This exposition of the winds and currents beyond the tropic, points out the advantage of keeping at not more than three or four leagues from the land, when sailing northward and intending to touch on the coast; but in the winter season this must be done with caution, because gales then often blow from the eastward.  A marine barometer will here be of signal advantage.  If the weather be tolerably fine, and the mercury do not stand above 30 inches, there is no probability of danger; but when the mercury much exceeds this elevation and the weather is becoming thick, a gale is to be apprehended; and a ship should immediately steer off, until it is seen how far the wind veers to blow dead on the coast.  With respect to a rise and fall in the marine barometer, it may be taken as a general rule upon this East Coast, that a rise denotes either a fresher wind in the quarter where it then may be, or that it will veer more to seaward; and a fall denotes less wind or a breeze more off the land; moreover, the mercury rises highest with a south-east, and falls lowest with a north-west wind; and north-east and south-west are points of mean elevation.

The shelter for ships which may be caught so suddenly as not to be able to clear the land, are these:  Two-fold Bay, for vessels of four-hundred tons and under; Jervis and Botany Bays, Port Jackson, and Broken Bay; Port Hunter for brigs and small craft; Port Stephens; Shoal Bay for vessels not exceeding fifty tons; Glass-house Bay; and lastly Hervey’s Bay, by going round Break-sea Spit.  All these places will be found in Plates VI, VIII, IX, and X. of the Atlas, with particular plans of the entrances to some of them.  Directions for Port Jackson, and Botany and Broken Bays are given by captain Hunter in his voyage; and they may be found in Horsburgh’s East-India Directory, Part II, p. 465-468.  Two-fold Bay is described in the Introduction to this voyage, and mention made of Jervis, Shoal, Glass-house, and Hervey’s Bays.

A ship sailing along this coast to the southward, should not, to have the advantage of the current, come nearer than five or six leagues unless to the projecting points; and if the distance were doubled, so as to have the land just in sight, an advantage would be found in it; and such an offing obviates the danger of the gales.

Whilst western winds prevail on the southern parts of the East Coast, the south-east trade blows with most regularity within, and close to the tropic, producing sea and land breezes near the shore, and serenity in the atmosphere; and the further we go northward the longer does this fine weather last, till, near Cape York, it commences with the month of April, probably even March, and extends to the middle or end of November.  How the winds blow from November to April, I have no experience; but there is great reason to believe that they come from the northward, and make the wet season here, whilst dry weather prevails beyond the tropic.  In Broad Sound and Shoal-water Bay we had more northern winds than any other, in the month of September; but these appeared to be altogether local, caused by the peculiar formation of the coast; for they did not bring any rain, though it was evidently near the end of the dry season, and we found the south-east trade wind before losing sight of the land.