Waiting for Weather to Pass is Time to Explore

Some boats were making a bolt for Flinders Island to make the most of the presenting High Pressure system. The Bloke thought the window too narrow and didn't want to put us in a hiding-at-Flinders-Island situation, besides, with 2 cyclones approaching the north of Australia from the West and the East he reckoned that the gloves were off when it came to forecasting. It did look like there was a big fat High Pressure system of 1030+ hPa which was forming in the Southern Indian Ocean. Fingers crossed, it might be our bus out of here. At last a pattern that we could recognise!

Arriving an hour or so after us and taking the other MAST mooring was Easy Rider. Goody - play friends! 5ers were convened aboard to get acquainted with Henma and Rob, who'd spent the last 12 months in Tassie, and shore time activities were arranged for the next day.

After dark it was quite apparent that the township of Orford is quite big and spread around Prosser Bay. Although almost impossible to discern from our position at the head of the bay, a small River has created this attractive bay and boats (although not keel boats) can get in via a gully and across a bar at high tide. Our googling indicated a nice coffee shop, IGA and possibly an ATM were to be found. The ATM had been subject to an arson attack a few years before. We didn't need any cash but had it been repaired we wondered? So many fires in Tassie! We roared laughing recalling the Port Arthur General Store which had burned down despite being situated right next to the Fire Brigade shed. Not a laughing matter of course but it was a bit quirky. This added to a series of fires we'd come across - the Velvet Lounge Coffee shop in Cygnet and more sadly the Pharmacy, news agency and coffee shop building in Currie, King Island where we'd visited 5 months ago - all burned down!

Navigating the gutter exiting the Prosser River.

The Bloke and Rob took the dinghies to Orford after dropping we girls ashore so we could have a walk. The Glenmorgan Spring Bay Council has constructed an attractive walkway along the beach and we found ourselves at Orford and the Tasman Highway road bridge across Prosser River rather quickly. The boys on the other hand, still in the dinghies, found the tide out and had to drag the dinghies across the sandbar. No thoughts of leaving them and walking in without. This of course generated an appetite in the Bloke which was fortunately rewarded with one last chance to sample a Tasmanian sausage roll.

This one was advertised as an Angus Beef sausage roll.

Standby by for a verdict to be declared on next Sausage Roll table of fame.

Zofia with Easy Rider - not to be confused with Easy Tiger!

With another day to cool our heels we went ashore again and walked up Shelley Beach in the direction of Spring Beach around the headland.

 

Lovely patterns in the rocks on the shore.

MAST has a jetty too but this is another built with a mix of rocks and timber.

 

Boat ownership levels must be high around here

judging from the jetties, moorings, sheds and ramps.

Thanks for posing Henma!

A glimpse of a view from the walking track.

Surely this smooth rock face had to be a quarry at some stage.

View to Maria I. from Spring Beach.

Lucky locals to have direct access down to this private beach.

We girls went further afield leaving 2 grumpy blokes to return to our boats alone when the wind got up. Our late return back to the beach for collection was punished by a drenching dinghy ride back to the boat because by now the wind was truly piping. Sometimes its a lucky thing to be on a mooring.