A Few Days at Gippland Lakes

After watching the wind and weather for Paynesville for the past couple of weeks we booked a waterfront cabin at Allawah (Caravan park with boat ramp) for 5 nights and set off for Paynesville. I was a bit tired to launch after driving down (290km) so we launched at the Allawah ramp the next day. We were finally rigged and ready to leave the Allawah jetty at around midday.

Kismet at the Yacht club dock.

Since it was so late already we elected to motor around to the Yacht club docks and grab some lunch at the bakery.

We went for a sail on Lake Victoria for a couple of hours to familiarise ourselves with the boat again, then back to Allawah around 4PM.

Next day we set out at 10:30AM for Steamer Landing over at Bunga Arm. That was the longest time we had ever spent following channel markers. It wasn't difficult but classified as "a first" for us. We kept sails up all the way to 100M short of the jetty then, while we were putting sails down, watched and learned while someone else approached the dock to windward. We copied their approach with Laurel at the helm and were very pleased with the ease that we docked. Ken (from the boat we following in) was there to take our lines but Laurel's approach was good enough for me to have easily stepped off the bow.

We walked over the sand hill to the 90 mile beach and went for about a 45 minute stroll along the beach.

We had to motor a little bit coming back.

At was a very pleasant sail back with Laurel demonstrating the Tammy navigation system. A joke from the Whitsundays trip where Tammy would lift her polaroid sunglasses to read the Nav unit. William started the joke on our Wyndham Harbour outing (see earlier posts).

The next day we set out for Metung, arriving there on a near downwind sail at about 11:45AM. We really liked Metung and might look at basing ourselves there on a future trip. We had lunch at the Meeting Bakery and Cafe.

Tied up at Metung outside the pub. Me looking stylish as usual.

On the way back it was directly into the wind so we sailed (tacking) about a third of the way but decided it was just too cold and getting late so motored the last 5NM.

Just a note here. Laurel had four layers of clothing on but found it really difficult to stay warm. This included thermal underwear, Merino tops etc. We need to address this problem. For some reason I don't get cold - maybe fiddling with sails etc. keeps me warm.

The next day BOM was showing quite light winds from 11AM onwards but we had decided that we really wanted to visit Loch Sport - so off we went. The sailing was great but gradually the wind dropped and at about 5NM into the 12NM trip the wind was less than 6 knots. Our required track was into the wind so after tacking several times it was clear we wouldn't be there until dark (unless we motored). Regretfully we turned back and sailed as much as possible (downwind on the way back) then motored back for the last 20 minutes.

Note the totally unflapping Jib centred on the boat - no apparent wind.

We learnt an important lesson here. If we are going to base ourselves somewhere in accommodation (because it's a bit too cold on the boat at night), we need to take bedding and food out with us so there is no time issue - we would have continued on had we had our bedding. (Our boat bedding was back at Allawah on top of the too-hard bed in the cabin.)

We left retrieving until the next day and had a quiet day preparing for travel back to Melbourne.

A very successful and peaceful holiday with enough learning thrown in to keep us on our toes. Laurel helmed Kismet four times into dock with perfect results. The fifth time (retrieving) was no wind and it surprised her how little power she needed and had to do a hasty reverse.