{Maryanne: We were both excited that we'd finally have chance to sail into the Australian state of Victoria. We had hoped to do so well before now, but COVID lock-down fears had kept us away. Now was our last chance as we headed East (only one more suitable port remaining along the coastline in our direction), but it seemed we'd at least get to visit the state of Victoria (just not any of the main cities)!
We put up the mainsail with two reefs tucked in just to be on the safe side. We were glad we did. As soon as we left the safety of Winter Cove, we were hit with a swirling, gusty mass of wind that was barreling down at us from the top of Deal Island. Once we got a bit farther away, the wind stabilized at about twenty-five knots, which was still a bit too much for comfort, but at least we were going nice and fast.
As predicted, the wind started to abate just before midnight. By the time Maryanne woke me for my watch, it was noticeably smoother. An hour later, I had the spinnaker up; pulling us along with a swell that was going just barely faster than we were. Even though we had excellent speed and not much farther to go, I kept us going as fast as I could as a hedge against forecast calms by sunrise. By four o'clock in the morning we had gone far enough for me to stow all sail and do the rest of the trip under bare poles at around two knots. At daybreak, we were within sight of and just upwind of the harbor entrance. Now we turned sideways and let the current take us the rest of the way.
Sailing by North-East Island as we deprart the Kent Group of islands in Tasmania,
And hanging out with many Shy Albatross as we wait for the tide conditions to enter the bar in Victoria
The bar at Lakes Entrance, where the Gippsland Lakes empty into the sea, is fairly notorious for being rough. There is a LOT of water flowing in and out through there and the water over the bar is shallow, so the best time to go in or out is on the beginning of the flood after high water in the daytime. Both high waters for us were in the dark, so we picked the second best option of crossing on the first of the flood after low tide, which we were hoping we could get away with since otherwise the seas were now calm.
It worked fine. We had a couple of nervous moments when the depth reading started to plummet as the current was picking us up to sweep us in. I steered the centerline of the lead-in range with the same concentration I would use landing a plane full of people in a winter storm. I wanted us to be dead center of the recently dredged channel. There were a few small standing waves and some swirling eddies to slew us around, all of which ended the moment we passed between the breakwaters. Inside, it was smooth and we shot past all of the people fishing on the banks.
It was now Easter Monday and it seemed that everybody in Victoria was out on the lakes in either their own or in rental boats. Despite billing itself as “the Education State”, I couldn't help but notice that almost no one seemed to be able to read the speed limit signs and buoys that were almost as numerous as the actual navigation marks. Perhaps I am the uneducated one for not understanding the clause at the beginning of the rulebook that starts with “In the event of an emergency...” We have that one in aviation as well. In Victoria (okay, not just Victoria), they have 'Fishing emergencies', 'Going home from fishing emergencies', 'My rental boat is late for return emergencies' and the very serious 'My jet ski only has enough storage for one six pack, so I have to rush back to town to get another one emergencies'.
As the afternoon waned and we put in more miles from the bustle of Lakes Entrance (the name of the town), things calmed down significantly. By the time we arrived at the free dock (as in both available and also no charge) at Resides Jetty on the east side of Raymond Island, we were the only boat in sight. We were within a nature reserve on the far, dark side of the island from the nearest town of Paynesville. We figured what we saved in boating, we could make up with walking.
Berthed on the quiet side of the island
The next morning, we walked the five kilometers to the ferry stop for Paynesville, taking a route that probably covered half that distance again in side trips. Near the ferry landing, we intercepted what is billed as the Koala Trail and decided to do a lap of that one as well.
A selection of the many birds we spotted
And Kangaroos too..
We were told by many that Raymond Island has lots of koalas, but so far had spotted none. For the first half of the trail, we were growing increasingly convinced we had been duped by the marketers. When I finally said to Maryanne that I could see one, she thought I was having a laugh at her expense and didn't even look up. When I insisted and then pointed to the little guy as proof, she let out a whispered squeal of delight. After that, finding them was almost as easy as finding a barking dog in suburbia. By the end of the day, we had seen more than we ever had in one day. That includes days with trips to the zoo. They usually only have a few. On this day, I counted seventeen different ones. Most were sleeping behind thick branches, but a few were kind enough to be awake and animated as they browsed for the best leaves for munching. Maryanne was especially happy as 'our' camera with the good zoom seems to always find itself in her possession.
Finally! We 'found' the Koala district
We took the cable ferry over to Paynesville for a wander around, some lunch and then to pick up a few items from the grocery store there. We were both pretty beat by then and not looking forward to the five-kilometer walk back to Begonia. We made it ten minutes before sunset. We had clocked 17 kilometers (about 11 miles) for the day. Maryanne was especially sore. That's because she had not been able to resist going for a morning explore while I was checking the weather, etc. On that walk, she put in another five kilometers (3.1 miles).
She was still a little sore when we cast off the next morning for Lakes Entrance. To help us both fortify ourselves with carbs for the long motor to town, we made a twenty-minute stop at the pretty little town of Metung for a trip to the bakery there before continuing on.
We departed Raymond Island and stopped off at Metung for snacks!
The public docks make it way too easy!
At Lakes Entrance, we pulled into the fishing co-op for fuel and then headed to the free dock in the middle of the town's waterfront. We are really loving the free jetties in Gippsland. They are everywhere and most have a section where you can tie up for forty-eight hours before having to move on. The one (Cunninghame Quay) where we were even had water taps, so we could give Begonia a good rinse and top off her tanks.
We had several chats with a few of the local cruisers who had come to help us tie up, as well as some of the passers-by strolling the quay. Our arrival interrupted a story one of the other boaters was telling to some tourists about his trip down from northern New South Wales. He was doing splendidly when they spotted our American flag and started in with the questions.
”Did you sail from America?”
Well, yes, but not directly.”
”How long did it take?”
”Again, we didn't come directly, so it's complicated.” I did some quick math, “It probably took us about a year and a half of the almost five since we left.”
”Where else did you go?”
”Oh, boy, that's a can of worms! Lot's of places, but recently we have been loafing in Australia.” I turned to our cruising companion, “I'm really interested in hearing about some of the places up north.” I really was. We were going that way next.
We tried, but he had lost them. They started asking questions about storms at sea and what we do at night in the middle of the ocean, etc. and suddenly Port Nelson didn't seem as exotic as it had been to them five minutes earlier. It is, though. We wanted to hear all about it, but the crowd had scattered.
We were starting to get a bit hungry by the time we were secure, so we walked around looking for a restaurant. We ended up being in that dead spot between lunch and dinner, so nothing that appealed was open. Maryanne then came up with a backup idea. I had a guess at what she was thinking so I braced myself: She wanted to go to the store to provision for the next month or so. Oh, Joy! Provisioning!
It really wasn't that bad. The store was only a couple of blocks away, almost the entire route back was grocery-cart friendly (there was even a stack of them parked at the quay), and of course, I had great company. We divided and conquered and had the whole errand done in a couple of hours.
By then, the restaurants were opening again. Instead of settling, we headed to what looked like the most interesting choice: Nick's Thai. We got there just before the rest of the town and were lucky to get a table. Suffice it to say the place's popularity was not misguided.
Visits to Nick's and the grocery store pretty much exhausted the available diversions of Lakes Entrance. Pretty much. To top out the list, Maryanne went off to do some laundry the following morning while I changed the oil in our port engine. Then she took me to a place she had seen on the way to the laundromat – one of two side-by-side mini golf courses.
I tell you, having both mini golf places in town right next to each other has sparked some good old-fashioned competition and innovation. I picked one based solely on its lack of stupid pirate flags and was rewarded with the most fun and creative mini golf courses I have ever seen. One of my favorite holes was on a rotating green that required making allowance for Coriolis effect. You had to aim to the right of the hole and watch the ball curve in. To top it all off, Maryanne made sure we just happened to go home via a route that went past all three of the town's ice cream parlors; she knows me pretty well, that one.
Exploring and playing around Lakes Entrance
Back at Cunninghame Quay, we made one last pass by all of our neighbors to say goodbye, then, in lieu of the 5k hike, we made the 1km trip through the water to the free Flagstaff Jetty, right by the entrance mole.
It was a lovely, quiet place to watch the sunset. Over sundowners, our one and only neighbor came by to say hi. He had brought a small fleet of boats down from somewhere near Melbourne. He looked to be about five years older than us, which is to say in his upper, upper, upper thirties. It eventually transpired that he was actually in his mid-seventies and apart from a relatively slow-growing inoperable brain tumor, seems to be in excellent health. He was wonderful and yet another one of those people who manages to completely inadvertently make us feel like we really should be doing something with ourselves. I mean, I've never owned a business. I've never done surgery on a dying cow, I've never built a race car. Maryanne has lots of degrees, but ask her the square root of 2,601 and she looks at me. I know she's just patronizing me. It's seven to the fourth, plus two hundred. I shoot back, “How fast do you have to lose altitude if you are going 420 knots and you want to come down at a two-degree angle?”
”Don't be silly, Honey. No one needs to know that.”
”People used to have to know that. I'm not stupid, you're stupid.”
This little digression surely reinforced our neighbor's belief that it's not good to be too 'out there' for too long. He was nice, though and sensibly steered the conversation back to convalescing race-car cows, which we could all agree was much more interesting. When the light faded, he returned to his boat, leaving us to ours. The night was calm and beautiful, with only the faintest murmur coming across the water from the 'bustle' of late-night Lakes Entrance. Our brief foray into Victoria has been very pleasant indeed.
Checking out the 'bar' - just line up the markers they say...
Our last night in Victoria - Sunset at Flagstaff
[Maryanne] Thinking of Visiting Gippsland Lakes? There is a lot of information about the free places you can dock, etc in the provided app/maps provided by Gippsland Ports. As for the entrance, sailboats generally don't want to fight too much of a current so timing of the entrance (and exit) is critical.
Crossing conditions - Lakes Entrance - Gippsland Lakes
- Passage (in or out) should be done during daylight, fair weather, smooth sea conditions at higher water with no influence from the ebb tide
- Water speed
- Slack water is (generally) 2.5 hours after high tide (but check Actual/Predicted waves/tide/current)
- Ideally you are looking <=1kn of flood tide (so you can still make headway)
- Never enter or exit on an ebb tide
- Wave height - looking for <2m and at sack water
- Wear a life jacket
- Call ahead to be sure no other vessels are also in (or headed for) the entrance (tourist boats regularly hang out there) - Call on VHF 16 before approaching bar.
- You can check
- Leads/Directions -
- The transit bearing of “Green Light” is 347⁰(T) to Flagstaff Hill Light (F.20m 5M). (Per NTM 195-2020) - as of April 2021
- Check Notice to Mariners
- Web Cam - view from Flagstaff
- Actual/Predicted waves/tide/current
- You can call Harbour Master on 0427 610 025
- Recent bathymetry chart
- Leads/Directions -
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