We had a closer view of the ship loading activities as we exited the
harbour and a radio warning later in the day alerted mariners to watch
out for logs.... whoops, sounds like somebody had a very, very bad day on the
cranes!
We learned during our stay that the construction that we had photographed on the right as we were arriving, is affectionately known as 'The Corkscrew'. It's no longer accessible to the public since that wing of the breakwater is inside the 'now privatised' port.
Keen to film our departure, Noel was stationed at the end of the Lee Breakwater.
Mutual admiration
There were lots of 'last looks' at our civic backdrop of the last 2 weeks.
The church with the new spire with the Maritime Discovery Centre below.
A view of Bayview College.
An absolutely classic example of Catholic Convent type architecture found nationwide
I forgot to mention earlier, that this school is included in the Saint Mary MacKillop trail.
One last look at Lawrence Rocks and we were off. A sedate 6 hour jaunt across to Port Fairy. The 3-4m swell was meant to be abating and the wind was forecast in the 10-15knot range. The sky was a blanket of mid level cloud all day. The absence of any rain made for a pleasant day and for once we were able to sail ALL DAY even out of the Portland Harbour.
We'd had brilliant news the day before. The Lobster Fishing season in Victoria is closing on Sunday. Even more excellent is that it's closing in Tasmania too. What a relief that we won't need to be quite so attentive for the floats of those pesky pots. We did spot and evade one cluster of pots but it's nice to know that they will soon be out of the equation.
We reached Lady Julia Percy Island by lunch time and remarked how quickly we passed it. Its a very straight sided island that just sits up like a hat box. Presumably it was once a part of the mainland but it's now being chewed up.
The western end of Lady Julia Percy Island
It's very flat on top
It's getting very carved up on the eastern side too.
A reminder that this is after all, Bass Straight!
It didn't seem long before we had the first glimpses of Port Fairy.
A fizzing reef beneath the Port Fairy Lighthouse
The
Bloke was hugely excited as he'd been Googling it for a few years.
Rollers pounding the seaward side of the point.
By contrast, total calm on the approach to the river mouth
From here on in it was like motoring into a postcard. We had been instructed to turn around near the refueling jetty. It is pretty narrow and the Bloke had the same look as when we are approaching the travel lift for Zofia's annual lift. Luckily the wind didn't change direction and lock his face into a perpetual grimace.
It's very canal-like.
We tied up to the collector area where the jetty post have red tops.
We were waiting for Max, the Port Fairy Harbour Master to arrive and give us more instructions about where he wanted to put us.
We'd been warned about depths and were comforted to see other yachts.
If they can get in, it's likely that with our shoal keel of 1.6m that we'd be a good chance too.
Look Mum .... I made it!
And so here we finally are, a little further up the river and sitting behind a lovely wooden 'Couta boat'. The ocean must be VERY near as we can hear the surf raging. Tomorrow we'll post a photo of the guesthouse to our right of the promenade. If you Google 'Pictures of Port Fairy' there is an old white 2 storey building in nearly every 2nd image in the search result. Unbelievably, we're now parked right out the front of that very building. It's called Oscars Waterfront. It's a boutique hotel and appears to be so fully booked it's impossible to find out the nightly tariff. Like we said - we've just sailed into a postcard and the Bloke need dream no more - he's here. More news tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment