We had a few days to let Moody Blue loose on Bass Straight, so we decided to sail up to Wilson's Prom 85 NM away. The first day was light winds 10-15 knots from the south so we enjoyed a brisk sail for 3 hours until the wind died, we then motored into Oberon bay which is on the west side of the Prom. What a beautiful bay with no-one around except a small motor boat, we anchored at 5 pm and enjoyed some lovely fishing and a very peaceful night. The next day the wind was up from the North east so we headed off for Refuge cove, by the time we rounded South east light the wind was gusting up to 45 knots and getting a bit rough, Luckily the cove was not far and by midday we were anchored safely in the magnificent bay. It no wonder everyone said you must go the refuge cove; it is picture perfect with protection from all winds. There were at least 15 yachts moored and lots of bush walkers roaming around. Wilson's Prom is a wild life sanctuary so access can only be made by Foot or Boat. Kerry and I really enjoyed our stay and will definitely return. We left for home at 10.30 am the next day, as soon as we were out of the cove the wind started to pickup from the east and we enjoyed a great sail to the South light and then turned for Westernport bay with the wind building to 30 knots, we had the wind coming from behind us and off our starboard stern now and we were reaching 10 knots at times. We enjoyed a great sail back with the wind gusting to 40 knots at times, we rounded the point of the bay at about 11pm which was a little scary because we know there is dangerous rocks jutting out from the headland so we gave it
Plenty of room heading into the bay. GPS and Radar are great but at night when you cannot see anything one always has that fear of hitting something, we picked up the channel markers and motored into Cowes where we anchored and went straight to bed.
We had sailed around 100 KM that day and averaged about 7.5 knots. The next day we arose early and headed back to Westernport Marina for new years eve, the weather forecast was for light winds and 42 deg of heat, needless to say Kerry and I spent a lot of time swimming and dangling our legs in the water.
Wilson's Prom is Victoria's answer to the Whitsundays in Queensland, sure Queensland has better weather but I can honestly say the Prom has the cleanest water I have ever sailed in and the bays and coves are second to none, from the prom you can sail around all the islands and up the east coast of Tasmania to Hobart, a trip Kerry and I will be doing as soon as we can get the time. Kerry and I have dreamed of sailing up the east coast to Queensland and retiring someday, I think now we may re-consider and have a look in our own back yard first.