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/
Saw that map. Sounds like fun..... makes me think I need to do more than go back > forward > back > forward..... some exploring would be good :D
hey Jez,
this is how we do the tracking when we broadcast or stream yacht racing.
Its relatively easy but needs a bit of grunt when you run multiple tracks.
I converted the SBN files to GPX, then combined the GPX overlay in google earth pro.
Exported a QT MOV file then imported it on FCP to add graphics, music etc
Not the board Mick, just sheer talent by the rider.. 
.. Actually I was surprised how slow the actual speeds were...
gpsteamchallenge.com.au/sailor_session/show?date=2013-11-04&team=16
gpsteamchallenge.com.au/sailor_session/show?date=2013-11-04&team=48
On some big bearaways I felt that I had the old beast fairly flying - but only a measly 12 knots and pretty much the slowest of the group...
The day was great fun and I will be keen to partake in another similar misadventure.
Sailing those old barges was fun once I remembered how.
Thanks for the google earth video Mick - it looks great!
Hey Pete,
I see you conveniently forgot to mention how many time you deliberately took Kato out!
My favourite part of the day was seeing the looks of surprise on the fishermen on the banks of the river when we got to the end destination and how those surprised looks turned to ones of laughter as they watched us relaunch, crash into each other, fall off into waist deep mud and run into the reeds!
