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A chilly day on the water, for the last day of July 2026. A group of us sailed out of Warmies, had lunch at Webb Dock, and then some of us went to check out the seals off Williamstown.
Great winds in the morning tapered off to only a couple of knots later in the day.
The water temperature is dropping in the bay now. It was 13 degrees in the water for this dive on 25 May. Not a lot of life around, and the water was remarkably cloudy considering that it had been quite calm for a few days before the dive. It's been a couple of months since my last dive here, and I was surprised at how much the landscape had changed. Lots of new marine growth, and parts of many of the ledges had collapsed. It made it hard to get my bearings!
On a blustery day at Werribee South, a group of Wooden Boat Association members headed out from the launching ramps at the mouth of the Werribee River for their monthly sail. With Northerly winds up to 20 knots at least one reef in the sails was a good idea. "Nyatne" handled the conditions beautifully. After spending some time out on the bay we came back to the river and rafted up for lunch and a chat. Another great day on the water!
Another light wind day on the bay. Kirsty came down for a swim, so I spent some time playing in the shallows so that she could film me from the water.
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While Kirsty and I were sailing our CS17 Mk3, we came across a large patch of flattened water off Sandringham. There was a very clear delimiter between where the water was flat, and where the water was being ruffled by the wind, but it wasn't simply a matter of there being no wind blowing across the water there. The edge of the patch had a lot of muck on the surface. We wondered if this was this just runoff from the Yarra River after the rain events last week, or if it is the start of an algal bloom.
Watch this video in 360° mode by clicking on the "Youtube" button at the bottom left of the video. If you are watching in the Youtube app on a mobile device you can move your device around to change your view. It will only display properly in desktop browsers and the Youtube app. If your browser doesn't support a 360° view you can watch a standard video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naAS1g8Kdss.
A lazy morning on Albert Park Lake in my Core Sound 17 Mk3. The wind was low, and the stand up paddleboard paddles that I had cut down to make them narrow enough to fit into the cockpit seat spaces worked really well when the wind dropped to nothing. Click and drag on the video to change your point of view.
There were lots of divers getting ready to go in when we arrived, so we decided to enter the water from the beach, and to head out to the wreck of the Eivion first. When we did get to the pier there were actually very few divers around, so we assume that they must have gone out to Elsa's reef. Visibility was pretty good, although slightly milky. Not as much variety of life as we have seen there before. We had been told that there was a large Smooth Ray hanging around the pier, but we didn't see it.
This was another murky dive! Pretty poor visibility, and not anywhere as much life around as we would normally see. Things improved a bit towards the end of the dive, but certainly not the best dive we've ever had at Ricketts Point...
The Ballaarat Yacht Club has started a wooden boat festival, timed to coincide with the annual Begonia Festival. There was only a small number of wooden boats on the water next year, but it will grow year by year. A few members of the Wooden Boat Association brought along their boats, and it was great to catch up with them...
Will and I went for a short sail in Nyatne, launching at Half Moon Bay, on 27 February 2026. The wind picked up a bit while we were on the water, but didn't get above 12 knots. Another great day!
We went to Paynesville, on the Gippsland Lakes, for a few days in February 2026, in the week before the Paynesville Classic Boat Rally, and sailed with the raid fleet on the Monday. Lots of boats from Victoria, of course, but also lots from New South Wales, and at least one from Canberra.
This was quite a murky dive, with visibility getting worse the further we got away from the shore. There were lots of Snapper, some Leatherjackets, one school of Zebrafish, and a few large Leatherjackets and Fiddler Rays. We also saw a few Old Wives, Moonlighters, and a large Wrasse.
In this final build video, I have made the dodger and boom tent for Nyatne, our Core Sound 17 Mk3, sewn some line bags, built a galley box, and sewn a mast and sail cover that will let me leave the sails furled around the masts while towing the boat.
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