Written by Maurice
Tuesday, 18 March 2014 06:33
A possible entry for the Jim Brown Trophy for the longest journey this year may be our trip from St Helens to Kettering. The actual journey was approx. 170 miles. (difficult to give a really accurate distance)
Day 1 was over the Bar Way at St Helens and out to sea to head south. The weather was a 15 knot northerly with a confused sea of 1-2 metre swell. (If you were down below it was instant sea sick material!!)
Called into Bicheno to collect my wife,(some people have to work) then on to Wineglass Bay arriving there at about 7.30pm. We had an overnighter there, then off through the Schouten Passage and into Oyster Bay with a fairly sedate 10 knot breeze on our tail. An interesting little known history is that during the war a Japanese submarine surfaced just through Schouten Passage and launched a little seaplane that flew down and around Hobart to reconnoitre targets for the Japanese navy. We ended up in Chinamans Bay on the South of Maria Island (along with about 20 other boats ) as the northerly had picked up to 20knots by then. Overnight there, then across Marion Bay and into the Marion Narrows (the entrance to the Dunalley Canal). Wind was a light NE so we had to do a little motor sailing. Through the Canal, across Norfolk Bay, into Fredrick Henry Bay, then worked our way over to Storm Bay. Weather was very kind with a lovely 15 knot breeze around the top of North Bruny Island, then down to Kettering (our final destination). Nothing broke, the motor went well and all in all a fairly benign trip. Didn’t take too many pics but we will be returning the same way in about 2 months time so I’ll get the camera going then. No whales but lots of dolphins on the way!!
Hope people find this of interest,
Regards,
Maurice Kuter C29 Mando