Its been a while. The boat is in the water and for the past 3-4 years we have been cautiously poking our nose out of various sheltered harbours trying to figure out what this cruising lifestyle is all about.
Finally the time came to take a first real step into the unknown, with a trip from Bermagui in NSW down to Tasmania. This would be our first real passage. About 600nm across Bass Strait, which has a reputation of being a challenging place to sail.
So how did we find it?
A total ………
We found ourselves half way across Bass Strait at midnight, pounding into a 15-20k south easter, which of course was blowing exactly where we wanted to go. I was as sick as a dog, and Jacob not much better. This despite careful examination of forecasts, which had convinced us we should have a 15k north easter to blow us south.
Things were looking a bit grim, but fortunately we had prepared pretty well. We had researched and set up routes into a couple of bolt holes in case things went south. The decision was made to give up trying to get to the east coast of Tassie, and instead run with the wind to the west coast of Flinders Island. We arrived at Roydon Island at daybreak, and were very happy to be able to drop anchor in that sheltered bay.
We stayed there for a few days, but an intense low pressure was forecast with 45-55 knot south easterlies followed by 25-35 knot westerlies. We headed about 10 nm down the west coast of Flinders to Port Davies, and anchored there to sit out the south easterlies. That sort of worked, but in the early morning the anchor dragged, and we started to disappear out into the open water. On checking the anchor we found it completely covered in a ball of weed. This is kind of how things go around Flinders Island, everyone drags sooner or later.
With the westerly forecast we had a couple of hours while the eye of the low passed overhead to move another 10 NM to Prime Seal Island, which has good westerly shelter on its East side. We were the only boat there, and picked up a Mast mooring which was great.
Finally after another 4 days the westerlies moderated enough for us to make a break through Banks Strait and head down to the east side of Tasmania. We had to time this exactly as the tides are strong through the strait, and the seas can be horrendous. Fortunately this all worked, we entered the strait at the top of the tide, and the falling tide carried us though like a dream.
Then the next problem was that the wind died at nightfall on the east Tasmanian coast, and we found ourselves becalmed just off Eddystone point. We started the motor, and after about an hour we hit a clump of weed, which promptly wrapped itself aroung the propellor, and stopped us dead. It was just dark, so there was no way I was going to jump in and try to clear it. In hindsight I probably should have had a go, because we spent half the night moving at about 2 knots which is all we could get out of the engine without damaging anything. There was no wind, and tide pushing us onto the rocks of Eddystone, so there was not a lot else we could do.
Finally made St Helens about midnight, picked up a mooring and fell into sleep. Next morning I jumped in the water and cleared the prop. In early afternoon a northerly picked up so we left heading south to Triabunna, about 100 nm south. We got about 3 hours out and just after dark the wind dropped. We started the motor, ran a short way then bam, we hit another clump of weed that was even bigger than the first one.
Again I chickened out about jumping into cold black water to clear the weed, so another night of nursing the engine and trying to get the most out of every little puff of wind finally got us into Winegalss Bay at dawn the next day. The first thing was to jump in the water, and the propellor was a pretty impressive sight. It looked just like a huge ball of weed. Then we caught up on sleep.
Wineglass is a really impressive place, but very popular with hikers, boats and charter cruisers.
The wind was good the next day, so we left Wineglass about mid morning and headed for Triabunna. Finally we got a fantastic sail in about 15k of NNE down the coast, arriving at Prosser Bay just on dark.
That was a totally epic trip, learned so much about ourselves, Tasmanian weather and conditions and the boat. Got to say the boat is excellent. Its really forgiving, performs really well when I get it set up properly. The crew is getting better also. I am finally over sea sickness, and Jacob is becoming a really competent crew and boat handler. If things keep going like this we are going to have the most fantastic time down here. Really looking forward to it.
So, was it worth all the effort and time? ABSOLUTELY!!! There is no place I would rather be right now.