Port Davey (Nov 2011)

I’m back from the Port Davey trip in one piece. Once again, the Tasmanian landscape has proven resistant to my camera, so I’ve only put up a few photos.

We motored west, along the southern coast of Tasmania and had a fairly easy (that is, only a bit bouncy) trip into the port. We’d spend about a day at each of several anchorages and then move to the next one.

Our guests were able to go ashore and explore. Sometimes a couple of extra crew could go along with these expeditions. I tagged along on a trip up the Davey Gorge.

It looks really odd to see sedimentary rock at such an angle. Powerboating is forbidden in this part of the waterway, so we broke out the paddles and carried on in the old-fashioned way.

On the way back (outside of the no-power zone), I had a bit of a go at the wheel. We stopped off and had a look at some old remains ashore (a brick here, a sign marking a grave there). Alex used the time away from everything to focus on what’s really important:

On the way back to the ship, I took a number of shaky photos of her at anchor. Here’s the best one:

Here’s yet another photo of landscape through the bowsprit.

I can’t accurately convey how impressive that part of the world is. It’s so quiet and the scenery is stunning. Everything is pristine. There are little islands packed full of trees that all fit together, because nobody’s cut them away. And then there’s Bathurst Harbour. From the sea, it’s accessed through an extremely narrow channel (the Captain was ordering helm adjustments in one and two degree increments). Once you’re through the narrows it just opens up into this expanse of water. Truly remarkable.

The return trip along the south coast was uneventful but remarkable. The water was glassy for pretty much the entire trip: we pointed the ship almost due east and kept watch for 12 hours. Once we got back, we spent a couple of nights at Recherche Bay and Little Oyster Cove.

That’s it for now. I go to sea again on Friday.