Boating Guide: Picturesque Pittwater has it all

At the same time its bushland foreshores and beaches beckon, locations of interest include yacht clubs and motorboat clubs that welcome visiting boaters.

At Palm Beach, you can mix it with the who's-who in summer. In the high season, rents of more than $10,000 a week a forked out. Yet you can also buy one of the best hamburgers in the knockabout general store at Palm Beach. Yes, beetroot.

For those of us with boats, there is outstanding fishing, crabbing, sailing, beach combing, bush walking, cruising and gadding about.

Your can go as far as protected McCarrs Creek, which is perfect for paddlers and
picnickers,. But the iconic Basin in Coaster's Retreat is the jewel for family camping and
safe swimming. The array of beaches backed by national park include Towlers, Portuguese and Resolute. Mid-week, you will have them to yourself. Ommm...

BOAT RAMPS
Really, there is only one major amenity for launching and that is at Bayview in Rowland Reserve. It's a four-lane ramps and busy in summer, but a great amenity.

There are numerous other small sandy ramps, but most suffer from lack of water depth and are really only suitable for dinghies and kayaks. Of these, the boat ramp at Sand Point aka Snapperman Beach is quite good for small trailerboats. As you’re right near the entrance to Broken Bay, saving you about 8km of boat travel one way from Bayview, it can be handy if you are fishing offshore.

GETTING THERE BY WATER
In the boating high season, the ocean road between Sydney and Pittwater is well travelled and almost like Pitt Street! It's roughly 20 nautical miles from head to head, that is, North Head to Barrenjoey.

How long this takes depends on your boat, the wind, the current and so on. But if you cruise at 20 knots then it takes one hour. If you sail at 5 knots, it will take four hours, plus or minus a bit for wind and tide. There are lots of whales, fish trap floats and fishing boats along the way.

Warning: Keep well offshore from Long Reef as the "German Banks" and shallow reefs can break a long way offshore. Make a waypoint on your chart and keep at least two miles east of Long Reef point.

PLACES TO PULL IN
Once in Pittwater, you can explore all the little beaches along the western shore of and just pick a spot that appeals, anchor the boat, and stage a lunch aboard or picnic ashore. You will have to pay a small landing fee to do this at The Basin campground, but it's a highlight and thoroughly recommended.

The Basin in Coaster’s Retreat offers great safe swimming, fishing, yabby pumping, freshwater showers and toilets, vending machines with ice creams, and shade from the Norfolk pines in summer for a barbecue.

If the northeasterly winds are blowing in summer, it can be choppy, in which case head around to Towlers Bay with the rest of the informed boating locals.

PLACES TO EAT
There are some very welcoming marinas in Pittwater, among them the Royal Motor Yacht Broken Bay, where the club grub and bistro, cold drinks and lunch menu appeals. You can also buy fuel for your boat.

Church Point and Bayview have their marina cafes and kiosks, but the pick is Palm Beach for hamburgers to go at The General Store, the fish and chips, the RSL-type club grub at Club Palm Beach up the road, and the deli lunch spreads at Palm Beach Wine Co, which has some top French bottles of plonk, too.

BOAT HIRE AND CHARTER
You can hire boats at Barrenjoey Boat Hire at the Boathouse at Palm Beach, where there is top takeaway food and breakfasts. You can also hire drive-yourself cruisers, houseboats and yachts from Church Point Charters.

Pittwater Kayak Tours stages some great guided paddle adventures up this way. Try BOAB Boat Hire for a decent fishing boat — the Pittwater operator has a seaworthy self-drive aluminium fishing boat in which you can head offshore.

Another option is to sign up as sailing crew in one of the local clubs. Twilight and mid-week social yacht racing is huge up this way. The Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club and RMYC are both welcoming.

FISHING TIPS
The fishing in Pittwater is excellent, good enough to support at least three local full-time recreational fishing guides, who chase the kingfish to a metre and more in length around the moorings of the Scotland Island and Clareville area. You need to catch the fresh local squid from over the weed beds using jigs to catch the kingfish. The marinas in Pittwater are full of fish and kingies often bust up between the boats.

Generally speaking, the protruding points in Pittwater are the hot fishing spots — Soldiers Point, Stokes Point, Longnose Point, Taylor's Point, West Head and Barrenjoey, where there is a bombora to be avoided halfway along the northern side. The deep hole about 300 metres off Portuguese Beach is another top spot and produces hairtail in winter.

The most popular spot of all is the deep hole and drop-off near the (red) port marker off Palm Beach. You can pump yabbies in The Basin at low tide and use these to hook whiting in the system. Try drifting from a boat with live yabbies on the bottom around Careel Bay and Sand Point as well as this red navigation marker.

If you like catching crabs, and I know a few who do, there are oodles of them in Pittwater. Set your witches hat nets in about 4-6 metres of water off the beaches on the western national park shore, off Barrenjoey Beach in a 2-3m of water, and around Scotland Island.

PITTWATER PERFECT
Pittwater is a fantastic boating waterway and it's hard to believe you can derive such a complete escape, enjoy such pristine waters and derive such amazing opportunities in a boat so close to the CBD.

It’s about 40 minutes’ drive from the city on a good day, and 30km by sea. You need go no further than Pittwater for all your boating needs and, rightfully, many folk consider this recreational playground their spiritual boating home. Ommm...

Roads and Maritime has a