October 2019
We left Robe at first light to the music of Verits trumpet. We had a lovely 10kt breeze from the north east so the main and staysail were set and we were off and racing (at least by our standards). We had decided that we wanted to anchor in either Beachport or Southend (about 30nm away) for the night allowing us to not have to pull another overnighter it was just up to the weather to which one would offer us better protection. This trip was actually pretty uneventful the swell was down and we stayed within fives miles of the coast so we had a lovely rolling panorama of beaches to watch. It was when we got close to the anchorage that the pace started to pick up. It was time to decide where to anchor either the closer but open to swell therefore rolly Beachport or the further but with a slight onshore breeze Southend. The forecast suggested that Southend was meant to have less then 10kts of wind and drop out over night but it would be onshore. So with this forecast in mind we thought this would offer us a more comfortable nights sleep out of the swell and not be the surf beach that was Beachport. But turns out the forecast was wrong. We dropped anchor in Southend at about five O’clock and already the wind was in the 15-20knt range directly onshore and add to this the wind chop of about one meter it was going to be a long night. At this point we couldn’t change our mind, Beachport was 10nm behind us and into a headwind. Luckily the anchor held in, we did drag once early on but it was only less then 10m before it reset itself. It was a long and rolly night, neither of us really slept well due to the uncomfortable conditions, howling wind and for the fear that we would drag again. So we got up and out of there at first light ready for this nightmare anchorage to end. By this point the conditions had eased a little it was now only about 10-15kts and the chop had definitely decreased. The only problem was it was still an on shore breeze therefore to get out of the bay we had to beat into a head wind. Generally gaffers are known for their inability to sail into the wind and Allagai was no exception. Allagai really didn’t do well beating into headwinds especially when there was any kind of swell or chop, maintaining only about 60-70 degrees off the wind. This made tacking out of Southport a real pain, it felt like two steps forward and one step back with each tack, but after a few hours we were eventually out and on our way.
This was what Southend looked like the day before during our reconnaissance drive, complete opposite to what we experienced.The next stop we were planning on was Port MacDonnell but after the last night we decided to give it a miss and just keep going through the night and get to Portland by the next morning. With this decision made and the tacking out the bay behind us the sail onwards was once more uneventful. We had nice scenery to look at, again staying within five miles off the coast and well out of the shipping lane so we could just sit back and relax taking turns at napping and standing watch. We decided to stick to the standard and do four hour shifts. I ended up taking the 4-8 in the evening and then the 12-4 overnight. This left Hugo with the 8-12 and 4-8 hopefully allowing him to be well rested for when it was time to bring the boat into Portland (a busy shipping port) which we’d calculated would be somewhere in the 4-8 shift in the morning. All went well through the night and into the morning, in fact it went so smoothly that Hugo bought the boat into Portland just as the sun was rising without my help or me even noticing, at least until he dropped the anchor which was meters from my head, that clanking was a little hard to ignore. He had decided to anchor off the main beach to start with so he didn’t have to navigate the harbour in the dark and fog, which had rolled in nice and thick on his watch. It was good thing we had AIS and radar because apparently we passed a cargo ship under half a mile and he could barely even see it the fog was that thick. About mid morning we decided it was time to relocate into the main harbour. Directed by the Harbour master we tied up at the visitors pontoon on the very end of the marina. Surprisingly we weren’t the only visiting yacht, there was also a catamaran, and Hugo even knew the guy, he had also just travelled from Kangaroo Island and was waiting out some weather before continuing on the Melbourne.
It looked like we were going to be in Portland for some time as a huge low pressure system was descending on the area causing big seas (six meters) and howling winds. So we spent five days exploring Portland and buying a few extra supplies. Portland was huge, built around a shipping port I’d describe it more as a small city then a town. It had every retailer that you could imagine and was absolutely bustling while we were there. The only problem was this was going to be our first and last big town (K.I shopping was very limited) so a large stock up of supplies was in order but it was a 2-3km return trip meaning we got some much needed exercise. Each trip took us just over a hour including doing the shopping and walking there and back, after six trips we finally had everything we needed and really wished we had bikes. Although while in Portland we didn’t just shop we also spent a good deal of time walking around the town checking out it’s history and also a nature park I’d found. So when the weather did finally pass we were ready leave Portland having resupplied and fully explored the town. Our next planned stop was Port Fairy.