Cruising Bass Strait and Tasmania
| Vessel Name: | Bulletproof |
| Vessel Make/Model: | Noelex 30 |
| Hailing Port: | Blairgowrie Vic, Australia |
18 March 2012
Cruising Bass Strait and Tasmania: voyage complete
after crossing Bass Strait twice and circumnavigating Tasmania, a journey totalling over 1400 nautical miles, Bulletproof is home without a single scratch or breakage.
17 March 2012
Apollo Bay
what a great sail across bass strait - 20 knot westerly, genoa and full main powering boat along at 8-10 knots.
17 March 2012
setting sail across Bass Strait - sunrise over Cape Wickham, King Island
goodbye Tasmanian waters - memories of a lifetime...
16 March 2012
albatross bidding us farewell at New Year Island
goodbye to all the albatross that have flown with us and kept us company for each sail of the trip - truly artists of the air
16 March 2012
anchorage at New Year Island at north end of King Island
short 3 hr sail to top of king for the night, our jumping off point for the 57nm crossing of Bass Strait to Apollo Bay and back into Victorian waters. A fairly open anchorage but surprisingly well protected from the swell. Three Fishing boats were there and having made friends with nearly the entire king island fleet over the last few days we were given plenty of help as to where to drop anchor.
15 March 2012
The Restaurant With No Food, King Island
spent day checking out Currie - great little place, redeeming King Island as a place of appeal. Had lunch at the restaurant with no food which was really cool. Sited right on the harbour, it is a fully set restaurant decorated in a maritime theme with great artistic talent. You just wander in with your [...]
Grassy Harbour, King Island
Plan was to check out albatross island on way as we had heard you could dinghy ashore and see all the white fluff balls of baby albatross. Sure enough there were albatross flying everywhere, a pair of sea eagles patrolling overhead and white fluff balls dotted all over the island. Landing however on this jagged rock of an island could only be possible in an absolute calm - not this time so on to King we sailed.
Another perfect sail in 15 knot NE with genoa and full main powering us along at 8-9 knots. Wind increased to 20 so tucked a reef in so we could keep the genoa powering us at high speed.
Grassy was an interesting experience. The harbour was fantastic - all weather shelter being very comforting in this part of the world. Scenery was industrial and workman like being the main port of the island. Trucks, containers etc a sharp contrast to where we had just come from. Maybe the town would have something of more appeal.
After a long steep walk up the hill we found a town that could best be described as dead. You could literally feel the depression in the streets, only the tumble weeds blowing down the main street were missing. It was a sad scene to see the result of world tungsten price collapse on a mining dependent town.
Stepping over a brown snake on walk back to boat, dale did a Carl Lewis like long jump from a walking start. Faced with the prospect of spending a few days in grassy held up by northerly winds we hatched a plan to relocate to Currie, the islands main town on the swell prone western side of the island. Surely we would find life on king island here and be left with a more positive impression than the dismal scene of grassy.
