Southern Comfort-Adelaide to King Is.

    Sunday, June 27, 2010.
    It's been a while since last blog post,but we've been busy travelling or socialising with family and friends in Melbourne,so settle in for a long read.
     We're moored comfortably courtesy of local fishos on a giant chain buoy in Grassy Harbour, King Is.Tas.,waiting for a strong front or two to pass,as well as unwinding metres of crabpot line off our port prop.We've done the uphill walk to the ghost mining(tungsten) town of Grassy,about 6kms return.It was weird to see abandoned,dilapidated houses with some of the best coastal views of Bass Strait.Unfortunately the King Is.dairy is situated about 40km north of here,and no samples in the local store.
     Bodi nearly exhausted himself chasing the numerous wallabies through the bush.It's very isolated as nobody lives near the harbour,only the fishos turning up at 5am every morning from somewhere else to head out for a few hours then return.The highlight of the week is the huge freighter ferry which turned up this morning on its weekly visit,bringing supplies from the mainland.
    The giant pandas at Adelaide Zoo were a disappointment-one slept through our visit and the other wandered aimlessly around the outdoor yard,looking for its jungle.The hippos and meerkats were much more fun to watch.
     Our stopover in Adelaide at an end, we were off again back south to Wirrina Marina, where we stayed until 2am.,leaving at this time to catch the tidal flow around Cape Jervis and through the Backstairs Passage.Quite a fast smooth ride,favourable winds,then on to arrive at Victor Harbour early afternoon,where we anchored off Granite Is. near the causeway where the horse-drawn tram shuttles tourists back and forthJohn,whom we had met in Albany,and his wife Paula took us for a great drive,showing us the spectacular coastal scenery as well as to historic Goolwa, for lunch at the Aquatic Club,watching the old wooden boats sailing by.While in Victor Harbour we stocked up on winter woollies as it was getting colder.
    On our overnighter to Robe the wind was so good we had to slow down to wait for light till 7am,to avoid possible crabpots on our way into harbour. Strong winds set in for two days so we stayed in the nearly new marina,tourist-walking around Robe,checking out the many old buildings, the old gaol and the Governor's residence,reminders of when it was a major port and arrival point for the throngs of Chinese on their way to the goldfields.
    S/SE winds delayed our arrival at Beachport ,also the increased the danger of crabpots,set just outside the harbour. After a quick coffee break ashore next morning,we moved to the other more sheltered end of the bay to Southend (Greytown),a tiny community.Next day we headed for Port McDonnell,arriving after dark-such short days-but moonlit enough to find a convenient,suitable mooring buoy,just inside the harbour.We followed the fishing fleet out early next morning,just light enough to avoid lurking lines of crabpots,making good time to Portland,where it was cold,darkening and too wet to dinghy ashore.However a family of seals decided to use Two XS as their cubby-house,and to Bodi's delight spent most of the night doing tricks underneath and around us. Bodi cried as we left them behind, leaving harbour next morning.
    We entered the narrow channel at Port Fairy along with many small power boats returning from their tuna fishing competition,and were invited to tie up at the main wharf with the large pro-fishing boats,only metres from a fish and chippery. It's a friendly town, a popular pastime walking the wharf,so just about everyone passing by stopped to talk to us,and a group of tuna fishermen gave us a large fresh slab of bluefin.
     A lovely old town,sheltered from the next bout of strong winds,we had plenty of walking exercise.From here we set off for Warrnambool,gathering giant kelp around the props,surfing our way in through the reefy entrance channel to the calm harbour,which unfortunately is several miles from town. Dolphins escorted us out next morning, heading for Apollo Bay,on the way a close look at the Twelve? Apostles and London Bridge,but later we ran out of daylight,and anchored half a mile off the coast at Station Beach, two miles west of Cape Otway(thanks to Kevin Lane's clear directions in his book).
      Parallelling the Great Ocean Road about two miles offshore we passed Apollo Bay, Bell's Beach where we could make out hardy surfers in the waves,all with a background of towering cliffs, Lorne and on to Anglesea,where we anchored inside the reef, but could not go ashore because of the swell and surf on the beach.
     From here we set off to catch the tidal flow into Port Phillip Bay at the Rip,which was tame compared to some of the tidal whirlpools we encountered elsewhere.The wind dropped so we had to motor twenty miles up the bay to anchor off the jetty at Altona in cold fog and mist.It was an interesting trip up the Yarra next morning, yielding right of way to a huge freighter near the Westgate Bridge,then on to the almost new Waterfront City Marina at Docklands,which Marika had found for us months before. In The heart of Melbourne,looking straight up Latrobe St.to the city,with Etihad Stadium in front,all for $30 a night!and the free city circle tram 200m. walk away,via the Docklands shopping complex of fashion outlet stores,restaurants and cafes and the studio where Huey could be seen at 4pm every day makiing his cooking show.
    We stayed here for 10 days,with never a spare minute,catching up with so many people-Marika and Khan (until they took off on their trip to N.T.to visit Ben and Bianca),sister Jen and Barry,and friends from Melbourne we hadn't seen for so long,as well as fellow boaties in the marina.We were taken sightseeing,wining and dining,shopping,and even a bbq and sleepover at Barry's brother's home,Bodi included.What a great time we had, and so much help in getting necessary things done-our thanks to everyone who made it such a satisfying stopover.For our trip back down the Yarra,and on to Sandringham Yacht Club Marina we had extra crew on board and a perfect sunny! day with just enough wind to fill the sails.The best weather we'd had in all our time in Melbourne.A SYC member, Jeff, met at Docklands(now owner of Lionheart, Jesse Martin's round the world yacht)arranged a berth for us at the visitor jetty,where we stayed for a week, very convenient for our friends living nearby, Ken and Faye,Judy and David.
     Next stop down the Bay was Mornington then Portsea,then back out into Bass Strait,where with good winds we decided to do an overnighter to King Is.,sailing most of the way in bright moonlight.Our destination was Currie on the west coast,but daylight showed it to be a no-go, waves breaking across the entrance and full of large fishing boats bouncing around in the swell.We kept going south around Stokes Point, in almost similar conditions to the Leeuwin experience,but with the added degree of difficulty provided by hundreds of nests of crabpots set across our route.Past the point we headed north for the shelter of Grassy Harbour-both props by this time obviously disabled by either giant kelp or crabpot line,but conditions too rough for Bill to try to clear them.However the wind turned to our advantage,so we were able to reach port safely and recover. 
     Since I began this post,we have moved on,fortunately there was no internal motor damage and Bill was able to remove the rope wound and knotted around the prop,after a couple of chilly, strenuous hours spent under the back of Two XS,in the dinghy armed with a fearsome -looking knife mounted on long boathook.Today presented a weather window for us to reach Hunter Is.at the extreme N.W tip of Tassie,where we will wait for a chance to sail down the West Coast,or across the top, if conditions are more suitable.