Back to Narooma

Where Next?
Bob Williams
Sun 17 Jun 2018 07:36

Position: 36 12.80 S  150 07.76 E
At anchor Wagonga Inlet
Wind: Calm
Sea: calm  Swell: SE nil
Weather: mostly sunny, cool
Day’s Run: 64 nm

It proved an uneventful sail up the coast with winds varying between a gusty twenty-five knots and near calm, not unusual off the NSW coast when the wind is from the west and strongly affected by the land’s geography.  We had left Eden with the goal of arriving off Narooma around high water at 2230.  It would be dark but because we were now reasonably familiar with the entrance and because it was well marked we decided it should not prove too difficult to negotiate.  As it turned out, we encountered light headwinds between Montague Island and the mainland, likely because the wind was funnelled through the gap.  This and the variable winds delayed our arrival by an hour; however, as we threaded our way between the flashing red and green lights marking the gap between the entrance breakwaters, we found that the tide was still flooding.  I throttled back on the BRM so as to slow our entry into the narrow winding waters of the inlet, while Kate stood on the foredeck, keeping lookout and occasionally shining a flashlight left and right to ensure that we were roughly in the centre of the channel.  We found our way back to where we had previously anchored, swung into the still flooding stream and dropped anchor in four meters of crystal clear water. Once we had settled, I shone the torch along the anchor chain and was surprised to find that I could see all the way along its length to where the anchor lay buried in the white sand of the inlet’s floor.

We shut down the engine, dropped and secured the mainsail, lit the heater, closed up the companionway hatch, then, after relaxing with a cup of tea, retired for a good night’s sleep.

All is well.