A simply fantastic sail aboard "Endurance" last week, up the Bay to an overnighter at the welcoming old Royal Yacht Club of Victoria at Williamstown. 
Peter and I had been planning another trip outside of Port Phillip, but big swell and Westerlies put paid to our plan of anchoring off Lorne, so we plumped for Williamstown instead. Good call!
With a 20 knot breeze giving us the perfect "reach" all the way to Melbourne, we settled into a run that had the boat seemingly singing with joy. Touching well over 8 knots at times, she was really flying along, a fantastic feeling with 12.5 tonnes of boat, powering along in near-perfect trim, in brilliant Winter sunshine. Wow, what a boat!

The trip gave me a good chance to play with the windvane steering system, and while I still haven't mastered it, I'm beginning to understand it. With a bit of further practice, it should really start to shine. The problem was, we were enjoying the run so much that it would've been a shame to slow the boat to set up the sail trim to suit the windvane better. And I wasn't about to end the fun by reading the manual either, but I did afterwards and we really should've slowed her down to manage the self-steering correctly.
We weren't really drinking champagne at the time either, but we did have a couple of congratulatory cold beers once we'd tied up at our temporary berth, free for Geelong members due to a reciprocal rights arrangement.

Williamstown's a funky little part of Melbourne with a fantastic maritime history, being in Hobson's Bay and where the old sailing ships used to dock. The history's alive, too, and the old pubs along the esplanade still do a good trade with today's sailors, including some of  the Sea Shepherd's crew from their Antarctic chase vessel, the Steve Irwin. She was docked nearby and the young, volunteer crew were sinking a few cold beers prior to a scheduled departure on another mission.
We had a great night on shore, and felt like genuine old sailors as we swaggered around the streets, but were fortunate that the tide didn't drop much overnight as we were tied firmly to the wharf with short-ish lines! We would've looked pretty silly with 12 tons of boat hanging in mid-air.........
Anyway, we survived that one, learned another lesson, and cruised around a little in the morning before heading for home. 
Unfortunately, paying the price for the gorgeous run on the way up, we had the motor on all the way, and hit a wall of rain for the last hour or so, but it was relaxing to be plodding along with the big diesel and electric autopilot keeping us on track.

After another couple of local daysails in rough conditions, it was an easy decision to head for WesternPort when we saw a weather window open.
Being Pete Wilson's turn to take Mizan out, poor ol' Endurance was left at home in port. No matter.
So the two of us set off for Queenscliff Marina under motor power, entering the famous "cut" and docking with a bit of re-arranging of Mizan's pulpit when we crashed into a concrete piling. Hmmm, we'll wait til slack water next time. An excellent dinner at the seafood restaurant at the dock, and through "The Rip"  the next morning.  A couple of hours before slack water, with minimal swell or wind, wasn't too difficult.
Then, it was a pleasant cruise along the coast, around Cape Schank and all the way up Western Port with the tide running with us.
We couldn't secure a berth at Hastings, but were welcomed at Yaringa, a cute-as-bat's-ears little place amongst the mangroves. The top pic shows the marina as we were coming in on the full, spring tide.....and the bottom pic shows the same entry the next morning on the low. We weren't going anywhere 'til after lunch.....
Another interesting point about the overnight stay was that with such a clear, still, night, the temperature fell below freezing and the dock and boats were all covered with ice in the morning!
Once we could clear the channel, we headed off for an overnight stop on the public floating wharf at the town of Rhyll, on Phillip Island. 

The wharf had been storm-damaged and there were signs all over it threatening all kinds of punishment by State Parks Victoria, which we happily ignored. 
Mizan had picked up something ugly on her propeller, which was causing a nasty vibration, so Pete called in a diver to clear it off. 
It was too cold to jump in without a wetsuit and I certainly wasn't volunteering! Anyway, a quick fix by the friendly local diver, and it was off to our next night's stopover, anchored in the bay off the town of Flinders. A cosy but rolly night's sleep, and an early start back around Cape Schank and a solid day's sail home, in the rain and through "The Rip" with a blustery Nor Easter. Back into the RGYC just on dark. The Winter Weather Window was closing fast and it would be a fair bet that we'd probably been the only yacht out in Bass Strait for the day....