Start Loc: Freshwater Bay (22o 38.88’ S, 150o 47.30’ E)
Narrative: After spending the morning exploring, relaxing and fishing (all I caught was a barramundi cod which are "no take" so it was released) at Freshwater Bay, we left at 1:45pm for the 10nm trip up to Port Clinton. I had originally figured that 10nm would take us 2hrs, but that was several days ago before the forecast for the wind change today. I was happy to leave early afternoon and allow a bit more time for the short trip, as the forecast was again accurate and we had 15kt northerlies. This meant we couldn’t sail directly to where we wanted to go and had to do several legs to make our way north, and cover a much greater distance. We were also slowed somewhat by spending 30 minutes whale watching after spotting two humpbacks and a pod of dolphins about 100m off our port – our first whale sighting for the trip.
Under full head sail but with two reefs in the main, we sailed close hauled and tacked our way north. We made 5-6kts boat speed and had a knot or so if tide with us as well. We were originally planning to anchor under Mt Flinders, but with a northerly blowing we decided to go to the northern part of Port Clinton. We dropped sail just past Perforated Point and motored into a small bay that we have all to ourselves, dropping anchor at 5:10pm. It took us almost 3.5 hours and 20nm sailing, to cover the 10nm – but the whales made it all worthwhile.
We will see how we go tomorrow and what the weather outlook is. We will probably spend tomorrow having a look around and anchor down to South Arm for the night, and then duck up around the corner to Pearl Bay on Wednesday.
End Loc: Port Clinton (22o 28.49’ S, 150o 44.67’ E)
Distance run: 20nm (cumulative: 508nm)
Engine hours: 1 hr, 20 min (cumulative: 53 hr, 34 min)