From our well rested Jamieson Bay night (Flinders Island) we started our 50 nm trek to St Helens around 0700hrs on a nice calm morning (yeah!!). At one point I looked out and saw what I thought was a log and quickly manoeuvred MAD around to find the log had disappeared, weird…..  Later on in the day after removing a very large kelp patch from the starboard rudder, I saw a fin sticking out the water (of course I thought shark….) turns out the seals quite enjoy an upside down floating adventure in patches of seaweed/kelp, that and lots of dolphins. It was a motor sail day and arrived at St Helens around 4pm for a looky loo at the infamous sand bar and whether we were game to cross. One look said forget it, even though it was low tide the surf size was huge and the tide only 1 metre difference so was not going to happen, however, now we have a problem. We were supposed to pick up Valerie from St Helens. So, I contacted her and said plan B, meet you in Wineglass Bay, but transit for her to there was challenging, so after a little back and forth we settled on Bicheno the next day as there was bus from Hobart to there. One of the drawbacks with the logistics is that there are no reasonable anchorages available in a northerly blow.

We anchored at Skeleton Bay but no internet, so we moved around the corner to Binalong Bay and dropped the anchor outside the small boat harbour entrance. The swell roll was a little ummmm … iffy (turned out to be totally unpleasant all night), but we decided enough moving, we are here for the night.  Within an hour of arriving we noticed a racing yacht MAKO arriving into the bay, they yelled out to us that they needed diesel but didn’t have a dingy and needed a ride to shore, could we help, of course we can…. We carry 40 litres of extra diesel in jerry cans so I asked if they were sure they could get fuel here, we dumped one of the cans in MAD took one of the full cans to MAKO to put in their tank plus their own spare 20L and then set off ashore to fill 3 x 20L diesel cans. Noel very nicely stayed to hold the fort and cook dinner.

MAKO – had participated in the Sydney to Hobart race and ended a respectable position of about 60, the delivery crew were now sailing her to Melbourne and had motored north from Hobart, more than anticipated, hence the low fuel. There must have been about 6-7 crew on board. Swiss, German and true blue Aussies, so 2 crew and myself set off ashore to find diesel. After talking to a few locals we find out the gas station is in St Helens, about 10 km away.

We tried to get a ride from a few that either couldn’t take all of us or were just serving dinner out of a camper van. No stores, shops anywhere. Then this very nice lady Jo, stops in her red Mazda station wagon and asks if we need water… explaining we needed diesel she said no problem drop me home up the hill and take the car to St Helens to fill up the cans…. wow! what an absolute sweetheart. After dropping her home, meeting hubby, dad, and 4 dogs we set off for diesel. Turning into a pizza/grog run (plus a case for the very kind loan of the car. Grocery shop for essential fruit/veg and milk we accomplished all within about an hour. Backing up, we were a sight for sore eyes. I still had thermals, rain pants, sailing boots and minus a shower for a few days. The crew I have to say looked as dishevelled as me. I think they were hero’s arriving back with their stash for the rest of the crew. My biggest take away from the adventure was I had set foot for the first time in Tasmania and what incredibly friendly lovely people we had met.

As I said early I would have liked to stay longer but the lack of sleep and the terrible rolling all night at the anchorage, plus the plans to pick up Valerie in Bicheno tomorrow we were out of there at 5am (first light).

I would like to thank Jo and her family for the incredible kindness they offered sailors in need.

Weather picked up by noon as expected and we anchored at Long Point Break (7 nm north of Bicheno) as there is no anchorage sheltering us from this northerly. Now the challenge being how do we get Valerie, arriving from Hobart on a bus at 7pm to the boat. No taxis, no Uber, no bus…… the kindness continues but thats for another post stay tuned…..