It has been a long gap between Internet availability, so here we are in Strahan after having spent two weeks in Bathurst Harbour. We wrote our blogs every day- you will see that the weather was not very conducive to being out and about- so I will gradually upload them over the next couple of days.

With another early morning start (3.30am), we slid out of Recherché Bay and were on our way around the bottom of Tassie to Port Davey and Bathurst Harbour.  We have had a few of these "night" sails on this trip. it is a lovely time of the day to be out there sailing in the right wind. It usually means that we are on our way to a new place and there is anticipation about what the next destination holds. The air is clear, stars are out , and if you are lucky there is some moonlight also. The water is dark around the boat and the phosphorescent creatures sparkle in the water. With a GPS the navigation is relatively easy, especially if you save the track that you took in to an anchorage, as you can follow the track knowing that, as long as you take tide into account, it is a safe route out. At 5.30am, we rounded South East Cape and we could just see some mist around the land. By 11am, there was sufficient wind to put the sails up -finally. By lunchtime we rounded South West Cape, and what a magnificent scene that was. Rugged rocky cape, a 3 metre swell (not as bad as it sounds), loads of birds calling,circling and diving, and a single fishing boat laying and picking up crayfish pots. Unfortunately, the only fish that Phil managed to catch were more barracoutta. He did have what was probably a tuna on the line at one point but all that we got out of that was bent hooks on the lure, and a tear in Phil's gloves where the line burnt through in his attempt to land the fish before the line ran out and snapped. We made our way up the west coast, realising that we were now facing north towards home. This particular section of the west coast is just spectacular - very rocky with lots of rocky islands scattered all over the place. The entry into Port Davey was quite easy, with the swell and wind dying down the further in we went. Before too much longer we were anchored in Wombat Cove, and having lovely warm showers before dinner.