Tegwen left Lady Barron wharf at 7:00am Sunday 13th March, just before the turn of the tide, to negotiate the tricky channels of Adelaide Bay and the eastern Franklin Sound channels. As expected, there were light winds against us once out in open waters and this remained so for most of the day. Having reached a point abeam of the tip of Flinders Island still motoring into light winds, we were wondering what had happened to the predicted south westerly we were hoping would send us across Bass Strait proper.
Then at 7:55pm, five minutes before the BOM Forecast Wind chart showed strong SW winds in the area, they arrived with a bang and the sleigh ride began! For the rest of the night we had winds averaging around 27 knots with a 1 metre SE swell and SW seas of 1 to 2 metres on top. It was fairly dark and the sensation of speed was tremendous with the wake phosphorescing and Tegwen twitching in the confused combination of sea and swell. As we only had the two of us on board, we didn't put the main up, just the reefed genoa with the motor assisting. Tegwen held 6 to 7 knots all through the night until mid morning Monday, the wind had eased to 20 knots and then in the afternoon down to 12 and later even less.
Somewhere around Gabo Island the rain showers started to come across and we didn't shake them off until the entrance to Twofold Bay and our chosen anchorage in East Boyd Bay, where we found five other yachts. We were safely at anchor by 11:00pm having enjoyed a speedy trip with plenty of excitement but none of the terrors that Bass Strait can dish out.
Tegwen made the crossing from Lady Barron to Eden in 40 hours, which was significantly quicker than originally planned. The maximum wind speed was 31.5 knots, Tegwen averaged 5.7 knots over 168 nautical miles of the crossing and 5.4 knots over the full 216 nautical miles.
