Deal or No Deal
The Silver Fern happily reached Freycinet in the darkness, with roasts in our bellies. The following morning we awoke to beautiful views of the iconic Wine Glass Bay. Once again, Tasmania was keeping us on our toes, with unprecedented light winds, which even permitted some stand up paddle boarding. This also permitted some of the crew to hike up to the Wine Glass Bay lookout, where they enjoyed some views of the bay with Silver Fern anchored in the middle.
We missed the opportunity to have a glass of wine in hand in Wine Glass Bay, as daytime drinking/sailing/motoring is frowned upon and we had to answer the question of “Deal or no Deal”. Deal it was, so we left promptly in the direction of Deal Island - some 175 nautical miles north- skipping Flinder’s Island due to light winds and better predicted winds in a few days time.
Motoring along we were intermittently joined by large pods of dolphins and the occasional hump back whale.
Our dolphin companions!
Sunday night was our first night shift as a crew. As Jane and I commenced our shift, Silver Fern coursed through a huge patch of bioluminescence, which left a beautiful blue wash in our wake. Minutes later, dolphins emerged from the bioluminescence, coursing through and playing in the blue water like torpedoes, alongside the boat. Mother Nature in her element! Now a life-long memory I will treasure.
Egg and bacon rolls helped us roll into Deal Island around mid morning. And there we were, in the middle of the “treacherous” Bass Straight - floating gently and fitting in some stand up paddle boarding! Given the light conditions again we ventured onto the island where we were greeted by approximately 1 million Australian flies. Bret was named Lord of the Flies as half of the island’s resident flies hitched a ride on his back as we walked up to the quaint Deal Island museum. Wallabies and Cape Barren geese also welcomed us as we explored the island. On our return, John braved the Bass Straight water for a quick swim back to the boat. That night, the crew was spoilt with skipper and first mate cooking us barramundi curry - yum!
Our lord of the flies!
The following day, a party of 3 (Jason, Bret and myself), hiked up to Deal Island’s decommissioned light house, constructed in 1846. The light house was eerily surrounding in mist. It was amazing to lay our eyes on was in considered to be one of the finest remaining early light houses in Australia.
At the lighthouse
Wednesday morning we were all keen to get some sailing in as the wind had finally arrived! And we were off - at a cracking speed of 10 knots in the direction of Flinders Island! A perfect day on the sea.