Gone Cruising

Leaving Apollo Bay was interesting, the swell across the entrance had built up and made it quite difficult to exit. Putting the main up was made harder because the wind had wrapped the main halyard around the maststeps, so Tracy had to go out in the swell (hanging on) to untangle it so the main sail could eventually go up.

We left Apollo Bay at 2pm on Tracy's 44 Birthday the 30th of November and had a great trip to King Island on Sail power alone arriving at 8am the 1st December. It took a total time of 18hrs to travel the 86 Mile trip, as a lot was at night time we reefed in the heady so that it was more comfortable and less prone to possible wind gusts. The only problem was that you loose a little speed. Anyway the swell and the wind was in our favour for once. There was a lot of water over the deck.

King Island is huge (64kms long and 27kms wide). Grassy is quite secluded (the township is 5 kms away from the port) but there are beautiful beaches and huge green hills. We have taken a mooring which has the most gigantic chain attached, Paul had to use the anchor winch to pull it up so we could attach ourselves to it. We won't blow away for certain. The harbour is well protected by a huge rock wall built out to a small island which is a Fairy penguin colony

There is another low coming through tonight or tomorrow so we are holding out here until it passes and then on our way to Tasmania. The girls fly in to Hobart on the 12th December, we won't be in Hobart but will do our darnest to be on the mainland at least for them. How time flies by when one is cruising, almost one year ago we headed off and look where we are now.

We walked up the hill to the Grassytownsite and halfway accepted a lift the rest of the way. Grassy townsite has a coffee shop, laundromat, small supermarket and a gift shop (the owner is originally from Busselton, WA) selling handmade artifacts made from Bull Kelp. Just down from the town is the remains of a tungsten - Shellite mine which was closed in 1990 but may reopen in the near future.

Bev and Jan got friendly with Jackie and Malcolm owners of the supermarket and had the loan of their car to see the rest of the island. Jan was not well (tooth abscess) so five of us went to check the island out going to the main town of Currie, south of the island Surprise Bay, Naracoopa and of course the King Island Cheese factory (yumm). The island is beautiful, rugged and very isolated. Something we learned was that there was a King Island Kelp Industry. Harvesters collect the bull kelp off the beach after storms and cart it back to a plant in Currie where the kelp is dried, milled into granules and shipped to Scotland where over 380 types of alginate are extracted. The gelling and stabilising properties of alginates are used in the manufacture of over a thousand products such as cosmetics, sauces, fabric dyes, toothpaste, shampoo, icecream, beer and medicines. We where told that the Bull Kelp only comes ashore in two places around the world one being King Island

Jackie and Malcom came for dinner on Cockatoo so we could say thanks for the use of their car, unfortunately we were leaving at 5am the next day so it was a very short night but very enjoyable.
Assorted Photos of King Island