Gippsland Lakes Boat Camping 2009

On a long weekend in early March the boys and I set out on our second camp cruising expedition on the Gippsland Lakes. The Gippsland Lakes are a set of coastal lakes feed by four rivers and border the coast in eastern Victoria. They are an ideal small boating location with many interesting rivers and arms to explore, shallow in a lot of places and with little tide as their opening to the sea is via a narrow channel at Lakes Entrance.

After a week of stormy and unsettled weather the forecast for the weekend was looking good with westerly winds for the Saturday and easterly for the Sunday and Monday. We launched the boat at just after 9:30am on Saturday from Lock Sport, a small town at the western end of Lake Victoria and the main lakes system.
We headed out with the jib furled and a reef tucked in the main in a 15 knot north wester that was whipping up a few whitecaps on the shallow water. My oldest son Jordan took the helm with my younger son Connor in the bow complete with three cornered hat. He had decided that he would be the Captain for this voyage and mother had dutifully stitched three corners into a felt hat from his extensive arsenal of dress-ups.With the strong northwester on our quarter we made rapid progress towards our first destination for the trip, Wilson’s Point at the tip of Sperm Whale head. Even with reduced sail we managed our top speed of the weekend on this leg at 6.5 knots.
After about three hours of sailing, during which the Captain “discovered” and named a few points along the way, we eased the bow into the beach beside the jetty at Wilson’s Point.It was good to have that section of the voyage over as the boat was well loaded and sitting down, the centercase about 3” above the water. After swamping the boat at Christmas and not being able to recover it due to the centercase being below the water I am still a bit nervous about a repeat. For this trip I added another 70 litres of buoyancy in the form of plastic containers and a strap in buoyancy box that doubles as dry storage.

Sperm Whale Head is at the centre of the Gippsland Lakes Coastal Park that runs along the south side of the lakes. At Wilson’s Point there are good facilities for boaties with 48 hour moorings at the jetty and toilet and picnic facilities ashore. This is common throughout the park.

Once we had completed lunch, done a little fishing and checked out the pelicans and black swans at the point we set on our way to our camp site at Bunga Arm. The entrance to Bunga Arm is through a narrow channel that even a small boat like ours needs to follow. Other areas of shallow water are not marked but black swans with their bums in the air feeding off the bottom are a good indication of places to avoid.

Down Bunga Arm, which runs for about 10km parallel to the ocean beach there are a number of groups of campsites cut into the bush. These are grouped into about a dozen sites with toilet facilities nearby. At $12 for two nights these are a bargain. We easily found our spot from the water and pulled into shore to be greeted by a couple of guys lounging on deck chairs. Their mates were out in their fizz boat doing delivery trips to bring across the needed supplies of tents, bbq, generator, stereo, chainsaw and liquid refreshments. Our setup is considerably simpler with a small three person tent, gas cooker, a few pots and plates and supplies. Oh and the “Jolly Roger”, well it wouldn’t be a boys own adventure without pretending we are pirates.

After a bit of fishing in which we only caught weed we settled down for some pasta and tomato sauce for dinner around a camp fire we had built from the ample supply of branches and twigs in the area. If only we brought marshmallows. At 9pm we turned in to the sounds of the ocean breakers crashing on the beach behind us and the music of the guys next door.

The next day started with porridge enjoyed standing on the warm sand covering the embers of the fire from the night before. We set off just after 10am for Rotomah Island in a light easterly of probably 5 knots. It wasn’t long before this died and I was on the oars to get us down Bunga Arm and into the channel where we picked up the breeze again and made slow progress to land at Rotamah by 12:30pm. It wasn’t long until Connor had struck up a conversation with a couple seated at the jetty who were admiring the boat. It is seldom that we land anywhere without somebody coming for a look and a chat.

Rotomah is a small island below Sperm Whale Head and again is part of the Gippsland Lakes Coastal Park. Reportedly there is quite a bit of wildlife on this island including ostriches, kangaroos and koalas. We didn’t manage to spot any but the ground evidenced their presence with droppings everywhere. Snakes, did I mention snakes! Apparently they are there too but we certainly weren’t looking for them.

After lunch, a bit of fishing (still no fish) and wandering about we jumped back in the boat and headed back to camp in a freshening south easterly breeze. When we arrived back to camp we tied up alongside one of the many cruise boats that take tourists around the lakes. They made comment that we were one of the only sailboats they had seen all day actually sailing. I guess when the other option is rowing that’s not surprising.

After dinner we ventured over the wooded sand dunes behind camp to the ocean beach. This is less than 100 meters from camp and provides great views east and west along the slowly arching coast line.

With the high pressure taking hold we awoke the next morning to a beautiful sunrise and again a light easterly breeze. After breakfast we broke camp at about 9:30am and headed over to Duck Arm on our way back to Lock Sport. Once we had navigated the channel in the light breeze Connor took the helm and held a true course across Lake Victoria to Duck Arm.

It had been mentioned to me that Duck Arm was a lovely little spot but it is truly one of those places you need to visit to appreciate how lovely it is. On the back of the building breeze we entered the narrow channel at the entrance to Duck Arm and rounded up to beach ourselves next to a number of boats moored stern in on a steeply shelving beach. Upon stepping ashore we were greeted by the skipper next door enthusing over our boat.





After a short lunch I walked through the bush on the spit to survey conditions out on the lake. The updated forecast was for 10-15 knots of south easter building to 20 knots in the afternoon. Since we were now on the northern side of Lake Victoria I was not keen on a reach in 20 knots with waves fetched from the other side of the lake. Part of me was hoping that it had come in early and trapped us here for the night but on reaching the other side it looked to be in the 10-15 knot range as forecast.

With a furled jib and a reefed main we set sail to the disgruntlement of the boys and beat out against the breeze until we could bear away down the lake on a beam reach to Lock Sport. While beating into the wind without a jib made it more difficult than required I didn’t want to be over powered and require Jordan to have to go forward and fight it down in a building sea.

Once around the shoal marker at the sand spit on the Duck Arm headland we spotted one of those “what the ...” type of craft running down the lake before us. The deck house on this old tub was probably providing more drive than the second-hand undersize mainsail that did not trouble the head of the mast or the end of the boom. We quickly unfurled the headsail and set off in pursuit. There is nothing like a little challenge to make the long leg go faster.

About twenty minutes into this leg we were approached, as had occurred on several occasions over the weekend by a power boat travelling to fast and to close. Our frantic attempts to wave them away for greater clearance were interpreted as us being very friendly folk and they waved back as a 1 meter wave curled off their transom. As the wake approached I hardened up into the wind to take it head on when it rose on the back on the building sea to a breaking wave about 1.5 meters high. We smashed through the wave taking onboard a few litres of water and giving off a few choice words in the perpetrators direction. We bore away with the wind and continued our pursuit.

It wasn’t long before we had caught our target and passed him to windward being waved pass by the proud owner with a toothless smile. Looking at his boat close up, I wouldn’t have expected anything else. We carried on our way at a steady 5-6 knots, being taunted by Jordan in the bow holding the GPS confidently declaring I wouldn’t get his 6.5 knot record. At 3:30pm we flew into the jetty at Lock Sport to finish another very enjoyable weekend on the Gippsland Lakes.