Passages and Shenanigans in Bass Strait
By Peter Ford
IRENE is a 28ft Laurent Giles Normandy design with a Kauri hull, built by Jack Stewart in 1969.
It was a late decision to head to Lakes Entrance. After some lengthy oscillating whether to go south to The Tamar River on the north coast of Tasmania, or the warmer climes of Gippsland and the Lakes to the east of Victoria and a bit further north.
Both offer superb cruising and are equidistant from Geelong, our home port a 230 nm mile passage. Being early spring the temperature would be higher and rainfall less in Gippsland so it became obvious where we were heading.
It was to be the first trip since breaking my leg in December so Irene required a good going over ( as well as me!) in readiness for Bass Strait and the adventures that would follow in this capricious body of water.
I asked Bill Ethell, an accomplished sailor, pacific protestor, story teller and one of my favourite “Sailing Uncles” to accompany me. I soloed Irene around to Queenscliff, a short 29 nm up Corio Bay and around the SW of Port Phillip and tied up overnight. My daughter Bonnie, and grandchildren Hugo and Maeve played on the boat and filled in the late afternoon, delightful. It was a calm night alongside the Queenscliff Cruising Yacht Club’s wharf with a light westerly pressing her to the wharf, an early and bright morning greeted us for Irene’s imminent departure through the rip.
Bill joined me at 0630, stowed his gear, made ready, checked our charts and set out for the Heads being Point Nepean and Point Lonsdale (Also known as The Rip, so named for its notorious currents and overfalls that are generated during the tidal flow, and can exacerbated when wind is over tide, many a wreck is strewn along this coast)
Slack tide was 0845 and we shot the heads in calm with a 8-10 knt westerly gently pushing us down the coast. Autohelm was useless in the running sea so it was a day of hand steering with motor assisting. An uneventful sail with a few visits from dolphins and seals and light snacking as we “hardened the bellies” in the rolling seas. There was a half moon lighting our way as we rounded Wilsons Promontory at 0300, I radioed Marine Radio Victoria of our rounding and informed them of our next destination.
A beautiful dawn greeted us as I took over the watch - a great sleep set me up for the day and a huge appetite. I cooked up a substantial brunch for Bill and me in easy cruising conditions, a light NW was filling in keeping the water flat as we were behind the Prom without the left over westerly fetch, the motor was keeping our good pace. We anticipated crossing the bar at Lakes Entrance at 0300. Some time around lunchtime we saw a humpback whale surface about a 100 metres in front of us, it turned over and began slapping its fluke on the water, we had to divert course as it was not getting out of our way!
It continued this behaviour until it was about a mile behind us, an amazing experience to witness. Two hours later, again right ahead of us were two whales tumbling over each other with dolphins surrounding them. “Divert!!” was the shout, we believe this was a feeding frenzy of the humpbacks and dolphins. Dinner was another welcome treat washed down with a couple of rums setting us up for a terrific evening, the breeze went north and strengthened. Irene, with a bone in her teeth lapped it up and raced up the coast for her rendezvous with the bar, an exhilarating contrast to the previous 30 hrs.
At 2215 Bill hove Irene to about 2 nm off Lakes Entrance to await the slack, (and me to have a two hour nap) We covered the 200 nm in 36.5 hours, no mean feat for the diminutive LG yacht. Lakes Entrance has a tricky entrance with a bar, it is well charted and maintained by Gippsland Ports https://gippslandports.vic.gov.au/ I highly recommend this site, it is very informative and kept up to date.
We crossed the bar at 0300 and pulled alongside the staging jetty feeling elated. Customary rums had us heading to sleep with fuzzy, tired and relieved heads.
The Return
Well this was a passage long in the planning as we were waiting for an ideal weather window. Irene was well tucked up in a private berth so there were no concerns about her welfare or exposure to bad weather. My crew member this time was Peter Jerabek, a fine sailor with a tilt towards racing on bays rather than passage making out in the briny, nevertheless he’d made several Bass Strait crossings and was no stranger to blue water sailing. Additionally, a fellow wooden yacht owner and was familiar with Irene.
We established a weather window and set to bring Irene home, a long train journey to Bairnsdale and a lift down to Metung by friends Larry and Trish made it easy. A fine dinner was shared as we talked sailing and shared histories.
We planned to cross the bar at slack tide 1300 so we had a late breakfast and leisurely made our way east up to Lakes Entrance to the staging jetty.
Our plan was to sail to Sealers Cove, a cove on the NE side of the prom and reckoned we'd be there in 20 hours give or take ……..What we considered (according to forecast) a 10knt WSW turning NW later in morning a good sail turned out to be totally wrong. We crossed the bar with no incident and pointed home (or so we hoped) East of the prom. The seas were short and steep and current also unhelpful. We were lucky to reach 4 knots even with the engine! This speed was difficult to maintain, and our direction was nowhere near heading towards the prom! I’ve titled this decision naive optimism. It was a tedious and uncomfortable sail, Pete was well charged with anti-seasickness paraphernalia and even though it was wearing thin after a few hours, we snacked during that usual first watch of getting back into sea life routine. By early evening the breeze showed not a modicum of north and our progress was minimal, struggling to make 4 knots…… we tacked a couple of times, fetch wasn't any easier further out to sea so we hunkered down and did the drudge. Late evening the breeze increased and still from SW, the seas shorter and harder to power through with the main reefed and motor,
Then the ‘troubles’ began, with all the pitching and rolling with fuel low in the tank we created a frothy fuel resulting in air being sucked into the fuel lines causing the engine to stop and not restart despite our attempts. The boat slowed to a tortuous 2-3 knots. The situation was then compounded by autohelm malfunctioning and stopping completely…….. We went back to basics, sailed the boat and forged on with a sense of “how long is this going to take?” Sometime later we unplugged and reset the autohelm and to our relief it went straight back to work.
By early morning we realised we’d made little headway to our destination and were somewhat disheartened. By way of cheering ourselves up we set about sorting the engine. Refueled, went through starting procedures to have it work for about 5-10 seconds. I braced myself down by the engine, the seas were not engine kind as I went through taking off the engine covers, located the trusty 10mm and 17mm spanners and set to work. We bled the fuel lines by turning over the engine and releasing air from the system. 20 minutes later the motor roared into life and kept going, Yahoo!
We were able to get back up to 4.5 knots occasionally 5 as we ploughed through chop, by late afternoon it was clear we were not, A. getting any respite from the SW breeze and B, certain we were not going to get to the prom anytime soon. We discussed options open to us, given we’d used a heap of fuel and may not have enough to see us through to The Heads, Peter was crook and tired, the breeze showed no signs of northing at all, and the next day promised favourable Easterly breeze and flat water. We could…
-Pull into Port Albert, refuel, refresh, get a decent dinner and sleep
-Pull into Port Welshpool hit the pub, look for a lift up the road for fuel
-Keep bashing into the weather for another 10 hrs and enter Sealers in the dark
Port Albert won and it was a great option, it gave us a lift as we knew respite was now only a few hours away. The entrance to Port Albert would be an absolute nightmare if it wasn't for the trusty GPS and chart, some “phone a friend” knowledge and plenty of daylight…..
The breakers on either side of the entrance were daunting from a distance; we safely negotiated the riddle of the sands but unfortunately found a bit of sand next to the channel by the jetties! Good grief!
Kedging failed and the tide was racing out! I attempted to swim a line to the jetty but the current was fast, pulling 50 metres of line didn't help my cause either. Another fail, I was pretty frantic as we were going to be left high and dry and, on our side if we didn't sort it! We were lucky enough to hail down a local on his way out to get some bream, he kindly towed us off the bank! We finally enjoyed a hearty dinner and late rums before settling in for a welcome sleep after a punishing 30 hour beat for a measly 85nm achieved
Timing for departure was relaxed, a sleep in, breakfast, a walk into the servo and timed the falling tide for a good shoot through the riddle of the sands and onto Sealers cove some 25nm to the west. It was an easy 25nm motor down to Sealers Cove passing 5 mile beach - the Prom was shrouded in cloud which gave it an ethereal feel as we eased through the mist into the cove. It was magical as the mist rose and revealed the famous rock at the south of the cove I'd climbed on as a kid as have my own kids many years later. We continued south to Refuge Cove, an absolute bucket list item for any cruiser. Absolutely stunning as it affords all winds protection (provided not too many other boats are seeking shelter) surrounded by forest and beaches and deep secure anchoring. I’ve hiked into Refuge on bushwalks many years ago and it still looks the same, thank goodness for national Parks!
It was Great Glennie we were bound for so we pressed on rounding the lighthouse situated on the southernmost point of the Australian continent, impressive indeed as was the wind’s ability to head us again! Light breeze thankfully as we motored onto the Glennies. Anchored in one of my favourite places, great protection from the prevailing winds, easy anchoring over sand and provides an interesting walk if you have the inclination. Planned our final approach to the heads and turned in.
Now planning and the execution of said plan is always fraught when at sea……
The plan was to leave at 0500 to meet the 0130 slack at the heads, we allowed plenty of time, planned to ride the outside of a southerly due to arrive a couple of hours later. We said we’d put the reefs in ahead of time so we were ready for the blast, and I headed down for awee nap. Was awoken with PETE! I jumped to Pete's cries of ‘It's here, it's on us!’ I quickly donned my lifejacket and came up on deck and into the maelstrom, the southerly had arrived and was whipping the tops off the waves and the noise was deafening - Irene broached and shipped water over the coamings, it was on! Reefing was relatively quick, held up slightly by a jammed slug in the mainsail track requiring a quick dash to the mast to ease it when going for the second reef, the wave size had increased markedly and breakers were coming over the windward side filling the cockpit, tangling the loose lines like they were churned in a washing machine, the noise was amazing, the learnings of the my early sailing, Clipper race, crewing on eXtasea certainly came home to give me calm to settle the boat, assess if any damage, flooding that may have occurred. Next was resetting the course with a 28-30 knt southerly straight over the beam. It was a hell of a reach! Pete steered 270 -300 degrees and as the boat settled. There were some substantial gusts near 40knt regularly hitting us and Irene just ploughed on, safe and sure footed as the seas pounded us. We shipped a couple of growlers over the side; she just took it all in her stride draining her cockpit with ease – now added to the mix as we were sailing on in the maelstrom there was a loud bang from behind us resulting in a blow my head and shoulder and wondering what the f… ! With being pooped and other waves crashing over the boat the hydrostatic valve in the inflatable emergency danbuoy fired off! It blew the pouch apart as it sought to break out do its thing - We now had a 3 metre danbuoy sharing the cockpit! It was a good twenty minutes or so before we dealt with it by deflating and stowing away. Once we all got into the rhythm of the seas I was able to return to the bunk and snooze. I relieved Pete about 45 min later and he too took a breather down below from the battle. Jack Laurent Giles has designed a yacht equal to the sea’s and wind's ferocity, stout, strong with seakindliness not readily found on modern yachts. (Romantising? Hell yes!)
We knew it was only going to be this intense for a few hours and sure enough the winds abated leaving us an uncomfortable slop with an 8-10 SE to push us home. We had made remarkable time given we were on 6s and 7s for 3 hrs and we found ourselves ahead of schedule for the heads. We were off the Nobbies (Phillip Island) and reassessed our timings and decided to put away the main (which was flopping around and not helpful at all) and ease the rest of the way under jib, way more comfortable and quieter. We radioed Lonsdale around 2130 and got the current speed for the heads as well as confirming the slack tide time. At 0030 we lined up 4 fingers west (the guiding lights for the small craft entrance to the RIP (Heads) from about 3 nm out and committed to enter. Swells were slight SE breeze about 10 knots, so all was good as we entered 30 min before slack and were able to ride the flood as we surged into Port Phillip and surged up Coles channel at a brilliant clip. Pete hit the sack for a well-earned sleep. I rounded Port Arlington around 0330 for the final run up Corio Bay to Geelong. The SE breeze was a constant 10 knots and a joy to sail in. Pete awoke with about 7 nm to go; I got a quick nap in but awoke suddenly to Pete’s yells of consternation as The Spirit Of Tasmania (ferry) had blown its horn and was up our Khyber wanting a clear way! Only the laundry keeper would know just what a fright he got. The last hour was filled with clearing and packing up our gear as Irene quietly arrived at WBBC at 0615, 120nm in 25.25hrs.
An epic adventure with great sailors, a great boat and a terrific mixed bag of weather and seas not forgetting seeing some of Victoria’s most spectacular coastline.
Postscript Ed
Laurent Giles yachts are a rare sight, but they seem to foster sailing fellowship between international owners. The circumnavigating Vertue Class yachts are a well-known fleet (see SWS stories of Bill Nance). And now Peter Ford is following connections with IRENE’S Normandy Class sisters in the UK and France. In 2023 he sailed with the French family from Port Louis in Brittany. Peter will join la croisière de Bretagne in 2026. A UK Normandy will sail across the channel from Chichester to Paimpol to join the French boats and continue along the Brittany coast to Pornic. The local wooden boat association here restored and retains the 1961 Normandy ANELOR. She’s available to take cruising https://coquesenbois.com/anelor/
Their trips are beautifully documented and drawn by ‘Beke’ who can make Victoria’s wild Bass Strait coast seem like a French summer playground. Beke has competition as le chatGPT produced a line drawing of IRENE from a photo in seconds. Peter’s grandchildren will rescue things and colour-in ‘Beke’ style.
