December 2019
Waving goodbye to Wineglass Bay we set off for Orford to visit our first proper town in Tasmania. St Helens didn’t count because we didn’t actually use the boat to get to it. The distance between Wineglass Bay and Orford was about 40nm and with an impending storm we had to get there as soon as possible. However not long after leaving Wineglass Bay we caught the second fish since leaving Kangaroo Island, just as we were passing Cape Forestier. This time the capture went to Hugo, a Barracuda, but again it was undersized and so it got to live another day.
For our sail to Orford we had a stiff 15-20knt breeze which remained consistent the whole way giving us an excellent sail. We were also in a relatively sheltered bay and so had no swell, this gave us the perfect recipe of conditions allowing Allagai to really get moving especially since the wind was behind us. On the way to Orford we decided to pass through Schouten Passage a narrow stretch of water between Schouten Island and Tasmania’s Freycinet Peninsula. At its narrowest point it is only about 700-800m wide, which actually sounds quite big, especially when Allagai’s only four meters wide. But for us after weeks of open water and by just looking at the chart it seemed like a very skinny gap for us to squeeze through. However when we actually passed through the passage there was plenty of room both in width and depth as the sounder never fell below 20m.
After passing through Schouten Passage we made a bee line for Orford making it into Prosser Bay in the late afternoon. However getting to the anchorage wasn’t quite as simple as usual. We had arrived in the middle of a nearby yacht clubs twilight race which was made up of about 10 boats and it was just our luck that their course was between us and the anchorage. Not wanting to mess up their race we slowly made our way between them to our desired anchorage, doing a few evasive tacks to get out of their way when necessary. However eventually we made it to the anchorage and dropped anchor, sitting back to watch the last leg of the race.
We had decided to anchor in Orford as it offered us good protection from the impending storm, which thankfully it did perfectly. For the first three days of our stay we were mostly stuck on the boat as the storm pummelled the area with rain and wind. However occasionally during the breaks in the weather we did manage a few short trips ashore and walked into town or along the beach. It was during one of these walks that we visited the towns IGA and were disappointed as it was smaller then we had hoped. While in the area we wanted to do a proper reprovision of our supplies and fully replenish our dry stores and canned goods. But it seemed this wouldn’t be the town as the store in Orford was a little small not offering as large of a selection as we wanted. However there was a second larger town nearby which was also accessible by water called Triabunna. So we decided once the storm had passed to visit Triabunna in hopes that its IGA would offer a bigger selection at a better price.
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To get to Triabunna we had two options, the town was located at the top of an inlet/river and right before it became unnavigable was a marina which for a fee we could have stayed at for the day. However we decided not use the marina option feeling a little uncertain about navigating the narrow and potentially shallow entrance and river. Instead we decided to anchor just off the end of the large public wharf located before the river gets narrow. At the time this seemed perfect for our needs but to any bystanders we would have looked at little odd with the following antics. The distance into town was about 2-3km and because we wanted to make multiple trips we decided this was the perfect opportunity to test the bikes out. To do this we had to load the bikes into the dingy and then once at the wharf lift them up 1.5m to get them ashore and then repeat, so we didn’t overload our little dingy with two people and two bikes.
Once ashore the bikes worked absolutely perfectly and within minutes we were rolling into Triabunna, passing the marina we’d avoided. Not long after arriving in the town we scoped out the shop and although it wasn’t much bigger then Orford it did have a larger selection including some of the cheaper options. Our next dilemma was buying the groceries, I had a fairly long list consisting of a lot of heavy items and there was absolutely no way that we were going to be able to buy it all in one go, even with bikes. The easiest way was to each grab a basket to fill up, this prevented us from carrying too much, as we knew a basket wouldn’t overload the bikes. Using this method we did three trips, all in the one afternoon going to and from the boat, I think one of the check-out staff thought he was having serious dejavu seeing us come and go so often. The bikes were a lifesaver, without them we would have only been able to do one trip a day meaning we probably would have left before getting everything we wanted and we definitely wouldn’t have been able to carry the amount of stuff we did. Finally after nearly two months Allagai was bursting at the seams with food, hopefully enough to keep us going for another 2months.
We didn’t hang around in Triabunna long after that as we needed to get back to our previous anchorage in Prosser Bay because as usual another storm was brewing. Thankfully though the storm didn’t last to long and before packing the bikes away for our next sail we took the opportunity to take them ashore for a final ride around Orford. Finding a nearby trail we decided to test out the off road capabilities of the bikes by riding them on a dirt track to a nearby beach. The bikes surpassed my expectations and had no problems taking on the dirt track allowing us a relatively easy 10km ride. Back on the boat that afternoon there was no time for resting as the weather to leave had finally arrived with a good forecast for the following day. So we quickly set about making the boat seaworthy, stowing the bikes and ensuring all our new stores were properly stowed. The next leg of our journey was set to only be a short sail as our next destination was nearby, beautiful Maria Island.