Up early testing out the Webasto heater as its quite cool. You can tell that Nashira comes from Tassie with her greenhouse shed and central heating. We feel spoiled sometimes.
After breakfast we motor sail over to Old River and find Cynecia waiting with depths worked out to accommodate Nashira.  Luke and Janet are a lovely couple that are lots of fun to hang out with.

We pack our day bags, jump in the dinghies and head for the mouth of the river. Shallow draft keels can navigate closer to the mouth but we hang back giving us extra ‘whoops’ room. There are very shallow edges in the river that extend out quite a long way but luckily you can see many snags sticking out which helps to guide us. When you come for a visit make sure you consult with one of the cruising Tasmania guides as they give invaluable tips on where and where not to find yourself.

Once we found the obvious (not) landing spot we enjoyed an easy walk through a warm soft forest glade with boat grade Huon and Celery Top pine trees (old old beautiful trees). We ate alongside the river and chatted with several other boaties who also found the obvious landing spot, now marked by our dinghies which I’m sure helped.

It has turned out to be a glorious sunny warm day with a perfect 10 to 15+ knot SW. It seems we have lucked out with a more settled weather pattern than has been experienced so far throughout January and most of February. Fingers crossed it keeps up for the rest of our holiday.

Returning to our respective boats we decided to sail over to Clayton’s Corner and who should show up? Greg and Judy on Sea Echo II – Every time we are just ready to leave they turn up. Words and a proper round of grief and all is happy, they are going to sail around the harbour and we will all meet up at Clayton’s Corner tonight.

Unfurling the heady Nashira had a fantastic whirl around Bathurst Harbour. There are no obstacles in the harbour and 5 to 6 metre water depth. The obstacles are instead well placed all around the shorelines and bays, coves etc…

[Sea Echo II having a wonderful sail in Bathurst harbour]

Finally we head for Clayton’s Corner, negotiated White Rocks (Image below) and Celery Top Islands and rounded to starboard into Clayton’s Corner. Here the depth is between 5 meters and 0.2 meters and it is not even. There are holes which are deeper then it gets shallow quickly. Evan at the helm motored slowly eking our way toward the centre of the bay trying to find the 5 meter hole. We dropped anchor at 2.7 meters. Happy to stop for the day we grabbed some snacks and headed to Cynecia for afternoon tea.

Tired & Happy (and learning how to take things one day at a time)

xoxoxo Kelly & Evan