39 Steps - not at all what you'd think.

When asked about what sights we'd so far seen in Port Fairy, we thought our coverage quite comprehensive. We'd even walked out to the lighthouse during some vegetation clearing  with accompanying burning off. The little tower took on an spooky look with black smoke wafting around it. "Would we like to go up the lighthouse?" was the question posed. "You bet"!

 The Port Fairy lighthouse in a smokey haze.

I raced to find the Bloke who was doing his morning 'me time' drinking coffee and reading the paper at Rebecca's Cafe. Guess where we are going right now? Drink up quick, quick - places to go and see.

Off we trotted to Griffith Island at the mouth of the Moyne River as excited as a pair of kids. At the approach path to the lighthouse there were two family groups with pre-schoolers, their delight at being at the door of a lighthouse apparent from even 50m. Their associated photo-shoot seemed to take forever. We sat on the wall half way along the path patiently. We must have been looking pretty cool and disinterested because another group with young teenagers didn't even acknowledge at all or that we just might be waiting for 'our turn' and shot past us to indulge in a shameless round of 'selfies' at the lighthouse doorstep. Ha ha, little would they know that the oldies they'd so rudely queue-hopped had the key to the door!

The Bloke opening up.

 View to the first of 'the 39 steps' to the top.

Checking the plumbing.

This air vent was very much in operation with the wind whistling through.

It would have been essential ventilation in the days when the lamp was gas lit.

The old bulbs and lighting mechanism.

A closer look at the lens with 'workings' within.

 

"Fourth Order

Catadioptric Fixed and Flashing Light

With Short Elipses

Chance Brothers and Co

Glass Works near Birmingham 1858"

The old and the new

 The solar panel keeps this light lit now.

 

View back along the walkway.

The railings are long gone but we bet they were days when the lighthouse was tended daily that they were very much needed.

 

Going down

Couldn't read their faces but surprise comes to mind.

Well that's our version of 39 Steps.

Not the 1935 Alfred Hitchcock thriller, but interesting and fun just the same!

Port Fairy Picturebook

In common with so many of the southern Ports we've visited, Port Fairy owes its beginning to whalers and sealers on seasonal hunting expeditions from Tasmania. By the mid 19th century following European settlement on the mainland, agriculture became established in the district. Despite the closure of the whaling station in 1840, Port Fairy became a major transport hub and one of Australia's biggest Ports in the day.

Port Fairy has a history of reinvention. It was originally named after the cutter 'Fairy' although it was re-named 'Belfast' before reverting to Port Fairy some 40 years later. At one time Port Fairy was also host to a large fishing fleet but this has now declined to just a couple of boats. A milk powder factory on the edge of town manufacturing baby formula is only a memory, although locally born residents such as Max the Harbour master, recall it affectionately. He gleefully recounted the still warm flakes, being rolled into a stick shape and occasionally being handed as 'a treat' by a kindly plant manager before naughty schoolboys were coaxed to school. The milk drying factory gave way to anti-biotic production and now GlaxoSmithKline, one of the worlds top 6 pharmaceutical companies, uses the plant for opiate alkaloid extraction and the production of a a variety of painkiller medications.

In addition to the pharmaceutical business of GSK, tourism is Port Fairy's BIG BUSINESS. With so many historic buildings and exemplars of 19th century architecture, preserved quaintness and seaside location plus proximity to Melbourne, it's not hard to understand why this is a popular tourist destination. Half the town appears to be 'holiday accommodation'! The town also hosts an annual Folk Festival in March which draws a crowd of 40,000. This is when the locals 'cash in' and do all their fundraising for the year for whatever project they are concerned with. The whole town gets behind the event with committees hard at work year round preparing for the provision of catering, entertainment etc.... Many locals also fund their own annual holiday by vacating their home for the period of the festival and holidaying elsewhere on the proceeds of the rent. It's a win-win all round!

 Inside the discovery centre on Griffith Island.
There are nesting colonies of Mutton birds and Shearwaters on Griffith Is.

 Blue bells. Quite exotic for a West Aussie.
The cottage style gardens are begining to burst with blooms now spring is here.

A bit of brightness in the saltbush.

 Attempts to stave off erosion at East Beach?

 Oystercatcher at work in a tidal pool.

 Trying to merge with the posts. Inspecting what's in the water below.

 Ships propeller and bell alluding to the maritime history of Port Fairy.

 St Johns - One of several Churches.
Literature suggests they ran out of money for the spire. 
I wonder if the locals know that there is a disused one lying around in a car park only 45min up the road in Portland?

 The Methodist Church

 Spring in the air.

Head up and hat at a rakish angle.

The Port Fairy ANZAC Memorial.

Lone and guarding a corner on the main approach road.

 Spring has sprung

 The Port Fairy Consolidated School

 Blue stone and red doors.

Birds in the Belfry.

 Daisy carpet.

Not an outdoor alter. This is a fish cleaning bench.

We watched fishermen haul a tuna up as long as this bench.

One of them had to stand on the bench to help lift the fish.

The local seal feasted on the carcass for days!

 So many cute timber-lap cottages

We've all heard about 'Typhoid Mary',

so we're not sure if we'll queue up at a food outlet called Coffin Sally!

Thirsty Work

There appears to be a bit of competition between Port Fairy and Portland as to which place is older. Portland's tag line is 'Victoria's birthplace'. In any instance, it must be remarked that the early settlers here in Port Fairy must have been engaged in thirsty work. Not only is Victoria's oldest Inn here but the first licensed hotel plus at least 4 others!

The Merrijig

It's closed on a Tuesday and Wednesday.

We settled for a drink on a Monday

Merrijig has a claim to make.

Seacombe House.

Unsure if a proper 'Pub'. The Stag restaurant is there.

The Caledonian

The Caledonian makes it's own claim to fame.

The Star of the West

 The Victoria Hotel has been given quite an update

The Royal Oak

13 Beaufort

The Beaufort Wind Scale is to wind and waves what the Richter Scale is to earthquakes: higher numbers refer to increasing levels of severity. Lower numbers in the scale are just descriptive really, while higher numbers are downright alarming.  A rear admiral in the British navy, called Sir Francis Beaufort, created this wind scale in 1805 to describe the wind's observed effect on water conditions. It is not an empirical measurement; it's how you would experience wind and water in increasingly strong conditions. The range goes from Force 0 to Force 12. This is what the scale looks like as described by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.

Beaufort scale number	Descriptive term	Units in km/h	Units in knots	Description on Land	Description at Sea
0	Calm	0	0	Smoke rises vertically	Sea like a mirror.
1-3	Light winds	19 km/h or less	10 knots or less	Wind felt on face; leaves rustle; ordinary vanes moved by wind.	Small wavelets, ripples formed but do not break: A glassy appearance maintained.
4	Moderate winds	20 - 29 km/h	11-16 knots	Raises dust and loose paper; small branches are moved.	Small waves - becoming longer; fairly frequent white horses.
5	Fresh winds	30 - 39 km/h	17-21 knots	Small trees in leaf begin to sway; crested wavelets form on inland waters	Moderate waves, taking a more pronounced long form; many white horses are formed - a chance of some spray
6	Strong winds	40 - 50 km/h	22-27 knots	Large branches in motion; whistling heard in telephone wires; umbrellas used with difficulty.	Large waves begin to form; the white foam crests are more extensive with probably some spray
7	Near gale	51 - 62 km/h	28-33 knots	Whole trees in motion; inconvenience felt when walking against wind.	Sea heaps up and white foam from breaking waves begins to be blown in streaks along direction of wind.
8	Gale	63 - 75 km/h	34-40 knots	Twigs break off trees; progress generally impeded.	Moderately high waves of greater length; edges of crests begin to break into spindrift; foam is blown in well-marked streaks along the direction of the wind.
9	Strong gale	76 - 87 km/h	41-47 knots	Slight structural damage occurs -roofing dislodged; larger branches break off.	High waves; dense streaks of foam; crests of waves begin to topple, tumble and roll over; spray may affect visibility.
10	Storm	88 - 102 km/h	48-55 knots	Seldom experienced inland; trees uprooted; considerable structural damage.	Very high waves with long overhanging crests; the resulting foam in great patches is blown in dense white streaks; the surface of the sea takes on a white appearance; the tumbling of the sea becomes heavy with visibility affected.
11	Violent storm	103 -117 km/h	56-63 knots	Very rarely experienced - widespread damage	Exceptionally high waves; small and medium sized ships occasionally lost from view behind waves; the sea is completely covered with long white patches of foam; the edges of wave crests are blown into froth.
12+	Hurricane	118 km/h or more	64 knots or more	Very rarely experienced - widespread damage	The air is filled with foam and spray. Sea completely white with driving spray; visibility very seriously affected

The worst conditions we've been caught in in Force 8-9. I say 'caught' because it was not anticipated and would best be described as the manifestation of the warning given by the Bureau of Meteorology that "... Wind gusts can be 40 percent stronger than the averages given here, and maximum waves may be up to twice the height.   .... ". We certainly never intended to be 'out there' in filthy weather like that but it happens, right?

So imagine if you will, what a phrase like '13 Beaufort' will conjure up! For us it turns out to be a boat name with which we've become familiar.

 

One of the Bloke's morning habits, if we are actually at rest and not sailing, is to fire up an AIS app called Marine Traffic. There are a number of similar apps that display on a map, the positions of ships and other vessels based on their emitted Automatic Identification Signal. Almost all commercial vessels emit a signal which is used by other shipping to determine proximity at sea and importantly, the chances of a collision. Not all vessels that have AIS will be emitting all the time. Fishing vessels for example, rarely have their system on! We've seen inexplicable light arrays on the night horizon that we've eventually determined to be a fishing trawler and they haven't had their AIS switched on. There is no substitute for keeping a watch out! With the exception of the fishing boats, what the apps enable, is the opportunity to be a bit of a 'fly on the wall' and observe shipping movements and where the main shipping channels are. We also like to see if there are other sailors moving around. Very snoopy!

A couple of weeks ago we were sitting out a few cold fronts passing from west to east, we were astonished to see a vessel having just crossed The Great Australian Bight and turning up Thorny Passage past Cape Catastrophe at the bottom of the Eyre Peninsula. This yacht had just crossed The Bight and must have been clobbered by some VERY severe weather. We alerted the crew of Urchin who are still in Port Lincoln to our interesting observation. There had to be a story! As it turned out, the good Doctors Jonathan and Wendy, who happen to live overlooking the Port Lincoln Marina learned the story of solo world mariner, Gus (Rijs Klumper) and his yacht '13Beaufort' over a couple of meals and loads of washing. Jonathan is the Commodore of the Port Lincoln Yacht Club and as ever, enthusiastically welcomes and extends hospitality to visiting yatchies. He and wife Wendy even took us in!

Gus's Bight crossing was certainly a wild one but nothing by comparison with his wild time at the Kerguelen Islands (also aptly known as the Desolation Islands) deep in the southern Indian Ocean (49-21'S, 70-13'E). Warned to secure himself to a ships mooring due to impending storms, his hull was breached when the mooring buoy came loose on it's chain and hammered through his bow. To save his boat he had to release himself from the mooring and was subsequently beached. It took over a month to effect repairs sufficient to enable him to make for Fremantle. En route he suffered 2 knock downs. The net result of breakages and flooding of all electronics was an epic journey of hand steering to limp into Fremantle to make repairs. What a horrendous way to fill the first year of a 3 year world circumnavigation!

We think we'll add Force 13 to the Beaufort Scale and the above will be what it looks like!

The good Doctors from Port Lincoln called us to expect Gus on 13Beaufort in Port Fairy. We scrutinised Marine Traffic with great intent to anticipate Gus' arrival. With all his experience, the trip from Kingscote, Kangaroo Island to Port Fairy was a doddle for Gus but as instructed, we were on the wharf to accept his leads when he arrived.

We were particularly excited to meet another touring yatchie (albeit we are not of his calibre) and Gus's story is by any measure, extraordinary. His survival story is even sweeter when you factor that his slow progress to Fremantle led him to contact his son in The Netherlands to inform him that he would be unable to make a planned rendezvous in Perth/Fremantle.  His son cancelled his ticket on Malaysian Airlines MH17; the same flight from Amsterdam that was shot out of the sky over The Ukraine! Chilling!

 

Looking at the weather forecasts

We hope that Gus has not already exhausted a lifetime of good luck and has a brilliant remainder to his epic journey. Wishing you fair winds our friend, fair winds!

On his way, next headed for King Island.

Heading for the river mouth.