Position: 38 45.44 S 143 40.58 E
Alongside Apollo Bay
Wind: S, F2 – slight breeze
Sea: calm Swell: nil
Weather: sunny
Day’s run: 101 nm

We tacked our way down Port Phillip with a moderate Southerly breeze, arriving at the Northern entrance to the Western Channel at 1700. By this time the breeze was backing into the East and the shift allowed us to ease sheets slightly and make it through the Channel comfortably without having to tack. Once clear of the Western Channel's Southern end we continued towards the Heads.

We were two and a half hours early for slack water, so the tide was running at close to maximum flood, but as the weather was benign I thought I would poke our nose out towards the entrance and see what conditions looked like. I figured that as the tide was still flooding if I didn’t like the look of things it would be an easy matter to turn around and head back into the calm waters of Port Phillip to wait for slack water.

And, in fact, as we got closer to the entrance I looked at the horizon with the binoculars and did not like what I saw – waves standing in tall jagged saw-tooth peaks. Even allowing for the distorting effects the atmosphere can have on objects at a distance, the horizon did not look at all reassuring so I tacked and pointed Sylph’s bow back inside the bay to kill some time.

We made our second attempt right on slack water and my prudence was rewarded with relatively calm seas. A two-meter swell was running in from the South but it was long and smooth and Sylph comfortably breasted over them. The wind was now a steady force three from the East, our course for Apollo Bay SW, making for a comfortable fast beam reach down the coast towards Cape Otway. 

We continued to make good time for most of the night until around 0500 when the wind started to fade. We continued sailing until dawn by which time the breeze was near calm. Without any breeze to steady her, Sylph rolled in the swell, still two meters high, her sails slatting constantly. So, at 0720 after breakfast, I flashed up the BRM, furled the jib and we motored the remaining twelve miles to Apollo Bay, entering the breakwaters at 0935 and tying up alongside ten minutes later.

All is well.