Monday

A beautiful morning at the Gippsland Lakes Yacht Club

The Albury crew met for fish and chips on the Esplanade last night, before turning in early for a well earned rest. Most are traveling home today, but we are staying on until tomorrow. 

We decided to check out Newlands Arm today. There is a lovely little bay with tie up posts at Dawson's Bay, in a very sheltered location. We will have to add it to our list of places to go in strong southerlies. At the moment we are well up the Arm, tied to a buoy having a rest. It is getting a bit warm today, but would probably be warm wherever we were. We will be heading back to Paynesville this evening to get the boat out and ready to travel tomorrow. Next year, we need to block a few weeks out in the diary to make sure we can stay here for longer - one week really isn't long enough! 

See you next time! 

Time for the housework - Barnacle Bill at work

Sunday

I woke 6am to the sound of voices across the water. There was a checkpoint on the jetty we are moored to, and they were calling ID numbers in the dark. So Millie & I got up and did our morning walk while we watched. 

There were two photography clubs lined up on our jetty with their tripods, very big lenses, and discussion about Fvalues. I think the next competition will feature  lots of boats in the mist, along with occasional black swans and pelicans. 

Photographers everywhere. 

It felt funny to be lining up with my iPhone in such august company, but I'm happy with my photos! 

The mist chased the yachts across the lake. 

Like ghost ships passing. 

Sunrise through the mist. 

Terry, John and Tony (centre of photo) passing the sunrise. 

Terry, John and Tony came past at around 7.30am, but the wind died even further and their final leg around Raymond Island took nearly five hours. But they're back safely, and I think they had a good time, even if they didn't get too much sleep. 

And they're back!

Saturday

Afternoon storm on the way. 

The weather got quite dark and gusty on Friday afternoon, with a lot of lightning overnight, but today has turned into a lovely breezy day with clear blue skies. Millie and I have wandered along the foreshore this morning, chatting to swans and seagulls. 

We caught the ferry to Raymond Island and walked along the koala trail there. A colony of koalas was introduced to the island in the 1950s when they were just about extinct in the rest of Victoria. They seem to have thrived on the island. Mind you, we only saw two today, quite high up and asleep of course. If you want to see them doing much more, you need to come after dark with night goggles! That said, we have seen the occasional koala walking carefully and awkwardly across the road, their hindlegs look too long to walk comfortably on all fours. 

He's just below the centre of the photo, hiding behind a couple of long leaves. 

I think this one is a bit easier to see.  

Time to go back to the boat for a nap - these sleepy koalas must be contagious!

Friday

I didn't get around to posting yesterday. Sorry!

 After a leisurely start on Friday morning, a long walk around to Shaving Point and a nice coffee at the Florist Café we motored around to the jetty to clean the bottom of the boat. It was still pretty clean, but Terry likes to scour it down every two or three days to prevent too much getting established on the hull. Then it was lunchtime and and the wind shift came through right on cue - 12 noon daylight saving time. So we had a nice steady sail over to Paynesville in a brisk easterly. We dropped in to visit friends on the waterfront of Raymond Island, and saw a magnificent old (new?) black galleon that looked like all it needed was a plank and a crocodile.

It's straight out of  Peter Pan! 

We then found a good berth on the public jetty, where we can stay for 48 hours. Terry got everything tied down to his satisfaction - he is abandoning me from early Saturday (today) morning until some as yet undetermined time on Sunday while he does the overnight race from Marlay Point to Paynesville in John's boat, and he wants to make sure that his boat survives in the care of his landlubber wife!

Back to civilisation

This morning was very calm and quiet after the wind and clapping canvas boom tent yesterday. It was a bit cool to stay for a swim so we pulled up the anchor (with a few extra kgs of green algae hanging from it) and motored back down Bunga Arm, plotting the red markers along the Bunga Channel for next time. We had a nice sail into Metung where we sat at a table on the waterfront and enjoyed a meal of flathead tails, chips and salad, followed by a stroll along the boardwalk. Out on the boardwalk ....

Metung is a pretty little holiday town, clean, tidy, nice cafés and park, but with hefty real estate prices if you wanted to buy a holiday unit. We will stay here tonight and plan to sail back to Paynesville tomorrow to help get John's boat rigged for the overnight race from Marlay Point on Saturday evening.

Another day in Paradise

The day started beautifully again, if a little late. With the combined effect of daylight saving plus sandhills between us and the rising sun, we didn't get a sunrise until after 7am, but for holidayers, that was perfect.

Sunrise over Bunga Arm

The morning passed pleasantly, with walks along the inlet and some R&R on board. We walked along 90 Mile Beach (it felt like we walked the full 90 miles but I am assured that wasn't so!) 90 Mile Beach is beautiful, with golden sand, piles of shells dropped by the receding tides and lovely native vegetation along the sandhills. In the distance to the northeast, you can just make out The Entrance at Lakes Entrance. To the southwest, all you can see is beach and sea mist, for miles and miles. The sandhills are well covered, and wildlife abounds, especially birds, but there are wallaby footprints along the inlet and a couple of what looked like wombat digs.

90 Mile Beach from the sandhills. Isn't it beautiful!

We (well, some of us anyway!) had a swim after getting back to the boat, and then ten minutes later, the forecast wind change came in with a fanfare! We have had a gusty westerly all afternoon, and have spent a pleasant afternoon on the boat, sewing, reading and napping. We have now taken down the boom tent - it has been flapping too hard and noisily, and with the wind forecast to stay through the night, we thought we'd rather take it down than be woken through the night with the wind catching it. A couple of glasses of nice Pinot Noir and our evening is well under way.  I don't think I'll be doing any more sewing, I would just be 'unsewing' again tomorrow! Some radio music and the Kindles are looking good for the evening.

We are sailing 🎶

Yesterday was a big day. We left home at 8am and arrived in Paynesville at 5.30pm. We always drive via Melbourne with the boat because the Alps are a bit hard to manage towing a 2 tonne boat, and the dog and I get carsick with all those hairpin bends.

We got the boat rigged and on the water by 7pm (a record for us!) and motored around to Grassy Point Marina for the night. This morning Terry got new flares and handed over all the out of date ones - hallelujah! It has been impossible to find anyone prepared to take them in Albury and we had quite a collection of old ones.

Grassy Point Marina this morning. A very tranquil setting! 

We set off at 11am and had a lovely sail over to the Grange through the Aurora Channel, plotting way points as we went. Then we headed up Bunga Arm to the First Blowhole, probably our favourite anchorage in the whole Gippsland Lakes area.

From Paynesville ...

To paradise!