After a breezy start to Friday it was a very calm start to our Saturday in Recherche Bay but that allowed a smooth quick dry dinghy run to the beach to help Tony catch his lift to Hobart.
I had a good chance for a phone catchup with my dear wife in a patch of good reception sitting in the dinghy in the middle of the bay.
After breakfast a plan was laid to head up the D'entrecasteaux Channel past Southport to Dover.
We saw a few gusts belting across the treetops but didn't pay too much attention. Perhaps we should have been more attentive as shortly after we fully hoisted mainsail we were slammed with gusts to 40 knots making Fargo dangerously overpowered.
Some of the heavier gusts shook the mainsail so heavily we lost a batten or two and had "Fargo" rounding up to windward and taking us on a heading towards some of the nearby reefs in these confined inshore waters.
Skipper did a great job at the helm in spite of his inexperienced foredeck crew(myself) making a basic error or two. We dropped the mainsail completely and sailed on under headsail alone at a brisk 8 knots for nearly 2 hours before the wind died completely.
The rest of the run up to Dover had us motor-sailing past some big fish farms in benign conditions.
The Port Esperance Sailing Club was a very popular venue as boats off-loaded 10 days of refuse into nearby skips and took patient turns in the solitary but very hot and welcome shower. Some fleet topped up water and fuel at the newly refurbished jetty. This activity had the crews engaged in some verbal jousting with feisty and somewhat officious locals over who could tie up alongside and for how long.
A timely and eloquent tribute was paid to the ladies of the VDLC fleet so a group photo was called for. The club put on a fantastic BBQ dinner in their basic but cosy pavilion overlooking the bay. The fireplace was popular focus second only to the bar. A great time was had by all but some of our number may have hazy memories of the latter part of the evening.
Perhaps it was the heavy overnight rain that helped us sleep so well and not the generous helpings of food and wine.
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