1/20/2015: Superbowl-bound

Position: -43° 53.87′, 147° 20.08′

Seattle Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett bicycled around the stadium following the Seahawks 28-22 overtime win against Green Bay to advance to the Superbowl. The finish was incredibly exciting. The Seahawks had played poorly for much of the game, were scoreless at the end of the half, and were down 19-7 with 4 minutes left in the game. Defeat looked certain. But with luck, skill and some trick plays, they staged a comeback and scored 21 points in under 8 minutes.

1/20/2015: Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania

Position: -43° 53.87′, 147° 20.08′

We’re moored at the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania. Moorage is available closer to town, but security is better here for leaving the boat while we flew to Melbourne. We haven’t spent much time around the docks since arriving, so we walked around a bit this afternoon.

1/20/2015: Berth

Position: -43° 53.87′, 147° 20.08′

Several Sydney-Hobart race contenders are moored at the yacht club. We’re berthed next to TransPac 52 Cougar, that took 13th in line honours in 2014.

1/20/2015: Alive

Position: -43° 53.87′, 147° 20.08′

Alive was another Sydney-Hobart boat at the yacht club. It took 5th in line honours in 2014. We’d seen Alive hauled out in Brisbane, under its previous name of Black Jack.

1/20/2015: On guard

Position: -43° 53.87′, 147° 20.08′

Spitfire guarded the boat as we walk the docks.

1/21/2015: Fueling

Position: -43° 53.90′, 147° 19.98′

We topped off our fuel before leaving Hobart. We’d only used 600 of our 1,750-gallon capacity (2,300 out of 6,624 liters) since fueling in Sydney. But it’s nice to have the tanks full so we can cruise Tasmania without constraints.

1/21/2015: Mt. Wellington

Position: -43° 53.98′, 147° 20.48′

A final view to 4,170′ Mt. Wellington as we head south.

1/21/2015: Quarantine Bay

Position: -44° 7.25′, 147° 20.13′

Quarantine Bay had a number of boats inside already, so we anchored in Simmonds Bay a little farther east and ran the dinghy back to the public dock at Quarantine Bay.

1/21/2015: Bruny Island Quarantine Station

Position: -44° 7.25′, 147° 20.13′

A quarantine station operated on Bruny Island from 1884 through 2002. The property is now a state reserve and open for self-guided walking tours.

1/21/2015: Plant quarantine

Position: -44° 7.15′, 147° 19.83′

The Bruny Island Quarantine Station included a plant quarantine facility between the 1950s and 1986. This is the greenhouse where plants were observed, sometimes for up to two years, to ensure no pests or diseases were brought into Tasmania.

1/21/2015: Superted V

Position: -44° 7.54′, 147° 14.94′

Jean and Matt Findlay had just hauled out their Beneteau 57 Superted V at Kettering, so we stopped by to say hello. Like Jennifer, Jean is height-challenged, but anyone would look small next to Superted’s huge rudder and keel.

1/21/2015: Westwind of Kettering

Position: -44° 7.63′, 147° 15.17′

Nordhavn 40 Westwind of Kettering was moored at the Kettering marina.

1/21/2015: Bruny Island Ferry

Position: -44° 7.63′, 147° 15.42′

We stopped off for a drinks on the deck of the Mermaid Cafe by the Bruny Island ferry terminal. Two ferries run each hour, and they’re surprisingly busy with this one carrying two decks of cars.

1/21/2015: Crayfish pots

Position: -44° 7.63′, 147° 15.42′

This fishboat below the Mermaid Cafe was stacked with traditional wooden crayfish pots made from tea trees.

1/21/2015: Oysters

Position: -44° 7.63′, 147° 16.57′

Oysters thrive here, judging by the growth on the docks.

1/21/2015: Aquaculture

Position: -44° 8.18′, 147° 18.87′

We’ve passed several large aquaculture facilities around Tasmania, with pretty large fish jumping inside.

1/21/2015: Simon Calleia

Position: -44° 7.91′, 147° 21.35′

We’d seen Simon Calleia’s Outer Reef 630 Jinsei a few times since arriving in Tasmania. Simon also was anchored in Simmonds Bay and he and his daughter stopped by for a visit on Dirona.

1/22/2015: Simmonds Bay

Position: -44° 7.89′, 147° 21.35′

Looking north across Jinsei to Simmonds Bay. The more common anchorage is tucked into the little lagoon to our south, but we preferred the swing room of the outer anchorage.

1/22/2015: Seals

Position: -44° 11.46′, 147° 16.83′

We’ve started seeing lots of seals sunning in the water.

1/22/2015: Emperor Gum Moth

Position: -44° 21.95′, 147° 12.05′

We found this large Emperor Gum Moth rather firmly attached to our scuba tank in the cockpit. The moth is native to Australia, and common in the Sydney area, but less so farther south. What looks like snow covering it is marine-board dust. We’d cut one of the bilge inspection hatches in half to allow partial access without removing the items stowed above, and only noticed the moth during cleanup.

1/23/2015: Cape Bruny Lightstation

Position: -44° 29.28′, 147° 8.71′

We landed the dinghy at Lighthouse Beach and walked the road to the Cape Bruny Lightstation.

1/23/2015: Lighthouse Bay

Position: -44° 29.31′, 147° 8.70′

Cape Bruny has wonderful views up and down the ruggeded exposed coast. This is looking east across Lighthouse Bay to West Cloud Head with The Friars off Tasman Head visible in the distance on the right.

1/23/2015: Museum

Position: -44° 29.36′, 147° 8.67′

When first lit in 1838, the Cape Bruny Lighthouse was the third lighthouse in Tasmania and the fourth in Australia. At the time, ship’s captains preferred rounding southern Tasmania en route to Sydney instead of passing through the dangerous Bass Strait and would call in to Hobart via D’entrecasteax Channel. The light was built following three 1835 shipwrecks, most notably the convict transport ship George III, with 134 lives lost. In 1996, the light was replaced by a nearby solar-powered light. A small but interesting museum details the light’s history and contains many artifacts from it’s 158 years of service.

1/23/2015: Quiet Bay

Position: -44° 29.45′, 147° 8.53′

We had lunch overlooking Quiet Bay northwest of Cape Bruny. It was much colder on the other side–we left Lighthouse Beach feeling a little warm in T-shirts and jeans, but needed a windbreaker over a fleece jacket on this side of the island.

1/23/2015: Lighthouse

Position: -44° 29.47′, 147° 8.54′

The lighthouse is constructed of rubblestone (irregularly-sized, rough stone) and the walls are incredibly thick–perhaps four feet across. It would have to be strong to have survived the big storms along the southern Tasmania coast.

1/23/2015: Courts Island

Position: -44° 29.54′, 147° 8.32′

A small track led from behind the lighthouse to Courts Bay on the west side of Cape Bruny. We stopped at the bluff just above the beach, for great views along the windswept coast and to Courts Island off the point.

1/23/2015: Steering

Position: -44° 27.43′, 147° 9.54′

The steering wheel on the dinghy had come loose from the console and the only way to tighten it was to take the steering wheel off. So we used a puller to pull it off and tightened the rotary steering assembly.

1/24/2015: Hospital Bay

Position: -44° 9.67′, 146° 58.53′

At anchor in Hospital Bay at Port Huon.

1/24/2015: Fish food

Position: -44° 9.67′, 146° 58.53′

Huge bags of fish food were on the Port Huon jetty, ready for transport to the fish farms.

1/24/2015: Huon River

Position: -44° 6.80′, 147° 0.07′

The tranquil Huon River runs through farmland on one side and Egg Island wetlands on the other. The river is uncharted north of Port Huon, but we only rarely saw depths less than 7′ in the dinghy at low tide, so higher tides are recommended for deeper-draft vessels.

1/24/2015: Wooden Boat Center

Position: -44° 5.15′, 147° 0.89′

Several beautiful wooden boats were moored outside the Wooden Boat Center in Franklin.

1/24/2015: Vineyards

Position: -44° 4.84′, 147° 1.14′

Tasmania has an established wine industry–we’ve seen covered vineyards like this along the coast south of Hobart.

1/24/2015: Boat House Cafe

Position: -44° 2.04′, 147° 2.89′

We had an excellent lunch in Huonville, perched over the water at the Boat House Cafe. The Huonville riverfront has nice walkways and parks, and was popular on this sunny Saturday.

1/24/2015: Rapids

Position: -44° 0.92′, 147° 0.39′

We continued upriver past the Huonville Bridge and managed to reach the second set of rapids before being stopped by insufficient water.

1/24/2015: Huon Jet

Position: -44° 1.02′, 147° 0.16′

While near the upriver rapids, the Huon Jet shot past us downriver, showing that with a jet boat, speed, and sufficient driving talent, the rapids are traversable.

1/24/2015: Franklin Marine

Position: -44° 5.21′, 147° 0.80′

We stopped off in Franklin on our way back to Port Huon. In the well-stocked Franklin Marine chandlery we met Laurence Burgin, who did service work for superyachts and some Nordhavns when he was based in Sydney. We had a great time talking boats with him.

1/24/2015: Ronja Huon

Position: -44° 9.56′, 146° 58.51′

The 75-meter well-boat Ronja Huon had arrived in Port Huon while we were gone. The boat is designed for transporting fish from pens to Huon Tasmania’s harvest facility and for bathing fish in freshwater to kill microorganisms that can sicken or kill the salmon. It’s an incredibly well-rigged and seaworthy-looking vessel. We were definitely suffering from crane envy in studying it.

1/24/2015: Sass

Position: -44° 9.33′, 146° 57.55′

We finished the day with an excellent salmon dinner on the deck at Sass restaurant overlooking the Kermandie Marina.