Sailing The Rip into Port Philip Victoria

[Rustic Charm]

Originally Posted by Ann T. Cate

Once you're at King Is., there are lots of potential stopping places along the way, and day hopping will be easy. Enjoy.

Ann

Thanks Ann. A nice comfortable trip back would be good

[hoppy]

Do the large commercial ships worry about the tides at the rip? Or can they come and go as long as conditions outside allow the pilot transfer?


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[Alan Mighty]

The official line is that only rarely do modern cargo ships get in trouble in The Rip.

That's partly because of the greater power on tap, the expertise of pilots, dredged channels, and the better data (i.e the time of slack water).


Here's a quote from the Port Phillip Sea Pilot service:

"The Rip is still a very dangerous area for all craft because of the strong tidal flow and the uneven nature of the sea bed and is at its worst when a full ebb tide of up to 10 knots meets a southerly gale. This and the fact that slack water is three hours after high and low water explains why so many ships were wrecked there in the early days. The ship's captain timing his arrival for low water and expecting to get the first of the flood tide through the entrance found that he was caught in the strongest part of the ebb tide, and in trying to enter could be swept on to Point Nepean.


"Ships have changed considerably during the history of this service, from sail to steam, powered by coal or oil fires, but today nearly all have diesel engines, some up to 40,000 horsepower. Speed and reliability have increased dramatically, some can do in excess of 25 knots but the average would be about 15, so it is rare for a ship to be held up by the tide at the Rip."(from History - Welcome to Port Phillip Sea Pilots website)


You can watch shipping movements through The RIP by AIS at: Port Phillip Ships


Matt Riley wrote a neat story on the unique tides in Torres Strait and The Rip back in 2012.

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by hoppy

Do the large commercial ships worry about the tides at the rip? Or can they come and go as long as conditions outside allow the pilot transfer?


Sent from my iPhone using Cruisers Sailing Forum

Ships come and go at all states of the tide.

About once every 10 years or so weather may be bad enough for the pilot boat to stop working. Ships may still come ( if the master has a pilotage exemption certificate ) and go ( they just carry the pilot on to the next port... ).

I am only aware of one weather event since the mid 80's when smaller outward ships didn't sail and there was a gaggle of us anchored off Portsea and - in our case - St Leonards. Early/mid 90's ? ... the pilot boat was lost coming back in from picking up the pilot off an outward bound Maersk car carrier with the loss of the pilot and two boat crew.

That was seriously bad weather...

[GILow]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

... the pilot boat was lost coming back in from picking up the pilot off an outward bound Maersk car carrier with the loss of the pilot and two boat crew.

Was that the incident where the engine broke away from its mountings in the pilot boat?

[hoppy]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

and go ( they just carry the pilot on to the next port... ).

That could make an interesting call to the wife "Honey, I won't be home for dinner.... for another 6 weeks"

The pilot vessels are looking pretty sleek and speedy these days

[El Pinguino]

Don't know about that but she was overwhelmed on her way back in.... just disappeared from radio and radar.
Wreck turned up the next day up by the Popes Eye somewhere... just the bow showing above water... 2 of the 3 crew still aboard.
Strangely I am having trouble finding info on this incident on the web.

However I did post this in this thread a while back..
'The pilot boat with her entire crew was lost outside after taking the pilot off an outbound Maersk car carrier... maybe Maersk Sky. Tide brought the hull back inside and she was found .. buoyancy in the forepart keeping her afloat.. at the southern end of the Symonds Channel.
That storm had been building for a week and it was one of only two occasions where we 'pulled' a sailing ( in the 18 years I was in that day job). We anchored off St Leonards for the night , there were also couple of small ships anchored in the quarantine anchorage. Overnight a Russian ship westbound in the Strait lost four crew when securing deck cargo down near Otway.
The next day the weather moderated a bit and we got underway again in the evening with conditions looking not too bad but everything is relative. The pilot boat was lost a few hours later.
Sadly the pilot who was lost had been saying the day before that the conditions were the worst he had ever seen and that the pilot boats should stop working.'.

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by hoppy

That could make an interesting call to the wife "Honey, I won't be home for dinner.... for another 6 weeks"

The pilot vessels are looking pretty sleek and speedy these days

I have heard of ships leaving Liverpool in gales and landing their pilots in Las Palmas..

[Alan Mighty]

Captain K.R. Jordan , Captain J.R.Nance, Coxswain J.C. Clayton & Abel Seaman A.R. McRae | Monument AustraliaCaptain K.R. Jordan , Captain J.R.Nance, Coxswain J.C. Clayton & Abel Seaman A.R. McRae | Monument Australia

[Rustic Charm]

Originally Posted by hoppy

That could make an interesting call to the wife "Honey, I won't be home for dinner.... for another 6 weeks"

The pilot vessels are looking pretty sleek and speedy these days

It occasionally happens from Tasmania too, Bell Bay is the Port. The pilot will carry on to Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide etc and fly home.

[Rustic Charm]

Hi guys,

Would someone mind checking this for me. I'm on my way to Quienscliffe now. I'll get in around 9pm as I'm battling wind on the nose, waves and current. I'm planning on picking up a mooring again for the night.

Tomorrow, I'd like to pop through the heads again. Point Lonsdale high tide is at 12:39pm tomorrow. The BoM slack tide is a bit confusing. Will it be slack tide at the heads at 9:23am or 3:42pm?

[hoppy]

Originally Posted by Rustic Charm

Hi guys,

Would someone mind checking this for me. I'm on my way to Quienscliffe now. I'll get in around 9pm as I'm battling wind on the nose, waves and current. I'm planning on picking up a mooring again for the night.

Tomorrow, I'd like to pop through the heads again. Point Lonsdale high tide is at 12:39pm tomorrow. The BoM slack tide is a bit confusing. Will it be slack tide at the heads at 9:23am or 3:42pm?

It will be slack at both 9:23am and 3:42pm. The ebb tide will be after the 3:42pm slack and that is the one you want to go out on as the water will flow out of the bay.

I think...

[El Pinguino]

Correcto, however...

Flood tides are harmless.. you just need the ooomph to get out over them...

If you go out 4 fingers west you could aim to be abeam of lonsdale just after the morning slack... say 0945. Worst that can happen is that you get pushed back in again and have to try again in the afternoon.

[hoppy]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

Correcto, however...

Flood tides are harmless.. you just need the ooomph to get out over them...

If you go out 4 fingers west you could aim to be abeam of lonsdale just after the morning slack... say 0945. Worst that can happen is that you get pushed back in again and have to try again in the afternoon.

Ooops...

So it's better to take the slack before the flood regardless of which way you are heading?

Then I guess if you do leave before the ebb you want to get out before the water flow makes the waves steep and scary?

[El Pinguino]

Its OK to leave at slack water ( start of ) ebb as long as you are abeam of Lonsdale when the ebb gets away..... and stay clear of the nasty bit I mentioned some months ago.