Twofold Bay

Where Next?
Bob Williams
Fri 15 Jun 2018 09:58

Position: 37 04.33 S  149 54.0 E
At anchor Snug Cove, Twofold Bay
Wind: calm
Sea: calm  Swell: negligible
Weather: sunny, mild
Day’s run:  51 nm

I am pleased to report that all went pretty much according to plan and we are once again at anchor in Twofold Bay, pretty much on top of where we anchored the last time we were here, indeed the last several times we, Sylph and I, have been here.

After rounding close by Cape Howe, the south east corner of Australia and marking the border between Victoria and New South Wales, a little after midday, we slowly worked our way up the eastern seaboard against a light headwind.  We stayed in close to the coast to avoid any contrary current though this far south I would hope that the East Australia Current would not be too strong.  Also, by staying in close, Green Cape, which juts five miles out from the coast, provides some protection from a never-tiring clichéd serried ranks of south marching seas; the ominously named Disaster Bay (I wonder what its back story is) tucked in under its lee.  We tacked a few times in and out of its steeply shoaling shoreline before rounding the Cape and feeling the short sea beyond it, Sylph’s movement changing noticeably as we did so. 

As we round the Cape, the sun set, the breeze freshened, a cautious reef in the main. 

From Green Cape to Twofold Bay is only fourteen nautical miles (about 25 km) so, despite the headwind, after three relatively short tacks we were in the lee of Wotang Point. The seas smoothed, and the wind eased.  We all but drifted into the Bay. I recognised a familiar silhouette, Young Endeavour’s brigantine rig lit up against the blank black background to the coast.  My old ship.  It is over twenty years now since I took command of her, a little less since I gave her up.  She no doubt continues her mission of providing Australia’s youth with an “adventure under sail”, though I confess that since then I worry more about the less advantaged youth, both Australian and world-wide, who never get the chance to participate in such an privileged programme.  I wish there was more I could do but sailing and looking after Sylph and writing my modest blog has become, for whatever reason, my life mission.

Returning to the moment, I focused my attention on manoeuvring Sylph into Snug Cove. As the wind faded in its shelter, I furled the jib, started the BRM, and motored to anchor.

Heater lit and V-berth cleared, Kate, ‘The Cat’, and I retired for a long uninterrupted sleep (though, truth be known, ‘The Cat’ probably, in actual fact, returned to a more primal nocturnal mode of being).

All was, is, and will be,
well.