Early start to head out on slack water at 5:00am after plenty of studying the Gippsland Ports graphs & including another walk to The Entrance 12 hours before to observe how it behaves, we re-checked the weather and all was good to go. We untied the lines and headed out, as we were motoring towards the channel we were over taken by a fishing trawler, a good sign I thought, then we lost engine power, with very little momentum we turned back with the motor stalling as we got into a pen. The prop looked fine, so we checked the fuel lines, and what was found? A closed valve! Looks like the mechanic on board forgot to turn it back on once he cleaned the primary fuel filter.

Take two, we crossed the bar at 5:30am, medium amount of turbulence nothing too concerning with tide running at 1 knot.

10-15 kn winds from behind we wanted to use the wind as much as possible as it was predicted to lighten and turn Easterly. The swell was very messy, with only the main sail up we were doing well above 6 knots.  The wind died but didn’t change direction which was a bonus, so we turned the motor on and motor sailed towards Gabo Island rounding the corner and arriving at Eden well before our predicted time. We set anchor in East Boyd Bay at 3:30am. A celebratory scotch and then a well earned sleep. The best part of anchoring in the dark is waking up the next day to see the view. We were greeted with a Navy ship docked for ammunition loading and beautiful beaches.

 

We were visited by four Navy personnel to let us know they would be loading until late afternoon, if we wished to leave we needed to give the ship a wide berth. Unfortunately you can only enter the anchorage when there is no ship docked and they can actually ask you to leave.

We spent the afternoon on the beach drinking a nice bottle of Pol Roger and celebrating our trip across Bass Strait while watching the sunset.

 

136.7 nm, 22 hrs, avg speed 6.2 kn, 10-15 kn NW 5-10 kn early morning, total motor sailing 15 hrs

Lazy Sunday catching up on some sleep. We met Ray & Julie from Della Rue a Catalina 385 who kindly invited us for sundowners. We all then decided to have dinner at the pub.

Since we had to wait out the weather I decided to catch the bus & train back to Melbourne for some much needed family time. While I was away Dean did a few boat projects & worked on getting our web page & blog up and running.

The bird life is thriving on the lakes with many swans & pelicans, there is also a number of seals who hangout in the channel. We went for a walk to “The Entrance” which starts at the footbridge to the Life Saving Club. Learnt a little history about the construction of the entrance which over years has claimed many lives from being built as well as people trying to enter or exit the lakes.



The Entrance Bar

Seal frolicking in The Entrance

 

A couple of loads of laundry done and provisioning we were ready to leave & head to Eden NSW. This is most likely the longest trip for us. We decided to leave early Monday morning.

Woke up to a beautiful sunrise & not a breath of wind in Refuge Cove. This place is beautiful and I hope one day to come back here and spend a week. We planned to leave @ 11:00am with a few jobs to be done before we left. Changed head sail to No 1 & shook reef out of main. Dean fixed a small leak in “Time Spies” our tender & modified a fitting on our furler line. We would have loved to have stayed longer but with predicted light winds it was ideal for getting into Lakes Entrance and across the notorious “Bar”.

 

We lifted anchor and headed out, with 10 kn Northerly we headed out around Seal Rock for a little sightseeing. Unfortunately we had to do a few tacks as the wind was on the nose. A great sail overnight and coming into Lakes Entrance the wind died to under 5 knots. We were well ahead of schedule and arrived at 6am, we chose to wait for daylight before heading across the “Bar”. Watched the sun rise & the moon set and took a great pic of Beaujolais 1.

Headed in across the bar which was easy to navigate now they dredge it more frequently. Had a welcoming committee of seals & dolphins. Turned in towards town with the rising sun causing a little issue we moored in Cunninghame Marina @ $35.00 p/night.

We met another couple Ray & Julie on Della Rue a Catalina 385 whom are also heading up the East Coast. We enjoyed sundowners on Della Rue before heading over the road for a nice meal.

109.90 nm, 19 hr, avg speed 5.07 kn, 10-15 kn NE 5-10 kn early morning, total motor sailing 19 hrs

Finally the weather window opened for us to move on to Refuge Cove, we dropped the swing mooring at 6:45am exiting Cleeland Bight at 7am.

 

 

10-15kn SW with 3-4m swell, 1 reef & No 3 head sail. Time Flies settled into a nice rhythm. We rounded Cape Liptrap at 12:30pm half an hour ahead of our predicted time.

Enjoying the beautiful coast we rounded the bottom of Wilsons Prom @ 4:45pm and headed up towards the light house, pulled the main sail down and motored with the headsail. Dean decided the trip was a little boring and self inflated his life jacket.

Arrived at Refuge Cove at 7:15pm. The anchor didn’t seem to want to hold, it took 3 goes. Beaujolais 1 arrived 2hrs later after being caught back @ Cleeland Bight with motor starter issues.

Again we had quite a few dolphins join us along the way, I can’ get enough & particularly love it when you see them in the distance swimming towards you.

74.86 nm, 12 hrs 44 min, avg speed 5.87 kn, 10-15 kn SW, total motor sailing 5 ¼ hrs

The honest person in me went to the office of the Phillip Island Big 4 caravan park to ask if I could use their shower & also laundry. They were ok for me to have a shower at a cost $5 but I couldn’t use the laundry??? So I grabbed my bag and walked over the bridge to the San Remo Laundrette met Dean & did the washing. We also provisioned for our next leg to Refuge Cove.

We returned to the boat and I was motivated to do some exercise.

I hailed Dean to pick me up and since I didn't have a shower, I boiled the kettle to enjoy a sponge bath. I was in the midst of washing my hair when Dean caught a squid, me sitting in the cockpit naked with shampoo in my hair, he’s wanting my bucket! I refused of course. I scurried around & emptied another bucket for him, hopefully there were no binoculars on me as I’m sure it wasn’t a pretty sight. Anyway I felt refreshed & clean.

I was a little concerned about our water as we only have a 70lt tank so we decided to get a 20lt water can as back up. We enjoyed a taxi ride into Mitre 10. The water can ended up costing $65.00 which included the taxi ride, we have now learnt to catch public transport instead, $4.80 total for the two of us to return to Cape Woolamai by bus. Lesson learned.

Yay! Finally got the weather window to leave Queenscliff. Headed out to Port Phillip Heads and transited the famous RIP @ 3:30am. It was a little daunting as you couldn’t see the sea state, but choosing the right weather (5 knot northerly) and the end of an ebb tide worked perfectly. We had one inbound ship to negotiate with help from Lonsdale VTS.

We motor sailed in 5 knots & calm seas of 2-3 meter swell, dolphins playing at the bow until we were off Cape Schanck. There the wind picked up to 10-15 knots and was on the beam, great sailing.

We arrived at Cleeland Bight a safe anchorage on North & West winds where we were welcomed by Stephen & Jude from Beaujolais 1 in their dingy coming back from San Remo. We set anchor and was quite happy with our new Manson plough holding us in 25+ knot winds overnight. It was quite rolley from the swell which made it a little uncomfortable, we decided to jump on a public swing mooring once we had confirmed the depth (2m) at the Parks office in San Remo.

 

Beaujolais 1 anchored at Cleeland Bight



 

52.3 nm, 9 hrs 22 min, avg speed 5.8 kn, 15-20 kn NW, total motor sailing 3 hrs 30 min

Lets wait a little longer

We woke early to get ready to leave, another look at the weather & sea state wasn’t looking good. Dean & I both decided we would not leave as the 3-4 meter seas weren’t in our plans. I had not been in seas that big and weren’t sure if I would get sea sick, so we decided to wait it out & leave on Monday.

While waiting it out we enjoyed a little sight seeing. We also managed to watch "Trybooking.com" a Moody 54'  from RBYC come back thru the heads from the ORCV Apollo Bay Race. Trybooking are planning on doing the ORCV 2 handed Melbourne to Osaka Race in 2018. We wish Grant & Sue all the best in their planning and training.

Trybooking.com
 

 

Leaving our home @ RBYC

Today we left our home @ RBYC and headed down to Queenscliff. The past 2 weeks have been blowing 20+ knot North Westerlies. A good sail down with wind behind, our instruments saying we did 10 knots at one stage, I think we had help from the tide. Caught up with Stephen & Jude from Beaujolais 1 who had been waiting patiently for over a week to exit the heads & turn left. We decided that tomorrow was looking good and we would follow out the ORCV Apollo Bay Race fleet.

28 nm, 4 hrs 15 min, avg speed 6.8 kn, 15-20 kn NW & WNW