Final leg.

Here we are tied alongside the public wharf in Strahan, plugged into the shore power, which is good as this saves running the generator.
Strahan is a small town of around 700 inhabitants, however we found out that it has about 140,000 visitors per year! Its both a working crayfish port and holiday resort. As we are now tourists for a few days we checked out the facilities. Decided to do 2 trips.
The first was on the Wilderness Railway, which includes 2 sections of cog railway on the steep sections. This was a lovely old working train, the engine was the newest one, only 95 years old! The whole line and rolling stock have been wonderfully restored as a tourist attraction and well worth doing. The terminal is is Queenstown and from there you board a coach back to Strahan. Lunch is included, as are the flies.
The following day, Friday, we boarded the Eagle, a new catamaran cruise boat, for a trip out through Hells Gates, in somewhat better conditions than our arrival. We all made a careful note of the ship's route for our exit later. After the Gates we sailed over to Sarah Island, a notorious penal colony set up to punish the repeat offenders in the worst prison that could be imagined.It was built in the 1800s and was a months trip from Hobart; and if the ship missed the narrow entrance, then it was right around Tasmania to try again in a month or 2. From here it was up the Gordon River to a small landing platform and a walk in the Temperate Rain Forest that is native here in Tasmania.The whole SW corner of Tasmania is a wilderness area and a World Heritage site.
On our return the Eagle pulled in right in front and at right angles to us and was fitted out with a frame on her stern, followed by 2 outriggers that looked like the crop sprayers you see on big farms. It turned out to be a world record attempt to exceed the largest number of water-skiers behind 1 boat. 100 at present set in Cairns. The first attempt was not too successful, but the second had 101 almost cross the line 1 mile from the start, but 2 people fell off just before the finish, and then the wind got up enough to put a stop to it.

On Sunday, following a favourable forecast, we set off again for King Island on the NW corner.To stay with the reasonable conditions it was actually 5.00 PM when we left. No problems with Hells Gates this time. The sea was lumpy but not too bad and we sailed through the night to arrive in Grassy Harbour the following afternoon. It was a good sail and made a change from motoring all the time. In Grassy we anchored in the beautiful bay and had a welcome meal. Richard and Dennis went ashore in the inflatable. Despite 2 sets of repairs the outboard is still not right and will not power up properly. In the evening we all went for a walk to view the Fairy Penguins, but it was too early in the year for them. We did have one swim by during the afternoon so all was not lost.
Monday morning at 0600 we were off again. On pulling up the anchor we found a heavy mooring chain on it and so put the whole lot back down and tried again. The windlass having done a safety release dumped all the chain on our anchor onto the seabed. When Val lifted it again the anchor came up clear and stowed away properly. The "bitter" end of the chain is of course secured into the anchor locker! Eventually we were away into an appalling sea. It took 2 hours under engine to go 5 miles! Would we give up? No, not so close to the end. Eventually we put up the sails and went. We had the greatest sail, all the way to the Heads on Port Phillip. An average of 8.6 knots over the ground. Our arrival was at 11.00PM and by midnight we were tied into Queenscliff Marina again and had finished the circumnavigation.
On Tuesdy, following a leisurely breakfast we sailed over to Sandringham Marina and tied up. This was an idyllic sail in gentle breezes and bright, warm sunshine, followed by dinner in the club and then home in a Maxi-taxi with lots of luggage. It was great to be in stable beds again.

I wonder what is next??