Leon Kildea came down from Bairnsdale to visit us at Lakes Entrance and agreed to stay overnight and come to Paynesville with us.  As he was a long time sailor on the Gippsland Lakes it was great having him along to help navigate the narrows in particular!

The navionics charts are fine for Lakes Entrance itself, but beyond that there are no admiralty charts, and a local map which was easily purchased from the local fishing shop guided us down past Metung to Lake Victoria and on to Paynesville.  The lakes cover an area of 600 square km and have an active boating population.

The shallowest we got was 2.5m just in the narrows - where the channel takes a sharp dog-leg, although we later noticed one of the tourist boats going straight ahead at that point, and perhaps they knew where the better depths were?

We motored till we got  near to Metung, when we unfurled the jib, followed by the screecher in the nice breeze.  As the wind was directly behind, we decided to go the whole hog and launch the spinnaker - but we discovered that there were a few twists inside the sock - and when it came time to douse the sail, it took a bit of encouragement to get the sock to come down again and snuff the kite.  Craig undid the shackle and untwisted the head of the spinnaker, and considered putting a swivel-shackle there to prevent this in future.

We came into Paynesville, furled the jib and dropped the main, and looked for a place to stop.  After trying one of the small finger jetties for size, but we soon realised that although the depth was OK, they were not long enough.  On the way out the current took us onto the tip of the finger, but no damage was done other than a minor scratch on the hull.

We pulled up for the first night at the public jetty, and moved on the next day to the Yacht Club as one of the boats had moved making space for us.

Leon’s sailing friends Steve Hayes and Jaimie Chick came down and we all had a lovely dinner at the local chinese restaurant, and on the way home called into the Yacht Club where Craig found he knew a couple of the locals from his time in Mackay.

The next day was rainy and it was a quiet day for all and Steve and Jaimie offered to return Leon to his car at Lakes Entrance so Rachel went with them for the drive.

Rachel cooked a wonderful stir fry as we settled in to watch a movie in the inclement weather.

Till next entry...

Craig & Kerry Margetts