May 21, 2026

May 26 saw a cruise of different kind heading to the Southern Latitudes of Australia. The first participants depart one week before the cruise weekend and slowly made their way South by land bound conveyance. As most crews had arrive by Thursday, the first official outing was a BBQ lunch at the Albury Wodonga Sailing Club followed by a sightseeing stop at the Lake Humeweir wall.

The customary Friday night dinner and cruise briefing took place at Bradys Railway
Hotel in Albury.

The cruise weekend was Steve’s ( Meltemi ) big birthday so we celebrated with a cake prepared by Ilse. At the briefing a boatswains pipe was issued to every participating vessel with instructions for the weekend ahead, that nobody is to board the bus until the group was “piped aboard” with the role of piper swapped at every stop.

Saturday saw a crisp morning with sunshine to get everyone a 22 seater bus and on the road into Victoria for slight seeing stop at Woolshed Falls followed by a visit to the gold museum, honey shop located and various other delights in Beechworth. For our lunch stop we enjoyed the craft beer brewed at Bridge Road Brewery together with their delicious food offerings.

The afternoon took the group to Stanton & Killeen winery in Rutherglen where the fortified wines provided an excellent contrast to the lunch time beers. The second winery for the day was Pfeiffer wines, only 5min up the road, where everyone was issued their snack pack by Ilse before enjoying the learning and tasting experience.

Upon sunset the cruisers departed for the town of Wodonga to enjoy a banquet dinner at the Real Thai Kitchen before the bus returned everyone to their accommodation after enjoying a full day of sunshine and many different wines.

On Sunday morning we experienced the start of winter in North East Victoria, it was overcast and drizzling rain by the time the bus reached the first stop at the Eldorado Gold Dredge, a 2000T vessel stranded a long way from the sea. The mood on the bus was bit grim since most of the crew had missed on their Sunday morning coffee and on top of that, the cruise captain stuffed up Imoogi’s coffee order! A short drive through the metropolis of Eldorado (population 273) found a coffee machine at the general store which is part of the McEvoy Tavern, the smallest pub in Victoria. The pub is rather interesting with lots of little signs all over the walls and a resident Alexandrine parakeet that sits on patrons shoulders in an attempt to steal their coffee. Whilst the coffee experience was not quite what most had hoped for, it did provide enough caffeine to stop most of the twitching.

Next stop was Sam Anderson’s sculpture park just down the road where we found a surprising amount of live size sea creature sculptures including a Whale shark and a Humpback whale. The increased drizzle did not deter the cruisers as everyone marvelled at Sam’s super scale metal artwork.

Lunch was enjoyed at a very modern winery named Sam Miranda before making our way further into the King Valley to Dal Zotto wines which is famous for it’s Prosecco. As everyone was getting settled into the comfort of the warm tasting room it became a bit of challenge for the cruise captain to get everyone back on the bus, but we finally arrived at La Cantina winery which is well know for it’s reds. Cruisers were again issued their individual snack packs to enjoy before the wine tasting. The wines are made without sulphur which is the cause of many day-after head aches.

Around 5pm everyone was back on the bus ready for the 1hr journey to our dinner destination. The long drive would have been a good opportunity to catch up on a missed afternoon nap if wasn’t for the cruise captain keeping everyone awake by pumping energetic tunes through the bus speaker. Almost at our destination, while travelling through Myrtleford, we were stopped by a couple of officers from the local constabulary who insisted on inspecting the driver’s logbook to make sure heavy vehicle regulations were followed to the letter of the law. Our driver was Andrea (Moonglade daughter) who had only got her heavy rigid license earlier in the year – that was an exciting experience for her!

By the time the bus arrived Happy Valley Hotel in Ovens, just outside Myrtleford, it felt like winter had definitely arrived, rain, fog and cold. Luckily the pub, which is 137years old, had a fantastic dining room allocated to us where a warm wood fire made for a great ambience. Dinner was excellent and dessert was even better. The time had finally arrived to award the prize for the piper of the weekend. Everyone was a bit shy on the boatswain’t pipe to start with, but as the weekend progressed and the wines were tasted, the shined quickly gave way to enthusiasm and the competitive spirit amongst cruisers came to the fore.

Despite a clandestine attempt to sabotage Erwin’s pipe, the whistling competition went very well and Greg Waugh (Waru, formerly Chantelle IV) won the competition fairly and squally. For those wanting to see/hear more, please look at the Sail Cruising Group Facebook page where the evidence has been recorded for eternity.

As every cruise must eventually come to an end, the final address to the group was by Peter (Danu) who expressed appreciation on behalf of the group and presented this short Limerick:

“Land was Ilse and Erwins’ choosing

The loud music was fine but bruising

We drank too much wine

and had a great time

We will definitely come when next you are cruising”

Everyone was safely returned to their accommodation by 10pm and after a good nights rest, started the long journey back North to the warmer climes.

Erwin Bejsta

SV Moonglade

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