We made it to Babel Island!  Woohoo!!!!!  When we arrived honestly all we had on our mind was eat and sleep, but I will get to that soon.

Day 8

Leaving Eden was easy, calm seas and almost no wind.  Nashira motored and motor sailed for most of 18 hours.  Geez this is easy,  Bass Strait isn’t that scary.   Evan and I took turns on the helm, 3 hours on, 3 hours off with an additional 30 minutes between shifts to work together and update map coordinates, share stories and cups of tea.  I realised if I was able to sleep 2 out of three hours that I would get 8 hours sleep over a 24 hour period.  Great!

Our AIS system (VESPER XP8000) worked a treat.  We could easily see boating traffic and in particular big ships movement, their direction, speed and destination so it was very easy to stay out of their way if necessary

Then the wind started…..

About 5pm, slowly at first, with the head-sail unfurled and main hoisted it was a beautiful motor sail.  The wind increased and the motor was turned off, wonderful.  I went downstairs to have a turn at napping.  At 10pm my nap time over I came upstairs, it is dark and Evan is battling with the glare of the chart plotter.  The wind is really starting to howl along (25 knots) and the waves are increasing (feels like about 1.5mtrs).  The swell and sea waves feel like they are coming from the South which is great as the Auto pilot (Steady Eddy) is purring along and handling it just fine.  We did furl the head-sail a bit and reefed the main one section.

I took over for Evan and he was able to get abit of sleep.  Nashira felt very balanced and we whisked along at about 6 knots give or take a bit.  The wind increased about midnight.  We are getting gusts over 30+ knots.   Evan cut his ‘time-off’ short and we furled the head-sail a bit more and reefed the main quite abit. That was the end to getting much sleep.  We still did watches but only had short breaks not wanting to leave the other for extended periods.   The waves were increasing to about 2 to 2.5 meters (at a guess) and we were slamming into waves with regularity.  This continued RELENTLESSLY until we reached Babel Island at approx 4pm the next day.

Thinking East of Flinders Island would give us some protection from the wind was incorrect.  The waves continued until we anchored right up against the shore below Babel on the East of Flinder’s island.  The wind has not stopped though!!  Its now approximately 5pm, we have the anchor down and we’ve stopped for the day.

At this point we were both over it!  Exhausted, Hungry.  I thought it would be nice to walk to Hobart instead of sail!

We ate some of our Jamie Oliver Stew and went to bed at about 5:30pm

LESSONS LEARNED: 

1.  Its not so scary losing sight of land.

2. Don’t ever get cocky or think this is gonna be easy.  Take things as they come and be prepared for anything.  The Bass Strait is the Big water and things change.

3. Travacalm natural (based on Ginger) really worked!!  I don’t normally feel seasick but it does happen occasionally.  This stuff saved my bacon.

4. Allow plenty of time. Being our first over-nighter it was good to stop early (at Babel) instead of pushing all the way to Wineglass bay.

DAY 9

Reflecting:  We are at Babel Island!  We made it across the Bass Strait!!  Yippee – Happier now that we have had 13 hours sleep!

I woke up at midnight to turn the anchor light on.  Evan had already done it.  He is such a champ.   I put a boom preventor on to stop the boom swinging from side to side and making noise, I promptly went back to bed.

This is where we are:

(the long beach “Sellars Beach” runs along the East side of Flinders Island and end of video is Babel Island – Spot the people?)

It is beautiful in a rugged, desolate sort of way.

Today we have looked over the charts and checked the weather forecasts for wind and waves over the next few days.  We are planning on leaving here and heading to Wineglass bay tomorrow morning 5am.  It should take about 22 hours give or take.

We’ve also done some chores, cleaning Nashira up on the inside, looking to make sure she is dry, checking the engine oil etc.  Evan has done some work for work,  Oh and we have tried doing some washing with Soap Berries!

They lather up!  but they are berries and totally natural.  Evan thinks they did a reasonable job, the clothes are are hanging up now.

I would love to eventually have all environmentally friendly cleaning stuff on-board.  I would love any constructive comments you have or know of for cleaning with natural products.   We currently use tea tree oil and vinegar to clean surfaces and Kin Kin Eco dish-washing liquid and soap berries so far.

Other than that it is a day to relax!  maybe even read a book.

Till Tomorrow

xoxoxox

Kelly & Evan