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Slinky Malinky heads to Hobart for the
Australian Wooden Boat Festival.

 James Frecheville, family and friends are taking a few days off work
GONE SAILING  was written on a sheet of plywood and leant against the workshop door
        That about summed up the Frecheville Heaney Boatbuilders attitude towards keeping the customer satisfied from the first week of February.  We did stay back to finish a few small things but with a fair weather window for Bass Strait in the offing there was little to keep us in Paynesville.  
There was a not to be missed Wooden Boat Festival in Hobart the following weekend.  A gale was forecast for Saturday but Friday looked good and indeed it was as Slinky Malinky cruised south under kite and into the night.  Dinner at 7 knots with a star lit canopy above and the autopilot doing its duty was a fine thing.  At 0200 when the wind dropped out and then backed to the SW things took on a different aspect.  We were able to hold our southerly course and although the wind hardened the forecast gale fortunately did not arrive until we were well in the lee of Flinders Island.  It was then a boisterous sail across Franklin Sound to a favoured anchorage in the lee of Cape Barren Island. (see l) Then it really blew and we stayed put for three nights.  We were able to get ashore on all but one day until late when, with a 50m safety line hanging off the stern and an anchor, chain and line in the dinghy we shuttled the crew ashore to lessen the cabin fever that is inevitable when five people are stuck in the confines of a 28’ boat.  We snorkeled, we walked, we caught fish.  And we ate and drank well.  As you do.
The crossing of Banks Strait was at times boisterous as we had to face some adverse tide but once in the lee of the big island and after a fresh fish luncheon we short tacked through the rocky inshore passage down to Eddystone Light (see rl) and then around to Binalong Bay(see r) where we were able to take respite from the ever present southerly swells.  Bicheno was not to be missed.  If only for a bakery second breakfast! An afternoon spinnaker ride to possibly the prettiest of all east coast anchorages at Wineglass Bay (see r )completed an alright sort of day.  It was an even better sort of day the following day as we coasted south under spinnaker around the outside of Maria Island to The Narrows that mark the entrance to Blackmans Bay (see r)–the short cut to Hobart through the man made Dennison Canal.  We crossed the bar with the kite up and gybed through the narrow channel before running with the easterly breeze to Dunnally.  The swing bridge
( see r )was opened for us and we parked at the fishmarket for the obligatory fish’n’chip feed.  All we had now to cross was Storm Bay.  It didn’t live up to its name and we motored all the way to Hobart. 
View photos of our trip     Click Here
A berth was found at Watermans Dock, but that is another story, and then the party started.  On our first night Carol flew in from Melbourne to cook for twelve on a two burner stove.  Bernie and Ruth arrived with the shed and the band played on.  It was a long night.  Especially so when awoken in the wee hours to find that the shed had been cast adrift from its mooring.  It happened again the following night and this time the shed escaped into the night only to be captured and tied up by a liveaboard and TasPorts.  Alone on the boat that night I slept through the event and awoke to find a lonely string floating where a shed once lay.  There was stuff on the bottom and the shed was recovered all before 0700.
         The band played on.  They were a hit with the festival goers.  The shed story is a great one and should be retold……another time.
         Any festival with 500 boats is quite an event.  It took all of the three days to get around the waterfront to see, hear and taste all on offer.  A veritable banquet.
The trip home was done hard.  Well harder than the trip down as we had to motorsail against wind, seas and tide for the entire way back to Wineglass Bay.  The fishing was still good as were the culinary delights but the relentless bashing to windward was a pain.  Things changed at Wineglass as they do when a southerly blow comes in.  After climbing Mt Graham on Freycinet Peninsula (see r ) we rocketed north to Bicheno in 25 knots and 3m seas.  That was after we winched the boat off the beach where she settled with the wind change and dropping tide.  It is all part of the rich tapestry that is cruising Tasmanian waters with an adventurous cat.  Just as was the stubbing of Slinky’s toe on a submerged rock near a Schouten Island anchorage.(see r)  No one saw it but we felt it!  Ouch.

The following day we sailed north but with forecast gales from the NE backing later to the NW and SW we headed back into St. Helens (see above )  It was a good call as it blew and rained and St. Helens flooded for the second time this year.  After three days we escaped and enjoyed a great sail across Banks Strait to Cape Barren and then to Babel off the east coast of Flinders Island.  More fishing, walking, eating etc etc and a sleep before a grand ride home across Bass Strait averaging 7 knots.  Visibility at 0200 was good and the bar benign, so we crossed with the flood and made our way back to Paynesville where at 0430 the sea fog enshrouded us.  That is the way to finish a fine trip. 
                        
                                        The GONE SAILING sign has been removed. 
MOORE Fiddling Around which played in The Shed in Hobart.
0429 990 672
 see boat show Click Here