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