Tomorrow (Sun 30th) we're looking at a possible down-winder on Corio bay from Pt Henry across to Foreshore Rd in the forcast 25 knot Southeaster.
We have a few already but the more the merrier.. So Oliver, Pete, Mike, Alan, Warwick and Rea dust off those Naish 14's and join us for some DW fun.
DJ
4 expected ship movements. Not sure on times yet.
EXPECTED
30 May Ikan Tamban Lascelles 1 Bulk_D Inchcape Shipping
30 May New Baroness Lascelles 3 Bulk_D ABB Grain
30 May Olympic Spirit II Refinery Pier 4 Crudetank Wilhelmsen Ships Service
30 May White Kingdom Corio Quay North 4 Bulk_L Inchcape Shipping
Single Yellow Lines - indicate landing options.
Multiple Yellow Lines - indicate places you DON'T want to land.
Hey DJ that line is only 6 or 7k, not worth all the driving and hassle IMO. What about Ricketts to Point Cook or Altona, that's about 22k and you get to play with the big ships on the way.....Also I'd imagine you would get bigger swell because of the open water behind you, that's just a guess though.
Two runs ??
Ricketts to Williamstown Back Beach / Esplanade ?? Just be mindful, the wind could be SSE rather than SE. Or ESE...
One day I'll get myself a DW board, until then I shall live vicariously through all of your adventures
Always a gamble with the direction but I figure if we had the destination car at Williamstown or Altona we could leave from Ricketts or Sandy or wherever suited the direction. We could get 5 boards on my landcruiser no worries.
Hey aussiefreebs, we can fit you up with a board if you want to come.
10.30 near Geelong Grammar perhaps.
North Shore, near School Rd & Foreshore Road & Biddlecombe Ave, there is a car park.
I'm in Torquay, the Melbourne Crew might want to meet at StKilda at 9.30 for a 50min stroll down the Geelong Rd.
1st, I wish. This is number 4. I should have taken mum's advice and bought a warmer doona after number 3, lol.
Small world Simondo, was on FB during the week and noticed you are friends with a mate that I went to primary school here in Melbourne with. I recognised the profile pic from here on Seabreeze.
I see you on Facebook now. Yeah, Matty G. We went to Leopold Primary before he went up to Melbs. He runs a mens hairdressing and grooming saloon in Geelong West, called Matty G's, but now called The Mens Room.
GUYS ! beware of the NO GO zones in corio bay, esp. around the western side.
100,000 dollar fines......
and the tide moves pretty quickly in the channel, nothing you cant handle but just
be aware of it.
someone mentioned distance too short. if so continue into limeburners and see how far
you can go up the river. or call in the yacht club, they are pretty friendly, so im told.
100k fine sounds odd ?? But it's pretty clear what areas you need to keep away from....
Be careful of the sea unchins in Corio Bay. Apparently they are worse than ever!
Just be careful launching and landing.
I remember a windsurf event (slalom) we had on Corio Bay in about 1990 when I was
lucky enough to step on one real bad and had about 50 spines removed by the doc.
Just as I suspected.... SSE wind, just starting to fill in now.
Get your equipment ready! Let's make an 8am/8.30 call.
Now it's ESE, and picking up. 35km/h gusts.
Edit;
Now SE, 40km/h gusts. Conditions look great, but at this stage I'm looking for paddle partners.... Melbourne Crew aren't coming....
Success Of Sorts... We both survived, no trouble !! We paddled from the eastern side of the tip Pt Henry, and had to head in a Northerly (or NNE) direction at first, to get lined up with out destination, and to also miss a shallow shoal, off the tip. Only to find another shoal shortly after that. The shoals cut out the wind runners, and that was the main problem. We fell in a few times in the middle third, and mostly when we fell in, we could actually stand up. Which leads up to the conclusion, that Corio Bay is basically very shallow, or at least the general Pt Henry region is shallow!
We'd like to take a closer look at some depth charts now.
The general shallow waters were not allowing the wind waves to develop, and we were left with small waves, and small periods / small short troughs, so the runners we did manage to get, were a little tricky. The running swell was also peaky and broken. Nose in the back of the wave ahead... sort of stuff.
DJ has some photos to add. Thanks again for coming DJ!
At least we gave it a go.... it would be a nice cruisey paddle on summer SE though.... but basically, we won't be rushing back to that route on SE wind. Wind was about 15-20 knots, so could have also used 5 knots more....
How was the SE in Melbourne today ???
Good work on the trailblazing guys. Yeah I used to row in Corio bay all the time round lime burners. It's quite shallow. Probably want to hit it on a high tide.
The tide was actually rising towards high, so full high would not have been much better!
Here's some pics from today.
They drive cool cars in Geelong.
Even their road signs are cool.. They remind me of Hawaii.
Nice soft seaweed at Point Henry.
I'm glad I wore my hat and sunnies would have been nice looking into that sun reflection on the water.
Those who don't know would not think that it's windy but others would know those snakie lines on the water show 20+ knots of wind.
The messy chop that never did build up made it hard to keep on track..
Our final destination was where the yellow x is in the distance between the tower on the right and the tanks on the left.
Here's Simon paddling hard to make something out of nothin'.. It did get better as we got closer to the end.
It was a great day.. No ships.. no nasty unchins.. and no $100,000 fines.. Just a great adventure and good fun.
DJ
What did The Melbourne Guy do today ?? Was the SE any good up there?
DW Leash v's Normal Leash;
There was a scattering of weed near the end, and the leash picked some up. Easy to shake off, but I'll be contacting Balin tomorrow, for one of there DW Leashes !!
Rich (Strapper), do you stock them?
Simon it's the new Balin SUP leash (half coiled and half straight).
I think their new DW leash is the short coiled leash that made for a forward leash plug.
DJ
Glad it went OK guys, I ended up getting a lift to my daughters boyfriends house in Chelsea, did a solo downwinder back to Green Point this arvo. Just on 20k in 2hours and 10, direction was pretty good but very choppy before Ricketts. Expensive though, bloody waterproof phone housing leaked and my iphone is stuffed 
. Think I'm going back to my old waterproof cover, had it for years but recently got sucked into supposedly superior German technology......
