Paynesville & Marley Point Overnight Race

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After leaving Barrier Landing we headed to Ocean Grange, a lovely cruise in via some tight channels. Again a pretty spot on the lakes, we had some lunch, a walk over to 90 Mile Beach then decided to move onto Duck Arm for the night. Duck Arm is another favourite location for us so we were looking forward to revisiting after a few years. Swing moorings are available throughout the arm but unfortunately all the mooring lines on the buoyes were no longer attached. This meant that John needed to reverse the boat close enough to the swing mooring so that Di could reach out and thread a line through the mooring eye - then John kept gently reversing whilst Di held on to allow the mooring whilst walking up to the bow so that the swing mooring could move along the side of the boat to the bow. Sounds simple!!!! The team did well.

We began to settle in for the afternoon and have an early birthday drink to John when the wind turned and was about 20kts, so we decided to pull up stumps and go into Paynesville where we had a secure pen. The wind continued to blow at about 20 kts for most of the night and made berthing the boat interesting as we were getting blown off the finger. John gave our girl a few more revs than normal and we were safely berthed. Having power and water again meant I cooked a roast lamb & veggies for dinner - a birthday dinner for John. It was yummo.

So we spent the next four days in Paynesville. We were berthed two from Helen & Graeme whom we'd meet at Lakes Entrance and helped us get the berth, so we had dinner with them at the Paynesville Motor Cruising Club on Friday night before they left on Saturday for their weekend away on the lakes. We had tried over a few years to visit and eat at the club but it was always closed, but a new Manager & caters have really improved the service now availabl. it was fully booked out on Friday night and the food was delicious Several of our friends arrived in Paynesville also on Friday for the Marley Point Overnight race, one in fact was a race officer for the event. So we breakfasted (is that a word) and dined all weekend with friends, watched the yachts sail past on Saturday morning then went to the finish line at lunchtime, it was fabulous weather for the race, which was the 50th year of the event. Quite something seeing over 200 yachts coming through Mc Millan Strait.

On our way up to the yacht club we spotted a little echina quietly rummaging around in the bushes at the waterfront cafe! He was not at all disturbed by the people, we were all more concerned that he might venture onto the road but he seemed to know what he was doing. Weather wise it seems we will have a Friday - Saturday cruise home.

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Photos

Spinkers
Great seeing the yachts coming through McMillan Strait at 8.30 am with spinkers flying