this rough magic

This Man’s Work is Never Done – 2022

A new Renogy 300W solar array and a haul-out and anti-foul topped the list of jobs completed in early 2022.

Haul out at CleanLift Marine – Prince of Wales Bay

CleanLift Marine, opposite the Prince of Wales Bay Marina, provided an excellent and affordable haul-out service. Trent and his mate did great work and applied four coats of International Micron Extra 2 antifoul plus PropSpeed in two days.

Back at the marina they replaced a leaking hatch and relocated the wooden safety rails on the coach house on the third day ready for me to install the new Renogy solar array.

New Renogy Solar Panel Array

I ordered 300W (2x 100W and 2 x 50W) of Renogy solar panels plus2 x charge controllers, fuses, wires and fittings online. They arrived a week later and have performed as per specifications. On sunny days at noon with no shade they have delivered 300W of power. I couldn’t be happier and recommend Renogy to any boat owner considering a new solar system.

After the failure of my seven year old Lion batteries I replaced all my batteries with new Bosche Marine batteries.

100W & 50W panels on each side

Parallel connectors under coach roof

300W of new solar power

New Renogy charge controllers and inverter

New 12v TV in saloon

Some things in life are free! I picked up this free Daewoo 12v TV and CD combo at the POWB Marina.

Bilge Alarm

With Freebooter now on a swing mooring I though it advisable to install a very loud bilge alarm just in case the newly installed Water Witch automatic bilge pump fails.

Franklin

In 2022 I relocated Freebooter to her new home on a swing mooring 120m upstream from the Wooden Boat Centre and Living Boat Trust in Franklin, Tasmania.

I had thought about Franklin as a suitable base for Freebooter since arriving in Tasmania but nothing had prepared me for its beauty and the friendliness of its locals.

Franklin is situated a leisurely four hour sail up the Huon River from where it flows into the D’Entrecasteaux Channel. The oldest town in the Huon Valley, Franklin is only ten kilometres downstream from Huonville which offers excellent opportunities for provisions and services and is a 40 minute drive from Hobart.

Before finding my current swing mooring I based Freebooter at the small and welcoming Franklin Marina, right next to the Living Boat Trust.

Franklin Marina, Tasmania recorded with my Spry+ in 2022.

The water in Franklin is brackish meaning it’s great to help the barnacles fall off the bottom of Freebooter’s hull.

The Living Boat Trust

The Living Boat Trust is a boating community “dedicated to keeping Tasmania’s marine heritage alive and maintaining traditional boat building, repairing, rowing and sailing skills”. Its hub is the shed with a kitchen, bathroom, toilet and changing room. “It has an extensive collection of tools, sailing and rowing gear” and is “the home of good work, good company, good talk, and good food – the last being especially true every Monday evening when [they] host [their] dinners”.

Stewarts and Ladies Bays (Port Arthur)

Safe and comfortable anchorages in Port Arthur can be found in the first bay north of the historical site in Stewarts and Ladies Bays. I anchored at Stewarts Bay for a week in north-westerlies and then moved 200m to Ladies Bay when the winds changed southerly.

Both Bays have easy access to the beach and Stewarts Bay Lodge jetty. The Lodge has an excellent and reasonably-priced restaurant.

I anchored in 3m over sand in Stewarts Bay, just 200m from the beach.

A short walk up the track at the top of the beach leads to the NRMA caravan and camping park with a small shop for basic necessities as well as a coin-operated laundry.

A short walk up Stewarts Bay Road via the jetty leads to two general stores on the main road, one with an excellent cafe.

The cafe on the main road makes excellent coffee as well as selling sour dough bread.

On the right up Stewarts Bay there is a farm outlet where you can but fresh local vegetables and fruit.

The local produce shop uses the honour system with extremely reasonable prices.

My old mate, Peter Godson, joined me for a week of day-sailing and swimming off the beach.

After Peter returned to Melbourne I spent a week sanding and oiling the gunnels and rub rails.

The walking track south of the lodge leads to the historical site.

All in all I spent three weeks in these wonderful bays during the best of the summer and would happily return again.

Port Arthur

As a cruising destination, it is hard to surpass Port Arthur on the south of Tasmania’s Tasman Peninsula.

It took a while to find favourable weather conditions but in February 2021 I finally crossed Storm Bay to visit Port Arthur’s and anchor in Stewarts Bay.

World Heritage listed Port Arthur Historic Site, the best preserved convict site in Australia. and among the most significant convict era sites worldwide, is a large outdoor site spanning over 100 acres with over 30 buildings and ruins to explore.

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MAST public floating marina outside Constitution Dock

Marine and Safety Tasmania (MAST) provide an 8 berth public floating marina outside Constitution Dock in downtown Hobart. Vessels can stay there for free for up to 5 hours.

The courtesy berths are located in Sullivan’s Cove just outside Constitution Dock and next to the Kings Dock Marina.

If you need to stay overnight, text 0418 145 439 and advise your name, name of vessel and estimated time of departure.

The berths are located just a few minutes’ walk from Constitution Dock’s seafood cafes as well as Salamanca Market.

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Bull Bay, North Bruny Island

Bull Bay is an excellent anchorage on Nth Bruny Island – especially in the predominant west and south-westerly winds.

Anchor in three to four metres of sand in the south of the bay close to the beach. It makes an excellent staging point while waiting for good conditions to cross Storm Bay or move to Frederick Henry and Norfolk Bays.

Ashore in Bull Bay with friends, Bettina and Stephen Blackburn, in January 2021

The beach is very secluded as there is no public access through the private farmland from the nearby road.

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The Duckpond, North Bruny Island

Just a few kilometres east of Kettering you will find “The Duckpond”, a delightful all-weather anchorage in North Bruny Island.

The Duckpond lies to the far east of Barnes Bay

I anchored there with good friend, Neil Adams, in three metres over sand on day one of my first cruise after Melbourne’s 2020 COVID lockdown. Unlike the north arm of Simmonds Bay, crowded with vessels on swing moorings, we found ourselves alone in the safe and tranquil waters of the The Duckpond.

Chef Neil preparing dinner for the BBQ

We both had a great swim on arrival and before dinner

Crayfish, oysters, roast sweet potatoes and salad for dinner

The Duckpond is a spawning ground for young flatheads so, if fishing, make sure you adhere strictly to the Bruny D’Entrecasteaux region fishing guide.

The anchorage is surrounded by land so it’s like swimming in a pool.

Sailing Oman’s Musandam Peninsula (2007)

In 2007 I sailed north-east up the UAE coast into the Omani enclave of the Musandam.

The Musandam, at the North-eastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, overlooks the Straits of Hormuz. It is bordered to the west by the Arabian Gulf and to the East and South East by the Gulf of Oman and the Indian Ocean. Known as the “Norway” of Arabia, the Musandam Peninsula is separated from the rest of Oman by various of the United Arab Emirates – Ras al Khaimah and Fujairah.

Musandam begins where the mountains rise from the plains of Ras al Khaimah where “Elsie” was berthed.

The Musandam Peninsula is difficult to reach other than by sea and is a haven for sealife and birds. Indeed, as I sailed into Khor Habilayn I was escorted by a pod of a dozen dolphins.

The cliffs rise a thousand feet from the water’s edge and plunge fifty metres underwater just metres from shore. This makes safe anchorages rare and the winds eratic and unpredictable. The shores are populated by friendly Omanis who still live the simple traditional fishing life of their ancestors.

Before entering the inland lake I anchored in Khasab harbour, the home of scores of fast speed boats owned by the local smugglers. They would wait until the coast guard was out of range and then race across the straights to Iran carrying American cigarettes. On their return they would carry illegal aliens who would walk over the mountains into the UAE seeking work.

Khasab harbour (photo by Phil Norton/Flickr)

The waters in the gulf are so salty you almost float on top of the sea.

Yours truely floating in the salty Musandam waters.

The Good Ship “Elsie Brown”

For six years, from 2005-9, I sailed much of the UAE coast in my gaff rigged trailer-sailer, “Elsie Brown”. In 2009, I shipped her home to Australia where she was berthed at the Yaringa Boat Harbour on Westerport Bay, sixty kilometres south-east of Melbourne, Australia.

Ashore on a small sand island five kilometres west of Abu Dhabi (2007). The traditional owners, who have a date-palm plantation on the island, kindly let me camp on the beach for a few nights while I explored the neighbouring islands.

Named after my maternal grandmother, she is a stripped-planked Evening Swan designed by Paul Fisher built in Melbourne by Chris van der Cratts. Elsie has a shallow bilge/shoal keel ideal for the shallow waters of the Arabian Gulf and Westerport Bay. She is easily beached and sits upright on the sand until the tide returns. She has twin berths (convertable to a double), a porta-potty and a small galley.

Sailing of the coast of Kalba just north of the Omani border on the Indian Ocean side of the UAE (2006). Shorty after this photo was taken the winds gusted over thirty knots and I lost the chain bobstay holding down the bobsprit at the bow. My companion boat lost her forstay but we returned safely home.

A few years ago the current owner of Elsie contacted me from Nepal where he worked for a NPO. He was arranging to ship Elsie from Victoria to his home state, Tasmania. I hope to meet up with them while I am in Tasmania.

***Elsie at the*** Yaringa Boat Harbour on Westerport Bay, in Victoria, Austalia (August, 2009).

Diving Sipadan Island

In 1998, while living in Singapore, I spent 7 days diving Sipadan Island off the east coast of Sabah – it was, by far and away, the best diving experience of my life.

A scuba diver swims in the middle of a school of Jet fish at Sipadan.

Located in the Celebes Sea, off the east coast of Sabah, Sipadan is the only oceanic island in Malaysia. It rises almost vertically 600 metres (2,000 ft) from the seabed providing extraordinary wall-dives in a marine paradise.

Sipadan is located in one of the world’s richest marine environments. Referred to as the Big Fish capital of the world featuring barracudas, large schools of jacks and bumphead parrotfish and an abundance of green turtles. Most of the diving in Sipadan is a combination of wall and drift diving. The walls are covered with hard corals, soft corals, gorgonians and sponges.

It is hard to choose between the amazing dives I managed during my week long stay on the island:

Barracudas

Swimming away from the wall we went in search of a school of barracudas. Aggressive when swimming alone, barracudas are not dangerous when they school in their thousands in hollow cones often more than twenty metres high. We found a school almost immediately and our divemaster guided us into the centre of the school. We remained surrounded by the school for the next twenty minutes – a magical experience.

Giant Parrot Fish

Weighing over 80kg and more than 1 metre long, thousands of enormous bumphead parrotfish graze on the corals along the vertical wall for algae. They were not bothered by us so it was possible to get close enough to touch them – at night under torch light the were luminescent. And below at 40+ metres we sighted hammerhead sharks circling.

Bumphead Parrotfish weigh over 80kg and are more than 1 metre long. Photo by Erik Schlogl

Green Turtles

I saw more turtles on one dive here than in all my diving anywhere else.

We swan with hundreds of turtles every time we entered the water.

Filipino militant attacks

18 months after my visit 21 people were kidnapped off Sipadan by the Filipino Moro pirate group Abu Sayyaf.

“The armed terrorists arrived by boat, forcing 10 tourists and 11 resort workers to board the vessels at gunpoint, after which they brought the victims to Jolo. All of the victims were eventually released. As a result of the attacks, visitors were no longer allowed to stay on the island resort but have to arrive in dive boats.” (Wikipedia)

Main article: 2000 Sipadan kidnappings