easy. Huge blue leadlights to line up.
The advantage of Coffs is that the “Border Force” guys do it all, customs, immigration and quarantine. And they were delightful. Friendly, professional and timely in their processes. Apparently bigger ports like Newcastle have separate quarantine/biosecurity officers as well as the border protection staff. Could be a good or bad thing, but my guess is the fewer officials, the better.
They charged us $400, no hassling about how many 15 minute blocks of time they used.
They did take a lot of food from us, despite our planning. We were not expecting to give up our dried fruit… we had a treasure trove of unopened packs of things. Also any seeds, e.g. sesame, sunflower, etc. Dairy, fresh stuff, eggs, honey we were expecting. So eat it up!
They did inspect for signs of termites: none. We’re not concerned about the hull (we had just antifouled in Fiji anyway), but there is scuttlebutt out there about having to antifoul within 6 months of arrival etc. Not so, and not mentioned.
So for sure, we would recommend Coffs to clear in.
Sadly the slipway and yard there is completely gone? closed?? we were shocked. So do not expect to be able to haul out there.
Hope this is of assistance, feel free to email us on stormbayofhobart@gmail.com if you would like further information.
We are delighted to be back in Australia, and welcome our cruising mates to down under. It is a brilliant country and we are only slightly biased…
Cheers
Margaret and Chris
Homeport: Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
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