After Sunday's epic conditions, a few nutters decided it would be fun on Monday to try to longboard sail to the Riverview Pub at Tarwin Lower from the Angling Club in Inverloch.
7 sailors took to the Inlet and headed east on the last of the incoming tide with a gentle 8-10 knot S-SW. Our gear ranged from a One Design, to a few windSUPs, to a Raceboard and a big floaty JP Excite with sails around 6.6- 7.4.
In the meantime, Tash Worner provided ground support by driving the 23 k's around the Inlet to roundevous with us at a designated time and place.
A nice cruise ensued, with long runs, interspersed with long walks over sand and mud. Each board seemed to have a sweet spot, but the real stand out was the speed and pointing ability of Peter J's One Design. It certainly showed a bit of pace in the light stuff! To keep together, we used a "clover leaf" model, where the faster boards would gybe out once they got in front and then rejoin behind the main group. It meant that we could sail along and chat and keep an eye on all sailors.
After about 2.5 hours of sailing we made the Tarwin River mouth, and this was where the wind decided to play funny buggers. It swirled around with almost 90' variations and it was decided to forfeit the steaming hot counter meal at the Pub (only 4- ish k's away) so we could sail back to the Angling Club.
Once we cleared the river flats, there were nice long runs to Area 45, then back to base.
Total distance was about 37 k, covered in 4 and a bit hours.
Our GPS tracks can be viewed @:
inverlochwindsurf.org.au/iwc-tarwin-river-mis-adventure/
.. Actually I was surprised how slow the actual speeds were...
