As with all waterways, the boats are getting bigger, marina berths are in short supply, and that's driving up annual price rises by about 10 per cent. A 12-metre berth at Hope Island costs $6000 a year or upwards of $250,000 on a long-term lease, but a 12-year sub-lease of a 35m superyacht pen at Southport Yacht Club will set you back more than $700,000.

But the visiting boatie will find plenty of casual berths on the Gold Coast and oodles of places to drop anchor. The inshore channels weave for 260 kilometres, and there are more canals here than Venice. However, not all that glitters is gold. Those with deep draft boats and keel yachts will doubtless hit the bricks north of Wavebreak Island. As locals say, there only two kinds of skippers on the Gold Coast: those who have run aground and those who won't admit to running aground.

Here's a tip to avoid disaster: abide by the navigation marks, go slow in the narrows, watch your depth sounder and only travel north of Wavebreak Island during the last few hours of the flood tide. At least that's how I have avoiding running aground.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Back to the voyage from Sydney. After miles of wide blue yonder and unspoilt coastline, your world morphs into a metropolis once you pass Point Danger. Just like Miami, whose namesake suburb exists to the west, there is kitsch high-rise that assaults the eye. Look closer and cappuccinos have been replaced by stubby coolers, Toohey's beer by XXXX, long sleeves by t-shirts, trousers by shorts and shoes by thongs.

At night, you need to avoid the trawlers that light up the waters off the Gold Coast. But do follow the rhumb line from Tweed Heads. Travel too far inshore and you might foul the shark nets and baited lines set year-round off the local beaches. Just as importantly, avoid the water off the northern side of the Seaway where sandbanks stretch for almost a mile offshore and waves break out of nowhere. Once inside the Seaway, you need to switch to surfer alert. Scores of suited-up young locals paddle across the Seaway entrance to catch waves at South Stradbroke Island and they're not easy to see.

Immediately ahead is Wavebreak Island, a giant manmade structure that attracts Gold Coast boaties like moths to the flame. Dive operators and anglers in tinnies are to be avoided, but the deep gutters to the northeast are a terrific anchorage. Tuck in close enough to shore to block out most of the aforesaid highrise. Launch the tender and raid Charis Seafoods at Labrador across the not-so-accommodating Broadwater. But skidoo from the beaches before sunset when the midges take a liking to sweet white flesh.

Officially, living aboard a boat in all Gold Coast waters is not permitted for more than seven consecutive days in any 60-day period at or within three nautical miles of one place. But many local and visiting boaties appear to be hunkered down in Bum's Bay, the cove behind The Spit. Thanks to a nearby boat ramp, jet-ski tours and amphibious tourist craft, it's hardly peaceful. Some cruising sailors weathered in here have deemed it their worst nightmare.