Cronulla to Hobson's Bay - Meander delivery

Well, we're off to a good start. Departed Cronulla 1330 on Saturday after reorganising amazing piles of "treasures" from one part of Meander to another and generally clearing the decks for action.

Tom (from HBYC) and Michael (family friend) both arrived before I had finished my tidying and the promised NE sea breeze came in exactly as forecast, so we left ASAP. 

Mentally, we have 3 legs planned : Cronulla to Eden (200Nm), Eden to Wilsons Prom (220Nm), and Wilsons Prom to Port Phillip heads (145Nm). 200Nm takes about 36 hours to sail - give or take

As of Sunday 1600 the wind has been kind, although it went very quiet overnight last night and we motored for 4 hours. We're currently abeam of Bermagui and are doing a nice 7.5 to 8 knots in 15 knots of wind from the NE. The wind is forecast to build to 20-25 knots tonight, so we're planning to skip Eden and head on around the corner, rounding Gabo Island around 0100 on Monday

From there it looks like we may have a bit of motoring to do across "the paddock" through the gas rigs to Refuge Cove, possibly reaching Wilsons Prom on Tuesday afternoon - too early to tell...

Anyway, so far progress has been good and today we've seen 2 sharks and an orca!

Fingers crossed for continued favourable weather. 

Looking South down the coast from Cronulla

Mike, after finding out that this is a cruising yacht and that he didn't need to helm unless he felt like it...

Heading south in beautiful conditions

Tom, regretting not being at work.

Update 2030

Roughly abeam of Eden.

Check out the speed  YeHa ..! 

As well as an AIS transceiver on board I am also transmitting AIS data to Marine Traffic from my mobile phone. With our external antenna our mobile data has much better coverage than the shore AIS base stations

Update 0245

We are back in Victoria! We rounded Gabo Island as predicted at 0100 Monday. Kinda scary in the pitch black, no moon and few stars, just a few flashes of lightning and several ships. Then, also add predicted, the wind died as soon as we turned the corner. So now our glamour run has come to an end and we're motoring. Perhaps for the next 24 hours...? As a consolation, we have amazing photo luminescent dolphins leaping around us in the dark like crazy torpedoes! I'd take a photo, but it'd never work out. 

Update 1100

Motoring across "The paddock". Yes, we're still motoring. We've been motoring for 9 hours now and have covered about 55Nm since Gabo Island, only another 128Nm to go to get to Wilsons Prom - which we could do in 21 hrs if we keep motoring at 6 knots. Problem is that this evening a SW wind of 15-20 knots is due to arrive, so we won't make it and will have to beat into the SW. Oh well, the lads had been complaining they hadn't had a chance to sail to windward in Meander yet. Looks like they'll get their wish. Oh well, in about 4 hours we have the first of the gas platforms to look forward to. There's stuff all else to do out here at the moment...! 

"The Paddock" at its most serene.

Update 2100 Tuesday 

Forgive me reader, it has been more than 24 hours since my last update... 

That's what you get when you go to windward - no updates! The promised W - SW wind came , just as forecast, but right on the nose until we got around Wilsons Prom. What we didn't count on was that our approach to the Prom coincided with ebb tide in Bass Strait and we got pushed way of course and basically prevented from rounding Wilsons Prom until the tide turned at 9am this morning. Until then we were travelling at only about 4.5 knots to windward in choppy seas. Yuk. 

So, we finally got around Wilsons Prom at 1500 today (about 5 hours later than planned) and then had a nice run down wind through the islands on the west side of Wilsons Prom before changing course and heading for Cape Liptrap. 

We roared across to Cape Liptrap in a building SE wind and, just before dinner decided to take the main sail down completely for the overnight run down the coast as we weren't going to be in time for the 6am slack tide at Port Phillip heads and needed to kill time. Now the sun has set the wind has, of course, dropped and we may have to motor through the night to ensure we cover the remaining 64 Nm by 1200 tomorrow, for the next slack tide at PPH. Ah well, such is life. 

Not sure yet what we'll do on arrival in Port Phillip as there is a big SW due tomorrow evening and I want to be tied up somewhere snug before that arrives... 

Tom either snoozing or checking out dolphins as we pass "Flounder A" platform

Rounding Wilson's Prom

Running down through the islands on the eastern side of the Prom

Sunset near Cape Liptrap

Sunset in Bass Strait

Update 0630 Wednesday 

Dawn off Cape Schank. Peaceful trip down the coast last night with just enough wind to keep us on target for our noon appointment with Port Phillip Heads. See you soon Melbourne! 

Dawn off Cape Schank

Update 1700 Wednesday

We're home! 

Despite our best efforts to go slow we arrived of Port Phillip Heads about 1000, just after the peak of the ebb tide. We hung around a bit about 3 miles out looking at the conditions and nothing looked too  scary so at 1030 we started our approach. As we would be pushing the ebb tide we used the "Four Fingers West" yacht channel, out of the main shipping  channel and the worst of the (4.5 knot) current. Progress was slow and we got down to a minimum speed of 1.9 knots over the ground as we raced the point Lonsdale lighthouse, but Mike did a great job of keeping us in line through the swirling turbulent eddies and we prevailed eventually. Arriving off Queenscliff at 1230 there was no sign of the promised northerly wind so we took advantage of the light easterly and pushed on into port Phillip. About 1/3 of the way across the 30Nm to Hobson's Bay the wind abruptly swung to the NW and increased to almost 20 knots, but this gave us a nice angle to head directly home without tacking - nice! On arrival at HBYC the moderate NW wind made it a bit awkward to back into the (temporary) marina pen but we made it on the second attempt without damaging anything or anybody. We were all tired up by 1700, a mere 99.5 hours after leaving Cronulla. The trip was non-stop at an average (rhumb line) speed of 5.5 knots. Not too bad. A most employable 4 days actually. 

Many thanks to Mike and Tom for taking the time out of their busy lives to help me bring Meander home so efficiently. I hope I have the chance to sail with each of you again in the future. 

Entering Port Phillip Heads. Notice the glassy-looking swirls of water

Meander safely back in her temporary pen at HBYC.

Update 1900 Wednesday

The timing of our arrival was very good actually as within an hour a major westerly squall hit Port Phillip with wind of 43 knots for a few minutes. We are up in the yacht club having a beer by then, but the squall caused problems for others... http://www.9news.com.au/wild-weather/2016/01/13/18/18/damaging-winds-to-lash-melbourne-as-dust-cloud-moves-through-rural-victoria

It also seems that I left the AIS reporting app running on my phone. Sorry about that, embarrassing... 

The last leg home was, umm, by car...