Mars and Derry headed out from Altona boat ramp Monday. "Fair winds and following seas" Andrew said when he invited me. Wind was predicted to be SSw so we headed for Skeleton Creek mouth, which was a beat for me all the way. Andrew anchored there, I rafted up, and we had a bumpy lunch as the wind and chop started to build. Lunch was cut short when Andrew's anchor rope untied itself, and we started drifting backwards fast.
Luckily, I put a reef in while getting sorted, because the wind really picked up on the reach back. 25 knots at Fawkner beacon. Hmmm, that wasn't in the forecast.the beam on sea made it all rather exciting - I thought we were going over to windward a few times when hit by a gust - steep wave combo.
The wind was so strong I didn't fancy the close quarters of the harbour so I landed on the beach. I helped Andrew get his boat back on the trailer then drove round to Ayc and packed my boat up. I was seriously tired after that!
After a recovery day, and prompted by some AYC Cruisers who said they might be getting out, I got Derry out again to sail back and see if I could find the anchor. I put a waypoint on the gps at the spot where we were anchored to head for. Andrew came in Derry, his friend Murph came in his Hobi Tri, and Andrew G came over in his Laser. Al nice sail over. There was a bit wave action on the sand bar where we'd anchored and the water was turbines. There were dark, sting ray or banjo shark shapes moving in the murk. The search party headed off for shallow clear water where the anchor certainly wasn't, but where they had less chance of stepping on a marine creature. So we didn't find the anchor, but we didn't get stung by a sting ray either.
My new fisherman's anchor got a good workout, holding both Derry and Murp's Trimaran in the chop. My waterproof case for the 360 camera was not so good - it degrades the quality of the images and for some reason would only let me take still images. Oh well.
We had a good fast reach back. Campbell, Mary and Duncan met us and brought my trolley out. A nice welcoming committee. All in all a very nice day. I will be returning with a mask and snorkel on a calmer day.
I hope!
The not so good news is, Anne has Covid. She is not too bad so far and we have antivirals for her. I will probably get it as well. I too have a script for antivirals, so hopefully it won't knock me round too much and I will still be able to get to Tassie at the end of the month. But for now, I feel ok apart from galloping hypochondria.
