As we cover our last 20 nautical miles back to Hobson's Bay Yacht Club, we would like to thank our friends and family for their encouragement, support, blog comments, texts and e-mails. We have very much appreciated these messages during our trip. Fellow members of HBYC have also been great with many lending us various bits and pieces, as well as advice. Thanks also must go to those fellow travellers who offered advice, food, heater, use of a car, and friendship along the way. The various Tasmanian coast radio operators must also get a mention for the great job they do. We have had a fabulous trip and one that we will remember for many years to come.
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After a fairly uneventful overnight passage from Strahan, we made our way through the Hunter Passage to anchor at Hunter Island, one of the group of islands at the north west tip of Tassie. We were lucky to have got some good advice from our Strahan friend, Tony, regarding the optimal state of the tide at which to traverse Hunter Passage. We timed our arrival so that we had the tidal current in our favour and were we ever glad that we did as the current added 3-4 kts to our boat speed. It would have been very difficult, and a bit dangerous in some past of the passage, to have been pushing against that tidal flow. Hunter Island is typical of all the Bass Strait islands we have seen - lovely sandy beach, green trees, and rocky headland shattered with the orange colour. As the sun set, and we enjoyed our glass of wine and favourite crusinig music, we were very sad that this was our last anchorage and port of call.
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The right winds are nearly here
After a week in Strahan waiting for the right winds, we feel that we have pretty much done the town over. We have walked all over it, including a hilltop look out, People's Park and Hogarth Falls and Regatta Point. We have done the trip on the West Coast Wilderness Railway by steam train from Queenstown to Strahan. It was a very scenic trip through steep gorges and rainforest, and the guides gave us lots of the history about the area and the railway itself. It uses a rack and pinion system to get up the steep sections, which when it was built was unique in Australia. We have eaten Tassie gourmet ice cream, scallop pies, and drunk Cascade beer. Over the last few days the weather has not been the best, rainy, cold and hailing today. Imagine our delight when Tony, one of the guys we met at Boom Camp up the Gordon, turned up on our doorstep yesterday and gave us the keys to his four wheel drive, which he had parked outside. What a generous gesture! So we were able to broaden our horizons yesterday and drove to nearby Zeehan and spent the afternoon in the West Coast Historic Museum, which was quite interesting. Lesley even found a possible relative - a Edward Mulcahy born in the same town in Ireland where her grandfather's family are from. So she now needs to do a bit more research to see if he is indeed related. Then this morning just after the first hail shower and when we were facing the prospect of a maximum of just 12 degrees, Tony turns up with a 240 v heater. We had been looking in every shop we went in to see if we could get one but to no avail. So today we are very snug indeed, and also have the freedom to do a bit more exploring in the area. We will certainly not forget Tony's generosity for a while.
The winds are favourable for us to leave around lunch time today. Last night we had a lovely dinner with Peter and Margarite, Hobart yachties on their way home after a year in the Pacific. Like us Margarite is wondering how on earth she is going to get up for work next Monday morning. So while we are glad to be on the move again, we are reluctant as this really signals the start of our last leg of this wonderful trip. Our plan is to stop at the Hunter group of islands on the north west tip of Tassie tomorrow and then head for Port Phillip bay on Thursday, over night at Queenscliff and then the last bit to Melbourne on Friday. We might just squeeze another night on the Hunter group if it looks just as favourable to cross Bass Strait for Port Phillip bay on Friday.
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The trip from Bathurst Harbour to Macquarrie Harbour and Strahan was fairly uneventful. We had to motor most of the way as the wind died out after the first couple of hours. We came through Hell's Gates (the entrance to Macquarrie Harbour) at about 10am on a beautiful sunny day. There was virtually no swell around the entrance making it look very tame indeed. However, at the actual point where we passed through the narrowest part, the outgoing current was very strong and our motor certainly worked had to get us through. After 15 hours we were very glad to be finally tied up at the jetty in the centre of town. But we were not there for long. After checking the weather, we decided to head off for the Gordon River the next afternoon. So it was a frantic 24 hours during which we washed (clothes), shopped and caught up on our sleep. The reward was fantastic.
Our first stop up the Gordon was to be at the Boom Camp, which is a place where the piners used to live and collect the logs which were floated down the river. It is now used as a recreational camp by about 150 members. This group got going before the area was declared world heritage and is now the only shack where people can stay in a world heritage listed area, apparently. Phil had met some of the members while filling up with fuel before we left Strahan and we were invited to visit them as they were going up to spend the week end there. We got about 4 miles up the river before we found the Camp and tied up to their small pontoon for the night. What a beautiful location - words can't describe it. It was a beautiful still evening, so still in fact that not only was the moon reflected in the river but the stars also. The group at the Camp were very friendly and we spent some time chatting to them and hearing their stories about the Camp and their group. We were very lucky to have this experience as it is not really on the tourist trail.
Next day we went further up the river, stopping at Heritage Landing to do the boardwalk through the rainforest there. This is the place where the commercial boat tours take people for their rainforest experience. We were lucky to be there on our own so we did the whole walk without having to share it with anyone else. I am going to run out of superlatives in this blog - but the rainforest here was truly magnificent. We continued on up the river which was becoming prettier the further up we went. The banks are just completely covered in a great variety of trees right down to the waterline. The water provides beautiful reflections of the trees. We spent the night at the Sir John Falls landing which is about as far up the river as most keel boats go. This is the spot where the sea planes take people for another kind of rainforest experience. We had the place to ourselves for the afternoon and night - absolute peace. Not another soul in sight, no telephone, no radio, just us, the river and the forest.
We reluctantly left the next morning and motored a little further up (about 1 nm) before it got too shallow, and then headed back down the river to Macquarrie Harbour. This was also a lovely trip despite some drizzling rain which actually added to the atmosphere along with some classical music. There was a bit of added excitement when a sea plane flew in and landed right beside us on the river.
We then stopped in at Sarah Island, the site of the notoriously harsh penal settlement, and had an interesting few hours there looking at the ruins and learning about some of the history of the island. There was not enough time in the day to get back to Strahan so we spent the night in the Kelly Basin at the end of the harbour. While sitting out on deck having our sundowners, we saw a couple of guys off in the distance in a dinghy pulling up a net in which there was clearly something large. We were wondering what they had caught and we didn't have to wait too long to find out, as they motored over to us and gave us one relatively large Atlantic salmon. So we have been dining on this tasty fresh fish for the last few nights. Apparently, several hundred tons of these fish recently escaped from one of the local fish farms. We later found out that a lone sailor from Sydney came to grief in that bay last year, when he seemingly had a fatal heart attack on the little beach where some Tassie devils then made a mess of his body. Glad we didn't know that before we went there. In the morning before heading back to Strahan, we were able to explore the ruins of East Pillinger, a former mining town.
Luckily our spot on the jetty in Strahan was still vacant so we are now tied up there and spending some time exploring this cute little town. There are several nice walks and some interesting shops and galleries selling all kinds of things made out of Tassie timbers. Last night we went to an excellent play about the last escape from Sarah Island during which 10 convicts absconded on the last ship that was built there. Ship building was one of the labouring activities to which the convicts were put. The story goes that they stole the ship and sailed it to Chile where they lived for a couple of years before the long arm of the law caught up with some of them who were tried for piracy in London. They beat the charges on a technicality in that since the ship had never been launched and there were no official papers on it, it was not a ship but a bundle of timber, and they therefore escaped a hanging. The play was very entertaining as the story was presented as a comedy with lots of audience participation.
We are now waiting for the right winds to blow us home as the last leg of our journey will be to return to Melbourne, hopefully in time for Phil to go back to work on 12th April.
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We spent our last day in this area in this pretty bay mainly so we could do the walk across to Stephens Bay which as written up in our cruise guide as a pleasant walk. It was a lovely day but the walk was not really pleasant being very wet, muddy, boggy and overgrown in parts. Stephens Bay was worth the walk. A wide sandy bay with rolling surf of 2-3 metres and some whale bones which were interesting. On return to the boat, we prepared ourselves for the long sail ahead to Strahan.
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Things were not looking too promising when we woke up to a drizzling cold morning. However, by the time we reached our destination for the day, Schnooner Cove, the sun was out and we had everything on deck drying out. After lunch and a gorgeous hot shower, we explored the Cove which is very pretty, and includes an ochre cave which was quite interesting. We caught up with Roger and Val from Maluka, who we had met when we were first here, and enjoyed afternoon tea on their boat, followed by sundowners on Sandpiper. Lots of boats were on the move today, as everyone is making the most of the much improved weather, with some them including ourselves heading towards Port Davey for departure tomorrow. Strahan here were come at last!
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