We have had the best couple of nights in Southport waiting for our opportunity to head West. Silver Fern crew left our anchorage off North Bruny Island on Sunday morning, using the day's sail South as an opportunity to fit in some sail training in stronger winds and flat water. Tasmania is no easy place to learn to sail a boat as technical as Silver Fern, but our crew was handling the boat like pros in no time! We had to mess around with all sorts of sail plans, as it seemed like around every corner we were finding new wind direction and speeds, gusting up to 45 knots at times. We sailed along dodging shorelines, ferries, submerged rocks and countless salmon farms, but no other yachts as we seemed to be the only idiots out sailing that day. Lots of practice tacking, reefing, helming, furling, dropping and raising sails onboard. Only a few moments had the crew holding on for dear life, but all in all was excellent practice in boat handling to prepare us for our passage heading West. 

About an hour out from our anchorage, Stuart very kindly pointed out that we would be spending the night only a stone’s throw away from the world famous Southport Hotel & Caravan Park, also known as Australia’s Most Southern Pub, and the Last Stop in Tassie! It was a unanimous call to park ourselves right off their doorstep and stop in for happy hour. After a full day’s sail it was lovely to get to shore, stretch our legs and defrost over a few drinks with the crew.

We initially planned to only stay one night in Southport, but after seeing the updated weather forecast we decided to stay put for all of yesterday as well, and wait to move farther South until the winds died off a bit. We repositioned ourselves to the Southern part of the bay, and spent the day going ashore and exploring the anchorage. The crew split up and took long walks to the Southport Lagoon, out to the bluff beach and getting lost in the bush everywhere in between. 

Along the way we found a perfect site for sundowners, with a little hut and fire pit begging to be put to use (there was even an outhouse, which I was told not to trust). After a quick run back to the boat to pick up supplies, we hurried back to the beach to set up camp before the sunset. The crew had a fire going in minutes, chips opened and sundowners distributed. It's amazing how a good fire can bring a group together, everyone starts sharing secrets and stories from their pasts that were forgotten until now. It was a world class bonfire, and we enjoyed every last second of it before John returned from the boat to rain on our parade, quite literally with the buckets of seawater he dumped on the coals. We ferried ourselves back to Silver Fern where we had a beautiful dinner from Michelle and Reinhard, and a restful evening before our big night tonight.

This morning we are heading to Recherche Bay, setting ourselves as far South as possible for our departure tonight. The plan is to make it to Bathurst by daylight tomorrow, and get ourselves tucked away somewhere nice and quiet before the next front comes through. There’s a break in the wind overnight, and then it picks up again tomorrow midday. It will be about a 70 nautical mile journey, with the Southern shores of Tasmania off to starboard and nothing but the Southern Ocean, and eventually Antarctica on our port side! What could go wrong?

Cheers!

Liv