Hobart, Tasmania seems eons ago, having been there on our 13th the past few days since have been busy, as you will read.  We are now on our way to Kangaroo Island, on Australia’s south coast and not far from Adelaide.

Hobart lies on the south-east coast of Tasmania; it has a natural harbour, accessed through the Derwent river estuary.  The U.K. also has a ‘Derwent’ river and presumably Hobart’s was so named because an explorer was missing home.  We docked on a dull morning although it brightened up later.  Guests were notified that Tasmania has one of the highest skin-cancer rates in the world, they sit under a sky devoid of an ozone layer and suffer the consequences. 

I stayed on board, the weather forecasts were foremost in my mind and had I gone off the ship, I knew it would only worry me.  I did however venture as far as the pier, this to take some photos for our port file, we keep a record, visual and written for future calls. 

Karen and Hazel did put their feet onto dry land and visited the Bonorong animal sanctuary and, (yup, you guessed it, some vineyards) 🙂 K1 had her camera and these are from her library.

They then moved onto the vineyards, Pooley and quaintly named Puddle Duck.

 We were due to leave Hobart and take a slow ‘pottle’ to Port Arthur, just around the corner.  The weather forecast however, did not bode well for this tender port and I cancelled as a precaution.  We instead sailed for Kangaroo Island, Australia.  The direct route from Hobart would take us around the south coast of Tasmania and then directly to a waypoint off the Australian coast.  The forecast on this route was awful, so instead I chose to sail up the east coast of Tasmania, pass through the Bank and Bass Straits and then head towards Kangaroo Island.  The next post will describe our ‘epic’ passage.