No need for an alarm this morning. The tent is bright when I wake up around 5.30. Porridge and tea and coffee, and I am ready to go. I drive the car and boat on the trailer down to the ramp. It seems to take forever to get rigged as I have got the boat in long distance travel mode, with everything moveable taken off. Eventually I get rigged and launch. A local is interested in the boat and is ready for a yarn. Eventually I get organized and cast off, running aground on the shallows within about 100 metres. But we get off that, and head off down the narrow channel past Rabbit Island, and out into Bottom Lake.
Blue sky, tannin stained water, no wind. The Torqeedo gets a good work out. There are many largish aluminium fishing boats with very large outboard engines hurrying around. I discover later that this weekend is the Flathead Fishing competition.
A light Northerly breeze picks up, and we work our way round Godwin Sands, a large shallow area in the middle of Bottom Lake. A bit of rowing to help us clear the markers. As we get over towards Allan Head, the wind increases again, maybe 12 knots. I flatten the camber in the sails as best I can, and hike out.
We tack our way round Allan Head. There is a nice little jetty there. A good opportunity for some boat handling practice. I spend the next hour trying different strategies to get to the jetty. The boat does go backwards if the mizzen is sheeted in and the main freed, but getting it to go where you want without it veering off and starting to sail again is beyond my current skill level. Eventually I give up, and resort to the old "head in and point up head to wind at the last moment" trick. We tie off on the down wind side of the jetty, and leaving the sails up, Oz and I go for some shore leave.
When we come back, the wind has shifted and strengthened, and the boat is pinned to the jetty. I put a reef in each sail. and with some difficulty push us off. We barrel off back across the lake, clocking nearly 7 knots and mostly over 5 knots on a broad reach/run. Heading back in a straight line from the most southerly marker towards John Bull, the light for the head of the channel to Mallacoota, we run aground. Centreboard up, we free easily and get back into the channel.
I got back down the channel quite late, and must have been tired. I didn't think through the docking very well, and made a complete hash of it, thanks to strong wind and tide. I wound up a few berths down, and hit the jetty quite hard. Ouch. A nice camper, Ashley, made me a cup of tea, and I gathered my wits, took the sails down to reduce windage, got the engine properly organised, then reversed slowly back to my allotted spot. Which is what I should have done in the first place. You live and you learn.
