Are we Stalkers?

A part of our morning ritual has been to check the weather. Not just to see of it will rain but really check the weather. An overall picture at first then a breakdown of anticipated changes through the day. Wind, tide, barometric pressure, synoptic situation are all assimilated to give an impression of what to expect. After that, we are free to check on news, emails etc. In reality there haven't been a lot of places we've been where internet has been unavailable.

Ever since we left home we've been curious about who else is out on the water. This is especially so so since arriving in Tasmania at the start of spring. It was still cold, the weather still in a winter pattern and we just seemed to be the only loonies moving about on the ocean. We found ourselves checking Marine Traffic, an AIS site that displays shipping movements. A number of yachts use AIS to share their location; us included. This is not for social reasons, we don't want to be unexpectedly run down by a big container ship or similar! We want to be electronically 'seen'! It does however let  viewers see, in a general sense, which yachts are traveling and where.

We also look at a site called Skipr.net that is used by predominantly cruising yachts, to log their position, record a few words about their passage to that destination and the position is visible collectively on a map. To begin with there were very few little red or green blobs anywhere on the Tasmanian coast. The Queensland coast was illuminated with little blobs. Now, North Queensland looks empty and due to the Van Diemen's Land circumnavigation being in progress as well as a club cruise from the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club (Pittwater) there are now a couple of dozen blobs all around Tassie. We've watched the boats launching from Eden across Bass Strait headed for the Wooden Boat festival and so on. It doesn't take long to recognise the boat names and there is often a boat profile and a photo. We call it boat porn!

Inevitably, you are going to actually sight some of the yachts. Two early sightings were of cruisers who were here in Tasmania early, like us. We have spent some time subsequently with the crews of Casablanca and Sheokee and we met them because we'd recognised them and their journeys from Skipr.net and then made a point of meeting them. Is this Stalking?

The most recent in this group of 'recognised' and encountered yachts is the American flagged Panta Rhei. We'd 'watched' it on Marine Traffic arrive into Australia via Brisbane after a horrid passage from New Caledonia. We knew it'd sustained some sail damage in bad weather and waited anxiously to see that they made it into harbour. We found their blog and had a sense of where they'd been. After several months they emerged on Skipr.net and had made it to Tasmania. So when we picked up a mooring in Cygnet on Tuesday and observed a handsome navy hulled yacht called Panta Rhei  adjacent to us, of course we had to invite the crew for 5ers. And yes, we did confess; we'd stalked them - as you do!

Here is a photo of Larry and Karen's yacht - Panta Rhei