As planned anchors were raised at midnight and we headed out of our protected anchorage bat Coal Shaft Bay, to round the bottom of the Island and head North. To our surprise the wind changed to the South almost as we left Broughton and was already blowing 15 to 20 knots, so we just set the mainsail with a single reef and were cruising along at 7-8 knots in no time.
Unfortunately, the BOM forecast for strong winds turned out to be correct and soon we were in winds up to 36 knots and with a second reef in the main were surfing along at 9+ knots. Wilparina just had their big genoa up and were doing similar speeds. We stayed together pretty much the whole way up to Camden Haven and on arrival there was only 2 nm between us.
Needless to say it was hands on all the way, with only brief periods on auto pilot, as the following seas could easily knock you off course and manual steering allows you to respond quicker.
The last few hours were much more pleasant, as it was daylight and the wind had dropped to 15 to 20 knots.
We motored across the bar at Camden Haven at 11.15 am, about 1 hr before the high tide. Wilparina draws 2.5 m, and had just 300mm clearance at the shallowest spot they crossed, we never had less than 800mm.
Surprisingly, when we reached the anchorage, there were no other boats anchored in the rive, so we had the place to ourselves. We set our anchors, I pumped up the dinghy, and we went ashore with Steve, Kim, Chris and Bev (their friends from Adelaide who have joined them for this adventure), and had fish and chips (and a couple of glasses of wine) on the riverside at the fish co-op.
Wilparina anchored well upriver in deeper water (Fishermans Co-op in background)
It was then back to our boats for some sleep, and then a roast dinner on Wilparina, which was excellent roast pork done on the Cobb.
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