Leaving Port Philip Bay to head North – Part 1

 

The time had come to carrying on with our cruising life.  We had spent a couple of weeks in Williamstown and surrounds and then we headed back for a few days to Portarlington to tie up some loose ends and wait for weather to leave the Bay.

We decided that Tuesday the 13^th was a good day to go with the slack tide at the entrance being at 0830 and the weather looking light but from a direction that would help us head east. Originally we were going to leave Portarlington on the Monday afternoon and spend the night in Queenscliff, but with jobs still to be done and only a light breeze, we decided to head to bed early and set the alarm for 0345 for an early start.  The forecast was for light northerlies, but unfortunately these were so light we still ended up motoring to get to “The Rip” at the right time.  We wanted to ensure leaving the bay was in the best possible conditions, remembering our trip in, and I think we got this pretty right.  There was a small patch of turbulence where we just let the boat go where the waters wanted to take her, but there was no swell and over all very calm.  Friends Jan and John were over at Pt Lonsdale seeing us off and we were able to see them through the binoculars.



 

Pt Lonsdale Pier and Lighthouse

Seals at play at the entrance to Port Phillip Bay

 

Once out of the entry we set course towards the end of Wilsons Promontory and sat back to enjoy sailing in open water again.  The children organised themselves for watches from 1000 and we had light head winds for the start of the journey.  We kept the cockpit roof cover up and the windward clear side which made it very cosy in the cockpit and we were able to sit out there for most of the day and into the night.

Unfortunately the wind dropped away in the afternoon with the seas quite lumpy and we were struggling to make our way comfortably.  Over night the winds continued to ease and we tried several combinations of sailing and motoring but by first light on Wednesday we were only at Wilsons Promontory and Dan had had enough of the lack of head way so we made the decision not to get frustrated and push on but change course and head into Refuge Cove.

We dropped anchor at Refuge Cove 0930 on the Wednesday morning with two other yachts already anchored there.  Dan needed some more sleep so the kids and I did a bit of a tidy up, not much was needed though so we did quiet activities until lunch then went ashore to explore the bay. 

We discovered wallaby tracks on the sand, snakes and lizards and lots of birds all within the first couple of hours.  We met Craig, from one of the yachts anchored in the cove and learnt that you could get mobile phone coverage by walking approximately an hour in either direction to the top of the surrounding ridges. We studied the track information from the signage around and made a plan of where to explore in the coming days.  The boys went for rock hopping walks and Paige and I enjoyed reading through the boat names written in a designated area in the camp.

 

For the next couple of days we walked the tracks in either direction from the Cove.  We managed to get enough data coverage to keep an eye on the weather and make plans for the next step.  We saw a couple of other vessels come and go but ultimately enjoyed having the place to ourselves.

 

I celebrated my birthday while there, and a cake baked by Oliver. Unfortunately it wasn’t until it was finished that I realised we didn’t even get a photo of it!

After a few fantastic days of getting back into boat cruising life, school, chores, exercise, job lists, blog entries and meeting new people the weather was once again good for heading out. 

This time we chose a system with more wind to help us power through any swell and enjoyed a bumpy but quick ride from Refuge Cove to Eden, in southern NSW, in 28hrs from anchor up to anchor down.  The wind was predominately from the SW 25-30 knots with some higher gusts on the Monday morning.  We needed to gybe as we were coming into Twofold Bay so zipped off the forward edge of the cockpit cover roof and rolled it back to the targa bar to do so. This was easy to do as it is what we had worked out in the design process that we would need.

Since arriving in Eden we have only been able to explore our closest beaches and short walks due to a nasty weather system further north that has given us lots of rain, but also a swell that makes it unable for us to anchor over by the township of Eden.  We look forward to the coming days being more settled so that we can explore the town, catch up on laundry and get some fresh supplies as well as check out the must see sights.