Investigator Strait
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Position: 35 21.7 S 137 34.9
E I went ashore yesterday evening for a jog along Emu Bay's beautiful white beach. Jogging on firm smooth sand next to the water's edge, bare feet splashing in the shallows as the waves run up the beach, is my favourite form of exercise. The only problem in this case proved to be getting back to Sylph in the dinghy with the occasional wave breaking quite heavily. I tried to time rowing out through the waves to avoid the larger breakers, but my first attempt got me through a couple of small breaks before a much larger wave caused the dinghy to pitch pole bow over stern on top of me. I dove down clear of the dinghy and surfaced with the dinghy floating upside down next to me. Fortunately the oars remained in place but the dinghy's anchor and bailer were lost. I got the dinghy back to shore, baled it out and then had a second go at getting past the breakers. I was relieved that my second attempt was more successful, with only one small break that the dinghy easily pushed through and then we were in smooth water. The rest of the evening I am pleased to report was incident free. This morning after a good night's sleep we got underway at 0740 to a light E'ly breeze. I changed up to the code zero at 1000 as the breeze dropped to a light air, and just after midday have changed back down to the jib with the breeze freshening slightly from the ESE. We can now see Troubridge Hill, marking the SE corner of York Peninsular, rising over the northern horizon and numerous wind generators on Troubridge Shoals, to my mind a cheerful sight symbolising our attempts to solve the problem of climate change. My plan for the day is to find somewhere to anchor on the eastern side of the Gulf of St Vincent tonight; however, in conceiving this plan I had not taken into account how far west Emu Bay is from the Fleurieu Peninsular. Consequently, with E'ly winds we have a beat to windward to reach the eastern shore of the Gulf and it is going to take longer to get there than I had initially thought. Not to worry, it is a beautiful sunny day and the wind is forecast to remain light and gentle (hopefully not too light), so a longer sail than anticipated will not be unwelcome. All is well. |