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!!