Leg 32 - Stanley to Wynyard on the Inglis River

23 Nautical Miles

Having done the washing at the local cabin park and given Stanley what we considered to be a 'good looking over', we were well and truly ready to move on. Heck, we could even see our destination from Stanley! We we're going to pass 2 Capes and 2 lighthouses and the winds were predicted to be light and from the southwest. Just right to blow us across to Wynyard. We wanted to leave on a favourable tide and would not be able to enter the Inglis River until at least 2 hours before high tide.

View to Rocky Cape with Table Cape behind taken from The Nut.

Despite fretting about how he'd get away from Monica III, our docking buddy for the last 4 days, the Bloke had us gliding out of Stanley as gently as if we were a gondola.

The Stanley Nut took forever to recede over the horizon. We were well past Rocky Cape before it appeared to float out on the water like a giant black scallop and finally vanish from sight. We had an extremely relaxed run under sail observing very dramatic changes in the vegetation. We originally thought there might have been some fires that could be the cause for the sparse growth around Rocky Cape but we later learned that it was different rock and soils. Much of the land is very volcanic and fertile but the lava outflows are in bands. The areas that were not inundated and remain as a base rock support only a meager growth.

The stout little Lighthouse at Rocky Cape

 Leaving Rocky Cape in our wake.

We arrived at Table Cape too early to enter the Inglis River at Wynyard.

We sat hove to under the Cape and lovely lighthouse for 2 hours waiting for the tide to rise.

More views to the shore and dramatic geological changes.

 

Was this coloured strip canola or tulips we wondered?

The Bloke had already been in touch with the Ashley at the local Waratah-Wynyard Council who looks after the pontoon in the river. (This is s recently upgraded facility and associated riverside parkland and trail). He'd recommended rafting up to a large steel yacht called Andante II. A quick phone call to the owners, Colin and Rees and they were on hand to assist at 15:00.  Coincidentally, they'd only brought Andante II to Tassie from WA earlier in the year. Our second raft-up in succession was as successful as the first despite the added challenge for the Bloke to turn and come alongside in a 4knot tide and being paranoid about grounding. Colin reassured the Bloke depth wouldn't be an issue; they had a 1.8m draft compared to our 1.6 and we were going to hang out into deeper water. Keen to hear our plans, Colin and Rees came aboard a little later for 5ers and loaned us a ute so we could visit the tulips on Table Cape the next day. Better than a Lotto win!

Rafted up. 

Sometimes it was quite a climb down to get back on board and depending on the status of the tide we needed to pull Andante II in enough to reach it before crossing the gap from the wharf!