Cruising Bass Strait and Tasmania

Vessel Name: Bulletproof
Vessel Make/Model: Noelex 30
Hailing Port: Blairgowrie Vic, Australia
Recent Blog Posts
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 [...]

Cruising Bass Strait and Tasmania: voyage complete

18 March 2012
after crossing Bass Strait twice and circumnavigating Tasmania, a journey totalling over 1400 nautical miles, Bulletproof is home without a single scratch or breakage.

What an amazing adventure, what an incredible experience. Tasmania and the remote islands of Bass Strait are simply stunning.

Could have spent so much longer at many of the places, in particular port Davey, Three Hummocks, Flinders and Deal. Many many highlights but the above mentioned 4 places and the spectacular Tasman peninsula were standouts. Kettering my favorite port. Port Davey and it's world heritage class wilderness is undoubtedly at another level. I think it's only appropriate that such a special place is so hard to get to requiring many trials of nerve.

To do the trip with kids and family was wonderful - we will all share memories forever.

So what's next? Well there is a lot lot more blue water still to be explored out there, so I guess a bigger boat...

Apollo Bay

17 March 2012
what a great sail across bass strait - 20 knot westerly, genoa and full main powering boat along at 8-10 knots.

Dale particularly enjoyed the hour he spent clinging to the nearly submerged leeward gunwhale in the middle of bass strait discovering all the combinations and permutations of incorrect ways of leading and tying the genoa sheet. I didnt realise there were so many.

In reality it was probably too windy to use the genoa but after such a big effort it didn't seem quite right to say nah let's not worry about it now. Unfortunately my arms paid the price for this, now about 2 inches longer from trying to hang on to the tiller the whole way, the power in the boat like a bolting horse.

Apollo bay - fantastic sheltered harbour. Couple of pints of Guinness for st paddys day.

One hop to go.

setting sail across Bass Strait - sunrise over Cape Wickham, King Island

17 March 2012
goodbye Tasmanian waters - memories of a lifetime...

albatross bidding us farewell at New Year Island

16 March 2012
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

anchorage at New Year Island at north end of King Island

16 March 2012
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.

The Restaurant With No Food, King Island

15 March 2012
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 own food and cook it - free! It was the best lunch of sausages and VB I can remember.

Also checked out the museum, full of interesting maritime stories and displays.

Dinner back at the restaurant tonight.

Based on current forecast, plan is to head to the top of king island tomorrow and stay overnight - an area which has the islands highest concentration of shipwrecks. Then on Saturday, jump to the harbour at Apollo Bay. Sunday - Port Phillip Heads and the final challenge of the Rip, then home.

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