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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