We moved down to Butler’s Beach, about a mile south, where we anchored the boat and rowed ashore to a lovely beach, that is part of the Labillardiere Circuit, a 14km walk around the peninsula. We really enjoyed the whole walk, which had varied terrain and lovely views. We saw a few echidna, snuffling their noses into the earth and I nearly stepped on a large black snake, that slithered off into the undergrowth. It’s funny how your mind makes sense of things based on your experience. I thought ‘there’s a black bike tyre on the track… which is odd…and now it is moving’ before I registered ‘snake’ and leapt backwards into Simon, who was trying to get a closer look at it! When we got back to the beach, two other boats were anchored there. We were just enjoying a well-earned cup of tea, when Bray, from ‘Southern Cross’ came over and gave us two paua (abalone). Yummy! Simon also caught a flathead (a type of fish that looks a bit like a blue cod that someone has stepped on), so a fishy dinner. We moved back to Partridge Island for the night, ahead of another significant wind shift.
Motor sailing out the next morning, we headed out of Great Taylor’s Bay and headed south, sailing past the peninsula walk of the previous day and down the coast of Bruny Island. It was a bright day, with a few showers, although we seemed to avoid the worst of these. We saw one other yacht all day, which headed into Cloudy Bay. As we got to the southern most point of our entire trip (about 43’ 35” S), we sailed through the Friars, a group of rocky islands covered with shags and seals. The seals were incredibly noisy and very smelly! We then had a fantastic sail across the bottom of Storm Bay, officially in the Southern Ocean, with a couple of big swells coming from different directions, reminding us of the sea voyages we have made and the one ahead! Tuarangi as ever, handled the conditions beautifully, gliding effortlessly over the swells and relishing in surfing down them. Sailing around Cape Raoul is spectacular as the point is made up of columns and rock platforms, caves and vertical cliffs. We surfed down the swell into Port Arthur, past a beach with huge sand dunes and more cliffs and shrubby hills. It was very windy as we reached the head of the bay, but our chosen anchorage at Ladies Bay was calm and sheltered. Anchoring at 7pm, we tidied the decks quickly and snuggled down below with the fire and a hot dinner!
Early the next morning, we rowed ashore to go and explore the Port Arthur Historic Site – a World Heritage Site, part of Tasmania’s convict history. We paid the entrance fee, which included an introductory tour and a harbour cruise. We were glad that we had paid as the tour guide was very entertaining and informative and set up the rest of the day’s exploration. Established in 1830 as a timber camp, using convict labour, the site was developed as a punishment station for repeat offenders from all over the British Empire. Based on the philosophy of creating ‘a machine for grinding rogues into honest men’, conditions were pretty harsh. However, some more enlightened thinking saw some of the convicts receiving trades training and a highly productive shipbuilding business being created. A separate boy’s prison was also established. One eerie site is the Isle of the Dead, where over 1000 people are buried. We enjoyed the way that the information was provided, through stories and access to many of the remaining buildings. Well worth a visit if you are down this way. We collected more wood for our fire before heading back, discovering that our only remaining bottle of wine was corked and the nearest resupply opportunity a four-hour sail away.
An early start saw us heading out of Port Arthur, against the swell we had ridden in on. Tacking out took us about an hour and a half and we were glad to reach Cape Raoul, where we could set a course across Storm Bay on a beam reach. We soon had all the sails up and Tuarangi flying across the bay with a new average speed of about 6 - 6.5knts. We were expecting to get headed as we rounded the top of Bruny Island, but the wind came around and we sailed right into Kettering, dropping the sails as we came alongside. Our friends on Theleme are out on the hard and we finally caught up with Matt and Jean on SuperTed, who we have heard all about! We took advantage of the local hostelry for an enjoyable fish and chip supper.
Now we are back to lists and chores. A week until the boat festival and painting and varnishing still to do, but cold and wet weather is keeping us below decks. We walked to the local store yesterday to get some bits and pieces and did some laundry…non-stop excitement!
We have started to look at the longer-term weather forecasts now for our planned trip across the ditch. We are looking for a large high pressure area that we can ride across on, so anyone with contacts in higher places….!!!