Sailing down the NSW and Tasmanian coasts to Hobart

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Capn’s summary



Travelled 1055 nautical miles (at least, as twice I forgot to turn on GPS at the start of a day’s sailing) over 29 days.





After we had made land fall in Australia at Coffs Harbour, on the mid north coast of NSW, we had a very pleasant 7 days at the Marina. During this time I introduced Urs and Marianne to the ways of Australia. Or at least my version of them. This included fish and chips at the local yacht club, some of the different beers of Australia and the club setup in NSW. Most sports clubs and Returned Servicemen League branches have flash premises for members and visitors. This usually being paid for by all the money going through the poke machines that are throughout the NSW clubs.



Urs and Marianne had decided to get off at Coffs Harbour, as they did not wish to head further south. Thanks Guys and good luck.



I began the voyage south on November 26^th and as I was by myself I decided to coastal hop south to Tasmania. With two exceptions, I was able to do day sails and had mostly tail winds, which made for very easy pleasant sailing.



Day 1 (172 nm) Coffs Harbour to Port Stephens



The first leg was from Coffs to Port Stephens and was the second longest leg. It took 26 hours, which did include just an hour’s sleep for the skipper. This was made even harder as on the morning I left Coffs Harbour I had woken well before the alarm went off so I did not even have a good sleep before hand.



It was a very wet morning meaning all the covers were very wet when they went below, but most of the rain had gone by the time I headed off. The wind was not as strong as predicted so it was slower sailing, however, this was made up for by the East Australian Current which sets south in this area at 2 to 3 knots thus bring up my overall speed.



The big event on the sail was a massive electrical storm during the early hours of the 278^th November. From midnight I could see lightning off the starboard (over the NSW coast. My experiences with such storms have been that there usually was lots of wind and some rain. This time there was lots of lightning, little thunder until the end, then some wind and heaps of rain for about the final hour. During this I sat in my wet weather gear in the cockpit out of the worst of the rain and just watched the show. I had put the laptop in the all-metal fridge to protect it if there were any near misses (or hits). After all that the rain stopped and the wind settled into a steady southeasterly and I was able to sail into Port Stephens.



Day 2 and 3



I was planning on only staying in Port Stephens for the rest of the day and sailing down to Broken Bay the next morning, however, I just did not seem able to get up early again. So I had a quite rest of the day in Nelson Bay, and the next day took the bus to the next town and stocked up with some fresh food.



Day 4 (79 nm) Port Stephens to Broken Bay



The next leg was from Port Stephens to Broken Bay, the northern limit of Sydney. This was only a 12 hour sail so after an early start, I was out there in the strong northeasterly that was supposed to push me down the coast at 7 knots making it a 10 hour day. But, again, the wind had not been living up to the weather predictions and I even had no wind at one stage. As I still wanted to do the trip in the daylight it became a good motor sail. The wind did pick up during the last couple of hours.



Over the course of the day I was visited several times by pods of dolphins (at least one pod of 5 bottlenose dolphins and another pod of 3 common dolphins). A good day all round, I think.



During the day I received two phone calls while sailing along. The calls were from NSW Marine Rescue Sydney (like the Coast Guard in NZ).



I had logged in with them when I left Coffs Harbour and arrived in Port Stephens. Again when I left Port Stephens I called them up on the radio. One of the questions they ask is “What is your ETA?” I give them my best guess and of I went.



For this leg I had guessed 16:00 as the ETA based on 7 knots. No problem, I would call them upon on arrival in Broken Bay. Nope, at 16:20 they called me wanting to know was I ok and did I want to extend my ETA. Now ETA stands for Estimated Time of Arrival. They did get short shift from me about the call. Then two hours later, as I was arriving in Broken Bay, they rang again wanting my position to check that I was still ok. Again, they got a blast from me. I do understand that they are usually dealing with small open boats but they knew that Hakura was 36-foot ocean going yacht and it was only a bloody estimate anyway.



Day 5



Broken Bay was great, with lots of really safe anchorages and I again stayed an extra day to get over the long day’s sail.



Day 6 (36 nm) Broken Bay to Port Hacking



On Monday 1 December I sailed from Broken Bay past Sydney to Port Hacking. It was again a day of motor sailing as the wind only got up to predicted strength towards the end. It was a good day’s sail past the big city of Sydney.



A strange thing was that I had no mobile reception the whole time I was sailing past Sydney, even though I was only 2 km of the coast at times. This was unlike other sections of the NSW coast where I had had reception five or more miles offshore.



Port Hacking, the southern limit of Sydney, is a narrow and often shallow harbour. You need to stick to the marked channels (and they are very well marked). I did this except for the last section where for some reason I cut the corned. More accurately, I tried to the cut the corned by the san bar said nope get back in the channel, which I did very quickly. Another interesting part of the trip is there is an overhead power line, which you need to go under. It said there was about 18 meters clearance – I usually work on 20 metres. I can now say 18 meters is sufficient though it did look very close, which it always does when you go under a bridge or such like.



Day 7



Again, another lay day and tomorrow I will be heading off for another 12 to 14 hour day down to Jervis Bay. This is the last lay day till I reach Bermagui, as I will need to be travelling for the following two days to make as much progress before a period of southerly wind arrives. The target is to be in Bermagui harbour on Friday before the head winds arrived. Port Hacking is a very restful place, even though it is right next to the southern suburbs of Sydney. I even saw a sea eagle roosting in the tress near the anchorage.



Day 8 (75 nm) Port Hacking to Jervis Bay



Not a good start to day, just after leaving the mooring I hit the same sand bank that I had touched on the way in. I suggest that the bank had moved over night. Alternatively, do I have a problem with this bank? The latter I think.



It was a long trip of motor sailing with tail winds. Again Hakura was visited by several pods of dolphins, both bottlenose and commons. A highlight was a visit from a small pod of false killer whales that swam next to Hakura for a few minutes.



As was now becoming the standard feature of NSW weather forecasts, afternoon thunderstorms. This time right on the money, it hit when I was just north of Jervis Bay. We went from a clear easy run down wind into very poor visibility and lumpy seas due to a wind shift. Not head winds though the sheets needed to be pulled in.



To add to the excitement of passing Cape Perpendicular and its large cliffs at the north side of the mouth of Jervis Bay I notice a big grey vessel gliding past. It was “05” HMAS Melbourne frigate. I heard later from another yacht that was also heading south that the navy had been conducting live fire exercise off Jervis Bay.



A great feature of many anchorages along the NSW coast is the availability of public moorings. Most of them are there to save the seagrass beds. I took one just inside the southern headland and a really nice mooring for the night. This part of Jervis Bay is actually part of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) as it is a Navy base (and former training airfield for the Australian fleet air arm.



Day 9 – Dec 4 (58 nm) Jervis Bay to Broulee Bay



Next morning was a slow start leading into a nice sail past a mixture of bush, beaches and same farmland. I was originally heading for Batman’s Bay but after advice from the other yacht I decided to stop over in Broulee Bay, just to the south of the entrance of Batman’s Bay.



It looked nice when I arrived though I was a bit concerned as there were two anchorages. A northern one sheltered from the northerly winds (which we had on arrival) and a southern one sheltered from southerly winds (predicted to arrive over night. As it turned out I did not sleep well (if at all) due to a mixture of a large electrical storm all round, lots of rain and a roll from the northerly swell. So I gave up on sleep at 02:30, have breakfast and began heading to Bermagui.



Day 10 (45 nm) Broulee Bay to Bermagui



It was a flat morning with a very light head wind so more motor sailing. This continued till about 05:30 when the southerly began to pick up. It did not get much over Force 3 (7 to 10 knots) but it was on the noise so I had to tack past Monique Island. The coast changed alignment south of here and I was able to lay for Bermagui Harbour. We arrived in Bermagui Harbour about 11:30 and moored alongside a small green trawler. The woman in the Co-op said that this vessel never goes fishing therefore I would be ok there.



Bermagui is a small fishing port just inside the river with a couple of dozen small fishing vessels, several game charter vessels and a few recreational vessels. The port is dominated by the Fishing Co-op, its fish and chip takeaway and several other shops and eateries. It is a great little place and the fish at the takeaway is really good. I was very glad to be here as the southerly was due to pick up over the weekend.



Days 10 to 14 were spent in and around Bermagui. I have a friend, Tanja Pete who lives, surprisingly near a small hamlet of Tanja. I had not seen him since a family holiday in 2003. After a quick check of the local phone book, I found that he was still in the area and was able to ring him.



He came down and took me back to his place in the forest behind Tanja. We had a pleasant night, apart from the wind and rain. The southerly had come trough with lots of rain. So much so, that the road to Bermagui was closed in several places. After lunch and a visit to one of the coastal lakes to see how much flooding there was. Lots by the way. It had broken through its bar and the muddy brown water was rushing out to sea.



Now earlier you may remember that I said that the fishing boat to which Hakura was moored did not go to sea. Well, on the Friday afternoon the skip came and told me he was planning on going fishing on Sunday. On Sunday usually means 4 am on Sunday, so I decided to move Hakura Saturday afternoon, well before the fishing boat was due to leave as Pete was there to help me move. Also, 4 am is not a good time to move a boat, usually.



So we moved some lines over to another berth and Pete waited there to catch Hakura. I cast off the lines and reversed out into the Harbour. No problems, all systems go. Well not quite. All systems go in reverse but no systems go in forward. So I was now in the middle of a harbour with a mixture of rough fishing vessels and visiting yachts, lots of wind and only reverse.



I was able to call the lady in the NSW Maritime Rescue office and asked her to come down to take a line so I could go along side a fishing boat and check the gear box. Pete noticed that I was not coming over his way and rushed over to give a hand.



Now Hakura was safely alongside a big wooden fishing boat and I was able to check the gearbox. No sign of anything obviously wrong and after a few minutes Hakura went into forward, so I risked it and took her over to the other berth. We arrived without too many further issues. Thanks NSW Maritime Rescue and Pete.



On Monday I asked the local mechanic down. On Tuesday he visited, though I’m not too sure he knew much. He said I had a hydraulic gearbox and I now know its not one of them. Anyway he appeared to get it going again, so I was on to leave on Wednesday 10 December.



Day 15 Bermagui to Twofold Bay (45nm)



Come Wednesday morning Hakura goes into reverse and forward so off I head for the southern NSW port of Twofold Bay. We had a good run down the coast with a stiff northerly pushing us along. There were heaps of branches and other driftwood in the water from all the rivers and lakes that had flooded over the weekend. The water was very brown for several miles offshore.



I was very glad to be in Twofold Bay and safely on a mooring as the wind was picking up. I stayed in Snug Cove, Eden on the mooring all of the 11^th as there was too much rain and far too much southerly winds for the crossing of Bass Strait.



This is to be the biggest leg of the trip by far. At least 67 hours at an average of 6 knots. This would mean at least two nights so there was no way I was going to be able to not sleep and be able to sail safely. So how was I going to do it? I have known solo sailors who sleep in 15 minute blocks whilst other only sleep during the day. Me, no way was I going to be able to do the 15 minute version, rather I would do most of my sleeping during the day but only in 1 hour lots. That was the plan anyway.



Day 17 Start of the crossing of Bass Strait (403 nm)



The weather forecast was for southerlies till evening then easterlies turning northerly for the next few days. There was the possibility of a southerly front after 2 days. So I decided to head out at noon to make as much progress into the southerly during daylight and thereby be out there when the wind shift came in. All with the idea of being nearly there when the southerly arrived.



So, we cast of the mooring lines just before midday and headed out of Twofold Bay into a southerly breeze. As we left Snug Cove I logged this crossing with NSW Marine Rescue, who asked for an ETA. I said midnight Sunday. They said I would need to advise Tasmanian Marine Radio (TasMar) if it was going to be different. Bloody hell what do these people think ETA mean – estimated time of arrival – it is only a best guess.



Shortly afterwards, a guy from TasMar did ring and he was ok with the ETA being rubbery. I said I would check in as I went past Flinders Island but I had no idea if I could make contact. Actually I did not get heard and was only picked up when closed to the Tasmanian mainland. About half the time I called a land stations they actually heard me. This is very different from New Zealand where Marine NZ runs a national network of VHF radio stations around the whole country, which a staffed by professional radio operators.



This first section was supposed to take 6 hours took 9, and only then because the wind died as I closed on Cape Howe (the board between NSW and Victoria) and was able to motor into the light head wind. Thus just after sunset I had left NSW waters and entered Victoria. Not sure I saw any land in Victoria but did see the lights of several towns along the Victorian coast as we headed south to Tasmania.



The course we took was basically the same as the race yachts in the Sydney to Hobart race (who would be coming through these waters about 2 weeks later). It was just west of south so we slowly left the coast of the Australian mainland behind and entered the outer waters of Bass Strait. These are not really coastal waters as the seafloor quickly drops below 200 metres and gets to several thousand metres in the middle. During the first night I saw a couple of big ships, which were all well offshore of our track.



Wind was not following the time scale predicted by the Bureau of Meteorology (called BoM), which was for the southerly backing easterly during the evening (this only happened about 03:00), then turning northeast and force 4 (10 to 15 knots). This change did occur though very slowly, so that it was motor sailing for most of the crossing. Again I wanted to maintain the 6-knot average or more.





The first full day of the crossing was sunny with high cloud in a genially rolling sea. A distraction was the strong condensation trails left by several highflying airliners. The east west ones crossing the Tasman Sea to and from New Zealand while the north south trails were most likely domestic fleets between Hobart and Sydney and maybe further north. Over time some of the trails would spread to make very high thin clouds with occasional dog legs, presumably due to cross winds.



During this day I did see a sunfish (you will be pleased to know I managed to miss this one Lorraine) and we did see a pod of dolphins off to starboard, though they appeared to be feeding rather than being interested in us. Later I think the same pod did catch up and swim with Hakura for a few minutes. I initially thought that they were common dolphins (the classic dolphin of Greek and Roman art) but was not sure as concerned I could not see the characteristic hourglass pattern on their side with the rear section of which is bright yellow. They were mainly dark with black strips and white underneath. Could they have been stripped dolphins? On checking the guides on board this seemed unlikely as there were no reports of this species being seen this far south. I will need to check this out, though still have not discovered any reports of such dolphins in Bass Strait though there are reports of a strange dolphin from other parts of Victoria. Also, there had been several strandings of a species of large dolphin – Risso's Dolphin in the south east of Australia over the past 6 months, but it was not these guys as they have not clear beak and are much bigger.



All the way across we saw lots of seabirds, a mixture of shearwaters and albatrosses. While we had been seeing seabirds on most of the legs the numbers of shearwaters was increasing significantly.



I did have a few hour naps during this day.



The second night ((12 / 13 December) was marked by the arrival of the green glowing waves. About midnight I made one of my many visual checks and noticed that the water around Hakura was glowing green. When I looked further afield many of the breaking waves also appear to be green. I turned off all the lights on Hakura to make sure this was not due to reflections from the starboard navigation light. Yep, the glow was stronger now and coming from all the breaking waves. It was a beautiful sight. All those tiny plankton giving off a green glow each time they where knocked around by the breaking waves, a great display of bioluminescence.



As the second day worn on I watched as Hakura slowly headed towards Tasmania. We passed off Flinders Island during the night, during the green glow, though we were to far off to see any land. The first sighting of Tasmania was about midday and most likely the hills on the north east coast behind the township of St Helens.



Again, I had several naps of an hour each during the morning, though some took a lot of waking after only an hour. The northerly wind continued pushing us along, until about 15:00 when there was a short sun shower. There were no clouds overhead, just rain falling from a clear sky. I even looked up into the rain and there was the blue sky. To the southwest, however, there was a big dark cloud and I suspect that the rain was coming from it after being blown along by the high level southerly wind.



Shortly afterwards the wind died and was slowly replace by one from the southerly, of about the same strength. It, however, felt much stronger as it was now on the nose and we had to start tacking into it. During this period I was visited by a school of common dolphins who were very active with several jumping clear of the water, as if to show me that they were real common dolphins, not like those imposters in Bass Strait. This time the hourglass pattern and yellow colour where very obvious.



After several hours of slow progress (Hakura was sailing well but progress over the ground towards Schouten Island was slow) I checked the weather forecast for the next day via TasMar. I thoughts where if the weather was going to be still from the south tomorrow I might as well push on now and reach Triabunna (maybe another 6 to 8 hours later). If, however, the wind was going to change and it would be easier sailing tomorrow (i.e. the wind change to being from the east through north to northwest) then I would head back into Wineglass Bay.



Yippee, it was going to be light northerlies tomorrow so an easy run tomorrow. This enabled me to easy sheets and run back into Wineglass Bay. Windglass Bay is a beautiful bay on the eastern side of the Freycinet Peninsula. It is often considered one of the great picturesque bays of the world, with a long sweeping sandy beach running north and south with the rugged Hazards as the northerly backdrop.



As I headed in I discovered that I would not have the anchorage to myself, there being about 6 other yachts and five fishing boats. Still there was plenty of room for me.



It was great to drop anchor and have a relaxing cuppa followed by dinner in this safe anchorage. Welcome back to Tassie, Doug, after 10 and a half years. I had finally made it. Still not Triabunna but that would be an easy run tomorrow.



After a good night’s sleep, I headed to Triabunna, a trip of about 40 nm, in flat conditions and no wind (day 20). It was a great motor, although I did have to detour around a large cluster of buoys, most likely for pots catching the highly prized Tasmanian rock lobster or crayfish.



After passing Schouten Island and beginning across Great Oyster Bay, the wind did begin to pick up, from the north so it pushed us along nicely. It was a trip of 5 hours over the 40 nm and I stopped in the upper reaches of Spring Bay, just off Triabunna. As the entrance channel is fairly shallow I had decided to wait till noon the next day before entering the harbour. This would give me a half rising tide (i.e. the tide was midway on the rise) and if Hakura touched the bottom then the rising water would help her get off again. The tidal range here was very small, only about 600 mm so not a lot of room either way.



So at noon on the 15^th, Hakura and I headed up the long channel into Triabunna. We did not get even close to touching, though the wind had freshened from the north which made for a bit of fun while coming alongside. Thankfully a fisherman on his large wooden boat waved me alongside and took my lines. As he was not going out for several days he was happy to have me alongside.



Triabunna is a small village on Tasmania’s east coast, which has a history of come and go industries from whaling, fishing, coast shipping, wood chip plants and experimental scallop farming. Most of which have left, leaving empty buildings and wharfs behind. The town has a few shops and two takeaways. I know this because I asked several people where one could eat in town and they all side there were two takeaways and the pub also had counter meals.



I can tell you the fish van near the wharf makes very good fish and chips while the pub has good dinners. It was very much like going back to the 80s in the pub. I doubt that anything has changed there much, except for the introduction of efpost.



As you can tell I had an enjoyable few days there waiting for Claire to come up from Hobart. She was to be the crew from the final few days around the Tasman Peninsula and on into Hobart.



She arrived on the evening of the 17^th and we headed off after midday on the 18^th. We were only going a few miles to Riedle Bay on the eastern side of Maria Island. The wind was still strong from the north but as we were running across and before it, it was not an issue. Rielde Bay is a bit like Wineglass Bay and was for us a great spot. We were welcomed in by a small pod of common dolphins and a couple of sea eagles overhead.



The interesting part was that the southeast end of the beach is usually the anchorage though it was not good for northerlies. Yep, we had northerlies though they were predicted to die over night and be replaced by a southerly during the early hours of the morning. So we headed for the southeastern end anyway. I was happy to see several other yachts and fishing boats in there before us. They seemed to be of the same mind as me. The bay was very sheltered with little wind from either the north or south affecting us at all.



Day 25 and we start the next leg down to Fortescue Bay, on the eastern coast of the Tasmania Peninsula. Another enclosed bay that has lots of protection from the south through west to northeast, which was good as we had southerly winds that were due to died over night.



The trip down was a slow affair, as we had head winds thus we needed to tack into it, however, as the winds were light, they did not give us much lift so we had a fairly wide angle of tack. As the afternoon progressed the wind would pick up giving us a lift and better angle. This would continue for about 20 minutes, then it would die, so then I would motor directly toward the bay. After another 30 minutes the wind would pick up again, though not very strong. It was just enough to make motoring unsuitable though the sailing was slow. This happened a couple of times then the wind died completely. Great, we could now motor directly for the entrance. This section of coast has very high cliffs and is home to lots of seals and seabirds. We did see the sea birds but not much of the seals.



After 6 and a half hours we dropped anchor in Fortescue Bay in flat calm conditions. Oh yes, we did see one seal. A very small one that surfaced right beside Hakura after dark, it took us a few minutes to work out what the noise was. Another very peaceful night with no wind, swell or noise to wake us early.



The next leg (day 26) was around Cape Pillar and inside Tasman Island then on to Port Arthur. A short trip of 17 nm, though it is past some of the grandest coast in Australia. The cliffs are often 100 m high and nearly vertical with a similar profile beneath the water. We had a calm morning with no wind until we were through the gap between Cape Pillar and Tasman Island. After that the wind slowly built from the southwest. Tasman Island is one of the marks for the Sydney to Hobart race – all yachts have to take it to starboard (i.e. they must pass with it on their starboard or right side) before heading into Hobart.



Another great day of occasional seals, a couple of pods of dolphins and heaps of sea birds, now mainly shags and gannets. Being a Saturday morning, there were several other vessels around, which came in from the north (most likely from Pirates Bay).



By the time we were well into Port Arthur the wind had picked up markedly and was a stiff breeze when we picked up the MAST public mooring off Commandants Point in Carnavon Bay. MAST (Marine and Safety Tasmania) has placed one or two moorings at popular anchorages around Tasmania, with a limit of 4 hours during the day and over night for the first vessel to pick up after 5 pm. Since we were the only vessel moving, I thought it was ok to stay on the mooring overnight.



As we had brought squid for bait in Triabunna, we went fishing at the mooring, being our only chance to do so. Claire and I both caught a couple of wrasse all of which were released quickly. No fish for dinner though it did help pass the afternoon.



Next morning was our last of the trip, and as I wanted to arrive in Hobart early in the afternoon so it was an early start, up at 5:30 for a 6 o’clock start. Well more like 6 for a 6:45 start.



Again, the gearbox took ages to get into forward and after the initial connection; I put it back into neutral to drop the mooring line. Oh, bother and damnation, it would not go back into forward. I had a few tense moments until she finally engaged, and then we were off. The old problem was back, bummer.



The weather forecast was for light northeasterly winds going more northerly in the afternoon. It was right about being light though it was not till we passed Cape Raoul and entered Storm Bay where we could head directly for the Derwent River that we could get a feel for the wind direction. You may have guested it. It was far more northerly and backing to the west as the morning wore on. Thus we started with eased sheets run that slowly became hard on the wind with occasional periods of heading west and not northwest as required. The motor was still on and in forward (at this stage I was not going to take it out of forward until we were tided up in Hobart) thus we made good progress and entered the Derwent estuary about 13:00.



I called up the number for access to Constitution Dock and found out they only opened the bridge twice more on Sundays, 15:00 and 19:00 hours. I thought that we could, just make the 15:00 opening so we motored on up the river into a slight headwind.



Much of this coast would be familiar to TV views who have watched the end of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race. The yachts have to pass Cape Raoul before heading across Storm Bay and into the Derwent River and ending up at Constitution Dock after finishing.



Well we made it to the holding dock outside Constitution Dock just before 3 pm, and I rang the security fellow to come let us in. He arrived with a whole pile of paper work to be done before we could go in. That all done, he lifted the bridge and we began to head in. Well, we would have if the gearbox would work. Yippee we were underway.



It is a very narrow entrance and the bridge only lifts to allow you to enter on the port side of the channel, which we did and now we are in the Dock. After a few more minutes we were tied up. The next job was to head off and see Campbell, who was working at “Jack Green”, a bar in Salamanca.



This all happened on the Sunday before Christmas so I would have to move again on or before Boxing day as the Dock had to be clear for the Sydney Hobart yachts. On Monday morning I tried to fine a mechanic to come and fix the gearbox. Nobody was available until after New Years, but I had to get out of the Dock.



To this end on Tuesday, I went and talked with TasPorts, who controlled the docks. Yes I would need to move and yes they could tow me out to another Marina. It would only cost $400! Bloody hell!



I though I would try and see if the gearbox would work just one more time to get me to a local marina, so back to Hakura I raced. Yes the gearbox did engage in forward, after several very long minutes of running the motor while in forward.



I then rang the security to ask for the bridge to be opened and I would be off. Well unfortunately, I did take it out of gear while waiting for the bridge opening. A big mistake as it would not go back into forward. One option was to reverse all the way there, though not really given how Hakura backs. Well I kept at getting it into gear and after more long minutes it went back in.



Finally as the guy was opening the bridge I slipped the lines and headed out into the middle of Constitution Dock. Hakura, however, was not quite aliened so I put her in reverse. Another mistake, or rather the same mistake again.



I was now in the middle of Constitution Dock drifting back onto the fish punts with the bridge up and everybody looking at me. Luckily she went back into forward before anybody noticed and I was off. There was no way I was going to take her out of gear until I was in the berth at the Prince of Wales Bay Marina. We safely arrived after a 40 minute steam up the Derwent River. Safe at last and not need to move till the mechanic could visit on January 5. Actually there was no way to move.



In summary I had a great rip from Coffs Harbour to Hobart, having seen much of the NSW coast, visited many safe anchorages along the way and a couple of really good harbours. Then there was the crossing of Bass Strait. The longest solo sail I have done (and are likely to do). I then arrived in Tasmania on my yacht (a place where I lived for 21 years) and was able to sail the final few days with my daughter Claire and later meet up with my son Campbell. Overall a great time and I enjoyed it.

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Photos

America Bay
Cowan Creek, Broken Bay

Mt Amos, The Hazards,
Wineglass Bay in Freycinet Peninsula, Tasmania

Riedle Bay, Maria Island
Looking west at the Neck

Common Dolphins while leaving Port Arthur
Can you find the three dolphins?

Hobart from the River Derwent
Mt Wellington in the background

Comments

[Pete]

Fantastic article, thanks :-)
Hi, thanks for a fantastic article as I'm self delivering a possible 27ft yacht purchase from NSW to Tas and single handed so I found your write-up really informative with great first hand advice. I was however a little taken aback that you were negative towards ETA's or more so Coastal stations following up on ETA's. I would have thought Coastal stations constant following up on a vessel's ETA as annoying as that may be and from your write-up it was occasionally would be a fantastic thing. It's a clear indication that people know you're out there and are just making sure. It sounds like Coastal radio have the ETA as a cut off time and after that warrants a call. This would be more logical than waiting after an ETA and NO call. I say logical because who actually determines what's a fair period of time after a posted ETA to follow up.... Radio station operator 1 may feel 1hr is warranted after a posted ETA, yet operator 2 may be nervous ( for our safety) at a few minutes past ETA. So calling to confirm your ETA once it has passed seems to be the most logical because NO radio station operator can be subjective. Other than that, I really enjoyed your write up and thank you very much for laying some ground work for my own passage from NSW to Tas. Greatly appreciated, fair seas and safe sailing. Pete