Happy New Year and may 2019 bring much happiness to you all.
We have had a bit of a break from the blog, so standby for a longer one. Before we start, just a quick admin note... if you are receiving the blog by email, please be aware that it comes from an email address from the blog site and we do not receive any replies made to it. So please don't send any messages to us at that one, use our personal email addresses; or you can go to the blog website and leave a comment there.
The forecast for Adelaide for the few days after Christmas was
for 40 +, so we decided to avoid the heatwave and spend bit more time at
Kangaroo Island – it being about 10 degrees cooler there.
After a lovely quiet Christmas Day on anchor at a beach we moved
into American River, a very small and sheltered little place inside the river
mouth. We then enjoyed a couple of days exploring the tiny town and the tidal
shoreline and were surprised at how quiet it was at Kangaroo Island, however we were assured that the bays would fill up with boats by New Year’s Eve for the annual Adelaide yachties cruising ‘race’ and beach party.
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American River, Kangaroo Island |
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Lovely Pelican sculpture in American River |
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The Independence replica - a work in progress. |
By Friday 28th Dec the weather had cooled down
enough for us to head 70 miles north to Adelaide. We set off in the morning with very light
winds and motored until early afternoon when a moderate sea-breeze came in as
forecast and we popped the spinnaker. We
sailed along very nicely for several hours, enjoying the breeze and spotting
landmarks along the coast as we got closer to Port Adelaide.
As usual, we had checked and double checked several forecasts,
however we were about to learn that Adelaide’s sea-breeze can put on a good turn
of extra power without permission from the forecasters! At about 5:30 pm the “sea-breeze” rapidly
doubled in strength and had us pulling the kite down very smartly.
By this time we were approaching Port Adelaide channel with nasty
steep, short waves accompanied the 25-30 knot wind making us roll around quite alarmingly.
All this while a cargo ship, pilot boat and two tugs were crowding in on us. It
was getting a little uncomfortable and we were relieved to tie up in the very
friendly and welcoming Royal South Australian Yacht Squadron.
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A very comfortable berth at the R.S.A. Yacht Squadron, Port Adelaide. |
We stayed at the Squadron for a couple of nights feeling
very much at home, chatting to local yachties and catching up with Jenni’s
cousin Annette and a few Albany sailing mates. Several national championship regattas
going on and a visit to the S.A. Maritime Museum kept us entertained. We also
picked up our new parts for the Rutland wind generator which is now whizzing
around again and seems to be working well.
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The lovely old dinghy shed at the Squadron |
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Magnificent sculpture outside the S.A. Maritime Museum |
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Largs Bay, Port Adelaide was the scene of several regattas and national championships |
A popular local spot for sailors out of Adelaide is Port
Vincent, just 30 miles away on the other side of the gulf, an easy beam reach
on most days. After seeing in 2019 from the comfort our bed, we decided to go
there for a short visit and spent Tuesday and Wednesday in the strangely
desolate marina there. It is one of those real estate opportunities which never
really took off before the marina started falling apart. The exciting thing was that having missed the
fireworks in Adelaide on NYE, we got to see them on the evening of New Year’s day
at Port Vincent – again from the comfort of our cabin.
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It was a brisk beam reach over to Port Vincent |
We spotted a small and not perfect window of non-contrary
winds on Thursday and decided to get out of there and head for Port Lincoln
where we knew we could anchor in the lovely national park and do a bit of bush
walking. The ‘not perfect’ bit involved a start in hardly any wind from the
east and then a change to a strong southerly around midnight which we would not
have gone out in were it not for the fact that it was blowing roughly the right
way.
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Spinnaker sunset on our way to Port Lincoln |
We had an exciting sail then in the pitch dark of no moon and brilliant stars, in a crazy sea state and with a strong and building southerly wind on our port quarter.
Unlit lumps of granite to port and starboard came and went as we sped on
northward until just at dawn we caught a glimpse of Thistle Island on the port
beam and Dangerous Reef to starboard. Within an hour we were motoring against
the strong wind and under grey skies across the harbour to a lovely little
anchorage on the west side of Spalding Cove, about 10 miles across the harbour
from Port Lincoln. We spent the rest of the day sleeping, reading and resting
our weary limbs.
It would be fair to say the we have both become big Flinders
fans indeed and have seen various small tributes to him and Trim along the way.
However, we are now in serious Flinders appreciation country down here in Port
Lincoln and have just returned from a hike up Stamford Hill to the memorial
which was put there in the 1840s as soon as the area was taken over by white
people.
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Port Lincoln harbour entrance as seen from Stamford Hill. We are anchored in the bay on the far right. |
Flinders walked up the hill in order to have a good look around for the usual charting/mapping reasons but also to look for any signs of his 7 crew members who has disappeared in the treacherous Thorny Passage a few days before while out in a small boat searching for water. Parts of the boat were eventually found but the crew had perished as the boat was overwhelmed in the strong tidal race in the passage.
Flinders and his crew did a particularly good job of charting
the south coast in the days before his ship the Investigator started to really
fall apart. It is interesting to think of all the gratitude that would have
come from sailors over the past 200 years or so for his efforts and diligence
and we count ourselves amongst them. We are excited about seeing a fabulous
looking bronze statue in Port Lincoln depicting the young Matthew working on a
chart with the loyal Trim sitting at his feet looking out at something more
interesting. (You will have to wait for the next blog for a pic!)
We are looking forward to exploring more of this part of the South Australian coast with its myriads of islands, bays and coves. From what we have seen so far, it offers fantastic
cruising grounds with lots of places to tuck in to and for us, a familiar south coast weather pattern.
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A beautiful sheltered anchorage in a national park with great bush walking trails - idyllic cruising in South Australia. |
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