NORDLYS - On to Hobart

On to Hobart

NORDLYS

David and Annette Ridout

Tue 7 Feb 2006 07:26

Flinder's to Hobart

Hobart

7th February

Well we lived through the gale in Lady Barron and then enjoyed an exceptionally good tour with a farmer in his Landcruiser. He really knew his stuff and we went from forest to grazing areas to marshes teeming with wildlife and to a deserted aboriginal settlement. Throughout our stay we came across nothing but friendliness and an apparent desire to make sure we enjoyed their Island as much as they obviously did.

We left Lady Barron at first light, about 0445hrs and sailed out into a grey dawn. The next half hour was to provide one of natures great spectacles. For minute after minute there was an apparent black snake like object just above the water either a hundred meters in front of us or a hundred behind. This was created by thousands, perhaps almost millions of mutton birds, or shearwaters, flying from their roosts to their feeding grounds at sea. As it got lighter the birds became more obvious. These amazing creatures do an annual trip that involves both Tasmania and the Aleutian Islands. They are one of the most travelled of the worlds creatures. Their number is fantastic. In Tasmania and Flinders Islands there has been a tradition of catching them in their burrows and killing them for the meat and perhaps more importantly for their oil. A filthy job but one that gave a lot of comparatively well paid employment in times past. It has been shown that even when mutton birding as it is known was at its height and the number killed was astronomic it hardly made a dent in the overall population. I may have my figures wrong but I think the present world population is steady on some eighteen million birds. At the end of the war the US navy was attempting to clear the Aleutians of Japanese. Thinking that they were being approached by the Japanese fleet, as shown on their early radar they opened up and millions of dollars of shells were let loose. Nothing was ever found and it is now accepted that the radar returns were probably mutton birds in flight. We did not have time to experiment as the route over the bar was very exposed and needed all our attention. To have curling overfalls on either side and the echo sounder figure getting less and less concentrates the mind. Especially as Annette is very much a WASP (Women Against Shallow Places).

The promised northerly never came and most of the day we motored in grey drizzle. At night fog came for a few hours but cleared to allow us to GPS and Radar into Wineglass Bay and drop our hook near another yacht. The morning showed her to be a beautiful Swan 82 owned by the CEO of Ericson. This yacht was crewed by an American and his delightful Norwegian mate. If she can sail as well as she looks then he has a good crew. Annette and Annabelle muttered something about Stuart and myself being 'dirty old men'.

Wineglass Bay is very special and also an area with excellent walking so we all enjoyed some 12km and pleasantly aching muscles before spending the evening drinking and eating on the aforementioned Swan.

Next day we beat then reached into a cold 20 knot southerly. However the sun shone and by mid afternoon we were approaching Shoal Bay on Maria Island. On the chart this looks very similar to Wineglass but in reality was much more exposed and also living up to its name was a good meter shallower than the chart showed. Thus anchored some half mile off the beach and having had just 20 cm under the keel in the open approach Annette and I decided against staying a day and carried on next morning to Port Philip. Not perhaps what Stuart and Annabelle would have preferred as Maria Island is known for its excellent walking and interesting ruins from the convict era but they quite understood our desire not to have to get out of this shallow bay in a lot of wind and possible fetch. As it was we had an excellent eight knot sail down the coast and round Tasman Island at Cape Pillar. By now it was blowing thirty knots and once round the Cape the hundred meter cliffs did not, as I had hoped, give us shelter but threw horrendous down draughts at us. With this wind forward of the beam and suffering the rare experience of Nordlys's lee deck well under water we quickly dropped the main and carried on up towards Port Philip under a pocket of headsail.

Port Philip is the sight of a purpose built convict prison. Today it is semi restored and makes the most delightful stopover. One point that comes over strongly when visiting the museum and site ruins is that much of the convict system was ahead of its time and there was a genuine attempt to develop the inmates so that in time they could get back into society. Floggings here were rare although the solitary confinement cells for troublemakers did reduce many to insanity. The majority of prisoners did however spend their time, usually seven years, and then get the chance to make good which many did very successfully.

Two days later we sailed up the Derwent river and tied up to the Elizabeth Dock in the centre of Hobart. It felt like another milestone had been reached. Hobart itself was an enormously pleasant surprise. The town has been very well restored, people are exceptionally helpful and now having spent some time here and in Tasmania generally I can say that if circumstances were different it is one of the places where I would find it very easy to settle.

After a few days getting organised and putting Nordlys to bed in a pen at the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania the four of us set off by car to walk and tour this island.

I will tell the story of this trip in a few days.