Gone Cruising

Leaving early morning from Port Arthur ( guess what NO WIND!) so motored with Azure on the horizon in front of us. We rounded Cape Raoul and continued up the coast to Parsons Bay. Azure continued on to Hobart and we heard them talking to Michelle from Trinacria, she was flying out in a couple of hours so would miss them and us. Tibia and Trinacria had travelled from CYCSA (Adelaide) to Hobart via the west coast.

Parsons Bay
Parsons Bay was beautiful with fish farms on the portside on entry. They had large cages similar to those we had seen in Port Lincoln. The townsite is Nubeena and has a pharmacy, bakery, Post Office, and little corner deli. We went ashore for a pie and paper, deciding to head around the corner to Lime Bay to anchor.

Lime Bay
Leaving Parsons Bay we stopped just off Yellow Cliff to drift and fish, catching a fine haul of flathead for dinner. Sashimi for entre and fried fish for the main. The weather and swell was calm, the calm before the storm, so motored pass Sloping Island to Lime Point as there were gale force winds expected. Having set the anchor to ensure it was secure, half way through the night we found ourselves bouncing off the bottom so pulled anchor and moved futher out (of course there was no moon, it was raining and the wind had rising substantially by then) but the anchor took again and we held until morning when the wind abated.

Plunkett Point
Pulling ourselves out of bed the next morning to fine calm seas and the sun out we headed off to Plunkett Point where there was Coal Mine Penal Settlement ruins to explore. It was quite shallow so we anchored a fair way off shore and took the tender it. The ruins cover quite a large area and are very well marked. We saw the coal mines, the soldiers quarters, the convict quarters and much more, it was well marked and had great information placed for us to read. The surroundings are stunningly beautiful and well worth a visit. As it was not the place we wished to stay the night we pulled anchor (I get sick of flaking the anchor chain on these short stops as it is my job-must learn not to complain!) and headed towards Little Norfolk Bay.

Little Norfolk Bay
A delightful bay-they have great cruising grounds here in Tasmania and this is no exception, anchoring next to the township of Taranna. Not much in the townsite, a restraunt and fruitier. The restraunt is one of the top six in Tasmania and called Mussel Boys, so had a cappacinno. The scenery again is stunning and we were well protected for a lovely nights sleep.

Pittwater
Pulling the anchor, we were glad for the anchor wash point Paul had installed as it was very muddy and needed to be washed down before going in our anchor locker. Motoring (no wind) we went to look up the various bays and round the islands on the way to Pittwater. Stopping to drift fish again we caught another good feed of flathead for dinner.

We discussed heading down towards Hobart, but as the wind picked up to a strong 10-15 knot southerly went where the wind took us north to Pittwater. We put the Asymetric up and got caught trying to take it down when the wind increased to 25 knts. We tore the cover and broke the ring, nothing that is not fixable-Paul loves that sail.

Entering Pittwater was interesting as it is quite shallow we navigated on depth sounder. Anchoring off Lewisham. We did not go ashore but stayed in and watched TV for the night.

Mary Ann Bay
Australia Day we headed off to Hobart we averaged 5 knots motoring (no wind again) with a flat sea. It was very hazy and there were lots of boats out, dingies fishing, people surfing more activity on the water than we had seen in a long time. Heading around Iron Pot lighthouse there was Hobart spread before us. We had planned to arrive Friday and decided to anchor outside in MaryAnn Bay to head up the Derwent River early morning. The bay was full of day sailors enjoying the holiday. The bay was empty except for us by twilight and we had the bay to ourselves. Guess what-about 12 midnight the wind came us from the NE making us move to a more protected spot (in the dark and the cold) around the corner to Gibson Point we we crached into bed.