Welcome to Lakes Entrance

And what a welcome it was – completely flat and calm water, beautiful sunshine, a secure dock to tie up to and then a spectacular sunset. After our 15 hour passage, Lakes Entrance was a very welcome sight.

But let me backtrack, and explain a bit about our journey.

After leaving the Kent Group Islands, we sailed four hours to Hogan Island, where we intended to stay overnight before setting off for Lakes Entrance. I was quite nervous about crossing the Lakes Entrance bar as in the wrong conditions it can be very dangerous, and so timing your arrival to enter in favourable conditions is crucial. This means taking into account predicted tide times, wind speed and direction as well as the likely sea-state on arrival.

We’d been checking the forecasts for all of these in the days beforehand as often as we could, but phone and internet reception had been patchy on the islands out in Bass Strait. So when we arrived at Hogan Island, Matt climbed up to the highest point with both of our phones, and managed to talk to the Harbour Master. His advice was to arrive at the bar at either 9am or 3pm for a crossing.

The wind and swell forecasts all looked good for safe crossing conditions, and so we decided we’d give it a go. With a distance of 92 nautical miles, and an estimated average speed of 6 knots, we calculated a passage time of 15 hours. So in order to arrive at the Lakes Entrance bar at 3pm, we needed to depart Hogan Island at midnight – it seemed we were to undertake our first night sail!

We agreed we were up for it, had an early dinner and headed to bed at 6.30pm to try to get in a few hours of sleep. The alarm woke us both up at a quarter to twelve, so we’d at least had a few hours sleep. Changing into our full sailing gear; overalls, boots and jackets, with beanies and PFDs, we were all rugged up and ready to head off. Luckily the wind was from the north and only fairly light, so it wasn’t completely freezing, but cold enough.

It was, however, pitch black with no moon but an incredible show of stars. We could clearly pick out the Southern Cross and the ‘saucepan’ (about the only 2 constellations I know!). Looking around the cockpit, I couldn’t see anything except blackness, not even Matt sitting just one metre away. Feeling strangely calm, and relying completely on the navigational equipment, we manoeuvred our way around small rocks and islands and out into the open sea. From there on, with the autopilot set, the radar was to be our friend, giving us peace of mind that we weren’t about to crash into something in the total darkness.

And so we continued motoring, as the wind was coming in the wrong direction for us to sail, and just after 5am, we began to see a faint light creeping up from the east. This developed into a spectacular light show, with colours to rival the most incredible of sunsets. After about ten minutes the colour completely disappeared, leaving just a pale glow. And then, maybe 20 minutes later, the sun made its appearance, glowing fiery and orange, and rising up from the horizon. I had never before witnessed a complete sunrise; from utter darkness to first light to seeing the orb of the sun rise. It’s a pretty amazing sight.

Not long after this, a heavy fog rolled in, leaving us only able to see about 100 metres in any direction. A different kind of darkness! And what good timing for us! The fog didn’t last long and rolled away, the sun came out and the wind died off even further as the day progressed, and the water became flatter and flatter. It was like being in a lake. This was all boding well for a safe bar crossing.

We reached the bar at almost exactly 3pm, and there was barely a ripple in the ocean. I felt a huge sense of relief that we had made it on time and that it looked so calm and safe. After getting the ok to enter on the radio, Matt lined us up and we were through. Seals were frolicking in the middle of the entrance, directly in our path as we motored through.

After filling up our diesel and water tanks, we made our way into Lakes Entrance and found a dock which we tied up to (Cunninghame Quay). It was nice to be securely tied up for a change, and not to have to worry about things like the anchor dragging and anchor alarms.

Both of us being completely exhausted, we headed to the Pub for dinner and then enjoyed a few drinks sitting quietly on the boat. There was an incredible sunset that night, with vibrant reds, oranges, pinks and purples, welcoming us to Lakes Entrance.