11-Oct-2000 -- My GPS finally returned from it's
early Spring holiday galavanting around central
Australia in a four wheel drive. Sadly, it's driver had disregarded his instructions to visit
any confluences he passed by.
Anyway, 'twas a sunny day, a 5 knot southerly was gently blowing across Port Phillip Bay and it
was a day for sailing!
This confluence is actually very close to the area I grew up in. I launched Coriolis, my Dennis
500 trailer sailer, from Black Rock Yacht Club at Half Moon Bay (Picture #2) and motored out
clear of the breakwater. After heading out into the bay on port tack for a while I decided if I
wanted to get home before dark I had best motor to the confluence and engaged the iron
spinnaker.
Upon arrival at this completely undistinguished location (and I thought 38S 144E in the middle
of a paddock was plain) I discovered that anchoring within 10 metres of THE SPOT in 20 metres
of water wasn't as straightforward as I had hoped.
The remaining photographs were duly taken, showing various features on the shoreline a mile
away, which will be familiar to locals, some traffic I encountered, and your narrater and
intrepid adventurer. And of course the all important GPS shot.
Later examination of the track file recorded revealed I had passed within 20 metres and closer
several times in my efforts to anchor right at the confluence, but the GPS shot is sadly, ever
so slightly off.
Finally, having used all my film (no cat pictures this time) I headed home to Black Rock on a
dead run, pondering how to set up my spinnaker for singlehanded operation. I finished a
delightful afternoon by buying fish and chips from the shop next to the school I attended as a
child and visiting my parents.
Two maps are provided showing the location of the confluence within Port Phillip Bay and
showing the actual track record on a more local map.
These maps were generated using the Auslig mapping product "Australia Unfolded" and are
presented within "OziExplorer" GPS software. The track running along the foreshore is
downloaded from the US Government Coastline extractor service and uploaded into the Garmin
GPS12XL using OziExplorer. URLs for these are below:
http://www.auslig.gov.au
http://www.oziexplorer.com
http://crusty.er.usgs.gov/coast/getcoast.html