MELBOURNE26 1. Rhyll to Port Arlington

Joanne Jones

Left Rhyll at 8:00am on an incoming tide. Winds were light. Picked up some breeze and current around Cowes and with a south easterly wind we’re able to get a sail up. When we rounded West Head we had the wind right behind us and were able to run with both head sails averaging 6.5 knots in about 10-12 knots of wind. Arrived at the Port Phillip head about 3pm, 0.5-1hr ahead of slack water. Conditions were pretty good going through the heads, swell but no breaking waves. Once we hit Queenscliff it was dead calm and we continued all the way up to Port Arlington under motor and picked up a Parks Courtesy mooring inside the breakwater just after dark(watch out for the large marine farm coming in). There are four courtesy moorings here, of these, two were occupied. Moorings are marked as five days within any fourteen day period. Very shallow water though, our depth alarm was going off at 1.3m an hour ahead of low tide.