Sailing around Australia; Perusing Portland

8/3/2015 Perusing Portland

Our sailing around Australia adventure has uncovered yet another delightful place in Portland,Victoria.

We really did enjoy our time Portland, Victoria. It’s very much like our home town of Bunbury, with woodchips, logs and minerals stacked up around the port. They even have an alumina refinery or actually maybe theirs is a smelter.

Strolling around town we stopped at the markets and met a friendly chap who told us not to miss Portland's botanical gardens. So on our 29th Wedding anniversary, we had a real treat in wandering around the Portland botanical gardens. Some very unusual trees, beautiful plants and pretty flowers, free to all too, so really worth a look if your passing through.

Leanne enjoyed browsing through a very interesting shop called Portland disposals. They had many things you can think of and some things you wouldn’t ever think of. I went in there to buy a new gas stove toaster and could have come out with anything from a two person kayak, to a pair of woolen socks to door mats with pictures and cut out in shapes of 70’s muscle cars.

As we have come to (almost) expect, the locals were very receptive and friendly. Scott and Phil who organise the marina couldn’t do enough to help us out. We took a seat cushion to the local upholsterer to get some stitching done he was very helpful, even delivering the finished product back to our boat. (probably so he could have a sticky beak).

We also got to meet Brian (barney) and his wife Julie. Brian (who I have presume would be B6) is a local cray fisherman who was nearing the end of his quota for the year. He stopped and had a chat on his way past each day, then brought Julie out for a beer and a look over Easy Tiger. They are obviously very proud of their town with good reason too. As a very kind gesture they leant us a vehicle for a few days and we were able to venture out to see cape Nelson from the landside, having seen it from the seaside a few days before.

During the trip out to Cape Nelson and Bridgewater, we were amazed at the size of the wind generators in close proximity to the road. It felt quite eerie to be chased along the road by the shadow of the giant propellers.

Having a vehicle also meant that we were able to join Richard, Isabelle, Robbie and Rebecca, off the yacht Sapphire at the RSL for cheap meal Tuesday. These guys sailed from Kangaroo Island to Robe and then on to Portland with us. Richard’s parents came over from Lakes Entrance to bring some parts for Sapphire. They have spent a lot of years in the Gippsland lakes, which is our next stop over, so it was a very informative evening.

As a scouting venture, while we had the vehicle, we drove to Port Fairy, the next anchorage on our list. We were surprised to see a delightful town and a very different type of boat harbour. There is a small river running in from the ocean, and jetties running parallel with the river that you tie on to. The boss of this is Max, who was very helpful. As Easy Tiger would take up a fair bit of the small amount of room he had, with the Port Fairy folk festival on that weekend. With 50,000 people about to descend on the town (with a normal population of 3000), Max still promised he would fit us in.

Then Stephen and Sharon Bone off a yacht called Shiraz came along the jetty and introduced themselves. A brief discussion was followed by an invite for drinks o’clock aboard Easy Tiger. During these festivities, Sharon and Stephen mentioned that they were seriously looking at Saturday and Sunday as the perfect weather window to get right through Bass Strait to Refuge Cove in one hit.

Leanne and I looked at each other. We hate long overnight passages. We hate the feeling of fatigue during and after a 30 hour sail. Especially early morning shift just before dawn. But, in order to get to some places you just have to buck up and do it, if there is nowhere in between to comfortably stop.

After more information abut the length of journey and the time that Shiraz expected to take, we had a long look at the weather.

The possibility of being in the Gippsland lakes in a few days instead of a few weeks, had the final say. We asked Shiraz if they would like some company on the passage and it was settled. We all started preparing for the 240nm journey that night.

Next morning at 6.00am we said goodbye to the beaut town of Portland.