A touch of Paradise

Ah, sun, sea and sand. Not to put too fine a point on it, it's the sand that distinguishes Port Hacking from Sydney's more glamorous waterways such as the harbour, the Hawkesbury or Pittwater.

Sally forth to so-called The Port and you can't miss the boundless sandbanks, the myriad of sandbars and skinny sandy channels that shape life on the water in the Sutherland Shire to Sydney's south.

A seldom-promoted playground, The Port is Sydney's Florida Keys and Everglades; its Gippsland Lakes and Broadwater; a lively waterway bordered by sandy margins that glow from gold to pearly white. And, the water is seldom anything but gin clear after having flowed over and been filtered by sand.

Meanwhile, the Royal National Park bordering the entire southern shore of The Port lends its signature backdrop of Aussie bushland. The deepest bays and best anchorages are surrounded by nothing more than the bushland backdrop. Needless to say, The Port offers a wonderful boating escape for day-trippers and weekenders.

My daytrip began at the mouth of Port Hacking, at Jibbon and Bundeena beaches, which are popular parking spots for passing cruising yachts and motorboats. Unfortunately, such craft carrying deep drafts will struggle to navigate much beyond Burraneer Point across the way. At best, they need a high tide to avoid running aground in the one-to-two-metre-deep channels.

You see, unlike Sydney's other waterways, Port Hacking is a heaven-sent opportunity for trailerboaters. But for the fetching ferry bound for Bundeena and the occasional Waterways patrol, there is no commercial boat traffic to contend with. Also, there's a distinct lack of flash five-star waterfront dining. So bring a picnic lunch when you are touring Port Hacking.

THE PORT AMENITIES
We set off on a small boat - The Boston Whaler 160 Dauntless - which was ideal for The Port. The Whaler can play the role of fishing machine or towboat thanks to its sturdy skipole.

These two activities are what most people enjoy doing in The Port. We didn't partake in either pastime, but we did enjoy a thorough tour of this skinny waterway.

With our iPod music-storing device and iTrip tuned to the Whaler's FM marine stereo, we boogied across the shallow sandbar to Bonnie Vale. There, we were greeted with two kilometres of white beach stretching to Constables Point.

Behind the dunes is a public campground ($7.50 per night; bookings tel (02) 9542 0648) and a large puddle of water known as The Basin or Cabbage Tree Bay. This puddle is just a great place to paddle a canoe or explore in a tinnie. The entrance to The Basin is so tight you might have to run your motor on shallow-water drive.

Around the corner, mighty Maianbar unveils itself as billiard-table-flat sandbar. In fact, it is as expansive a sandbar as any this writer has set hooves upon. I stroll about and notice scores of locals pulling their craft onto the shore and attacking the flats with yabby pumps. The not-so-cute crustaceans are used as live bait to tempt the local whiting, which, incidentally, don't fool easily in the clear, shallow water.

IS IT GUNNAMATTA?
Across the way, on the more suburban shores behind Cronulla, is Gunnamatta Bay. There is a deep channel leading to the well-known Royal Motor Yacht Club. We park in the visitor's berth and do lunch overlooking the marina.

It's Anzac Day and the limited menu is nothing to write home about. But I have it from reliable sources that the beer is cold and refreshing. And the girls seated on the outdoor tables with million-dollar views appear to have a taste for champagne.

Neighbouring Burraneer, Yowie and Gymea bays have boutique marinas with petrol, bait, ammo and ice available. In the local street directory you will also find excellent boat ramps in these bays as well as further upstream at places such as the Port Hacking River.

While you will struggle to find a grain of undeveloped foreshore along the suburban northern side of Port Hacking, there are rich pickings by way of boatsheds. We play "spot the best boatshed" and just can't decide on the winner amid a plethora of quaint dwellings of all shapes, sizes, colours and styles; from cottage to lush tropical.

Conversely, only scribbly gums, low heath and scrub, blackboys, sandstone outcrops and a couple of small beaches (from which one can waterski) border the premier destination - South West Arm. During my visit, rafts of up to a dozen boats occupy the public moorings.

There's more than 17m of water below their keel and everyone has a line in the water hoping to catch dinner. Everything from giant jewfish to spotty mackerel and yellowfin tuna - yes, really - have been landed from South West Arm.

Off Gogerleys Point, the western shore at the entrance to South West Arm, there is a gorgeous waterfront sandstone homestead and a doubly fetching boatshed. The channel is tighter than, I'll keep it clean, let's say a Venetian canal.

I peer over the side and observe a bream swimming lazily off the bow. Maybe its fearlessness has to do with the fact that nets aren't permitted in Port Hacking... 

RIVER RIDER
Further along the western shore are several smaller but no-less-popular anchorages in Carruthers and Dark bays. But the estuary becomes a river once you round Lightning Point at Deer Park.

The Port Hacking River twists and turns, snaking around impossibly tight channels markers, passing a submerged stream diversion wall that could easily take a chunk out of a wayward propeller. I think it might also be home to some big bream. Oh well, maybe next time.

Finally, after about 20 minutes of idling along the no-wash zone past the local constabulary or Waterways patrol, I reach Audley Weir. Built in 1883 and surrounded by the 125-year-old Royal National Park - which, coincidentally, celebrated its birthday the day after I paid a visit - Audley Weir marks the confluence of salt and freshwater. It is as far as you can navigate upstream without carrying your boat over the road.

The grassy banks are swarming with vociferous picnickers sending smoke signals from barbies high into the air. There are kids splashing on the adjoining waters in paddle craft, lines from luckless anglers that gleam like spiderwebs in the shards of fading afternoon light cutting through the gums, and lots of kicking or hitting of balls of various shapes and sizes.

Audley Weir sees more than 400,000 visitors swing by the parkland each year. But while most people loll about the picnic grounds, few bother to escape in a rowboat or canoe ($26 half-day hire) on secluded Kangaroo Creek. The freshwater creek meanders upstream for about two kilometres before breaking up into a series of big waterholes.

On my last Huck Finn visit to Kangaroo Creek I observed a magnificent blue kingfisher diving for minnows. You can take a 35-footer almost to Audley then launch your dinghy and continue up the creek. Keep your eyes peeled for bird life, wallabies, tortoise, eels and yabbies the size of lobsters in the waterholes. For more details, contact the Royal National Park Visitor's Centre, tel (02) 9542 0648, or the Audley Boat Shed, tel (02) 9545 4967.

I took one last look from the tidal reaches of bulrushes and rowboats on Kangaroo Creek. But that wasn't the part of Port Hacking that stayed with me. No, it was the sand - the great wad of grit that fell from my deck shoes onto the living room floor on my return home as a reminder, before the next vacuum at least, of a big day out on Port Hacking.

Fear not!

Like all Boston Whalers, the Dauntless is unsinkable, well appointed and comfortable. Sit back and relax as Capt Lockwood takes you through the awesome Dauntless 160.

What better boat to scoot around a skinny waterway than one designed for fishing the flats Florida-style? The Boston Whaler 160 Dauntless is a shallow-draft, wide-beamed centre console that, to quote my discerning partner, has a high funk factor.

Safety figures even more highly on the Whaler. The self-draining hull is foam filled so you can motor home in the unlikely event that you are swamped. Swamped capacity is 1905kg and the boat should float upright. The foam also deadens running noise.

To prove the hull's strength, Boston Whaler has been known to drive a heavy-duty tractor over its boats. And, should you be inclined, it says you can pump 1000 rounds of high-calibre machinegun fire into the hull and it will remain afloat.

ROLLS-ROYCE RIDE
You really have to experience the ride of a Boston Whaler to appreciate the difference. My partner, who utters words of disdain when crashing our way out to sea, had nothing but praise for the 160 Dauntless. And it wasn't as though we limited our time aboard the test boat to the estuary.

Significantly, we didn't even feel the need to stand up when crossing the towering waves when we ran several kilometres east of Port Hacking, beyond treacherous Jibbon Bombora, to a point in the deep blue sea where I could enjoy the sight of sandstone cliffs sweeping south to Wollongong.

The boat was similarly reassuring dashing about choppy Port Hacking. The deep-vee hull sluiced through the water, the flared bow shed the spray for a dry ride, and the boat was stable and surefooted thanks to oversized reverse chines. 

DAUNTLESS ON DECK
As with all Whalers, there are heavy-duty deck fittings, hinges, rub rails and skin fittings that allow you to leave the boat in the water for extended periods of time without worrying about water intrusion.

The boat comes with a dedicated anchor locker too, which isn't always a given on an American boat.

The all-white decks didn't have a canopy for shade, but you could fit one as an aftermarket accessory. What it did have were lots of high, solid, stainless-steel rails around the bow, sidedecks alongside the centre console and aft decks. Those rails made the flat's-style low-profile boat a safe one at sea. We were never left wanting of a grab. Freeboard measures 475mm.

A supplied cushion coverts the forward casting platform into a small sunlounge. Drinks were kept cold in the standard-issue portable cooler, which was part of the factory-fitted Comfort Package that locked in position ahead of the centre console. It also had a padded top to create a seat, a handy invention. You can also order the boat without the cooler and a bigger forward sunlounge.

The seating layout promoted social intercourse, which is rare in a boat this small, but refreshing. The helm seat was a bench upon which we cruised about the waterway very comfortably for hours on end.

The seat back is reversible so you can face guests while riding on the aft-quarter swabs either side of the engine well. This would be handy when lunching aboard, or when fishing and monitoring the outstretched rod tips for nibbles.

GREAT DETAILS
The 160 Dauntless had exceedingly clever folding rod racks along the cockpit sides that could be clipped back for unfettered access round the boat. Storage also existed under the sunlounge in the bow, via a side door in the moulded console and in the base of the helm bench seat.

The boat can be optioned with a Fishing Package comprising tackle drawers, a battery box for a trolling motor, console-mounted rodholders, a trolling motor panel, removable fishing seats, the cooler and aft rodholder.

You can also get the boat with a livewell under the helm seat. Instead, this Dauntless had an optional skipole that was, it should be noted, very well braced on the transom.

In typical Whaler fashion, the mouldings were executed very well, the non-skid was effective without being hard to clean, stainless-steel was abundant and the design was mindful of ergonomics. No sore back, for example, after a day behind the wheel and at times tucked behind the small but effective windscreen.

Fitted with an upgraded 115hp Mercury outboard, the fishing boat, day cruiser, commuter and tow boat didn't hang around. Top speed I assumed to be around 40kt or 74kmh. However, it was the cruising comfort that impressed most, travelling at a useful clip of mid-40kmh at 4000rpm.

My crew was so struck by the comforts of the big little 16-footer that she wanted me to make an offer. The $46,500 package price on trailer reflects the Whaler's quality. The fact that we had our music collection on an iPod, playing through the boat's marine stereo, added to enjoyment.