Leg 47 - Crossing Bass Strait Back to the Big Island and Ships in the Night.

Many is the time that a night on anchor can be quite still and relaxed, but not so the night we were at Royden Island. Apart from the fact that we were incredibly keyed up about the first overnighter since October last year, the boat rolled fiendishly as swell and current worked us over and fought the wind. We were bleary eyed to begin a long passage and even the anchor seemed to be defying us. We had swung through so much of the clock that the snubber had become wrapped around the anchor chain and needed some fiddling to release.

 Crazy anchor-watch track

Adding to our agitation, the tide was down. Had we calculated the tidal range, the depth etc carefully enough? Certainly, when we'd anchored the previous afternoon, we hunted for good sandy spots in appropriate depths, hence the multiple diagonal lines in the screen shot.

Easy Rider radioed through that they were ready to leave after also having a disturbed night, theirs due mostly to an anchor drag and re-anchoring. What will the day hold when it starts like this we wondered.

Royden Island disappearing from view.

Sea birds wheeling and swarming about at dawn.

Here we go, here we go, here we go! Once we'd carefully looped around the bottom of the small group of islets and rocks that form Royden and the adjacent Pasco Group we popped out the headie in a brisk 20kn SE wind. The tide was helping push us northward too and 8knots boat speed easily achieved. So far predictions were consistent with what we were experiencing. This buoyed our mood and the sky clearing to blue, gave the water a fabulous turquoise look. This was meant to be an establishing High Pressure area. The 'sweet spot' looked to be ours. 

George from Southern Belle called over the radio after they'd heard our log-on with Tas Maritime and seen our AIS signal. He and his crew had left Killicrankie a little north of us and were experiencing 30knots. He suggested that we might find ourselves reefing once we were out of the lee of Flinders Island. He was right and our glee of an exhilarating ride was short lived as we furled in so much of the headsail that we had only the equivalent of our Number 2 'Frilly Knickers' up. It wasn't until the wind died away to almost nothing 15 hours later, that we changed our sail set. And this is how our Bass Strait crossing, back to the big island began; 30-35knots from the SE with 3m seas up our jaxie.

 Looking back at Flinders Island.

We didn't see it at all.

This was going to be a rowdy ride across Bass Strait. We sort of always expected it would be. It is so very effected by the water movement associated with a 3m ebb and flood tide across a relatively shallow sea floor (remember that it was once a land bridge between the Australian mainland and Tasmania) it's inevitable that the water will stand up against any wind when the tide is running in and out. In fact, it is moving more than it's still. The wind direction did at least mean that we were going to have a 'downhill' ride - a beam reach which our big bummed boat loves.

The Bloke nearly gave himself RSI rolling his wrist over, time and time again, to check the barometer function on his watch. 1014, 1014, 1014 hPa ... why wasn't that High Pressure ridge settling in. If only the barometer would rise. The wind velocity would ease a bit. The sea state would improve. I could stop thinking about when I should next dose on the Sturgeron and we could think about eating something more than ginger biscuits. What about the goodies I'd pre-prepared? Why wasn't the weather reading the forecast?

4 hours in, Easy Rider seemed to be pointing West and not North. They radioed to inform us they were headed to Deal Island 4 hours to the West to sort out a bilge pump issue.  We worried for them. Like us, they had no appetite for being holed up there in the middle of Bass Strait during a big blow. Nothing that we could do. It's always nice to see another boat when you are passaging and also to be close enough to communicate on the radio, but except for moral support, there is nothing one can do. We kept to our target of Lakes Entrance, due North.

By 19:00 we were pretty much at the halfway point and the sea state had eased. The Barometer had finally risen to 1017hPa and the forecast was proving true. We just happened to be moving along the very edge of the pressure patch at the same speed. In anticipation of arriving at the shipping lane at this time and only 30 minutes before sunset, we'd heated and eaten our lasagna and were both on watch 'in case'. We'd already had 2 northbound ships traverse diagonally behind and in front of us. They must have used Deal Island to our West as a turning point. The AIS was earning its keep.

Mr Murphy and his quirky Law didn't disappoint. Right after sunset our AIS signaled a target we needed to watch. It wasn't long before it was clear we were in an intersecting course. We were crossing the shipping lane from South to North. ANL Windarra was traveling West to Adelaide. You'll never outrun a ship doing 15.5knots and there is not guarantee that they will 'see' you on their AIS or radar. We radioed to inform them that a) we were out there, b) that we would avert to starboard, c) pass them port-to-port before passing behind them. Oh, and one more thing... d) would they please confirm they intended to maintain their existing heading of 106 degrees. The Asian sounding radio operator jabbered something that we hoped was a confirmation of our plan. The Bloke started the motor and fanged us to starboard.

Here is what it looked like.

Luckily, once we'd completed our little dance with ANL Windarra were were pretty much across the shipping lane. We'd crossed it at a turning point where hopefully there was a little more vigilance and we knew as we traversed the oil and gas fields, that the likelyhood of encountering another boat of any sort was very low. We took it in turns to have a sleep and worried about the fate of Easy Rider.

3/4 of the way across, the wind had decreased to the point that the Bloke had to pole out the headie. We traveled on for another 1  1/2 hours, creeping along like this at just 3 knots. The forecast had predicted that the wind would peter out. It did and we completed the journey under motor. With about 10nm to the bar crossing into Lakes Entrance we unexpectedly got an AIS alert. It was Easy Rider! They had made it to Deal Island, made their checks to their bilge, determined it was just a float switched that had jammed open in all the jostling and then motor sailed as quickly as they could thinking that we would have been through the bar and in Lakes Entrance a few hours ahead of them. We on the other hand, were happy to have slowed down through the oil rigs as we did not want to arrive before daylight and low tide.

 Oh joy! They made it.

 Happy sailors!

Rob and Henma - so glad to be back

 Tied up to a jetty at the end of a L O N G day!