Waiting in Sydney for the Wind generator and back stay insulator, sent to Melbourne for repair, we where invited by Cheryl and Hans for a daytrip to Blue Mountains. Cheryl was borne in one of the Villages up there, talk about a guide with local knowledge.
The insulator was delivered directly at the Fish market by Ronstan.
Nothing wrong with the old one, except the twist, but for the good sake we got a new one. Thanks for that Ronstan, and for an excellent service. We didn't have to travel around the city to find them, they came to the boat three times!
At the Fish market we picked up Sue and Creg for a sailing trip in Sydney Harbour. They had a stop over in Sydney on their way back to US. Not a very nice weather, but a nice day with a lot's of memories from Tonga and Tonga to NZ.  The Sushi lunch, anchored in Double Bay, was excellent! Back to "our" mooring in Birkenhead the next day we got information from Melbourne about our wind generator. Parts where ordered and the generator hopefully delivered by courier Friday.
OK another week to spend in nice company with Cheryl, Hans and Gino and their friends. Of course, Annika spend a lot of time helping the local yachties  with their computers...

Finally, Monday the 7th the Generator was in our hand. We motored back to Black Wattle for taking on water and to mount the wind generator in a more wind protected spot. Then we took off for Tasmania almost exactly a month after we arrived to Sydney.          

The first trip was really short, only to Port Hacking twenty nm to the south. A nice beach with a good protected mooring and very nice walking surroundings.
The sand stone remember us of Petra in Jordanian. We spent two days here on a free mooring waiting for the wind to be more favourable, doing several long walks.

Thursday came with wind from the north and we left early to avoid the choppy sea building up at the mooring and to be able to reach Jarvis Bay before dusk. In Jarvis Bay we anchored just before sunset after a day sailing in excellent conditions. Nice strong wind from behind, which increased just as we turned to the north into Jarvis Bay for the last five miles across the bay. Together with katabatic wind over land, the final part of this day was quite intense...
Before the wind shift to east next morning, we sailed across and took a free mooring on the east side of Jarvis Bay, where we had a nice long walk in the National Park. Saw the White Bellied Eagle for the first time and a lot's of different Parrots. Next morning we once again had to leave early before the conditions became uncomfortable at the mooring in the changing wind. Just as predicted the wind turned to north just at dawn, and we left for Ulladulla, a small harbour 30 miles to the south.
We anchored in the harbour early afternoon and spend some days waiting for the wind to be favourable again.
Meanwhile we repaired a leaking pipe in the cooling system. A copper pipe connected to the gearbox where leaking for the fifth time. And the intervals between had become shorter since our work in NZ. We did a lot of measurements, and finally we increased the negative cable to the alternator and connected the copper pipe to the sacrificial zinc hull anode. (If these steps have solved the problem we don't know yet, but more than a month later no water is leaking out of the cooling system.)
Three days we had to wait for the wind to be northerly again. Now we had a long trip down to Eden, the last harbour before crossing Bass Strait. To long to be covered in  daylight sailing. In the afternoon we anchored in a reasonable protected cove to either stay the night or just have dinner and sailing the night down to Eden.
The bay was not very comfortable so after having had dinner just before dusk we pulled the anchor and sailed south in the increasing northerly wind.
Our Wind vane, which since some improvements in NZ, was working next to perfect the first half of the night. But finally, big waves on the beam and strong wind together with our out pooled sails, the conditions became just to much. After having been pushed to windward two times, with the sea across the boat and some of it into the cockpit, we changed the steering to be manoeuvred by our excellent autopilot. The sea state was quite confused with high seas the rest of the night and the sleeping was a bit poor...
Arriving Eden at dawn, we anchored in the harbour and had some hours of undisturbed sleep.
Eden is as we said earlier the last stop before crossing Bass Strait to Tasmania, and it was not surprising to find some other yachts waiting for good passage weather. Further more, Eden harbour is poorly sheltered in south to west wind. The only options in those conditions is to sail three miles across the bay and anchor at the leeward beach over sand with good holding. The day after our arrival saw four yachts crossing the bay to be more comfortable in the south west wind.
After three days the passage conditions finally appeared, and five boats joined the cue, as the Coast Patrol put it when we thanked them for support and reported leaving for Tasmania. The wind was very weak and we motored five miles, running the water maker, to a little cove where we anchored and had a nice shower and secured the dinghy on deck.
Just before noon we restarted the trip, just as Yaraandoo II, the last boat leaving Eden, approached our position. Two boats where heading south west to west, but Yaraandoo II and Lindisfarne where heading south across Bass and along the Tasmanian east coast.  The speed of our two boats where quite the same and we where in sight of each other for almost three days, in spite strong winds at night and very light winds daytime. We had VHF contact with Sue and Mike several times a day, discussing weather reports (VHF and grib-files) and got some hints about anchorage in eastern Tasmania.
The third day we saw Yaraandoo II three miles south of us when we turned right into Great Oyster Bay for some nice anchorages the coming Christmas week.  Sue and Mike continued to Kettering for Christmas and we agree on a meeting "next year" in Hobart or Kettering. They had just finalised a multiple years of sailing in Pacific covering among other places Alaska, and of course we where interested in their experiences. We had two nice anchorages, protected from the easterly wind and then on Christmas eve we sailed across Great Oyster Bay to Little Christmas Island.
Our crossing of the Bay was quite a trip! Strong, 30-40 knots, northerly head wind made the nine mile across to one of our toughest so far (including Drake Passage) with short steep sea. Two hours later we where across and the sky was clear again, the wind decreasing over land and the anchorage was, as we planned, protected enough to be safe for the night.
The next day we tacked in light wind south to the east coast of Maria Island. In Whalers Cove we found a nice "Patagonia anchoring". We anchored just outside a little creek in the Cove, four lines ashore and then pulled Lindisfarne into the creek. A little swell from the sea, but we felt very comfortable and secure.
We stayed for two days, enjoying the nature and all the birds. The big Eagle and a lot of others. After dusk the noise from some birds increased and we could at first not figure out what bird had that sound, but of course it was the Little Blue Penguins that came ashore for the night. You should think they came to rest and sleep...  The second night we where prepared with torch and could confirm our guessing the previous night.

Next stop was Safety Cove, just south of Port Arthur. The cape east of the cove and west of Tasman Island was completely full of pillars, slowly cooling, melted rock had came visual thanks to thousands of years of erosion.  Our cameras went "crazy"! probably some hundred shots.
We have seen this before in Scotland, but the Island Staffa is a minor compared with these.
We where lucky to have perfect and calm weather, no wind and almost no swell made it possible concentrate on having the optimal photo of the columns.

Safety cove is a long sandy beach, very well protected in it's southernmost corner from nearly all directions. Good holding over hard sand.
The next day we tacked in to Port Arthur in the gusting wind, to have glimpse of the ruins of the former prison. One of many in Australia from the times when Australia was populated from England with a lot of convicts. Lunch at a mooring just off the Ruins, and then back to Safety cove for the night.
The rest of the day we spend walking to a spectacular cave on the east coast.


Following morning we where heading for Hobart and rounding Cap Raul was quite a struggle.
30+ knots in gusts across the boat, two knots of current with us against a three meter swell... Sometime we didn't do more than three knots over ground! But after three hours we could turn north to Hobart, the wind backed and we got a fabulous sailing the twenty miles along Storm bay. But in spite of our now great speed, more than seven knots all the time, we where overhauled by some of the racers in the Sydney - Hobart race. But of course, we where towing the dingy...!
In Hobart we got a berth in Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania and a well deserved beer in their bar. There we met a sailor who had seen us rounding cap Raul and felt sorry for us. He had turned back and taken his car back to Hobart, collecting the boat some other day in more calm conditions.
Being not local we weren't sure whether the condition round the cape where normal, and if so, turning back to Safety Cove had not made any difference. Obviously the combination with the wind, sea and tide made it quite rougher than normal.
Next morning we took a walk into town, looking at all the yachts arriving in the three races. In town we could see the racers moored in constituent dock. The fastest one, NZ Alfa Romeo more than 100 feet long !
New Years Eve we had planned to go in to town and look at the fireworks. But no wind and the hottest day of the year, 38 degrees C, made us stay in the shade under the bimini and look at the fireworks from the boat.
And that was the ending of that year and this log, 31 of December 2009.   

Annika & Björn
Lindisfarne

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