Built in 1845, the largest Port Arthur building was originally intended as a flour mill and granary, but by 1857 it had been converted into a prison. One hundred and thirty six cells were available on the bottom two floors, designed to cater for “prisoners of bad character under heavy sentence.” The third floor was…

Having arrived in Tasmania it felt like we should take some time to relax and smell the roses a little. Bryans Beach is part of the Frecyinet National Park, the oldest national park in Tasmania having been created in 1916. The name of the park harks back to the early explorers of Australia. Louis Claude…

Eden is the southernmost town in New South Wales, sitting at the south east corner of the Australian mainland. This quiet, provincial town of some three thousand souls is the jumping off point for small boats intending to travel to Tasmania. Here they wait for a kindly weather window for the almost three day passage…

We arrived at Batemans Bay Marina a little after midday on Monday the 3rd of February. Owen, one of the marina staff, and his wife and two children met us at the jetty to take our lines, give us keys, and tell us where the showers and toilets were. We later met the manager, Mitch,…

We departed Sydney on Australia Day, the 26th of January, and sailed south, still hoping to get to Tasmania for the Wooden Boat Festival, starting in Hobart on the 7th of February. Our next port of call was Jervis Bay, some eighteen hours sail away at a speed of 5 knots. Once again we raced…

We arrived in Sydney on Friday the 10th of January at about 10:00 am. Regular readers will know that we had been trying to arrive on this day or before because our good friend Eugene was visiting Sydney for a few days, giving us an opportunity to catch up with him. Eugene is a solo-sailor…

With a favourable easterly wind predicted we decided to leave Tweed Heads in the early afternoon of New Year’s Eve. Before our departure we went over to the nearby beach and had a quick dip, staying in shallow water due to the threat of sharks. On our way back to the boat we stopped to…

Before leaving Brisbane we had to catch up with our good friend, Julian. We had met Julian and his wife Tracey in Noumea, New Caledonia. They had sailed their yacht there before the troubles and ended up staying throughout and having an amazing time, making friends on both sides of the divide as they were…