Our last day at sea began with a beautiful sunrise over calm waters. Many dolphins accompanied us, swimming beside the boat and leaping out of the water.
We were ahead of schedule to reach the notorious entrance to Port Phillip known as The Rip. It is safest to cross at slack water between tides, otherwise breaking waves and swirling currents make it treacherous. If you miss slack water then you have to wait 6 hours for the next opportunity to cross. Early in the day we looked like arriving comfortably 2 hours early. But Bass Strait had a few tricks up her sleeve. Mid-morning we were unexpectedly hit with 30 knot winds and rough seas which slowed our progress dramatically. Then, just as the winds moderated, we ran through some seaweed which wrapped around our propeller and triggered the engine’s high temperature alarm. It took some time to try removing it and afterwards we could not maintain proper speed. We set the mainsail to make-up the lost speed. By the time we dealt with those challenges we were struggling to be on schedule but in the end we successfully crossed The Rip, passing the ligbthouse at Point Lonsdale at 13:40. We were relieved and excited to be back inside Port Phillip. Only 6 hours to Sandringham Yacht Club.
We have been away for 6 months on our wonderful voyage to the Whitsundays and Lizard Island in far north Queensland. Our return trip from Airlie Beach took 10 days of almost non-stop travel to cover 1,570 nautical miles (2,900 km). By the time we tied up in our berth at Sandringham, we had travelled in total more than 5,600 nautical miles (nearly 10,500 km).
Feeling very weary now. I will post more later. Just letting you know we arrived home safely.
Debonnaire 