Leg 44 - Schouten Passage to Eddystone Point

After a bouncy night on anchor and little sleep it was time to get up at stupid-o'clock to get cracking on this long stretch. Arriving after dark was unthinkable. We motored out of the anchorage at 05:00 and it was black. No moon and no sun yet. We steamed through Schouten Passage for the third and final time but this time in darkness. I did think to myself that it was fortunate that we'd transited the Passage in daylight a couple of days prior. Apart from some bruises we did have some photos at least!

And here are some we made earlier!

   

Dramatic rock formations covered with the fabulous russet lichens that are so typical along the Tasmanian coastline. 

Our day lasted 14 hours and covered 90nm. Sometimes we had wind and sometimes none at all. Unless we were doing 5knots we had to motor or motor sail. We rounded up 4 times when we had unexpected bullets that, although not strong, seemed to come from above - some weird effect coming off the mountains. The Bloke can't wait to get away from the mountains and all their tricks.

Ever mindful of the progress we needed to make, sailing along 3knots was not OK so we kicked in with the motor but a vibration almost lifted the cockpit table off the deck. What the hell? Surely not seaweed again! A process of stopping and starting the prop, reversing and then going forward did spit out shredded seaweed from under the transom but the shuddering persisted. Oh no... nothing for it, the Bloke had to jump in and clear the mess! A fender attached to a long rope was thrown out as a precaution.

   

The Bloke removing some weed we picked up popping through Schouten Passage days earlier.

Notice calm water and full wetsuit.

Mum, DO NOT READ!

Seaweed removal practice only a few days earlier had the Bloke's technique quite well polished for the real life daring-deed required 3.5nm off shore. He was properly motivated to be as quick as he could. Racing to get it sorted out while it was calm (and the reason we wanted to motor) he skipped the wetsuit and all the associated wriggling to get into it and jumped in with only a rash vest and jocks on - plus the mask, flippers and gloves of course. He was so quick, that his hair was still full of air when he clambered back aboard. Anyone might have thought I'd yelled SHARK. All sorted, no sharks and best of all, no weed!

Mum, you can resume reading.

We had long interludes of great pleasure with multiple escorting pods of dolphins and at one point early on, some seals were involved in a dolphin pod's feeding frenzy. The birds were out in force too with shearwaters, and sooty terns gliding about the swells before resting in groups.

We made it to the northern anchorage at Eddystone Point with the last blinks of sunlight and were delighted that it was easy anchorage with 7m of water with a sandy bottom, space and best of all, those good omens - 2 commercial fishermen. Golden!

A tough day at the office, this. For the Bloke, a 3 Coca Cola day.* We'd been up early, winched a lot all day and had rather more excitement than we'd hoped for. Luckily I'd prepared some lasagna in foil trays which we heated on the approach to the anchorage. We gobbled it down and put the empty trays in the bin and had only 2 forks to wash up. A weary and welcome sleep beckoned ahead of Leg 45 - Going through Banks Strait to Flinders Island.

* We carry small cans of Coke for emergency energy when the going gets tough.