A Day of RELAXING!   I know that must sound strange.  Here we are 3 weeks into our holiday and it has been go, go, go, rush, rush.   Firstly I am grateful that we are able to do this at all, secondly I am not feeling sorry for myself just stating a fact.    In fact the first part of my existence was in the USA and I know what its like to have 2 weeks vacation and that’s it.   In the 2 weeks you go somewhere you’ve always wanted to go or do something you’ve always wanted to do and you do it HARD and FAST.  At the end of 2 weeks you go back to work and get over your vacation,  right?!

I don’t know why I thought this would be different, perhaps it will change as time continues but for now I am appreciating our first day lounging in the sun, blogging, reading and not having to be somewhere right this minute!

So where are we?  Okay we left Kettering this morning after refueling.  [Note: we expected to need 180 litres of diesel but only took 122,  that is good news.]  The sun is shining, it is cool, no wind so we need to motor and maybe headsail if the breeze picks up. We head to North Bruny Island to explore Barnes Bay.

Before reaching Barnes Bay we watched the car ferry carrying loads of commuters and tourists between Kettering and Bruny Island.   The ferries brought back memories of the car ferries we had in Seattle when I was young.

Another feature of the channel is the number of Marine Farms to lookout for.  So far they are easy to spot, I don’t know what it would be like in the dark.   Tassal (Tasmanian Salmon I expect) seem to own the bulk of them in this area.

 

On we tootled through Barnes Bay and to the western end called Simmonds Bay. We explored North Simmonds and Duckpond where we anchored for breakfast.  Afterwards we motored over to Chalky point for lunch and for Evan to do a bit of brief office work. (there was full 4G reception at Chalky point).

[Barnes Bay: we are seeing lots of boats from the Wooden Boat Festival]

[North Simmonds]

We have been using a reference book called Cruising Tasmania published by Tasmap and Cruising Yacht Club of Tasmania.  I want to acknowledge it as it has been indispensable as a guide helping us navigate new areas.

At about 4pm we decided to pull up anchor and continue down the D’entrecasteaux Channel.  Barnes Bay was so protected from the wind that we had a big surprise as we rounded the corner and there was 17knots of wind from the South East.  We had no idea, in fact we had to reach the wind to determine what direction it was flowing as our wind vane was lolling around lazily 360 degrees and showing 0 knots.  We could see the wind waves about 500 meters in front of us but not what direction it was flowing.   That was a strange feeling. The wind was welcomed and we had a lovely sail down the channel.

We made it as far as Missionary Bay, apparently named as it was the site of G.A. Robinson’s first aboriginal mission for the area.  Just thought I would clarify that! lol

What I absolutely love about this area is the land looks like outback Aussie bush land.  Sheep can be seen grazing near the trees with yellow fields looking dry and hot are so typically bush.  But then there is the sea!   ‘Outback meets Ocean’  what a great combination and yet I have never seen a painting depicting this in any gallery.

Evan and I watched the sun go down eating chilli chips and soy almonds before peanut butter bread for dinner.  Totally yum.

There are a few places we would like to see before heading to Port Davey.  We want to head up the Huon river and see Franklin and see how far we can get to Huonville, Port Esperance to see Dover then Southport and finally Recherche Bay before we head West.

For now this is where we are headed tomorrow.

xoxoxox Evan & Kelly