Year One
Date: 22/2/2008 20.30
Weather: Raining
Location: Hobart
Author: Kylie and Peter

***We have added pictures from the past three weeks into the journal entries so go back and have a look.***

Hi everyone, hope you are all well.
We are currently up on the slips at The Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania doing some boat work. Today we applied the second coat of antifoul and replaced two of the windows.



A little update and a few pics...On Monday we took the yacht up Eagle Hawk Neck and motored the dinghy up the shallows to the end of bay.
Check out the giant octupus in the shallows that tried to attack Peter whilst he took its photo.

During colonial times this was the site of the dog line patrolling to ensure no prisoners escaped from Port Arthur.

There was a very interesting museum, housed in a historical building and we walked out to the tessalated pavement, a natural rock formation that looks like a giant paved garden path by the edge of the sea.
Monday night we anchored in Lewisham. As we approached we whitnessed someones house completely burn down. We would not wish this on anyone and we hope they were insured. By the time the fire brigade arrived their was little they could do as the Australian Red Cedar house was already well ablaze. Darren Eggins joined us for the sail back to Hobart the next day and thouroughly enjoyed the trip, hand steering for the majority of the 7 hour sail.
Last night we recieved word that we now have a new neice, Amelia Victoria Vaiciurgis, Luke and Jades second baby. Congratulations guys...we would love to see a photo sometime :)
***We have added pictures from the past three weeks into the journal entries so go back and have a look.***

Year One
Date: 17/2/2008 19.00
Weather: Beautiful Blue Sky, 15knot NW
Location: Sommers Beach 42'58S 147'49E
Author: Kylie and Peter

Well our cruise is over and everyone else has gone home and back to work. We are spending a few days around Norfolk Bay (about 8 hour sail from Hobart) and doing it at our pace.... No racing from anchorage to anchorage. However, we are moving anchorage right now because we couldn't get television coverage and my favourite show is on tonight (Greys Anatomy- Coryn, need to find out if season 3 is available on DVD?). We are going to miss cruising around with the group. We have made some great friends, learnt heaps of local knowledge, new skills and really enjoyed the company. We will add some pictures to the "Our Friends" page when we get back to Hobart. We plan to catch up with John and Nigel from Nirvana before leaving Hobart and seem very likely to catch up with Pat somewhere further along the track. We would like to say a big thank you to the Royal Yacht Club Tasmania and especially to the cruise organiser (commander and chief) Damian Killalea for such a wonderful event.

On Thursday morning we picked up anchor at wineglass bay (you should have seen the size of the octopus that rode up to the surface with the pick) as a forecast again said it was time to move. We set sail under headsail only and beat our way towards Moreys Bay Shouten Island (42'17S 148'16E). Shouten Island was the site of an old coal and tin mines as well as being home for many whaling boats. A few of the old buildings still remain just up from the beach. We highly recommend this anchorage if weather permits. We could easily spend a few months just in the Freycinet area and still not get bored.

The next morning the fleet set sail for Deep hole in Chinamans Bay around just after the morning sked at 09:00. Being the incredibly lazy young people that we are we slept in and enjoyed the morning and surroundings. Much to our surprise this payed off for us the rest of the fleet worked the 33nm while we cracked sheets and flew across on the sea breeze catching and passing most of the fleet. Mercury Passage was a bit of a challenge though as we passed through a giant shellfish farm. Its a bit like sailing through a mine field (except at least it does not explode) with hundreds of buoys randomly spread across our path, some obvious, others growing mould very hard to see. This is not a place I would like to go at night, it was hard enough in the day.

Yesterday we left Chinamans Bay (42'40S 148'02E) bright and early so that we could pass through the Denison Canal as close to high tide as possible. Because of bridge opening times we were a few hours late and tested the bottom twice. Going through the bridge was made even more interesting as the water dropped instantly about 1 foot on the far side and this was followed by large swirling eddies. Here the fleet split again and a bbq lunch was then had by the four remaining boats, all rafted together at Monk Bay(42'57S 147'43E). Kylie went swimming for the first time since Eden. It was very short lived, she jumped in, said "this is way too cold and got straight back out". She didn't want to miss out on swimming in Tasmania and yesterday was the warmest day we have had in 4 weeks so she had to do it then or maybe not get another chance. Locals kept telling us this was an unusual February, normally much warmer.

We motored the duck around to Ironstone Point and walked ashore to the ruins of the Coalmines Penal Settlement. It was clearly obvious from the ruins that 200 years ago people enjoyed a water view. The solitary confinement cells on the other hand with no windows were damp and dark and very scarily small.

We spent the night at Lime Bay 42'57S 147'42E) and joined Pat, Nigel and John for dinner on Pendulum.

Anchoring at Taranna (43'02S 147'51E) this morning Peter noticed a fishing boat attempting to row to shore as their motor was not working. Peter offered to tow them to a jetty nearby. We mentioned we were planning on going for a walk to find a bread shop, they told us the nearest shops were about 10km away and offered to drive us as thanks for towing them. We declined however as we believed 10km was to far just for a loaf of bread.

Today we explored Taranna and found there is a Tasmanian Devil Park within walking distance of the jetty we landed at. We got to feed kangaroo's and potoroo's. We then witnessed a very clever and interesting free flight bird show where Kylie managed to pull off some fantastic photo's of the birds on show. And of course we got to meet Tasmanian devils.

To our surprise when we returned to the duck there was a loaf of bread and some flathead fillets. Guess what we have tried fish, crayfish and abalone over the last few weeks. Abalone ok, crayfish not so good, flathead edible. We are going to try an make a curry with our fillets and see if that is any better.

Wednesday morning we are booked in to haul the boat out at the Royal Tasmanian Yacht Club slipway. We need to replace the windows and add some antifoul to the bottom. We currently have huge white patches where our black antifoul has completely worn off.

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Year One
Date: 13/2/2008 21.30
Weather: Beautiful Blue Sky, 15knot SW. A stunning day
Location: Wineglass Bay 42'10S 148'18E
Author: Peter

Today was just a ripper of a day just to get you all jealous.

We started the day with a sleep in, Kylie getting up at 08:00. She was on the computer till sked time at 09:00 while i\I stayed in the nice warm bed reading and did the sked from there on the hand held radio. I then got up and made pancakes for breaky, one of Kylie's favourite breaky's.

We had organised to meet the some of the group for a walk over to Coles Bay, meeting them at the far side of the beach at 10:30. On the way across Wineglass bay we were joined by about 6 dolphins who traveled across three quarters of the bay with us, riding the ducky's bow and playing in our wake. One even swam on its side next to us and flicked its tail toward us trying to splash us. What a great start to the day!!!!

The walk across to Coles Bay took us through a variety of different settings ranging from groves of Oyster pines specific to this area, banksia forests, wet lands that were not so wet but still interesting as the peat made for a unique landscape, to the most beautiful enclosed path surrounded by dense tea tree and gums shading a path littered with yellow fallen leaves. Approaching the far side we again entered another wet lands, walking across a boarded walkway before finally climbing a small sand dune and then descending onto the beach on the far side at Coles Bay.

On the return trip we passed aboriginal midens and a very tame wallaby. Crossing the bay back to the yacht we again passed a pod of dolphins but they did not join us this time.

Lunch was then prepared. BLT's, yum. Kylie then hoped back onto the computer to download some photo's (and probably played her favourite game) while I went to shore and sat under a tree on the beach to read my book. What a stunning vista in which to sit down and relax on my soft mat on the warm sand to read and relax.

Later that afternoon, we went over to Pendulum where Pat (solo sailed the south pacific on many occasions sailing over 20000 miles)helped us and Damien load and then walked us through a navigational program that all the serious cruisers are using. Simply a fantastic tool.

We then headed to shore for an evening BBQ with all the boats currently anchored in Wineglass Bay. We all sat around in small groups that swapped every now and then swapping stories and stuffing our faces. Kylie and I even got to try fresh abalone caught earlier that day surprising both of us in the sense that it did not taste fishy at all. We still do not understand why it costs that much though as we both though it was not something that special.

With the sun starting to set, the sea eagles circling overhead and the wallabies combing the beach, the whole area changes with that beautiful crisp light you only get at this time of the day creating a surreal atmosphere as the rocks, the beach, the bush and the dark clouds to the south all seem to come to life. WOW.

We are now back on the boat writing this and emails before going to bed and sleep and hoping for another day just as good tomorrow where Kylie is going to walk up the lookout and I am hoping my foot is up too it and I can join her and the others for the spectacular view back down. No wonder this area features on so many getaway programs on tv.

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Year One
Date: 13/2/2008 21.00
Weather: Beautiful Blue Sky, 15knot SW (well it was when I started writing this email at 3pm)
Location: Wineglass Bay 42'10S 148'18E
Author: Kylie and Peter

No excuses we have been lazy.... but enjoying ourselves!

We are now on our way back from Flinders Island to Hobart. Currently anchored in Wineglass Bay and expecting to be here for a few more days yet as we have SW winds.
Since we last wrote we have...
*anchored in West Cove on Erith Island where we went ashore and walked along the beach to a ship wreck.
And we were really lucky and found a nautilus shell. It is so fragile.


*Thursday 7th anchored in Garden Cove, Deal Island and sat out a very windy miserable day. We didn't even get off the boat!
*sailed a blustery SSW breeze from Deal to Port Davies, Flinders Island. (38knots)
*Friday 8th anchored in Killiecrankie Bay (39'50S 147'50E) and had a roast dinner made by Kylie (very remarkable as I have never cooked a roast and it was beautiful) Didn't manage to find a Killiecrankie diamond but found a few nice sea shells. From what we understand (could be wrong) the diamonds are sucked up from the ocean floor. There are a few shops selling them on Flinders Island.


*Saturday 9th anchored in Port Davies (40'0S 147'52E).



Had Nigel, Terry, John and Ces (sorry not sure if that is spelt right), the crew from Nirvana (37ft Bavaria) over for curry dinner. Peter made lamb curry and a chicken green curry....beautiful. We had after dinner drinks on Masterpiece 14.6m power cat (looks like a small Sydney Jet Cat).

*Sunday 10th anchored in Rebecca Bay, Clarke Island (40'34S 148'09E) The rest of the group headed back to Lady Barron so we had a quiet night in this pretty anchorage, it made the sail south the following day a little shorter which was nice.


*Monday 11th made our way south in 20 to 30 knot NNW breeze. We stopped at Skeleton Bay around 4pm in the hope of finding an anchorage for the night but it was very bumpy an uncomfortable so we picked up anchor and sailed all the way through to Wineglass Bay arriving at 2am. The rest of the fleet did not get in until the morning.

Masterpiece, off the coast around St Helens. This is a home built boat!

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Year One
Date: 6/2/2008 17.00
Weather: overcast, change expected this evening
Location: Deal Island 39'29S 147'19E
Author: Kylie

But no we are not coming home, we are anchored at Deal Island. Deal Island is part of the Kent Group of Islands and is smack bang in the middle of Bass Strait. Yesterday we sailed from Royden Island just off the west coast of Flinders Island NW across to Deal. We were quite lucky with the wind and managed to carry 'big bird' (our bright yellow spinnaker) for much of the leg. Some of the other cruising boats with us were not so lucky, with only 4 knots of wind they motored all but 40minutes of the 6hour trip. We motor sailed into Murray Pass between Deal and Erith Islands and anchored in what has to be the most scenic anchorage we have so far encountered.

Approaching Deal Island


We are in east cove near the lighthouse jetty and last night enjoyed a bbq on the shore with the other 6 boats. We even got to watch the penguins come ashore last night soon after dinner. They are so tiny and very timid.

Penguin burrows..do you call them burrows????

A short walk up from our anchorage is the old lighthouse settlement. The lighthouse on Deal island is no longer operational but caretakers, organised by The Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife live on the island for 3 month stints. This morning I along with the other cruisers walked up to the old settlement where they have a small museum in the old colonial style building. Peter being Peter has injured his toe and isn't able to walk so he stayed on the boat (he is taking antibiotics and is in a bit of pain but you don't want to know what he did it will make you sick). From there it was a 8km return walk to the lighthouse which completely killed my knees. We had the key from the caretaker so were able to walk right up to the top of lighthouse and out onto the platform surrounding it where we got a fantastic view. There were low clouds passing over the hills obscuring our view at times (this apparently is why the lighthouse was closed because someone felt it was too often in the clouds).
The view from the lighthouse

The settlement


Deal Island is very isolated, there are no tourist boats coming out this way so I was very surprised to see a guest book in the museum. We signed our names and wrote the names of our yachts, above our group was a whole lot of boats named 'Kayak', yep your right they were kayaks paddled all the way from Wilsons Promontory on the mainland. (We are called 'mainlanders' by all the Tassies!) The other silly thing people have done which is recorded in the museum is run from the jetty near our anchorage up through the settlement and all the way to the lighthouse. The record is somewhere around 18 minutes and 2 seconds. I think it took us longer then that to walk up to the settlement.

Whilst I was gone Peter made some loaves of bread, washed up and did a bit of boat fixing stuff. This afternoon I have made chocolate muffins (packet mix) and hand washed some clothing which is now drying in the cockpit. Tonight Peter is making pizza for dinner....yum. Homemade bases and all. And for all those people wondering we are eating very well. Whilst in Hobart we did some grocery shopping, went to the Salamanca Market Fruit Store and also a butcher. At the butchers we ordered meat for 3 weeks (the length of the cruise) and then they vacuum seal packaged and froze it all into meal size portions which we picked up a few days later and put in the freezer on the boat. So easy. We have now pretty much run out of fresh fruit and vegetables apart from carrots, potatoes and onions but we have some canned beans and things like that to try out.

We are expecting a change tonight so we are going to move across Murrays Pass to west cove on Erith Island. Actually Peter just turned the motor on so looks like we are going now.

Sarah, thank you for the Australia Day package. We shared the mint slices on the motor cruiser "Masterpiece" and the Tim Tams on 37ft Bavaria "Nirvana".

Hope everyone is well, miss you all lots. Please email us, I love getting emails telling me what everyone is up to! vhn6672'at'sailmail.com
We wont have internet access until we get back to Hobart but I will post some pics then.

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Year One
Date: 3/2/2008 16.00
Weather: overcast weather has just closed in.
Location: Adelaide Bay Flinders Island 40 12s, 148 15e
Author: Peter

We had a terrific sail up the coast from Wine Glass Bay and entered Banks Strait first, just before sunset which was so placid you thought you were on a lake. The moon then arose in time for us to enter Spike Bay and lay anchor just before 01:00. We had a great run of 100nm in under 14 hours. We then had a nice sleep in followed by a relaxing day exploring the bay while we waited for the rest of the fleet to catch us and Nirvana back up.

We are now sitting at Lady Baron Flinders Island with the first real weather that has kept us in the boat. Not bad 1 day in one month. We have been traveling round lots of the lower islands and bays of the Furneaux Group doing short explores around the surrounding bays. The scenery is so different to what we are used to. We have islands that look like volcanos and weird rocks the grow bright orange lichen that stands out from miles away. The rocks themselves are granite and weather into strange shapes that look like they would fit into any modern museum. Some of the other boats just go to shore to look at the rocks and name them after what they look like. Rabbits, human heads,etc.

The islands are not that wooded having been cleared at some stage for farming. The beaches vary some with pristine white sand and others being made of tiny little pebbles as you would find in fish tank gravel. The surrounding rocks just seem to drop deep into the water and there is really very little growing on them unlike at home.

The tides here are the biggest we have yet encountered, at around three and a half meters. This along with the tricky waters of Franklin Sound (numerous shallow banks, rocks and islands) make careful navigation and timing important. It is easy to see why some many ships have come to grief in this area.

Last night the fleet got together at Lady Baron hotel for dinner. The food, most of which was local was stunning. A fun and rowdy night was had by all. Some of the boats to our surprise are heading home tomorrow as they could only get two weeks off work. The majority of those of us left will then start to head up to Deal Island once the weather clears and then Kylie and i are looking forward to slowing the pace down a little and spending some more time at some of the anchorages. We are hoping to be able to spend some time at Deal and at Killiecrankie Bay. Maybe even finding a Killiecrankie Diamond!!!!!!

The wind is currently blowing in the high 20s in the anchorage and allot higher outside so we are having a lazy day at the moment with Kylie painting and me on the computer. Allot of the rubber duckys have been flipped over out the back of anchored yachts over the last two days, ours being one of them. Many of the yachts are now experimenting with painter lengths while we are back to lifting ours back out of the water. Ours was only in when it flipped as we were getting ready for a BBQ on shore when it flipped.

See you.

Ps I'm sick of Kylie beating me at all the games we play; dominos, pigs, uno.
Sunset at Trousers Point

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