So today we feel we have finally started cruising life for real, we left port Arthur and headed out through the Tasman island gap and SET A NORTHERLY COURSE 😀

This is new territory for us, thank you to Scott Poulter for his wonderful weather reading skills helping to give us the confidence in these trying weather patterns Tasmania has been experiencing.

While Kaz and I have both been out here and through the gap previously with commercial operators, we have never been out here: together, on our own boat or with us in full control of our destiny (assuming you ignore wind and currents of course 😊)

So we are considering this the start of real cruising life, of going to new places, of fulfilling our wedding vows.

Together go everywhere, Together do anything

Going through the gap was reasonably okay, the southerly swell pushing us towards Cape Pillar required steering more towards the island, once through the gap there were 3 metre waves being driven by the north westerly winds that have been plaguing the state for the past fortnight pushing into the shallows of the area.

Once we got a little further out the swell dropped to around a metre with a 20ish knots of wind coming in forward of the beam, we put out a bit of mainsail to help stabilise the boat and give us a little more speed as we headed towards The Lanterns and Hippolite rocks.

Once rounding The Lanterns we motored into the bay and dropped Anchor in 8m of water.

The day was beautiful with the sun shining and a warm 18° so we took the dinghy for a loop around Fortescue bay. We also tied up to the jetty near the beach and took a walk along the beach to stretch our legs.

On returning to the boat, we had a celebratory ginger beer together in the cockpit, and an hour kip, we then cooked a paella for dinner and settled in for a bit of a rolly night with broken sleep.

The next morning once again the winds are howling around us with Tasman Island getting 40+ knot gusts going through. But we are sitting comfortably in Canoe Bay and we’ll hopefully move on tomorrow to Orford if the forecast models are telling the truth.