Minke II: Hobart - Port Esperance

Happy Easter!

We are having a lazy Chocolate Day staying warm and dry out of the drizzly rain so it seems like a good opportunity to bring our blog totally up to date - finally!

As Michael said in the last post we arrived in Hobart just before dark on the 22nd March, and just before a pretty strong cold front passed over the city. In fact the next day we were astonished to look up at Mt Wellington and see snow dusting the peak! (it only lasted an hour or two before melting, but hey... snow!! South Australians get very excited about these things!)

As anyone who has visited knows, Hobart is really, really pretty. IMO it definitely rivals Sydney as the most attractive harbor in Australia. It's also much less busy, although it has an incredibly active sailing and boating community for a city its size. This made our arrival at dusk during twilight racing club night ... well, interesting! Entering a new marina + 25 kt winds + jet skis + racing boats + kayakers + kite surfers + sunset = a few narky comments back and forth between Caitlin and Michael. But as always, the moment we are safely docked all the stress is forgotten and a big hug is in order before cracking out the "victory beers"! (We live by the motto "what happens at sea, stays at sea" and it seems to work for us!)

After my quick trip back to Adelaide to celebrate with my sister and soon-to-be-brother-in-law Imogen and Michael, we were keen to get off the boat and explore the new city. Over the next week we wandered the CBD, drove to Mt Wellington, visited the Salamanca Markets and went to the amazing Museum of Old and New Art.

Wow, MONA was so incredible. Such a strange, beautiful and eclectic collection of artworks - some of which were so gross I couldn't bring myself to take photos - machines that mimic the human digestive system, anyone? Wow that smelled bad...

Anyway, after getting our fill of city life we decided to head South into the D'Entrecasteaux Channel. We had two days of truly perfect sailing down the channel, stopping at "The Duckpond" on Bruny Island before tucking into a tiny cove in Port Esperance. We decided to hide away here for Easter and avoid the strong winds which have caused havoc for other boats in the Three Peaks Sailing Race, and tragically cost the life of another sailor who was lost not far from here. So sad. We are very grateful we played it safe and found an all-weather anchorage in time :-(

While we wait for the weather to settle we will visit some of the anchorages near here and on South Bruny Island, before heading to Recherche Bay. From there we can hopefully make a dash around to Port Davey and Bathurst Harbour. We will touch base before then though, as once we head around the South Coast we will be out of phone and internet range for at least a couple of weeks.

Here are some photos from the last two weeks...

Twilight sailing out the front of our temporary home - the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania at Sandy Bay

Views of Hobart and the Derwent River from Mt Wellington - we had a perfect day to visit: no wind and sunny skies

Michael swears the tower wasnt bendy and its just a trick of the camera lens...

Salamanca Market - now in my top three markets along with the Vic Markets in Melbourne (the food hall, not the touristy bit!) and the best fresh food market EVER - the Adelaide Central Market!