Friday 30 December 2011

Penneshaw, KI

Hi everyone

We are busily preparing the boat for an early morning departure! We moved around to Christmas Cove at Penneshaw yesterday to do some last minute jobs and stock up on fresh food. I love Penneshaw - its such a pretty town (despite the big ferry terminal smack bang in the middle of the bay!), good facilities, and its actually got a bit of hustle and bustle about it at this time of year.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand - our imminent departure. We are as ready as we're ever going to be, and although the winds are not in the perfect direction, the weather is about as good as we can expect at this time of year - low swell is forecast for the next 4 days, winds light to moderate, and the sun will be shining.

Since we left Adelaide in November we have logged a grand total of 310 nautical miles, which is an underwhelming average of about 6 nautical miles per day - but please keep in mind that 3 weeks of it was virtually stationary in American River! Coincidentally, or perhaps spookily, it is also 310 nautical miles to Port Fairy, which is our preferred first landfall in Victoria. At our current rate of 6 miles per day this would take us... oh, 50 DAYS or so! hehe

Don't worry, it will be more like 3 or 4 days. The plan is to leave at dawn tomorrow morning on the rising tide. New Years Eve will be on the sea, which will be very unique - but no drinking for us! Our intention is to arrive in Port Fairy in Victoria sometime on Tuesday, although we have a number of back-up options such as Portland and even Robe or Cape Jaffa.

Carol at VMR American River has been so helpful - she has called ahead to the network of volunteer marine radio operators along the coast to let them know we're coming, and has also sent us a heap of information about radio frequencies and coverage. Its possible there will be a few "black spots" along the way, but we have all the emergency equipment to get help if we need it - so we will be fine.

We are both feeling confident and excited about finally going to sea. Kitty is not impressed however - we put her harness back on her again last night so she could get used to it and she has spent every minute since giving us evil looks.

So here we go - wish us luck! We are as ready as we'll ever be - there's no more putting it off.
After all, they say that if you want to be a sailor, you have to go to sea!

Happy New Year!
Love, Caitlin and Michael

A few pictures from this morning...

Entrance to Christmas Cove
Last minute maintenance and checks...
View from the top...

Saturday 24 December 2011

Merry Christmas x2

Oh, and a Merry Christmas to our Family in Victoria, especially new member Chantilly Lace, and the rest of the farm!

xxx

Merry Christmas from the crew of Bass Voyager

Hello everybody, well we're still in American River KI waiting for the weather. We really didn't expect to be here for Christmas but thats the way things go when you make plans that are largely reliant on the weather. Having said that, apart form the lack of family and friends, we couldn't really ask for a better anchorage to be in. On Wednesday we went for a dive at Kangaroo Head, about one hours sail from AR to look for Crayfish. I found heaps of Crayfish - all very small and very undersized. Great dive none the less with heaps of spider crabs, octopus, cuttlefish and grouper. 

The weather is not looking great for our passage East at this stage with a potential gap opening up late next week - fingers crossed. In the mean time we will have to endure this place of over-friendly locals, fish on tap and beatiful wildlife.

Merry Christmas to all our family at my sister's house tonight for Christmas celebrations. I hope you have a great night.

Merry Christmas to all our family having breakfast at my other sister's place tomorrow morning.

Merry Christmas to all!

Love Michael, Caitlin and Kitty 
xxx



The crew of Bass Voyager.


 A Bass Voyager Christmas.




Tuesday 20 December 2011

American River... still

Today is two weeks since we left the mainland, and we are still in American River, waiting for fair winds. A month ago, if I'd been told we would still be in SA for Christmas, I wouldn't have believed it. Its very frustrating, but I'm trying focus on the positives (like the beautiful surroundings, good company, fresh food - gee, its not too bad, eh?) and trying to fight the feeling like we're on some kind of schedule - which is crazy. This is what sailing is all about - being at the mercy of the weather - with all the joys and frustrations that brings.

Here's what we are facing - and have been for the last two weeks... the arrows show the wind direction (i.e pointing up = southerly, pointing left = easterly). As you can see, they are consistently coming from the very direction we need to go - south-east!


A yacht called Bluefin left here on Saturday bound for Port Albert in Victoria - they were determined to get home by Christmas and were happy to motor into headwinds the whole way to get there. Not something we are interested in doing - a bit of motoring is OK, but we are sailors, not powerboaters. An alternative would be to leave on an easterly wind and head south deep into the (gulp) Southern Ocean until the wind (hopefully) swings south and we can head east. The other alternative is to just sit here and wait and hope that Santa sends us winds with north or west in them.

View of Strawbridge Point from our mooring in American River

Strawbridge Point


Its a pretty great spot to be stuck really. Yesterday we took BV out into the bay and anchored for a few hours and caught a beautiful whiting and some big garfish which Michael filleted and I made into a pretty amazing (if I do say so myself!) panko-crumbed dinner. Oh - and Isabella - I said Id catch you a flathead - well, whatever my little sis wants, my little sis gets! Unfortunately he was just a little too small to keep - see photo below. ;o)


Oh, and we've realised something about Kitty - she hates the engine - she has taken to climbing on deck when the conditions are calm to get away from the engine noise! She's obviously a sailor, not a powerboater too!

Just chillin'

So we are trying to fill our spare time with little excursions - tomorrow we are going to go diving nearby and hopefully catch a crayfish for Christmas. We also spent three days last week exploring the island by car, which was great. Here are a few photos from the trip.

We had booked in to the cheapest accommodation we could find down at the Flinders Chase National Park which was a tiny cottage for $65 per night. When we got there they had double-booked us so upgraded us to the comparatively palatial May's Cottage. This place was just gorgeous - simple and rustic, but had everything you could possibly want - including a crab pot - perfect for the marron we bought en route. I definitely recommend it as inexpensive accomodation in that part of the island. Wish we could have stayed a few more days. As you can see from the photos, the locals were very cute.

May's Cottage - Flinders Chase NP





Michael is cute too...


Oh, and please excuse the "food-porn" but here is our amazing candlelit dinner of marron and salad with fried Kangaroo Island sheep-milk haloumi. And a good bottle of SA Riesling. Life's pretty good.

The aptly named Remarkable Rocks

Beautiful Cape de Couedic

The lighthouse at Cape Willoughby on the Eastern coast. I was a bit nervous about going here because it is where we will be sailing past when we (finally!) get away, and I was worried the ocean swell would scare the bejeezus out of me, but it was actually pretty benign. Just shows you have to pick your weather.



Also, we went to an amazing winery which had only just opened its new cellar door 3 weeks earlier - Dudley Wines, 15 mins out of Penneshaw. I am not exaggerating when I say that their new digs have one of the best views on the island - an amazing, grand vista taking in the mainland across Backstairs Passage. The photo doesn't do it justice, of course. Oh, and they had "bucket o' prawns" on the menu and the wine was good too! Make sure you go if you have a chance. Imogen - potential wedding venue!!!! ;o)


OK.
Well, Merry Christmas everyone! We send you lots of love and hope you have a very happy and relaxing day.

Stay in touch!
Love
Caitlin and Michael
xxxx

Sunday 11 December 2011

American River

Hi everyone
After a week and a bit at Wirrina catching up with family and doing a few jobs on the boat we sailed back to American River to wait for the best possible weather to strike out East. The trip over was a bit rolly, but memorable because of our mid-strait rendevous with Michael's Opa and Dad who were catching snapper for Christmas. That was Tuesday, and although the weather is improving towards the end of this week, the winds are forecast to be coming from exactly the direction that we want to go - South-East! Not much good for a sail boat. So, while we wait and cross our fingers and hope for the forecast to change and the winds to swing Northerly or Westerly (or at least Southerly!), we've decided to hire a car for a few days and see a bit more of the island. We'll keep you posted on our progress, or lack thereof!
Love
Caitlin and Michael

A couple of days before leaving Wirrina Cove - thanks for the photo John!