I found this map online, shortly after DJ and I completed our shallow water down winder. It is not high enough resolution to read the depth readings, so I sort of just discarded it, and left it on the back burner.....

However, in reopening it, you can see depth contours, which shows that our paddle tracked the shallow water areas !!!

So lesson learnt, you need deeper water for a great down winder !

Conditions were SE about 20 knots, gusting towards 25. Start was east side of the pointy tip of Point Henry (bottom middle of photo), and finish was Geelong Grammar School, just the east of the "Brown Blob" towards top left of picture.

Hi DJ,
Those contours make perfect sense to us now !!! We just followed shallow water the whole way ! But we knew that when we were standing up in the water, but we were like 2-3km from the nearest land !

There's a deeper water "finger" towards our finish line, and that was about the area where we had a couple of little runners.

Simon

Plane Sailing !

Could have told us !!

We posted the route, etc, prior to going, and I think you also posted a comment then also. But you did not mention how shallow it could/would be !!

But at least we know now !! I can now read shallow water chop, for future route selection. DJ & I were at the end destination, saying it looked a touch flat.... lessons learnt !

www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=66469

Yep, only warning about fines, not depth !! But we know now.... But Limeburners to Grammar on a decent southerly would actually be a better run, in deeper water. Our route was over the shallowest parts !! But we didn't know that shallow water was going to make for poor down wind conditions either..... we had 25 knots or so, and I've heard you can still do a good downwinder in Hawaii with 15 knots, as long as you have a decent swell running behind you.... (???)....

That bar you guys paddled over has a bit of history to it. In the 1840's cattle were driven across it & the 2 natural channels that existed at the time. From Pt Lillias (Avalon) to Pt Henry. And about a hundred years ago we used to speed sailboard in it's lee.

Lobes said...

And that peninsula where you finished just opposite the school is where rabbits were first introduced to Australia. Some grazier thought he'd like to hunt them so let a few pairs go. Succeeded beyond his wildest dreams

Nah, rabbits were first introduced at Barwon Downs down towards Colac, the guys relos are still around Geelong, proud moment in history for them I'm sure.

Apparently it took several goes with the bunnies until they found some that would survive. The first were domestic rabbits and they all died out. Eventually they found some tough Spanish rabbits that could survive and the rest is history.