Meanderings: Lakes Entrance to Eden

So, how does one decide to leave paradise and head for Eden?

We had planned on spending a "week or so" around the Lakes finding our feet, but since we arrived back at Meander last week there had been a continual run of easterly weather - not so good for sailing east. Then on Tuesday afternoon a weak southerly front was supposed to pass through Bass Strait. That'll do, we thought, so we grabbed it. Ah the luxury of sailing with no fixed schedule!

We quickly booked ourselves a farewell dinner with Ivan and Louise in Nungurner. It was great to see them again after our respective overseas travels and lovely to have one last dinner indoors beside a fire - who knows when we'll do that again!

Tuesday dawned fine with very light southerly winds, exactly according to forecast, so the game was on. Our only problem was Arthur who woke up unwell and spent all the morning exhibiting all the symptoms of severe sea sickness, despite being tied up to Nungurner Jetty in conditions similar to those in the photo below! Fortunately by lunchtime he was showing signs of improvement and he is usually totally immune to sea sickness anyway, so we thought it was fine to continue.

Dawn on Tuesday at Nungurner Jetty.

We left Lakes Entrance after lunch at 1300, just around slack water and a good time to leave considering our expected 23 hour trip to cover the 140 Nm to Eden, NSW. Crossing the Lakes Entrance Bar was uneventful with the swell of less than 1m. I don't think we even saw a breaking wave, except on the beaches beside us.

Briefing the crew on the way from Nungurner to Lakes Entrance. They look suitably thrilled.

Outside in Bass Strait we found a lumpy millpond. Its amazing how even a 1m swell can make a boat roll when it is beam on, and beam on it needed to be if we were going to head toward Eden. Raising the mainsail and sheeting it tight helped a lot, and then finally we got 3 knots of breeze - just enough to fill the mainsail while motor sailing, raise our speed by 1/2 a knot, and make everyone (well actually just me) feel happier. Then we settled down to sleeping, playing battleships, and reading. Oh, and keeping a lookout of course.

I'm a 'round the buoys racer kind of guy. I find it unsettling to know that we have 16 hours ahead of us before any change of course is required. Seems like cruising has a lot of that. Crossing Bass Strait from Melbourne to Low Head we had 28 hours (and we had planned on 36) with narry a change of course.

So, for me, it was refreshing that the light wind we had initially was quite "variable", to the extent that we tacked, or possibly gybed, several times during our 8 hours of motor sailing and I could keep myself amused by unfurling the genoa, refurling the genoa, and tacking the genoa on the little shifts in apparent wind. Really I should have just forgot all about the genoa it hardly made any difference.

Various forms of boredom. 8 hours of motor "sailing"...

The sun got low and then set. Some of the crew went to bed. Then some interesting-looking clouds came up from behind us and finally, at 2030 when we had traveled about 40 Nm and were half way between Cape Conran and Pt Hicks, the promised wind came in from the SW. Over the next couple of hours it gradually built until we had 15-20 knots from dead astern with a reasonable sea and quartering swell running. This made it hard to keep the genoa filling as we were rolling too much to keep it filled goose-winged and Lauren wasn't keen for me to go forward in the dark and pole it out. So, after trying a bit of gybing downwind we gave up on the Genoa and rolled it away, yet again. We were doing 7 knots with just the main, and were in no particular hurry, so why stress about these things?

We altered course slightly to pass inside New Zealand Star Bank, about 2 1/2 miles off the coast. I still struggle a bit with deciding how close to run to the coast. From Lakes Entrance to Eden the shortest distance is over land, so the further you stay off the coast the further you go, but how far is prudent? It was a clear night with a good moon. There are several lighthouses along the way but, without the chartplotter, there would still be potential to end up in the wrong place. Most of the way we travelled about 4-5 miles off the coast, or about 2-3 miles off the headlands. Once dawn broke, and we saw on the AIS that we had 3 oncoming ships to avoid, we cut in rather closer, passing only 1.3 Nm off Gabo Island. The ships were about twice this distance out.

Dawn, nice full moon setting as we round Gabo Island.

Dawn at sea.

Rounding Gabo Island - the movie.

Once around Gabo Island everything changed. The sun came up, the crew awoke, the Genoa came back out and we hit 8.5 knots on the GPS! We were surrounded by birds - albatrosses and gannets mostly, and dozens of dolphins. Then we damn nearly hit a whale!

We were cruising along, slowing waking up and taking in all the marine life around us when there was a big blow of spray about 100m away beside us. "Look, a whale!" I cried to rouse the crew, and then another 2 whales (humpbacks) humped up and blew beside it. Turning around to admire the darting dolphins again I realised that there was another whale - just a baby, maybe 8-10m long and weighing maybe 20 tonnes, feeding on the surface right (less than a boat length) in front of us. We were still doing more than 8 knots with Otto, the autopilot, holding the wheel. Hmmm... Fortunately the whale "saw" us charging at it and with one powerful flick of it's tail it was gone. Many thanks!

Close encounters of a whale kind, the movie

Sleepy EV after a hard night on watch.

Dad, looking out for more whales.

After that, the sailing was just spectacular. Wind 15 knots on the beam (off the land), almost no wind sea and a low following swell. Life just got smoother and smoother and the day warmer and brighter as we cruised up the NSW coast past Green Cape.

Green Cape lighthouse

With only another 15 miles to go we were well ahead of schedule, the day was beautiful, and there was a little anchorage I wanted to check out just north of Green Cape called Bittangabee Creek. It is just a gap in the coastal cliffs and seems like it would be totally exposed to any swell, but somehow it isn't. Definitely well worth a stop if you're going past and there isn't a large easterly swell. We stopped for a couple of hours for lunch and a bit of a snooze. Stunning! NSW is looking good. Crystal clear water and the place to ourselves - except for a couple of walkers who turned up on shore.

Anchored for lunch in Bittangabee Bay, 11 Nm south of Eden.

After our stop for lunch the trip into Eden was lovely. The wind had swung to a light SE, so we drifted up the coast close to shore checking out the impressive rocks and whales. In total we must have seen at least a dozen whales between Gabo Is and Eden. We even saw a couple completely airborne (in the distance, thankfully). What a great time of year to be travelling up the coast!

We were concerned about Eden. We'd heard nothing good about tying up next to the wharf. The wharf is rugged and not built for small boats. There is a 1.5m tidal range and a fair amount of "surge", but we wanted to go ashore to visit the Killer Whale Museum which we had heard a lot of good things about. In the end it wasn't so bad. We circled around a fair bit, tried tying up to one friendly commercial boat, but that just wouldn't work because he had bits that stuck out at just the wrong height. Finally we found a semi-abandoned looking fishing boat which we could snuggle up alongside with our fenders and barge board. That part was fine, but the climb from the fishing boat to the wharf at low tide (with no ladder) was quite an exercise and took full family cooperation to achieve. We limited our trips ashore.

We stayed one night against the wharf, and have since relocated across Twofold Bay to East Boyd Bay which has an excellent beach and swimming, but that is a story for another day...