October 2019
The day to leave for our journey to Tasmania was finally here. However we had decided not to make the trip all in one go but to do short legs. This way we could stop and look at a few of the towns along the South Australian and Victorian coastline the first stop Robe. We left for Robe in the early hours of the 6th of October 2019 from Penneshaw marina on Kangaroo Island with Hugo, his brother Hamish and myself on board and this was our first over nighter on Allagai.
Leaving Penneshaw marina was a little on the sketchy side but not unsafe. The marina was open to weather from the west which was what we had had overnight so there was a little swell and a few breaking waves at the entrance. But we were undeterred and it was nothing that Allagia couldn’t handle so we set off through the waves and made it out the other side without any issues. Without further adieu we starting heading east a course was set for Robe just as the sun was rising. Outside the marina the winds were 15-20kts so we set the mainsail with a third reef and stay-sail and were flying along at a stunning 5-6kts (somewhat of a record for us) and so far everything was going well. But Backstairs passage wasn’t going to let us down and decided to give us a bit of a show, as it is renowned for being one of the roughest stretches of water in Australia. The further along we got the larger the seas became again though it was nothing Allagai couldn’t handle and we had wind and tide in the same direction.
One of the most memorable parts of this trip was while passing Cape Willougby (the most eastern point of Kangaroo Island), Hamish had decided to go use the toilet thinking we were past the worst of it, but he was wrong. Hugo was hand steering and I was sitting on the back deck looking out only to see this wave rise up directly behind us as tall as the radar mast, I thought it was going to poop us for sure. So I yelled down to Hamish to hold on tight thinking this wasn’t going to end well, especially for him sitting on the toilet. However Allagai took it in her stride, the wave broke as it hit our stern and we surfed down it at a nice speed and luckily staying straight. But it wasn’t over yet, it was a set of three waves so up and down we went again and again each wave from trough to peak 7-10m and only mere seconds apart. I don’t think any of us will forget that experience any time soon, Hugo still remembers the feel of the tiller going floppy as the rudder came out the water while we rose, Hamish still remembers the bathroom porthole disappearing under the wave as we surfed down and I’ll never forget seeing the wave that rose up out of no where and made Allagia surf.
After that things on board quickly calmed down as we entered the Southern Ocean the swell became long and slow still 3m but not uncomfortable and we slowly lost sight of land as Kangaroo Island faded into the distance. However as the land disappeared and the scenery became more water the sea sickness started to set in first with Hamish and soon followed by myself. It’s from this point that the rest of the trip becomes a bit blurry for me as I spent a lot of time taking naps and feeding the fishes. But we settled into watches for the afternoon and night, Hugo had the 12-4, myself the 4-8 and Hamish the 8-12 and the time passed very quickly, fast going from afternoon to evening and then to my watch in the early morning. The boys reported nothing eventful on their watches except the wind dying out at midnight and needing to start the engine. Mine also passed smoothly, except for the horrendous sea sickness which had me feeding the fishes more often then not. But on the bright side I got to see a pretty sunrise before going back to bed at 8 for a couple of much needed hours of rest. However it was as I slept that the boat slowly stopped rocking and warmth started radiating through the hull and finally when I couldn’t ignore the sunshine in my eyes any more I got up to find it was a beautiful day outside and land was in sight. Robe however has a decent sized crayfishing fleet and the season had just opened so as we got further into the bay it was all eyes on the look out for boats and floats, as we really didn’t want a cray pot wrapped around the prop. It was finally about four in the afternoon after dodging more cray pots then we could count that we pulled into Robe marina passing through the silted channel that only left about a meter under our keel and found our berth. It was quite an experience coming in, we were greeted to Robe with the serenade of bag pipes (Hugos grand parents lived in Robe and his Grandma Verit is an avid musician) our arrival was announced to the whole town. We had made it, it had taken us 36hours but we were all in high spirits the seasickness, swell and wave surfing all but forgotten.
Once in Robe we caught up with some of Hugo’s family that lived there but mostly we just spend the week sight seeing and getting ready for the next leg of the trip. The next major port we were planning on visiting was Portland in Victoria but we wanted to stop at Beachport or Southend and Port Macdonnell along the way to break the trip up a bit. So while in Robe we went for a drive and did some reconnaissance at each of these ports to see what kind of protection was offered in different types of conditions and if they were crowded with other boats. It was the day after this that the weather window for us to leave had arrived so we were off towards Portland at first light. Although again we didn’t leave without accompanying music, it was first light but Verit didn’t care and so we left this time to the tune of the trumpet.
