Wed, 01 Feb 2006 19:30:00 UTC
A huge landlocked body of water, Port Phillip Bay offers superb sailing in the right conditions, but it can bite sometimes, and getting in and out can be a real problem. Riath Al-Samarrai gets the local info.
“Let me tell ye of the horrors that lie beyond that bridge. I saw waves the height of houses eating up boats and not spitting them back out, tides that drag you kicking and screaming into the Bass Strait. Port Phillip be no place for a sailor.”
That’s not a direct quote from the lone fisherman stood in the shadows of the Bolte Bridge and pointing towards a spot some 40 miles out to sea in the distance, but it’s the general gist of what he meant. When boats try to squeeze through the heads and into the bay of Port Phillip sometimes they will wish they were back among the icebergs in the Southern Ocean.
The sea depth changes from more than 50 metres in the Bass Strait to a shade just greater than 13 in the narrow, three and a half kilometre corridor to access the bay. Aside from big, steep waves, the result is 750 square miles of water trying to fight its way out, producing a tide ranging anywhere between two knots and 11 knots.
In the absence of a wind allowing you to sail against the stream going the other way, the upshot is boats often get swept back out to sea. Once you do get through the gate, then phase two of Melbourne’s nautical obstacle course can begin.
A minefield of shallow water shoals are waiting to trip up any boat that ventures too close without a careful eye on the deep channels. A quick study of the local charts and you’ll see predominantly blue interspersed with the odd lane of white. The blue doesn’t signify sea, it means areas too shallow for shipping. In many areas there a low tide two metres deep and a high of four metres. Memo to crew traversing those water; steer clear of the blue.
But then a chart can’t always help you. Captain Richard Toone has been a member of the Port Phillip Sea Pilots for 28 years, he knows what goes on around here. “These shoals move. An area that was once deep in a short period of time could be shallow and ready to catch out a boat that comes too close.”
In fact the shoals are so prominent around here there is next to no white on the charts at all. “They are certainly narrow shipping channels. It’s impossible to count the wreckages coming into here throughout history.” Captain Toone added. “This is considered one of the most dangerous port entrances in the world.”
Having skated around submerged sand traps for 40 miles the prize is the delights of Melbourne’s port and city.
Sounds easy? Then hire a scuba kit and look at the wreckage sprawled across the sea bed. David Steel and Judith Price have been sailing Ubique, their 32 foot cruising yacht, around these waters for nine years. They have seen the comings and goings - and sinkings.
“There’s a fair few tricky spots around here, that’s for sure,” says David. “Not many leisure sailors will go all the way out to the heads, but even in here towards the back of the bay there’s plenty of shallows waiting to get you.
“They have to dredge this area quite regularly just so it doesn’t surprise you.”
Judith chips in, “But it’s caught a few people out.
“Just last week a Chinese ship hit the bottom coming through the heads.”
The couple recall the tale of a sailor from nearby Williamstown who, having circled the globe in his cruising yacht, was heading back to his home port. Thousands of miles of obstacles posed no great problems, but once he attempted to pass the heads he got caught on the rocks which intrude into an already narrow passage.
“It’s hard to keep a course,” David explains. “The winds here, being so variable, one minute when Jude and I were sailing this morning were five knots and five minutes later it was 25!
“And because the water is so shallow you can get huge, steep waves pounding you.
“It can make for very fun sailing for Wednesday warrior sailors like us! But it has caused many many wrecks.”
Judith is from Sydney. She explains how she often thinks about sailing home one day.
“Every now and again I think about sailing out through the heads and sailing the six day trip to Sydney. Then I sober up and change my mind!
“If I ever made it out there I don’t think I’d turn around and try and come back in.”
If she chose to, she’d be advised not to seek words of encouragement from fishermen along the waterfront.