Refuge Cove, Wilsons Promontory
Heart of Gold, temporarily stranded at low tide in Refuge Cove, Wilsons Promontory
Port Welshpool
The following set of images follows on from the voyage along the Victorian Coast in 2019 aboard Heart of Gold.
After rounding South East point and exploring the east coast of Wilson’s Prom for a few days, we sailed into Port Welshpool, to change crew and have a hot shower.
Sunset over the north east coast of the Prom
Motor sailing by moonlight up the channel into Port Welshpool
Port Welshpool
Wilson’s Promontory
The view from Mt Oberon looking West over tidal river and Norman Island, under moonlight.
Cormorants @ Sealers Cove
Lichen on granite, East Coast Prom
Refuge Cove
Tidal River
Sealers Creek
Pacific Gull at Tidal River
Heart of Gold in Refuge Cove. After dropping dad off at Port Welshpool, Lu and I sailed back to Refuge Cove and had to wait over a week for a couple of fronts to pass through. You can tell there’s been lots of rain from the tannins in the water.
Showers passing through Refuge Cove
Screenshot from BOM showing the front passing over the prom. We were anchored in Refuge Cove on the sheltered east coast in an anchorage surrounded by hills. When the wind was out of the W/NW, we found the wind gusts would funnel in from the North inside refuge cove, pushing us towards the beach. When the wind was out of the SW the wind would funnel more up from the south, pushing us into the bay. This meant we would be swinging quite a bit on the anchor around the bay.
Hailstorm
Hail on Heart of Gold’s deck
Hail covering the beach like snow at Refuge Cove
We were the only boat in the bay for the week
This photo of the chartplotter shows how Heart of Gold was swinging on the anchor as the wind direction changed. Wind gusts of around 30 knots would hit us side on and we would swing across the bay, closely watching our track to see if we were dragging towards the rocks on either side.
We had two anchors out on the one chain. The system was holding well until after 3 or so days of swinging when we eventually started dragging. The photo below shows what happened.
Both anchors wrapped up in a mess of chain. We motored in close to the beach and launched the dinghy, tied a rope to shore while we untangleg the anchors and chain
While we were untangling the anchors the tide went out, leaving Heart of Gold on her keel on the beach
Lu did a great job untangling the mess
Meanwhile we had to wait for the tide to come in
With the anchors free, I swam one out off the stern to kedge us off into deeper water when the tide came back in
Once the tide came in, we safely got off the beach. By this time it was dark. I went and checked the weather forecast (there’s good phone reception on the hill above Refuge Cove) and the weather window for sailing to Lakes Entrance had moved forward, so we had dinner and departed Refuge Cove around 11pm that night to arrive at Lakes Entrance on the incoming high tide.
Refuge Cove to Lakes Entrance was 100 nm (180km)
After spending the day untangling the anchors and getting Heart of Gold off the beach in Refuge Cove, we set sail at 11pm. We sailed overnight and all the following day, arriving off Lakes Entrance around midnight. We hove to (waited a few miles offshore) from the entrance until sunrise, then came in across the bar on the incoming tide at daybreak. It was an exhausting and challenging couple of days. Over 50 hours with little/no sleep. We then took Heart of Gold up the Lakes to her berth at Metung where we have sailed her out of the last year.