Sailing The Rip into Port Philip Victoria

[El Pinguino]

R374 covers an exclusion zone on Swan Island. Thats where the SAS play with their chums.

[Alan Mighty]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

R374 covers an exclusion zone on Swan Island. Thats where the SAS play with their chums.

Ah! Well done, Pinguino.


That explains the small plops of rifle fire, not the big splashes of artillery shells.

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by Alan Mighty

Ah! Well done, Pinguino.


That explains the small plops of rifle fire, not the big splashes of artillery shells.

Um... I think Rustic was off West Head.... Swan Island is inside Port Philip Heads.

Rustic should be inside as well by now....

[Alan Mighty]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

Um... I think Rustic was off West Head.... Swan Island is inside Port Philip Heads.

Rustic should be inside as well by now....

Ah! My mistake.


If that is the case he was infringing on R323 and it really was the West Head Gunnery Range. About 10 times the calibre of the 7 mike mike you'd expect from R374.

[Alan Mighty]

Here're the limits for R323 (NOTAM is Notices to Air Men):

[Rustic Charm]

Originally Posted by Ann T. Cate

Hi, RC,

You may indeed get a chewing out. And likely will never hear what happened to the officer who said, "Fire!", either. That will be a strictly Navy affair. Good luck with it, I think maybe they'll accept the "honest error" and not be too hard on you. I don't know if it scared you, but it sure as heck would have scared me! I don't know what to make of their missing you, that could be a problem, too, for them, just getting the range, you know.

And congratulations on your safe arrival.

Ann & Jim

Thank you Ann, that there 'rip' was as smooth as a babies bum with the odd pimple. Just came straight on in. Vic has sure put some pretty weather on for us. And it's warm.

The loudness of it both my son and eye were convinced it was coming from my exhaust. We were leaning over and couldn't see anything and as it was rapid fire noise I went to run down stairs when I saw about half a dozen splashes about 2m in height just off my port bow running forward. That's when I yelled out to my son to get down, someone's shooting at us. That's when I admit to being a touch scared. I suddenly suspected we were in a 'range' and check my plotter which simply read zoom in to see danger warning. : I got my son to turn back and I got on the radio and sheepishly asked how to go around the range. They asked me to confirm I was the yacht that had just come around from Flinders. They had tried to warn me apparently, though didn't stop them from shooting at me

Queenscliff is buzy. We accidentally fell against the diesel wharf whilst trying to find a 'public jetty', so decided to pick up some fuel. The folks there wen't that pleased to tell us where the free public jetty was but eventually told us it's the floating one near the bridge. When I found it wasn't going to attempt it as it was too close to the bridge with the current. But, then we 'accidentally' found a public parks mooring so we tied up to that for the night. Docklands tomorrow.

[Rustic Charm]

Originally Posted by Alan Mighty

Ah! Well done, Pinguino.

That explains the small plops of rifle fire, not the big splashes of artillery shells.

Bull ***** small plops of rifle fire my burnt behind.

It was LOUD, like a whip cracking. It sounded so close we thought it was coming from the exhaust.

Where the shells were landing were not 'plops'. Though we didn't hear them landing over the engine. They fell with a neat splash that went up 1.5 to 2 m.

My guess ( from watching tv I admit) is the type of gun they shoot at vessels from ships with.

[Alan Mighty]

Originally Posted by Rustic Charm

Where the shells were landing were not 'plops'. Though we didn't hear them landing over the engine. They fell with a neat splash that went up 1.5 to 2 m.

Understood. I erred thinking you were running into Port Phillip Bay and might have infringed R374. El Pinguino set me straight - you were running through R323 and in the West Head Gunnery Range. So instead of 7 - 9 mm rifle fire you were seeing the splashes from chunks of metal roughly 10 times that diameter.


I looked but could not find a relevant Notice to Mariners. If shirtfronted by the authority figures, note that a casual search of Vic NTMs showed nothing. And be contrite and vow never to do it again.

[hoppy]

Looks like our deterrent to stop the Tasmanian boat people has failed.

[Rustic Charm]

This shows where we were when we suddenly took a dogs leg

[El Pinguino]

That close in!!?? They were probably just throwing rocks at you....

[Rustic Charm]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

That close in!!?? They were probably just throwing rocks at you....

Well, at just under a mile, they were doing alright with their stone throwing.

[Simonsays]

Originally Posted by Rustic Charm

Holy ***** we just got shot at. I thought my engine was back firing until I seen splashes in the water about 500 m further out. Quick zig zag back to west head. I got on the radio to ask how to West Head without getting shot at and we were asked to confirm if we were the yacht just passing west head. Then they told us they have ceased firing until we are through.

Hell, I was a cop for 14 years and never been shot at.

What's the proper procedure?

Am I in trouble now?

when we did gunnery exercises in the German Bay, we did VHF security broadcasts every 30mins starting 2 hours before we started shooting.
and we stopped the exercise when anything got even close to the range until i had made contact on VHF.
i don't think you are in trouble but you really need to pay more attention to your map and the radio.
500m sounds close to "let's wake him up"

[StuM]

Did you zoom in on that note that says Military Exercise Areas - "See lower zoom levels" just below your track?

I think you will find that it says says "Gunnery exercises are conducted in the areas...Mariners should guard Channel 16 when in the vicinity of these areas".

[El Pinguino]

Be thankful the twin 4.5's are long gone Them is the ones I was speaking of when I mentioned the Darings... Vendetta etc . What Is A Gun Plot? | GUN PLOT

There used to be a buoy on the charts well offshore which was the target and which was usually missing... wonder why

Never ever heard a warning on VHF when passing by but did once observe 'fall of shot' well to seaward of us..

Maybe this was what you were dealing with? https://www.flickr.com/photos/royal_...n/photostream/