The tide behind us carried us forward as we wended our way down the channel. Having passed the tricky, shoaling bits that form the passage out between Flinders and Vansittart Islands, we turned south with a westerly of around 10 knots behind us with no swell and a gentle sea of around half a metre.
As the day progressed so did the wind speed. The winds crossing Banks Strait were 20-25 knots but seas and swell not too bad. Once in the lee of the Tasmanian coast line the winds eased and as we passed St Helens they were down to around 15 knots, sometimes a bit more, with the seas fairly calm. By 11:00pm Monday night we were motoring due to lack of wind and thought we would be able to continue direct to Hobart. The crew were by now hoping to get there at the earliest opportunity as we had had larger than anticipated delays and Christmas was sneaking up on us with its attendant family responsibilities.
However, the winds were forecast to pick up Tuesday afternoon and there was a strong wind warning around Tasman Island for Tuesday night, when we would be in that vicinity, so we elected to take shelter in Oyster Bay on Maria Island and wait out the front and following strong winds. We arrived at 4:10pm to await the predicted strong winds. The holding wasn't great with lots of weed but for the first time in the voyage we had an idyllic sunset with just a gentle breeze and smooth waters. As expected the wind came up later.
Tegwen started dragging her anchor over night and by 6:00am our planned sleep in was lost as we got up to re-anchor. Did it twice but on each occasion the anchor just wouldn't grip properly. Lots of weed was being ploughed up which then clogged the anchor and in 30+ knots of wind it didn't do too well. There were big winds being reported around the Tasman Peninsula so we decided to head across to Triabunna for shelter rather than spend all day re-anchoring or motoring to take the pressure off the anchor. We motored into and across the seas being whipped up by 30+ knots of wind as we back tracked a little to reach Triabunna. Tegwen handled it well and we were pretty dry but progress was slow over the 8 nautical miles involved.
Triabunna has a delightful town wharf with a small number of floating pontoons, disability access ramp, town water, power and the Information Centre staff immediately over the road from the wharf came out and gave us a local map and lots of advice. After using the Information Centre's excellent facilities to shower and shave, then watering and fueling Tegwen and connecting her to the power to top off the batteries, we headed off to the pub for a good dinner.
That Wednesday night we had another wonderful sunset, tucked up in a very quiet, almost still berth. Next morning everyone was wondering if we should have gone on rather than hole up for the night but we checked the current observations at Maria Island just 8 nautical miles away and it had been gusting to 33 knots. Tasman Island had been much stronger. We all felt vindicated that it had been a good call to stop.
