Our Tamar Threestep

To think that we hadn't really planned to pull into the Tamar at all almost makes me blush with shame. Central to our thinking is a desire to reach Hobart by 26th November but also the thought that Launceston was a long way up the river and likely to be another city not vastly unlike others. In any event, the wind Gods dictated first our visit to Low Head and then further upstream.

Forecasts suggested that moving eastwards would not be prudent as a weather gap sufficient to get us out to Tomahawk Bay and through Banks Strait were nowhere in the scope of predictions and in fact,  there would be some stronger weather coming in a day or two. We elected to move to a more sheltered location upstream and the Bloke's study of our (rapidly becoming dogeared) copy of the Tasmanian Cruising guide, pointed to a spot with a charming name: Dark Hollow.

FYI We have 2 guides: Tasmanian Anchorage Guide (5th Edition) produced by the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania  and Cruising Southern Tasmania: A guide to the waterways and anchorages of South Eastern Tasmania from Wineglass Bay to South East Cape (4th Edition).

We had to wait for high tide to leave Low Head and by then the wind had picked up a bit. We made a none too elegant departure off the pontoon with the wind dictating an interesting spin before we pointed at, the by now, flooded gap. Off we went to tackle the Tamar. The marked shipping channel is mostly quite wide and very deep but with a couple of twists and turns and lots of eddies. We could clearly see the advantage of the big ships being brought in by a Pilot even though there are leads everywhere!

  The bloke watching the sandbar emerging as the tide fell away.

The public pontoon at Dark Hollow

A good looking neighbour. A sea eagle on the look out for dinner.

The next day was a sunny one and enabled us to motor across the Beauty Point and pick up a paper and an ice cream. There appeared to be a very attractive homestead overlooking West Arm further upstream.

The Northern end of Beauty Point as seen from Dark Hollow

The Bloke, thinking ahead as always, had been in touch with Ron, the Marina Manager at the Tamar Yacht Club checking on the possibility of a pen in which to tie up. Predictwind had most of Tasmania swathed with red and dark brown colouring in coming days denoting predictions of very strong winds of 40-50knots. Plan A was to move across from our pleasant anchorage on Monday morning but the tide was still high and the wind gentle making a shift to Plan B a better option. That is, go to the yacht club on Sunday evening: right now, do not pass go, do not collect $200! And it's as well that we did because the wind came early and would have resulted in a poor night of sleep and a difficult berthing. We're getting quite good at 'taking it while it's going'.

By dinner time we were secured in a 15m pen with the club's additional permanent lines, suggesting that they knew a thing or two about big blows here. The adjacent Australian Maritime Training College vessels added an additional breakwater and plenty of entertainment in the following days.