During winter we made another night trip to Refuge Cove in gale force winds which exposed weaknesses in fittings, stowage and ourselves. The first two we could remedy, but as our personal weakness is chronic and severe mal-de-mer, we could do little but accept our lot, advice once given freely to the poor by the rich.
All voyages to be successful require careful planning. Food stores, equipment spares, tools are obvious considerations. Not quite so evident is the time of the year to avoid, in visiting certain areas. As we intended clearing for Bluff, N.Z. a study of theweather likely to be experienced in the South Tasman sea and Fiordland coast was important. As more consistently even weather was expected in autumn. a mid-summer departure for the south was not too late, a fear entertained by some friends .
Leaving Fortescue Bay under power we passed close to the Lanterns, a rocky headland characteristic of the bold nature of the Tasmanian coast.
At this point I should perhaps mention the auto pilot, devised and built by a friend, Gerry Harrant, who among many other fine qualities possesses an outstanding capability with electronic and electrical equipment. One hour before we sailed for New Zealand Gerry sat on the deck typing out the operating instructions. A spell of fine weekends had not allowed testing to his satisfaction so in setting out the procedures he included details of what to adjust should such and such result from different sea conditions. The fact that it steered the yacht down the Tasmanian coast to Hobart and across the South Tasman Sea for eight days with only minor adjustments speaks for his ability. Using printed circuits which can be replaced by plug in spares the black box employs an original principle which has a maximum demand of 2 amps. There was no need to charge the batteries all the way across to N.Z. Haparanda, displacing 18 tons, is steered with the appropriate gearing by a windscreen wiper motor. Farwelled by 80 friends and wellwishers we departed the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria with a splendid escort of yachts from the club. In the year we had lived aboard we had made some good friends there, and it was encouraging to have them send us off in that manner. One by one they dropped away until we were left alone with the lights of Melbourne far behind.
We cleared Port Phillip Heads the following morning and reached Deal Island in the Kent Group where we sheltered from an easterly blow for three days. Threading our way through the outlying rocks of Flinders Island, we passed Runt and Preservation Islets where the Sydney Cove floundered in 1795. Bound for Sydney and Calcutta via Tasmania with a cargo of rum, the effective currency of the colony, she struck during darkness. The survivors clung to the bare rocks until daylight allowed them to set up camp on Preservation Island. In a patched up boat 18 men crossed Bass Strait and unaware of the vast distance involved, set out to walk to Sydney. Found by a passing vessel south of Botany Bay only two emaciated walkers had survived the journey to tell of the others remaining on Preservation Island. Having ample time on their hands those remaining had observed swell, tide and current movements which suggested a passage to the westward. Their report led to the investigation by Bass and Flinders, resulting in the discovery of Bass Strait.
Through Banks Strait and south we passed Maria Island where during the Maori Wars, chiefs likely to be a nuisance to the British were banished from N.Z. Rounding the monumental 900' Cape Pillar, we entered Port Arthur to where 67,000 men had been transported when Tasmania was little more than a slave state. Across Eaglehawk Neck linking the Tasman Peninsular to the rest of Tasmania, a line of savage, chained dogs proved an effective deterrent to would be escapees. From the depressing remains of the penal settlement with its dismal ruined cells, we sailed in beautiful sunshine to Hobart and enjoyed the hospitality of the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania for a few days, before pressing on south, past Adventure Bay, where Cook and Bligh rested their ships. At Recherche Bay we anchored off the Catamaran River to where D'Entrecasteaux had voyaged from the Western Australian coast in search of fresh water in 1793. In all, the wild and beautiful coast of Tasmania must have changed little since those early days, as during our trips about most of it rarely was a farmhouse or road seen, many towns being concealed up estuaries and rivers.
Typical of tasmani's unique, rocky costline are the high basaltic colmns of Cape Raoul, as viewed from Hapranda's cockpit.