We were totally impressed with our increased speed and smoothness of passage with our clean, newly painted bottom. We couldn’t get over the difference, as Tuarangi happily cruised along, a full knot or more than before we hauled out. Our angles were better and all round huge improvements had us smiling and Tuarangi flying! We arrived at Cygnet to find a host of other vessels. Our friends on ‘Dovetail’ and ‘Roseanne’ were already there, and we dropped anchor nearby. It was freezing cold and ‘Roseanne’ soon had smoke pouring from their chimney. We went ashore to see what was what and to find out about the festival. It was a ticketed event, and the tickets had sold out for the Saturday, but there was all day music in the park, lots of jamming in the pubs and great buskers on the streets. We had dinner in the pub, listening to a great group of people playing a range of Celtic and folky tunes. Wandering around Cygnet, we felt quite out of place, as our jeans and jackets stood out in stark contrast to the ponchos, piercings, dreadlocks and voluminous trousers that seemed to be the norm. We too lit our fire when we got back to the boat and were again delighted how quickly the whole boat warmed up.
Saturday dawned sunny and a bit warmer, so having done a heap of chores in the morning (cleaning, replacing sheets and halyards) we headed ashore and listened to some good music in the park managing to resist the temptation to get dreadlocks, buy incense and herbal delights or have a henna tattoo. $5 got us a plate of hot curry from the museum and $2 got a local ice cream. We headed to the sailing club, where there were sea-shanties being sung as part of the festival. It was scorching hot sitting in the sun and freezing cold sitting in the wind! That’s Tassie for you! The shanties were good fun, and presented by a range of singers, young and not so young. Again, we lit the fire when we got back, using up most of our wood supply.
Sunday was a beautiful, sunny morning and we had a good sail back to Kettering, where we picked up a mooring lent to us by Andy’s friend Mick. It was quite a long row to the shore, but very close to our friends on ‘Theleme’. In the morning, we went ashore and drove to Hobart. With much excitement, we got our exhibitor’s pack for the Boat Festival and were able to have a look at our berth. Not long now! We also went looking for a second hand boat bits shop, wandering through Battery Point, which is a beautiful and historic part of town. Unfortunately, the shop is no longer there. We drove out to Glenorchy looking for a gas fitter (who was also no longer there) and then had a lovely walk and ice cream at the Botanical Gardens. One of the exhibitions is of Antarctic plants and the house was freezing! It was nice to get back into the sunshine. We had been house sitting for Andy and Margie for a couple of nights and picked them up from the airport, and all headed back to their house, where we cooked them dinner. Some friends of theirs had invited us all up to celebrate a birthday and we were allowed to taste ‘Sullivan’s Cove single cask’ the 2014 world’s best whisky, which sells for thousands of dollars. At reputedly around $500 a shot, it was a real treat…and very nice it was too!
The next day, Andy was suffering from a vicious migraine and the car we had borrowed was required by someone else, so having dropped Margie at work, we did our shopping, took it all to the boat, which we brought back alongside, drove back to Hobart, dropped the car off and caught the bus back to Kettering! We settled our bills at the marina and the chandlery. Our haulout costs were exactly half what we paid last year in Nelson! That night was the heaviest rainfall in Tasmania for four years. Six inches fell on the mountain and about 4 inches fell through the window above our bed, soaking the duvet exactly between Simon and I. We had an uncomfortable night, Simon on the sea berth in a sleeping bag and me perched on the edge of the bed with a dry slither of duvet to keep me warm. Fortunately, we were in the marina, so I was able to take the whole lot of bedding, including the duvet and pillows to the laundry and tumble dry the whole lot!
We sailed across to the Duckpond on Bruny Island, ahead of yet another windy spell, following ‘Roseanne’ in and having a passing chat with Jamie and Lisa on ‘Wild Goose’, whom we had last seen in Eden. We had a walk ashore that afternoon and were just thinking about making dinner, when Jamie, Lisa and their two children arrived and took us off for another walk. It was fun walking with the children and the total delight of hiding among the trees, had us all laughing. With them coming on board for a cuppa, we ended up having a late supper! They told us that the local CWA (Country Women’s Association) was doing good value coffees and lunches, in a village hall nearby.
With another forecast wind change, we moved anchorage to Quarantine Bay, by the old Quarantine station. Going ashore, we did a very informative, self guided tour of the station, where some German sailors were held during the war and many ship loads of sailors held for a week or more, on their return. It also has glass houses, as a plant quarantine, that was used until fairly recently. We also found out the word ‘Quarantine’, comes from the Italian for forty days, which used to be the standard quarantine time. We couldn’t imagine what it must have been like to have sailed for 100 days and then be forced to spend 40 days ashore before going home. Little wonder there were mutinies and runaways!
The next day we headed ashore, looking for the bargain CWA lunch. Walking for about 40 minutes, we enjoyed a very good feed for a few dollars. Jamie. Lisa and children joining us! We left them and walked to Dennes Point and back to the boat, making a circular route round the north of Bruny Island. It was very windy walk and seemed that around half the houses were up for sale. We also saw a wallaby, an echidna, a kangaroo and my new favourite cute fluffy animal (sorry Wombats), the quoll. They are small carnivores with lots of spots and very cute faces. It was a while since we had walked 18km and felt a bit windswept and weary by the time we got back.
Leaving the sheltered waters of Barnes Bay, we had a beautiful sail down the D’Entrecasteaux Channel. Tuarangi was going like a dream and we had full sail up. We were heading for the Huon River, which has a very shallow approach and we had been advised to go up at full tide. We were a bit early, but sailing so well and encouraged by a boat coming the other way that reported that they had measured the depth at no less than 2.1m the whole way. So, with our depth gauge flashing 0.0m under the keel and the tide rising, we sailed on up, kissing the mud a couple of times, but soon sailing onto the mooring our friends John and Shirley on ‘Dovetail’ had lent us. We had quite an audience, as the mooring is close to the Living Boat Trust (LBT) and the Wooden Boat Centre, so were pleased our entrance was perfect! John came out in his dinghy to welcome us to Franklin and told us that in an hours time, the LBT had a shared dinner that we could attend. So we quickly scrubbed up and went ashore, enjoying a two-course dinner for $12, with around 50 others. It was a lot of fun, sitting at long tables surrounded by various wooden boat projects. Again, everyone was incredibly friendly and we were made very welcome.
The next day, we were shown around the Wooden Boat Centre, which takes on 12 students a year. There were some beautiful boats to see and it was great to see wooden boat building in action. We walked around the “Birkett Circuit”, a hilly walk that goes past John and Shirley (Birkett)’s house. We popped in to say hi and were invited for lunch the following day. We had some really varied weather in Franklin, with one morning at 7 degrees at 7am and the next day 22 degrees at the same time. We had a lovely lunch with John and Shirley, enjoying the stunning river views from their home. We also got on with a number of tasks on the ‘to do’ list. We hitched to Kingston (much to our children’s amusement), where we met Andy who took us back home for a couple of nights. Again, catering on a vast scale, with over 20 people fed on gourmet meals over the two evenings. We once again made use of laundry and showers and did a bit of shopping for exciting things like paintbrushes and a new toilet pump. We were sad to say goodbye to Andy, as he is due to leave for Antarctica on Wednesday and it had been great fun catching up after so long. Margie kindly took us back to Franklin, where we did more chores (fitting the new pump, fixing another bilge pump, replacing string and putting new leather on the bobstay). We actually had some really hot weather, which was fantastic.
Today we left the river (with the tide .5m higher than when we arrived) and had a mix of sailing and motoring down from Franklin. As we headed out across the channel, we reduced sail just in time, before a squall hit us with torrential rain and around 30 knts of wind. Yesterday we were in shorts and t-shirts and today back into full winter gear with oilies and wellies! We are now at anchor at Partridge Island in Great Taylor’s Bay. The fire is again lit and we are looking forward to a hot dinner. Gotta love Tassie!