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King Island was in our wake and the waypoint to Three Hummock Island was 65nm away. At 4.45pm that afternoon our path crossed with the one that we had made on the 28/2/2009 at 12 midday. We let out a cheer and congratulations to Us!!!! Yippee!! This wa…

The sun rose over the glassy seas as we had the leads of the harbour insight. We had been seeing bright lights along the North West Coast all night and realised very quickly they were the lights of the cray boats that worked out of Currie Harbour. We followed the 3 sets of leads into the tiny harbour past the rocks and through the numerous moorings to the wharf that was empty, except for one lone trawler.

Note: The 3 sets of leads to guide us through the dangerous rocks in the small harbour, not a harbour to enter except in calm weather, and definitely not one to anchor in!

One of the locals met us and suggested we move to the other side of the wharf and tie well in as the trawlers would be back soon! This was the best advice!

                      
Above: The wharf in Currie Harbour taken from the lighthouse
Before midday they started arriving and the dock was soon full of cray boats, utes on the wharf, and the refrigerated small truck ready and waiting to take the crays. A small number of the fishing trawlers dived for Abalone and set their pots for King Crab.

A short explanation on the unloading of the Cray Boats!

The boats came in, some had been out only a few hours some had been out a few days, it all depends on where/how far away, they have set their pots. When they arrive at the wharf the wholesaler/buyer has their packers board the boats.

The cray boats’ crew unload the crays from the boats holding tanks into tubs that are passed up on the deck to the packers. The packers then swiftly tuck the flapping crayfish into their tubs and secure a lid on top with a few cable ties.

As they are packing they are also quality control, inspecting the crayfish for broken or missing legs or holes in their shells being the most common problem caused by the menacing Octopus. These are then discarded to one side for the fisherman to eat as they are not a sale-able item!!One of the fisherman retold the story of his recent loss of 200kg of crays to Octopus in the last 2 weeks.

The crates are then passed up on the dock to the waiting Wholesaler with the refrigerated truck, doors open with a set of scales at the door. The cray boat owner and the wholesaler view and record the weight of each crate as the workers pass the loaded crates into the truck. Each crate weighs approximately 38 – 45kg! Each boat brings in between 700kg – 900kg each time they return!!! Each craypot has a quota of 105kg per season! Most boats have 50-60 pots! The wholesaler was paying the fisherman $70 per Kg when we were there, and they were retailing for $95 per kg.

Above: Alan holding  a 4+ kg Cray. . . .No!! he had to be given back, but whilst we were there we enjoyed several legless Crayfish!

                                                Above: Celebrating everything King Island!!
From the dock they are driven the short distance to the shed on the end of the wharf, it contains large ponds of ocean water with the temperature lowered considerably to restrict their movement. Here the crayfish are unloaded and they stay until the next plane is arranged to take them direct to Melbourne. They are then reloaded into the tubs and transported to the airport, flown to Melbourne, unpacked into more ponds until the auction/sale. They are mostly sold to overseas buyers!

We hired a car for 3 days to explore the island as there wasn’t any public transport. On  our first day we dropped off the gas bottles to be filled at the local store, then proceeded south to Grassy where we enjoyed a beautiful lunch at the local club, visited the Kelp Craft store.

They drag the kelp that is washed up by the large seas and mold it into various novelties to sell to tourists. Another couple on the island use the kelp to make health potions/pills! We also visited the local Art Gallery where local artisans display their wares.

On our drive back to Currie we detoured to visit the Calcified Forest – These remains are up to 7000 years old and are all that remain of an ancient forest, revealed when the lime-laden sand, which had covered and preserved the stumps has been exposed over the years from the constant Roaring Forties storms from the Southern Ocean.

                                                        Above: Kelp on the western beaches.
Our 2nd day of touring kept us in the central lands of the Island, we had lunch at Berts Cafe at Naracoopa, a quant cafe. It is actually his home and runs the cafe on his front verandah. But the food was superb and the view looking East over the bay was awesome. Next stop I wanted to visit the Alpaca Farm and we were shown around the farm and offered tea before heading back to Currie for the tour of the lighthouse that overlooks Currie Harbour and Opal Lady berthed at the wharf. For dinner that evening we drove back to Naracoopa, and the enjoyed the view from the Nara Glen Restaurant. We made a short stop at a farm selling fresh garlic on the way. Dinner was 5*, view was priceless!

On our 3rd day we prepared ourselves with a picnic as we drove north to the King Island Dairy Co, sat and watched their DVD on history and production, and then had to drag Alan away from their tasting room, so many cheeses to taste. We filled our cooler/esky with a huge amount of cheese, cream and the most delicious yogurt.
Travelling further north we visited the Cape Wickam Light.

After reading the historic ration list, Alan was quite miffed that their Rum ration was more than his!!!

They had 1.2L each to consume a week! His current ration is a 700ml bottle when I provision!!

We weaved our way through the green pastures to Disappointment Bay (Above), boy they did it tough!! The supplies were unloaded here for the building of the Lighthouse and transported across the country side. The bay looks as if it lives up to it’s name!! They were disappointed when they realised how hard it was to make it across to the building site!
Our tummies began growling as we entered the National Park containing Penny’s Lagoon but as our luck would have, here the BBQ’s weren’t gas, every one that we had seen to date on the island had been a push button gas one. So, Plan B, enjoy some of the purchased King Island cheeses and the fresh bread that I had made that morning and our thermos of tea. We sat with our deck chairs on the banks of the beautiful Lagoon, Alan had his fly fishing rod and enjoyed having a flick around.

There comes a time in a cruisers life that you dread, a phone call from home to notify the passing of a loved one!!! Whilst we sat at the waters edge of the Penny’s Lagoon, Mum rang, and seventeen days short of my Grandmothers 98th  birthday she passed away, with my Mum by her side. She was truly blessed to have lived a full and healthy life without illness.

So with a lot a fast organising I flew out of King Island early the next day leaving Alan with Opal Lady at the wharf in Currie, King Island.

                           Above: If you look closely, you can just see Cape Wickham Lighthouse.

            Above: More visions from the air, Photo of Port Phillip Heads, Victoria from the air!
I was away for a week during which time Wayne, one of the local cray fisherman and his wife, Marg, cooked meals for Alan and generally spoilt him with morning teas, lunches and dinners!! Thank you very much Wayne and Marg for looking after us!
On my return Wayne had lent Alan a car to pick me up from the airport, and, had invited us to their home that night for a final crayfish dinner as we planned on leaving early next morning.

The larder was full of local produce, Legless Crayfish, famous King Island Beef, Cheese, Cream, Yogurt, Honey and Garlic as we made our way out through what was probably the trickiest passage to date! One of the cray boats called on the VHF radio and told us to follow him through the myriad of rocks, no wonder this was so many shipwrecks on this part of the coast!

                                             
Above: The west coast shoreline, south of Currie!

The sun rose over the glassy seas as we had the leads of the harbour insight. We had been seeing bright lights along the North West Coast all night and realised very quickly they were the lights of the cray boats that worked out of Currie Harbour. We f…

The harbour was dark and quiet as we motored out past the gas rig in Portland Bay and the 30nm toward Port Fairy.

It was indeed an ideal day for us to be traveling, nice and calm! As the day wore on, the seas became flatter and as we neared the entra…

The harbour was dark and quiet as we motored out past the gas rig in Portland Bay and the 30nm toward Port Fairy.

It was indeed an ideal day for us to be traveling, nice and calm! As the day wore on, the seas became flatter and as we neared the entra…

Dear All,
Apologies for the delay in these posts, life has been very busy for a while!!!!
I am slowly catching up, so you can expect a few in the coming days. On the Home Page you will always find a few words that will give you an ‘up to the minute’ position for us.

                                                                                  Above: Troubridge Light
Our New Years Eve began extremely early at 4am as we pulled the anchor at Troubridge Island(on the western side of Gulf St Vincent) to make the 40nm passage ENE to Adelaide in absolutely perfect glassy conditions the entire way. What a way to end a magnificent year of cruising! 6639nm through some of the most awesome, remote regions of our country. We needed to be in Adelaide by midday as Alan’s son, Graham was flying in for a few days to visit and he had changed his flight and was arriving early. 

We had booked a berth at the Cruising Yacht Club of South Australia and found our berth and reversed into the berth, only wide enough for Opal Lady and a fender each side!! Snug and protected. Cousin Helen and daughter, Tamra arrived 1/2 an hour later and we enjoyed a quick lunch before heading off to the airport to pick Graham up.

Craig and Kerry invited us to go out and view the fireworks for the evening on board Scarlett with their newest crew member Anneliese, and Kerrys’ friends from QLD. See Scarletts’ blog at. http://web.me.com/craigandkerry/SCARLETT/Frankly_my_dear…/Entries/2011/12/28_Day_239_-_242_-_Hahndorf%2C_Adelaide_Beaches_and_NYE!.html. . . .  . . 

Beautiful display of fireworks, although by midnight our eyes were stinging from lack of sleep, and then it was another 3 & 1/2 hrs before we arrived back on Opal Lady to lay our heads on our pillows. I turned off all phones and we slept peacefully until 11am! 

It took us several days to get over the lack of sleep, one of the few years that we have seen the New Year in!!

It was great to catch up with some of my family while we were here!

As with any visit to shore, Opal Lady had to have a complete washdown to get the layers of salt off. 

Helen took me to visit the supermarket for supplies that would take us through to Hobart in March, whilst Alan had the maintenance and oil changes on the motors, genset and watermaker to complete, whilst keeping an eye on the Australian Cricket Team as they played and won the test match. 

Our carpet was in desperate need of cleaning, I rang the local Electrodry franchise and Luke came and picked it up and returned it the following day. Excellent Service!! We normally have this done every 3-4months, when we reach the larger cities. It is a special rubber backed carpet with bound edges, so it can be removed easily.

I had been watching the weather closely as I do at all times, and the Low pressure system was moving east faster than first predicted. So our departure scheduled for Saturday had to be brought forward to Friday. So with an out going tide, variable winds, or lack of, all in our favour we motored out of our pen 1/2 hour after our carpet returned at 3pm. We had groceries to still pack away and the carpet was dumped into the saloon, but with calm seas we were able to do this after we were safely out of the harbour. It was a great run south, with the setting sun highlighting the hills behind the city. Darkness happens late in SA, between 9pm and 9.30pm which gave us longer daylight hours to travel in, and the sun also rises early at 5am. So after getting the latest weather at 6pm we decided to continue through the night to arrive at Cape Jaffa at approx 1700 hrs (5pm) Saturday. Adelaide to Cape Jaffa is 155nm.

Rounding Cape Jervis we encountered a 2 knt tidal current against us. This lasted for 10nm as we navigated through Backstairs Passage, between the mainland and Kangaroo Island. It wasn’t long before we entered Encounter Bay. The Murray River enters the sea here. We were able to resume our 7 knot pace which we maintained throughout the night. The lightening flashed in the sky to our west. Alan witnessed a huge pod of dolphins playing beside us, they lit up the sea like the New Years fireworks as they moved through the water with Phosphorescence, surrounding them.

We arrived at Cape Jaffa as predicted, with the rain coming down, and made our way through the channel to be met by Lindsay the Harbour controller, he assisted us tying up, as well as extending an invitation to join the town at a local vineyard for Sunday @ The Station. http://www.capejaffaanchorage.com.au/  

                                                                  Above: The scary path on the chartplotter screen!!

Around midnight we guided Scarlett into their berth beside us, informed them of tomorrows plans and quickly jumped into bed, it had now been 36hrs since we had been to bed!

As predicted the wind blew up during the night, 40+ knts, and continued to blow for 4 days. As promised, Lindsay arrived the next morning to take us all to Wangolina Station for a day of wine tasting, music and meeting new friends. Once there, the boys lent a hand to the station owner as the winds were causing havoc with the marque. They decided to hold it down by using a tractor and car as stakes to tie the ropes to. 

                                                                                                
Above: Kerry and Craig at Wangolina Station

The day progressed with wine, music food and more wine, as we weren’t driving we could sample plenty!!!! Mellow and content from the wine and the cray baguettes we arrived back on Opal Lady with a few new friends to enjoy a cuppa and chat. 

We were very grateful for a lend of a vehicle that would transport all 7 of us around the neighboring towns of Kingston and Robe.

The following day we all went for a mystery drive to Kingston. Alan played “Bus Driver”, we visited the Cape Jaffa Lighthouse that had been dismantled and repositioned at Kingston, although rumour has it that Cape Jaffa is now trying to claim it back!!!!

Following our walk up the stairs to the top of the lighthouse with our guides, some very informative ladies keeping the history alive, we went in search of the Big Crayfish, another one of Australia’s BIG icons. Unfortunately the cafe there was closed and so was any other cafe in town, so we visited the supermarket for a few supplies then returned to the boats.

The weather was still very heavy and didn’t look like easing so Scarlett’s newest crew member, Annelise, decided to leave as she had work commitments back home. We all went for a visit to Robe an hours drive south where we farewelled Annelise and then explored the township and enjoyed a great lunch.

Above: Robe Customs House

Above: Entry to Robe Harbour

Above: Obelisk at Robe

Eventually the forecast improved so we refuelled in the Cape Jaffa harbour and prepared to leave the following morning as the cray boats headed out. We followed in their wake well before dawn. It was a pleasant days travel, 90nm, we arrived at Port MacDonnell just as the sun was setting. Port MacDonnell has a large breakwall and behind has extensive moorings full of cray boats in not a lot of water. Struggling to find a space to anchor, we had a visit from some friendly locals who directed us to one of their moorings for the night. Much appreciated!!! When Scarlett appeared an hour or so later they were also given a mooring. The local boys were very happy with the few beers that we gave them. We had a peaceful nights sleep and left with the cray boats again in the wee small hours.

                                                                                                     Above: Cape Jaffa Harbour/Marina

Scarletts passage out wasn’t quite as easy as they got tangled up in a cray pot and unfortunately had to cut the rope to free themselves, and No there wasn’t any crays in the pot!!! We just love our Spurs Line Cutter on our prop shaft!

The next day we continued to dodge cray pots until the border, it was here that they all stopped! It was a very pleasant trip around the headland past the large industry and into Portland. Friends, Richard with his children and Barry with his son, drove to the lookout and took photos, little did they know that they were tracking the same people!!!

                                                                                                 
Above: Anchored in Portland Harbour

We arrived into the safety of the harbour for the weekend. Portland is a commercial shipping port and one of the main ports for the oil and gas rig supply vessels. It was also the weekend for their main fishing competition, so the harbour was very busy. We had contacted the Harbour and Port control in regards berthing arrangements but were only directed to a few very large RED concrete mooring buoy!!! All too hard and large, we could see it causing more damage than it was worth, so we anchored within the harbour. Scarlett arrived shortly after and they also decided not to add red striping and bumps to their hulls.

Shortly after we anchored, Richard arrived with his tinny for us to use for the weekend. The weather had turned freezing cold, so while Alan and Barry reminisced the last 20+ years since they had worked together, over a few cold ones at Barry’s local watering hole, I set off in search of some warmer clothing at the nearby shops.

Later in the afternoon Richard and Rose bought their 4 children afternoon tea on board Opal Lady. We greatly appreciated the lend of their car to do our provisioning and also the great meal that Richard cooked for us Sunday night. Thankyou!!

Above: After hearing of Alan’s run in with the local Water Police, Craig armed himself with all the safety equipment, so he wasn’t their next target!!!

With such a busy weekend, we had not seen a lot of Scarlett but we did arrange our departure for early Monday morning.

Above: The Gas Well in the middle of Portland Harbour, that we past at 6am!