Wednesday 8th December we departed East Cove, Deal Island, at 8:00pm. As we moved down Murray Passage we passed numbers of fairy penguins undertaking their nightly return to their nests. These little creatures had been the source of the unusual sounds we had heard each night coming from the steep hills around us in East Cove.
As if this wasn't enough we then sighted a whale coming up the Passage we were just going down! He raised his tail and dove as we headed towards the entrance. A wonderful farewell to a most interesting island.
Once clear of Deal we initially had 12 knots from the north but experienced a variety of conditions overnight including periods of rain. With the new day upon us the wind was at times quite strong but manageable. As we entered the tortured route across the bottom of Flinders Island to Lady Barron, we (not unexpectedly) found ourselves against the tide which slowed Tegwen somewhat. Still, the sun was shining and it was new territory for all of us. The leads were very hard or impossible to find at times but Russ had very carefully planned the route with precise GPS points all along the way. These stood us in good stead and we finally reached Lady Barron by 2:00pm Thursday 9th December.
