Destinations
A stroll up the Tamar
We had a miserable start to our trip up the river to Launceston. It blew a cold 15 to 20kt southerly and we completely stuffed the tide calculation. That meant doing 2 to 3 knots against the outgoing tide in the pouring rain and biting wind… The trip should have taken two hours but it … Continue reading
St. Helens to the Tamar
We made it to the Tamar. Our first overnight trip! We dropped anchor at Deep Hollow in West Arm at 0700 this morning after leaving St. Helens yesterday at 0830. The trip was planned out in some detail, given the tidal critical nature of it at three points of the passage. Back in St. Helens, … Continue reading
St. Helens
We have arrived in St. Helens after an eight hour and twenty minute passage from Waubs Bay, Bicheno. We set up a watch system for this trip; I took the first three hours, Larissa the second three, and then we were both on deck for the bar crossing. The watch system worked well. Lachie came … Continue reading
Waubs Bay
After looking at the updated forecast, a north easterly was on the menu for the afternoon we had planned to make our crossing of the St. Helen’s bar. Thinking that might not be so good, we decided to put to sea and make for Waubs Bay at Bicheno, then set off for St. Helen’s early … Continue reading
Wineglass Bay, Freycinet Peninsula.
We set off from Chinaman’s at 0500 with mizzen and staysail and beat our way south in a heavy rain squall against a 20kt sou’westerly. It was cold, dark and miserable. We made our way southwest to clear the off lying hazard south of Long Point and got ourselves into Mercury Passage before turning west … Continue reading
Chinaman’s Bay, Maria Island
We set off on the high tide out of Blackmans Bay and followed a fishing boat out through the narrows. We had a minor heart-in-mouth moment once, as we grounded. It was only brief however, and we were clear and back in good depth before my hand could reach the throttle. The 2 hour sail … Continue reading
End of the leg
We left Fortescue at 5am, with the setting moon. It was cold but refreshing to be underway early. I really like an early start. We needed to maintain 5 knots to cover the distance and arrive at the Marion Narrows by high tide, or just before. 9:44am was high tide along this part of the … Continue reading
Fortescue Bay
Canoe Bay is up in the north-west corner of Fortescue Bay, and it’s a beautiful part of the world. The anchorage is in 3 to 3.5 meters of water behind the wreck. The approach is deep water, past a few kelp forests and then it starts to shallow. The shallowing comes up to about 4m … Continue reading
Reflections of Port Arthur
Since we got here last Thursday, we have been looking around the ruins of Port Arthur. We took a ghost tour (our youngest was quite disappointed he didn’t get to see a ghost, and wondered why it was called a ghost tour if your didn’t get to see any), took a ferry ride over to … Continue reading
Parsons Bay (Nubeena)
We arrived at Parsons Bay and the township of Nubeena yesterday, after a nice sail down the river. Leaving the Derwent River was a mixed emotion affair. Having cleared the lighthouse at the Iron Pot a few times before, it felt different to be doing it this time with no return ticket in mind. There … Continue reading