Sydney – Lord Howe – Sydney…

April 2019

We stayed in Sydney for a couple more days, playing tourist, restocking, seeing Jamie’s siblings, then with his 86 year old mum and brother-in-law, Stuart, aboard on Wednesday 10^th April, we headed off on the roughly 420 nautical mile trip to Lord Howe Island. Jamie’s mum and dad had been there about 40 yrs previous and she had always wanted to go back – now was the opportunity.

As expected, the weather reports were not quite accurate – instead of the gentle 15-20 knot winds forecast we were experiencing 20-30 !! but with 2 reefs in the main and ½ the jib out we were going along well – just a couple of minor seasick episodes from the crew!

The wind continued most of the way, with the occasional squally patch, and a couple of unexpected waves over the side – just to wet whoever was on watch at the time!

The Lagoon at Lord Howe Island

Passing between the Taupo and Barcoo seamounts – where the seabed rises suddenly from thousands of metres to just a hundred – the water swirled around us – creating fairly rough seas. We were approaching Lord Howe Island at midnight. There was no way we were entering at that time so decided to take down all the sails and just drift around, sleep for a few hours, and do the last 15 nm next morning.

By 3.30am we were back on the move, with just ½ the jib out we sailed the rest of the way and happily picked up the mooring inside the reef at 7am Saturday 13^th April.

Lord Howe Island is one of those “other-worldly” places. There is no mobile phone coverage, very little internet, few cars, lots of pushbikes, masses of birds, insects, fish, and turtles. The island limits visitors to 400 at any time, there are about 350 permanent residents and 150 people employed in the tourist industry – mainly seaside adventure pursuits.

Feeding the fish at Ned's Beach

Jamie's mum on the boat tour

We walked to Ned’s Beach and fed the fish, explored the crash site at Malabar Hill of a RAAF Catalina in 1948 – the wreckage still remains as a memorial to the 7 men who died, and searched for turtles in the waters of North Bay.

Next day we took a trip on a tour boat with, Brad – a lifetime resident and excellent tour guide, around the outside of the island – he showed us places and told us history that we would have never found on our own.

We enjoyed fresh fish at the golf club, great burgers from the local store, and utilised the woodfired BBQs along the beachfront to cook delicious home-grown lamb chops (from Stuart).

We went on a walk with ‘Rambling Ron’ – a local nature lover, botanist and historian who pointed out – among other things – magic mushrooms growing under the trees – no, we didn’t partake!!

Another day we out snorkelling and turtle-looking, saw a couple of large green turtles – which actually looked an orangey-brown colour to me – Jamie’s mum even snorkelled – who said age is a barrier to enjoying life!!

Stuart spent many hours fishing from the back of SOL – catching lovely trevally for dinner more than one night. He also became an exceptionally good shark catcher – hooking four – only fairly small – the biggest being about a metre (possibly when he retold the story at work on his return they had grown in length!! As they do!!)

As Lord Howe Island is famous for Kentia Palms, we had to get a few seedlings (just from the side of the road)

Stuart flew home, to work, and Jamie, Bev and myself set off back to Sydney after an excellent week. A fairly uneventful sail back had us back in our previous anchor spot in Blackwattle Bay by lunchtime Easter Monday (and granddaughter Lilly’s birthday).

Iconic Kings Cross and the night view of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge

Jamie with a friendly goanna at the Japanese Gardens, Darling Harbour

A serene afternoon was spent at the Japanese Gardens

Northward …

March 2019

Leaving the marina and sailing down the Derwent, Russ caught lunch – sashimi!!

With a nice 15-20 knot north to north westerly we were going along very nicely, then out of nowhere the winds blew up, we had reduced sail to 2 reefs in the main but suddenly a loud noise – like a gunshot – the jib sheet had broken leaving the tail flapping around madly and punching a hole through our brand new jib – we were getting rogue gusts up to 44 knots – mayhem. The sea was like a washing machine with us in the middle. This was certainly not even hinted at by the BOM (Bureau of Meteorology) this morning. With very sad faces, and rather a few choice swear words, we sailed the rest of the way down to the Denison Canal with the 2 reefed main and the little storm jib.

A land view of the cliffs on the Eastern side of Tasmania 

from when we walked here a couple of weeks ago

Bright moment was that Russ hooked 3 good sized flathead whilst we were waiting to go through the canal!!

Anchored on the other side, Claire and Joe (Storm Petrel) who had been sailing along just behind us, very kindly came over and helped us effect a pretty professional repair to the 30 cm tear in our poor new sail.

Next morning, Saturday 30^th March, we hoisted our jib and, with the repair holding well, sailed off. Soon we had the screecher up, then jib and screecher “wing-on-wing”, then as the wind increased – jib and storm sail – we were having a great time. The plan was to head to Wineglass Bay for the night, but as we passed there at 1pm we decided – nah – lets go up to Bicheno – then – nah – St Helens – then – what the hell – let’s just keep on going while the going is good – mainland Australia we are on our way!!

We sailed overnight with just the jib, reducing it around midnight as the wind increased, then pulled in the jib and just sailed along with the storm sail and winds steady around 30knots for the next 24 hours. Off the NSW coast, passing Green Cape and Eden – we were having a lovely time, memories of the sometimes torrid weather now behind us, and at lunchtime Monday the 1^st April the sky was blue, the sun was warming us, the screecher now was pulling us along towards Bermagui where at 7.30pm we were all enjoying a meal and a beer at the pub.

Bermagui was great, we stayed here for 3 days, walking around the town, even going for a swim in the Blue Pool – a spectacular ocean pool at the base of a dramatic cliff face. We had a bbq one night with the guys from the slipyard there, who we had met in Tasmania and on Thursday we again slipped the lines and headed north.

. . . Sydney here we come.

It was a pretty gnarly sail up the coast, having left the lovely town of ‘Bermie’ with the screecher up, by lunchtime we had changed to the main and jib, then by 4pm we had 2 reefs in the main and ½ jib for the pitch-black night and lumpy seas.

By 7am Friday April 5^th we rounded Sydney Heads!!

Sydney!!

Took down the sails and motored up, along with numerous ferries, under the famous bridge to drop anchor in Blackwattle Bay, just across from the Sydney Fish Markets. It was time for a celebratory beverage!! Then a delicious lunch was had at the fishmarket.

Two very enjoyable days later, it was time for Phil and Russ to fly back to Adelaide, and work, we had really loved having them aboard, both for the company and the huge help crossing the infamous Bass Strait.

Another day with these great creatures playing around SOL

More Tasmania, 2019…

February and March 2019

Back through the Denison Canal again and across to Bruny Island, the wind so changeable we used everything in our sail wardrobe – changing sails so often we were now getting rather tired of the fickle weather here.

View from the top of Mt Wellington, Hobart

With a few stops in various lovely anchorages en route we made our way down to Recherche Bay anchoring there for a couple of days and walking to Fishers Point – the southernmost point of Australia reachable by road. Then back tracking to go up the Huon River anchoring first in Franklin where one of Jamie’s cousins, Kate, joined us for a night, she was down in Tasmania on holiday.  We had a great time – BBQ dinner ashore with folks from two other boats, and next morning she took us touring in her car – down to Geeveston, Dover, and on a bushwalk out to Duckhole Lake.

Feasting on fresh picked blackberries

became an almost daily treat

Going up river to Huonville passing under some unmarked overhead powerlines – I say unmarked as they are in fact marked on the charts but no height clearance is mentioned. Approaching a bend in the river suddenly Jamie stopped SOL – “where is the sign saying their height?? Can you see it?” “No, they look kind of low” “I’m not sure we should” “Me neither, I’m scared”. Slowly, slowly, breath held, we inched our way, as far to the righthand side of the river as possible where they were highest, ever fearful of seeing the spark as our mast touched the wires, we need 21 metres above us and it is impossible to gauge that. It seemed like ages as we gradually eased our way under then the wires were behind us before we were able to breathe again. Another ‘never want to repeat that’ moment. We dropped anchor in Huonville beside Tamariki, a lovely old wooden yacht, built and owned by Peter Mortimer in New Zealand and over here for the Wooden Boat Festival. Turns out Peter knows my brother, Andrew and his wife Jenny. We had an exceedingly enjoyable evening together on SOL.

Back down, under those scary powerlines, to Franklin, Port Huon then round to Cygnet catching a nice little Australian salmon on the way (fishing has been rather disappointing in Tasmania). We explored Cygnet town, staying two nights along with heaps of other boats we had seen over the past two years, before leaving for Port Esperance and Dover.

Tasmania is fish farm city – everywhere you go is yet another huge fish farm, rumour has it that all the decent fish not farmed hang around the fish farms eating all the food that escapes and that is why there are very few good-sized ones that are interested in the bait on our lines – they aren’t hungry!!

Fish farms of varying shapes and sizes all over Tasmania

Back to Bruny Island - Quarries Bay, Little Taylors Bay, Stockyard Point and Missionary Bay before tying up to the Attenuator Wharf at Kettering. We were back in Kettering to collect a new sail – our jib/genoa had gotten rather threadbare and we were unwilling to trust it to make the passage back to the mainland. While we were having the new sail made, we also replaced the mainsail boom bag with a bright new one – they do say BOAT = Bring Out Another Thousand – and yes, it is very true.

With SOL looking very flash with her new sailbag and jib and following a night in Little Fancy Bay we again headed up the Derwent where we tied up at the MAST (Marine and Safety, Tasmania) free pontoon at Constitution Dock – felt just like a Sydney – Hobart participant!!

Brilliant sunset, Prince of Wales Bay marina - before the anticipated bad weather

With horrendous weather forecast for the whole of Tasmania over the next 48 hours we once again went to the security of the Prince of Wales Bay marina.

25^th March - You know when you are nicely tucked up inside your house when there is a howling gale blowing outside – you look outside and the trees are bending with the force of the wind, the rain on the tin roof sounds kind of neat, you light the fire or turn the heater on – it feels ok….. not so on a boat, well not for me anyway. SOL was built for the tropics, and she is great for that but when there is a nasty weather event here in Tasmania we are cold!! Very cold – long pants and ugg boots even. The thing is that tucked up warm in your house you never get the feeling that you are going to ‘go’ anywhere – on a boat it’s not so sure – will the anchor hold? Will the docklines be adequate?

Picture this – we knew the weather was to turn rather inclement so decided to come back to the Prince of Wales Bay Marina and hide out here for a few days until it passed by, we arrived here yesterday morning in flat calm and tied up to the dock easily, even sat out in the sun for a bit in the afternoon and read. When we went to bed all was fine – why does the worst weather seem to hit in the dark, in the middle of the night?? At 4am there we were, partially clad, up on deck, tightening lines and then adding another line to keep us even more securely attached to the relative safety of the dock – I say relative safety as these floating pontoons look rather unstable at times – I’m sure they’re not as bad as they look, but they do seem to get a bit of a wobble on when there are a few tons of boat tied to them and the waves and wind increase and in the early morning light this wobble appears worse than it is!! The usual noises are, of course magnified in the dark and wind, the rattles, creaks and groans that you tend to ignore make for a very broken sleep, even when you are well prepared for it. And, this weather is predicted for the next two days!! The BOM (Bureau of Meteorology) has issued gale warnings and said it will probably even snow!! Which will be kind of cool (hahaha).

But of course, we were fine.

We were waiting for a weather window to get back up to “the mainland”. Phil and Russell, his boss, were flying down to meet up with us to do the Bass Strait crossing and at midnight on Thursday the 28^th March they arrived – we were ready to leave Tasmania – beautiful as it has been it was time to go.

Amazing cliffs - Cape Roaul, Tasman Peninsula, Tasmania

Hobart, Tasmania, January 2019 …

Arriving in Wineglass Bay, Tasmania, in pitch black at midnight on Friday 25^th January 2019, we settled in for a good nights sleep and spent Saturday exploring this beautiful place. Wineglass Bay, on Freycinet Peninsular, with its huge white sand beach, turquoise water and cliff edge is truly stunning. We walked up the thousand steps to the lookout in the National Park at the northern end of the beach and stood with heaps of overseas tourists all clicking cameras furiously, their selfie-sticks getting a workout!!

Wineglass Bay from the lookout over 1000 steps above

From Wineglass it was down past Schouten Island to a public mooring in Shelly Beach where we managed to hook a few decent (legal) sized flathead which we enjoyed for dinner. Fishing has been rather disappointing lately so this was a real treat. We spent two days here, walking around and up to Triabunna and Orford, securely on our free mooring as the winds went to 35knots blowing the smoke and ash from the bushfires a fair distance away, around us. Bushfires have been raging here in Tassie for the last few weeks and it appears unless there is a decent rain they will continue for some time – and decent rain is not expected soon.

The last Tuesday in January and the coldest morning thus far – although the temperature gauge said 19^o C we have figured that its overreading – by what feels like 10^o !! Anyway, we left our nice public mooring in Shelly Beach and made our way to the Denison Canal which enables you to shorten the distance to Hobart considerably as you can cut through rather than going right around Tasman Peninsular where we again picked up the public mooring. MAST (Maritime and Safety Tasmania) have placed these moorings in various places around Tasmania and you can avail yourself of them for a short period for free which is really super.

The only purpose-built sea canal in Australia, work started in 1902 and the Denison Canal was opened in 1905 with much fanfare by the then Governor (Sir Gerald Strickland). Almost a kilometre long with the bridge opening at Dunalley being about 10 metres wide (we are 7 metres) next morning, having arranged for the bridge opening, we made our way with some trepidation along the narrow approach, thankful there was neither a lot of wind nor tide. With Bruce and me up on bow-lookout-duties we motored through easily and with a cheery wave to the little man operating the bridge, we were on the way to Hobart.

A must visit - of course!!

Having dreamt of sailing up the Derwent, like the Sydney-Hobart yachts, we were a tad dismayed to have flat calm and no wind at all which meant motoring all the way up, past Constitution Dock, under the Tasman Bridge to the Prince of Wales Bay marina which was to be our stopping point for the next two weeks.

We hired a car first day, drove up Mt Wellington, fortunately one of the few really clear days, then to the Cascades Female Factory Historic Site – where women convicts were housed and worked, then on to the Cascade Brewery (of course!!) Next morning, we dropped Bruce at the airport for his flight back to ‘the mainland’ and had a drive round Richmond.

Historic Richmond Bridge

A few exhibits - Maritime Museum

Walking into Hobart along the bike trail beside the old railway track, via a visit to the beautiful historic home - Runnymede, one day Jamie and I spent a few hours at the Maritime Museum, not really big, but packed with interesting and well displayed objects and articles from days on the sea gone by.

Whaling was the industry Hobart was built on and apparently there were so many whales in the Derwent River in the late 1800’s their deep guttural bellowing noise kept residents on the waterfront awake at nights, and rumour even has it you could ‘walk from one bank of the river to the other stepping on the whales backs and not get your feet wet’.

Mathew Flinders and his cat - Trim

Friends Derek and Debbie (Gold Coast) and Jeff and Sally (New Zealand) were flying in for the Wooden Boat Festival here in Hobart in the beginning of February and we were looking forward to spending time with them. The 6 of us took SOL out, joined the many other spectator boats and watched the Parade of Sails, with the beautiful old square-rigged boats, old launches, and many other neat craft from years gone by putting on a lovely display in spite of the fact the wind was in the wrong direction to fully utilise their sails. We did a quick sail-by of the big square-riggers at Constitution Dock before returning to the marina.

The gorgeous square-rigger "James Craig" 

with bagpipes being played from the crows nest and cannon fire

We had a great time in the company of Derek and Debbie, Jeff and Sally. Taking a trip up to MONA (Museum of Old and New Art) and spending the afternoon, wandering around inside and out looking, looking, looking, and discussing the works – some we liked and some we didn’t – each having varying opinions on the virtues of some of the so called “art” – different folks have different tastes for sure, and I think I’m old-fashioned!!

Leaving Prince of Wales Bay, we sailed back down the Derwent to Bruny island for a couple of days then picked Linda (Josida) who we had met in Fiji, after rounding the incredible cliffs of Cape Raoul we arrived in Port Arthur. Port Arthur, an amazing historic site in its own right, gained further notoriety in April 1996 when 35 people were killed in Australia’s deadliest mass murder. We spent 4 days walking all over this incredible place and revelling in the well displayed buildings.

Linda left us in Port Arthur and from there we went north to Eaglehawk Neck, anchoring in Pirates Bay. Ashore we walked to the Blowholes then Tasman Arch, the Devil’s Kitchen and on to Waterfall Bay. We explored Eaglehawk Neck, a narrow isthmus where, in the 1830’s, a line of dogs was chained to alert the guards of any convicts breaking out of Port Arthur and managing to make their way north towards Hobart and ensure their recapture.

We have been flooded with so much history here in Tasmania, and loved every minute of it – I surely feel I was born in the wrong era!!