I am sure the 'Blog Mistress' will have more to say on this subject, however, so that you all know we are still alive and kicking I thought I would make a few quick observations about our past four days.
We enjoyed our time in the Tamar River, however it was time to move on. The problem was that a comfortable passage required the wind to come from the West for one day, turn off the next and then come from the North on the third day. This way we could run downwind to Tomahawk Bay, pass through Banks Strait with no wind on the ebb tide to Eddystone Point and then make a final run downwind to Wineglass Bay. "A good plan!" I hear you say as you chuckle under your breath... "but they are dreaming".
Well dream we did and it almost, well not quite, came off. We did leave with a Westerly wind, a lot of it actually. To be precise it was a gale of 30 to 40 knots but behind us. So we reefed the head sail down to frilly knickers and hung on. So on Day 1 we covered some 50 nautical miles in little over 7 hours. This was good going and apart from the 3 to 4m breaking waves it was acceptable.
Tomahawk Bay was a great spot to stop and it turned on a quite restful night. The next day, Monday, we woke early to catch the ebb tide through Banks Strait and as requested, there was no wind. To our delight we motored through the strait in the best conditions possible . A real joy. In fact we went through the strait at 8 to 9 knots and as a consequence we arrived at Eddystone Point at around midday. "All good", I hear you say, plan back on track. Well sort of, because we had not allowed for the 3 - 4m southerly swell that was running up against the 10 to 15 knot Northerly breeze. A really weird feeling, sailing up a swell with the wind behind you. The consequence of this confusion was that Wineglass Bay, some 70 nautical miles away, offered the only real protection. So on we went passing Eddystone and into the night, finally arriving at Wineglass Bay at 2am on Tuesday. We anchored in the dark and at dawn moved to a more secure location because the Northerly that had brought us down the coast was building. Yes, it built into yet another gale of 30-40 knots, with us anchored on a lee shore with 50m of chain out, in 5m of water. We knew we were 'in for it' when a professional fishing boat stopped fishing in the bay at midday and joined us at anchor.
Well we sat though the Northerly and waited for the predicted Southerly change, by the way, did I mention the predicted thunderstorms? "Plan going to sh*t" I hear you say. Well not quite, the change did come and so did the thunderstorms, buckets of rain and did I mention the hail stones?
Finally, on Wednesday afternoon it all w e n t a w a y. The day cleared, the wind decreased and we have had a good night on anchor. The 'Blog Mistress' is asleep now and I will not wake her to edit this so you will just have to put up with my bad spelling and grammar, putting it down to a lack of sleep and an inadequate education. So until the next time we speak, this is the Bloke saying "Enjoy Thursday because we are going to!"
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