The weather remained promising and most of the time we were able to sail southwards to South Bruny. Since we had dropped the anchor just after lunch time, we decided to go ashore. It was low tide and I had to pull the Dinghy while Steve directed me from within the dinghy and whooped with a broad smile on his face - had I refused his help… The walk at the beach was nice, the sun painted the sea in various blue tones.
The forecast for the following days was a bit mixed and we decided to walk to the Cloudy Bay lagoon in the morning when it wasn’t too hot. We had some difficulties to find the way up the hill - there was either shrubs or the path seemed to be private property. Once more I was confronted with the question, how it is possible that people posses land… While discussing that, we didn’t take notice of the way - except when we had to cross a road. I don’t know how often Steve has already saved my life - the Aussies, like all (?) the countries of the commonwealth drive on the wrong side! We walked a little bit on the beach and then returned to Torea.
Jan 18, we moved on to the Bay that allowed us access to a jetty and the way up to the lighthouse. It was a grey and unpleasant day with some drizzle but we decided to walk up the hill to the lighthouse. The way was not too nice, mostly along a road and we were not the only ones with the idea of visiting the lighthouse, most of them in cars though… But the landscape was stunning and I could not get enough of these rough cliffs. If it wasn’t for the wind picking up, I would have persuaded Steve to stay longer. Luckily the weather of the next day allowed us a short walk before we enjoyed the nice and cosy saloon of Torea with some tea and coffee. We had finished the cask red wine (at the end we were so used to the taste, that we didn’t find it that horrible anymore), but decided to stay away from alcohol a bit. But then Sarah and Phil from Serenity of Swanick, who Steve had met in Nouméa, invited us for a drink. Soon after us a couple from Saga joined and they were chattering happily about all the exciting places that they had been - and I will see, at least some of them.
The weather continues to be unusual this year and we needed a different shelter; we decided to go to Port Cygnet - a small town where we could get some provision. Shortly after we had arrived, we got into the Dinghy and went ashore. The small supermarket had an extraordinary range of vegetarian and organic food - and the most amazing service: the lady at the checkout anticipated (by your backpacks) that we were sailing - and offered to give us a lift back to the yacht club where our dinghy was! There we were able to get a shower, that was most welcome. Once clean and happy, we joined the „happy hour“at the yacht club, where we met Sarah and Phil again, but also Jim and Anne - a couple Steve has known for many years now. They told us about a pizza place - that we tried the following day but it turned out to be a big disappointment! Port Cygnet though has a self-service laundry and we were able to do our laundry before we left on the 23rd after catching up with Jim and Anne. I didn’t know how many words can be exchanged about engines but Steve and Jim managed a few - to me most of this is all greek - and that in English…
That leads me to the point, that sailing may not be too difficult to learn - but the language…
Well, while I tried to listen to the tale of the telltales (and learnt that sometimes you don’t listen to them), I also learnt that there are various ways to describe what one can do with the sail - tack - pull - tighten - crack - ease just to name a few expressions. As everyone can imagine: there are a lot of words that I don’t know - neither in English nor in German… More than once I must have looked puzzled because my brain still needs some time to put the words together before I can take action.
Today, 23rd of January, we arrived in Bellerive Bay; we wanted to stay in Montagu Bay, but both of us didn’t like it there. So here we are, in the neighborhood of a sewage treatment plant - which is not as annoying as the boats passing by in full speed and make Torea all shaky. Hopefully we will be able to use the visitor’s pontoon in King’s Harbour in Hobart tomorrow again.


photo: Arriving in Hobart