Leg 10 Bremer Bay - Peppermint Beach to Doubtful Island Bay

Weather predictions indicated a trough to pass through mid - late morning and swing from a handsome 20knot E- NE (yesterday it blew 30+ knots) and deliver a 30knot Southerly. The changeover would be rapid - less than 1 hour. Bremer Bay is 'Trough Central' and we've heard that some boats get caught here for 2 weeks or more! Oh God, please don't let that be us!

Good Bye Bremer Bay. Denmark bushfire smoke sunset on last night

Take 1
Plan A :Get up at respectable time and head off under motor and maybe even sail out to the head of the bay using the Northerly and then head out around the point, through the Doubtful Islands channel and anchor up out of the way of the 30knot South/SW wind that would swing in rapidly.

As it happened
Got up at respectable hours readied the boat and allowed 15 mins to bring in the anchor which was at the end of all except the very last 1m of our chain! The anchor winch does a great job but retrieving that much scope between puffs does take a while. Then we motored out into the bay and out beyond the headland. HEADWINDS!
Beyond the point there were headwinds PLUS an oncoming 3m swell. Pooh! Only 'Predictwind' indicated an Easterly swell, BOM and everywhere else were happy to blanket the south with SW swells. We got some way along what was meant to be a short hop and decided to turn around and run with it back into Bremer Bay. Why smash into it?

The Bloke at the 'God Pod'

Take 2
Off we went across to John Cove. The keeper of beautiful memories. What a disappointment. We hadn't brought the surf board. It would be OK there eventually when the SW change came through but certainly not now. So off we went to the middle of the Bay to ponder options.

Take 3
Plenty of chatter on Channel 71 and we'd decided to pull up behind Glass Island in the middle of Bremer Bay and from there lay a course out of the Bay that would let us lay a single tack in to the Doubtful Islands when the SW'ly arrived.  It didn't until much much later. The 10Nm trip took us the remainder of the day to complete, pushing into an Easterly swell which was at it's best when it was supported by companion winds and then became a slosh when the Easterlies died away. Agitator cycle again! When the SW'ly arrived it took 15 mins to fill from 8knots to 20-25knots.  The barometer slid from 1001 to 999 over a space of 3 hours. The predictions said this would be the case which was why we had all been so twitchy regarding the timing of our departure from Peppermint Beach. It would have been nice if our Plan A had come off instead of us twisting and corkscrewing through the swells.

Approach to Doubtful Islands

Getting closer

Rather bare

Whoops - not so steady

Anyway we are here now. The beer is cold and the 2 attempts to get the anchor to set on the weed is now a distant memory. Frank Sinatra is chirping on about New York, New York. We are now more or less still and definitely not being pounded. The sky is blue, as it has been all day. We have nice memories of the seals and dolphins that we saw swimming along early in the day. All is sweet and the posture of the people on the beach signal amazement at their new view!

Affirmative! It's an Island