Melbourne to Port Fairy (M2PF)

Catching the 02:14 to Port Fairy

But really, you have to be onboard well before that, as it turns out. The 135nm race West actually starts on Good Friday morning at 0100hrs, which can be a bit of a shock to the system for those who are new to the game and more used to a start time like 1100hrs or 1300hrs.

Point Lonsdale Light looking over the Rip to Point Nepean - it's not like this everyday however...

Why on Earth would anyone do that you're asking? And there is a logical answer - believe me. You see the yellow starting beacon begins flashing atop a crash boat a bit before 0100hrs, just off Drapers Reef in between Queenscliff and Point Lonsdale, at the bottom of Melbourne's Port Phillip (to give it its correct title). ‘The Bay', as it is known to most people exits out into Bass Strait about 20 to 30 minutes further down the way, through the very aptly named and internationally revered ‘Rip', which is the very reason why most Ocean races in Victoria have these weird start times.

So you see, to be on the 02:14 to Port Fairy you have to start at 0100hrs, which in itself means you left your pen further up The Bay at something like 2000hrs to make the four to five hour 30nm journey down The Bay. The 0214hrs represents the zenith of ‘Slack Water' in between tides and that's the one you want catch!

Point Nepean is the other side of the pincer - lots and lots of rocks...

All confused? Let me help.

The Bay is quite large (1930km2 and 25km3!!!!) and although mostly fairly shallow, all the water contained therein makes an urgent dash out ‘The Rip', which is the narrow 1.5nm gap between Point Nepean and Point Lonsdale that together have the name, ‘The Heads'. The usable part of this gap for Mariners is more like 0.6nm, which makes it pretty tight indeed. Of course only a few hours later, a new batch is just dying to come screaming back in! Depending on weather, each way can often be up to six knots. Think of it like a really big funnel, where you can poor in as much as you want into the top, it still has to come out the bottom, which will take time. The interval in between these changes of ebb and flow lasts around two hours, hence ‘Slack Water'.

Going way, way back in time, The Heads was actually where the Yarra River emptied into Bass Strait via a rocky delta, which had meandered all the way down from Port Melbourne across a flood plain that would later fill to become Port Phillip. In the early 70's this delta was blasted a lot flatter (what a diving job that must have been) and the result was a much calmer section of water. The whirlpools are nowhere near as big now as back then, but if you stand on Point Lonsdale's back beach when wind and tide are working against each other, you can see the water stack up over one metre and sometimes over three.

In addition, Melbourne is Australia's largest and most active container port, so there are plenty of ‘Yankee Foxtrots' going in and out at all times of the day. Like Port Jackson's Ferries, they have right of way and will often charge in at up to 20knots to ensure they maintain steerage. Sometimes you can even see them line up in a queue, so you do not want to get in their way at all.

Historically (all the way back to 1840), the old sailing ships used to have quite a hard time both coming in and going out (no cast iron main sheets back then of course) and many lives were lost in and around Corsair Rock and Challenge Reef. Today, you must get clearance from Point Lonsdale Signal Station (Lonsdale VTS) on Ch12 VHF, who run the Port Phillip Sea Pilots and have the Diesel in gear and throttled up!

In acknowledging the importance of education for Mariners, the ORCV conducts an annual ‘Rip Tour' to ensure you make many safe crossing of this notorious stretch of water. You can partake for the general tourism facts or come armed with a dictaphone to take notes on the locations of rocks or how the ‘four fingers' at Queenscliff work. These will help you choose the correct West, East or two Centre Channels that Point Lonsdale will have directed you to. They also now light them up - awesome.

ORCV Committee member Simon Dryden explains, "Slack tide is safest, there is around a two hour window, but by starting our race around an hour before slack tide, we provide the best and safest conditions for our fleet... hence the 0100 start. As most of the fleet sails down from Melbourne after work finishes on Thursday, it's not such a crazy start time really. We are used to it."

It was a very light weather start and thankfully not too cold - around 10degreesC. Inside the Bay there was and still is a very light ENE of 5-10knots. At Queenscliff, Point Lonsdale and Barwon Heads there was and is to a degree 5 to 10 knots from anywhere in Western half. This kind of variable weather is fairly common at this time of year, so the Navi-guessers will need to be on their mettle.

Most of the Surfcoast looks like this - delighful.

The leaders are around Anglesea, which is one of the first towns on the great Ocean Road and a magnificent spot. Aireys Inlet, whose pub probably has the best view in the business, is reporting variable winds of less than five knots, so I bet the fleet will be anxiously awaiting the South Westerly that is meant to fill in up to around 15knots. They appear to be taking the outer route with ‘Isuzu Marine' leading ‘Extasea', then ‘Spirit of Downunder', ‘Ninety Seven' and the first of three entries from the Port Fairy Yacht Club, ‘Running Wild' - Barry Levinson's Sydney 40 One Design.

Best pub view in the land? Quite possibly.

As a little bit of history, in case you do not know the area, this very picturesque town is home to one of Victoria's largest fishing fleets and a much loved tourist destination. It is on the eastern headland of Portland Bay and was first explored as early as 1810 by Captain James Wishart, a sealer working the southern coast, who anchored near the entrance to the Moyne River. He subsequently explored the river and revisited the area regularly, whereby during the mid-1820s the 'harbour' got to be known as Port Fairy, after Wishart's cutter, 'The Fairy'.

By 1835 a whaling station had been established on the island at the mouth of the Moyne River. A town began to grow in the early 1840s, initially to be named Belfast. Agriculture in the area developed rapidly and by the 1870's up to 20 vessels were coming to Port Fairy, just to load the onions and potatoes for sale in Melbourne. In 1887 the town was renamed back to Port Fairy.

By John Curnow with Rob Kothe