Thursday 28th January

On the 23rd we left Hobart in company with our American friends from the World ARC. They were sailing their own boat MaaMalni. This is 2 native American Indian words meaning people who live in houses that float on the water- from the early ships that visited NW America.

As arranged we motored and sailed south down the D'Entrcasteaux Channel and into a beautiful bay- Barnes Bay. There both boats tied alongside a converted crayfish boat for the night, and had a great night on board with the owners, Nick & Lois, as well as Suzan & Michael.

We reluctantly untied at at about noon the next day and motored on to Dover for water and some provisions before ending up in Recherche Bay for the night. MaaMalni joined us later for dinner.

At 6 AM the following day we both set off to round the south west corner and up to Port Davy. To do this we had to sail around 2 of the 5 Significant Capes. These are the Cape of Good Hope, the Cape Horn, Cape Leuwin, South East and South West Capes on Tasmania. Anyone doing a competitive round the world voyage has to pass these 5 capes. We rounded the last 2, and were very pleased to have done so in relatively benign weather. We did have to motor-sail the whole way however. On entry to Port Davey we went up the channel slightly to Schooner Bay where we anchored for the night. All on board MaaMalni for dinner of steak & veggies, cooked by Val. Having looked at the weather predictions from Bruce, our weatherman, we decided to cut short our visit in Port Davey and instead head out the next day for MacQuarrie harbour, some 85 miles north on our way back to Melbourne.Along the south coast we passed by Maatsuyker Island. This is apparently where all the winds are made, I had often wondered about this and was glad to finally find out where the wind comes from.

As a result, it was another 6AM, ie Dawn, departure. Suzan & Michael very kindly got up at that ungodly hour to wave us off. As we left the shelter of the bay the Westerly swell built up to around 4 metres, but almost no wind, so it was motor-sailing again all day. We made great speed however, averaging almost 8 knots. As we approached Hells Gates, the entrance to MacQuarrie, the engine surges. As a precaution we put in 40 litres of fuel. Hells Gates is not the place to suffer engine failure and of course the wind now came up to 20 knots! With much debating and chart studying we made it through the narrow twisting and shallow channel all the way to Strahan, carefully noting the route for our exit. This includes noting the absence of some navigation buoys. We picked up a mooring for the night in Morse Bay and today we, the 28th, motored into the town. Here we filled up all the fuel tanks and water tanks before moving onto a public wharf for a few days. We will do the tourist bit here and take a river catamaran up th Gordon River and the scenic railway to Queenstown. We are passing on the seaplane & helicopter flights as they are poor value for money.