2021 sees Matt and I continuing our circumnavigation of Australia in our yacht, ‘Cool Change.’ It’s still a huge adventure; and I’m still equal parts excited, amazed and terrified!
Our adventure began in January 2020, when we left Melbourne and headed North. Unlike most people, for us 2020 was a magical year; we’d ‘retired’ from our jobs, sold our house and bought a yacht. We sailed up to Cairns, stopping and exploring along the way. It was an incredible journey!
After waiting out the cyclone season in Cairns, we are once again back on the water, this time with the very top of Australia and the Kimberley in our sights.
To read more about us…. https://coolchange.travel.blog/about-us/
The Final Stretch – Across the Top of Tassie
After leaving the Gordon River, we ducked into the very pretty Birch’s Inlet and anchored just on sunset. A check of the weather forecast confirmed that we were still good for our overnight passage to the Three Hummocks the next day and so we readied the boat and went to bed. Super still and flat…
The Gordon River
The alarm woke us at seven am to a morning sky bathed in soft pink and super still, glassy water. We set off straight away, heading out of the basin and back into the harbour. A low band of thick cloud blanketed the horizon, and with the pretty light and millpond water it was an…
Exploring Macquarie Harbour
After safely negotiating Hells Gates, we were in the blessed calm of Macquarie Harbour. Although very narrow and not unchallenging to enter, the actual entrance was fairly unimpressive and unimposing and it turns out that the name Hells Gates has nothing to do with geography, rather it was the name given by the convicts sent…
A Wild Ride Up to Hells Gates
‘I think we should sell the boat and buy a caravan,’ I said to Matt as I lay in our bunk, the boat bouncing and bucking underneath me, my stomach churning and head throbbing. I had had enough. We were sailing up the lower part of the west coast of Tassie, on a 90 mile…
Port Davey: Part Two
Casilda Cove, about halfway along the seven mile Bathurst Channel ended up being our anchorage for three nights. After hiking back down Mt Rugby, we moved Cool Change from Iola Bay into Casilda Cove. Although all was still at the moment, our weather forecast indicated some strong winds for the following day, and Casilda Cove…
Port Davey: Part One
Port Davey lies in the southwest corner of Tasmania. Long heralded as one of Tasmania’s most spectacular and remote wild places, it is exposed to the strong westerly winds of the Roaring Forties and is a place of raw, untamed beauty. Together with the adjoining waters of Bathurst Channel and Bathurst Harbour, Port Davey is…
The D’Entrecasteaux Channel and Around to the Wild West
On the second of March we motored into Oyster Cove marina in Kettering. Matt was returning to Melbourne for his Aunty Liz’s funeral and I was to stay on the boat, using the time to do laundry and jobs. Public transport that far out of Hobart was pretty much non-existent, but fortunately the marina had…
Norfolk Bay, Bruny Island and the Huon River
Sailing down the Derwent River and under the Tasman Bridge, we passed into Storm Bay and turned north into Frederick Henry Bay. With the variable winds, it was in and out with the headsail. Although it was pretty grey and overcast, we were happy to be back out on the water, and the sun made…
A Week in Hobart Town
With Cool Change tied up safely on Chris and Anne’s mooring, we spent a week staying in their house, enjoying the luxuries of life on land and exploring Hobart and its surrounds. First up was the Wooden Boat Festival, which we had arrived just in time for. The Hobart waterfront had been turned into all…
East Coast Tasmania
We awoke to a glass out in our very sheltered anchorage on the Tamar River. The water was incredibly still, stretching out like a sheet of satin. It was cloudy and drizzly though, and as we didn’t have far to go that day, we had a lazy morning on the boat. As we set off,…
Launceston and the Tamar River
We had a whole day at the Beauty Point marina and guests notwithstanding, that meant what it usually meant – jobs!! Harj and I grabbed a lift into town with Luke, the marina caretaker, stocking up on fresh food at the supermarket and exchanging a gas bottle at the servo. Meanwhile, Matt and Dylan hosed…
Flinders Island to Mainland Tasmania
It was calm and still in the little cove as we motored out, once again marveling at the imposing formations of the towering granite cliffs. Deal Island was such a special little place, and we felt very fortunate to be among the relatively few people to ever visit this remote island. In contrast, our next…
A Little Slice of Paradise in Bass Strait – Deal Island
Lying in northern Bass Strait, Deal Island is beloved by yachties for its safe anchorages and spectacular scenery. It also allows the trip across the potentially hazardous strait to be turned into day sails, and was our next destination. We’d spent several days here at the beginning of our trip in 2020 and were looking…
Back on the Boat and Bound for Tassie
Well, here we are again. Standing on Cool Change, waving farewell to our families and preparing to set sail on another adventure. But the feeling is somewhat different this time than in 2020. Instead of heading out into the great unknown, uncertain and unsure, this time we had two and a half years and over…
Homeward Bound – The Final Stretch!
During the night, while anchored at Antechamber Bay on the east coast of Kangaroo Island, an annoying little roll developed, and so we were awake early. Unwilling to wait any longer in the uncomfortable conditions, we pulled our anchor and set off. We were headed to Robe, our last stop in South Australia. I had…
South Australian Sailing: The Sir Joseph Banks Group and Kangaroo Island
Our trip home was one of mixed emotions. Both of us were absolutely busting to see our family and friends. I couldn’t believe how excited I was. And what a wonderful time we had! The absolute joy of hugging my niece and nephews, of squeezing them tight and seeing how they’d grown. Meeting Matt’s new…
South Australian Sailing: Ceduna to Port Lincoln
Crossing the Great Australian Bight and entering South Australia was one of the biggest milestones of our journey. We were now in the final state of our circumnavigation of the mainland of Australia. We were almost home! Being in South Australia was particularly exciting for another reason. It meant that we could finally fly back…
Sailing Across the Great Australian Bight
The day was finally here. We were actually going to do this. Sail our yacht across the Great Australian Bight. On our own, just the two of us. I wasn’t nervous, instead a strange mixture of excitement and calm had descended upon me. I knew we could do this. We woke to grey skies and…
Preparing to Cross the Bight…. at Middle Island and Cape Arid
Esperance is pretty much the most easterly town on the south coast of Western Australia. Heading east from here, the next major town is Ceduna in South Australia, almost 1200 kilometres away. The vast expanse of the Nullarbor Plain stretches along the coast, flat and almost treeless. It’s a long slog through the arid plains,…
Esperance
We left King George Sound at first light, motoring out of the harbour before setting the sails. Fifteen to twenty knot southerlies had us absolutely flying along, averaging 7 to 8 knots, very fast for us. The swell was about two metres and it was from the side, making for a fairly uncomfortable motion as…
Finally Heading East – Around the South West Corner to Albany
With our anchor windlass working like new, we set off from Port Geographe marina for the second time. We waved goodbye to Steve, shouting out that hopefully we won’t be back!!! We had a nice sail across Geographe Bay until the winds reached 25 to 30 knots just as we were approaching Eagle Bay. Grabbing…
Hopping Down the South West Coast
We spent the month of December slowly hopping down the south west coast of Western Australia. It was a strange time for us. We were both feeling a bit out of sorts. It had become clear that we weren’t going to be able to go back to Melbourne for Christmas with our families. Well, we…
Time for a Change of Scenery – Inland Road Trip
We decided that it was time for a change of scenery. Somewhere that wasn’t near the ocean. Ideally we would have popped home to Melbourne for a visit with family and friends, but we were not confident that we’d be let back in to the state. The WA Premier has been notoriously trigger happy with…
Fremantle and Perth
Fremantle is just over two hundred nautical miles south of Geraldton. Reaching Fremantle would be a big milestone for us, meaning we had conquered most of the west coast and we had promised ourselves that we would stop there for several weeks and enjoy some time on land. I couldn’t wait. But first we had…
Exploring In and Around Geraldton
After our dramatic entrance into Geraldton marina we feared we might be here to stay for a while. Brian and Sandra said they’d stick with us until we could get the engine running again, so it seemed we all had some time to kill in Geraldton. We booked a hire car for some road trips,…
Drama on the way to Geraldton
We had been in Shark Bay for 10 days now, and although there were some very beautiful places here, we were ready to move on. The wind had blown incessantly and there were few sheltered anchorages. In fact, we needed to move on, with the weather predicted to get only stronger and more relentless. Our…
Shark Bay: Monkey Mia, Cape Peron, Denham and Dirk Hartog Island
It was time to leave the Ningaloo Reef and head down to the next part of the coastline, Shark Bay. I didn’t feel ‘done’ with Ningaloo Reef, but time was ticking; it was mid October and the strong southerly winds would only be getting stronger and more relentless. The forecast showed a little window of…
Exmouth and Ningaloo Reef
Exmouth. Ningaloo Reef. Places that have long been on my bucket list. And we were finally there. I was beyond excited! Exmouth also felt like it marked a bit of a milestone for us on this trip; we were finally heading south down the coast of WA and would be heading into more populated areas…
Turtle Tango on Serrier Island
We departed the Montebellos mid morning, prepared for an overnight passage of about 20 hours. Brian and Sandra were heading straight to Exmouth marina, but we were going to stop at a little island on the way. I had read that sea turtles nest on Serrier Island, at about this time of year, and was…
The Montebello Islands
The Montebello Islands or the Monties, as the locals call them, are a group of over 100 low-lying islands and islets, surrounded by 58,000 hectares of ocean and fringed by coral reefs. They were named by French navigator, Nicolas Baudin, in 1801 after the battle of Montebello, where the victorious French General Lannes (later the…
Dampier and islands of the Dampier Archipelago
A rough and lumpy sea greeted us as we untied from our mooring and began our passage south from Broome. The big waves had us putting our life jackets on and I was feeling pretty crappy, tired and emotional. We sailed well, if uncomfortably, in the 20 to 25 knots winds, and as the day…
Provisioning for the Kimberley
Back in Cairns and in Darwin, a lot of people would ask me how I knew how much food we would need for the trip, and how would I plan and shop for such a long time. My response; I didn’t really know, just guessed and estimated and if in doubt, bought extra! Matt thought…
Broome
The passage from Cygnet Bay to Broome is approximately 140 nautical miles. There are several possible anchorages along the way so we had the choice of three quite longish 40 to 50 mile days or two very long 70 mile days. In true ‘end of trip’ fashion we chose the quickest option possible and ploughed…
Cruising the Kimberley – Horizontal Falls, Silver Gull and Dog Leg Creeks, Cockatoo Island and Cygnet Bay
We were nearing the end of our time in the Kimberley, and although we had truly loved exploring such a special place for such a long time, the lack of fresh food, particularly fruit and vegetables was beginning to weigh on us. Both of us were feeling a little bit rundown. We found ourselves looking…
Cruising the Kimberley – Augustus Island, Deception Bay, Raft Point and Montgomery Reef
Whilst our little adventure into the Prince Regent River had been nerve wracking at times, I was still very glad we had come. It had been a great experience. But we weren’t going to linger and risk being stranded, so we were off downstream as soon as we woke up, with more water under us…
Cruising the Kimberley – Careening Bay and the Prince Regent River
After a relaxed morning on the boat waiting for the tide to turn, we set off and headed west. We left a little bit too early so pushed some tide for a while, before the current shifted and began assisting us. We were slowly sailing south into Port Nelson when we heard Terry’s voice on…
Cruising the Kimberley – Rainforest Ravine, Prince Frederick Harbour and the Hunter River
Leaving Bigge Island, we sailed slowly south in 10 knots of breeze. There was no sign yet of the strong winds that had been forecast. When the wind dropped to less than 5 knots, we turned the engine on in order to motor into Rainforest Ravine before dark. We could see no evidence of the…
Cruising the Kimberley – Osborne, Prudhoe and Bigge Islands
I was a little unsure about the tidal streams and currents we were going to encounter rounding Cape Bougainville on our way to the Osborne Islands. The wind was off and on, fluctuating from 1 to 10 knots, making for a frustrating sail as we put sails up and down and the engine on and…
Cruising the Kimberley – Napier Broome Bay and Vansittart Bay
Feeling slightly under the weather after our unexpectedly big night on Luna Sea, I was very grateful for the calm waters we encountered rounding Cape Londonderry. Cape Londonderry is the northern most part of the mainland of Western Australia and it is here that tidal currents coming across from Cape Talbot converge with currents coming…
Cruising the Kimberley – Koolama Bay and the King George River
Our planned passage to Koolama Bay included an overnight stop at Seaplane Bay and then a day stop at Gallery Bay to view some rock art. Unfortunately the 10 knot breeze that had given us a lovely, gentle sail for the first day and a half ramped up to 15 to 20 knots, just as…
Cruising the Kimberley: Berkeley River – Part Two
After three days exploring the lower parts of the river, we were ready to see what other wonders the Berkeley held. Early one morning we slowly made our way upstream, in what was to be one of the highlights of our entire trip. There was no wind at all and the water was completely calm…
Cruising the Kimberley: Berkeley River – Part One
The Berkeley River, situated on the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf, is the eastern most part of the Kimberley, one of the oldest and largest wilderness landscapes in the world. Our first peek at the Kimberley as we had approached at first light and sunrise had been a magical introduction and left us excited with anticipation for…
Fleeing the Northern Territory, Crossing into Western Australia and Finally Arriving in the Kimberley…
It was with the utmost relief that we sailed out of Fannie Bay and away from Darwin. It was time to leave all the covid/lockdown rubbish behind us. I felt incredibly grateful that we were able to escape in this way. Over the next four days we made our way down the east coast of…
Darwin
We had booked into the marina at Cullen Bay in Darwin for two weeks. There were a few minor repairs and maintenance that needed doing on the yacht, as well as the massive task of provisioning for the Kimberley, and we also planned on doing some sightseeing around Darwin and its surrounds. We spent the…
Day Sailing to Darwin
We reluctantly farewelled the beauty and solitude of Marchinbar Island and resumed our journey again. Although we felt we could easily have spent several more days there, we were conscious of needing to move on, to reach Darwin and to prepare for the Kimberley. It’s a bit of a juggling act, spending enough time in…
The Wessel Islands
After motoring through the Gulgari Rip, we turned south and anchored in Guruliya Bay on Raragala Island, one of the southern most islands of the Wessels. We had originally planned on anchoring in the first bay north of the Rip on Guluwuru Island, but Terry and Leonie on Sens de La Vie who were a…
Hello Northern Territory!
So here we are in the Northern Territory, our fourth state/territory of the circumnavigation. We are pretty much at the opposite end of the country to Melbourne, so I think that makes us about halfway through our trip. Only halfway! It has been many, many years since I was last in the NT, and Matt…
Crossing the Gulf of Carpentaria
While we had really enjoyed our time in the Torres Straits and around Seisia and Bamaga, our next challenge loomed large, ever present in our thoughts and our conversations with other yachties. The Gulf of Carpanteria. 350 nautical miles. Two to three days of non stop sailing. Up to this point our longest passage had…
Exploring the Torres Strait
Described as ‘impossibly beautiful and virtually untouched’ the Torres Strait Islands lay north of Cape York and consist of 274 tiny islands. Only 14 of the islands are inhabited and only a few of these permit visitors. The Torres Strait Islander peoples, being predominantly Melanesian, are ethnically, culturally and linguistically different from Aboriginal Australians. Matt…
Rounding ‘The Tip’…
The second leg of our circumnavigation has been quite different in many ways to the first part. In January 2020 we sailed from Melbourne up the East Coast, arriving in Cairns at the start of December. The sailing caper was still pretty new to us then, and we were constantly learning new skills, discovering new…
Farewell Cairns…Our Journey Continues…
On the third of May we said our final goodbyes to our friends in the marina and bade farewell to Cairns. We were off. Our five month interval on land had come to an end, and it was time for our sailing journey to recommence. We had mixed emotions on leaving; we were both definitely…
Life in Cairns (Part Three)
Cairns is brilliantly situated right near the extraordinary Great Barrier Reef, and many islands, reefs and cays are conveniently close and perfect for day or overnight trips. Spending time on the reef was one of our favourite things to do, and we loved to share the experience with friends and family when we could. Michaelmas…
Life in Cairns (Part Two)
After a frustrating couple of days of trying to get around Cairns using public transport, taxis and our mountain bikes, we knew that we would need to buy a car for our stay. After inspecting several cars in various suburbs of Cairns, we conveniently came across this little gold Astra right in Yorkeys Knob. She…
Life in Cairns (Part One)
It has been five months since my last post here. Five months since we first pulled into Yorkeys Knob marina in Cairns and tied up to our new home. Five months of life on land. Apart from a quick trip back home to Melbourne over Christmas, we’ve spent those months living as Cairns locals. We…
Cruising to Cairns – the final leg for 2020
Orpheus Island is only about 125 nautical miles below Cairns, a distance that we could, if we wanted, cover in a single overnight sail. However, there’s quite a few interesting stops along the way, so as long as the weather held, we planned to cruise up the coast aiming for a December 1st arrival into…
Magnetic Island and the Palm Isles
Magnetic Island, or Maggie Island, as the locals call her, is about 140 nautical miles north of Airlie Beach. We decided to do the trip over four days, stopping each night at an open roadstead anchorage. We had a range of sailing conditions over the four days, so we went from motor sailing in light…
100 Magic Miles – Cruising the Whitsundays – Part Two
Blue Pearl Bay, Hayman Island After our morning walk up Whitsunday Peak, we left Cid Harbour and sailed north to Hayman Island. Arriving just before sunset, we tied onto one of the public moorings in Blue Pearl Bay and sat back to enjoy the spectacular colours. The following morning we were the only boat in…
100 Magic Miles – Cruising the Whitsundays – Part One
The 100 Magic Miles refers to the coastline in northern Queensland between Mackay and Bowen and the islands of the Great Barrier Reef in that area. Officially called the Cumberland Islands, the area is more commonly known as the Whitsundays. And visiting the Whitsundays has been on my bucket list for years and years. And…
Island Hopping to Mackay
Well it’s been almost a month since my last post about our adventures in Keppel Bay. Since that time we’ve made our way to Mackay, which I’ll tell you about in this post and from there we spent three weeks cruising in the Whitsundays. There was not much internet or phone reception in the Whitsundays…
Keppel Bay
Keppel Bay is a large, fairly shallow bay north of Gladstone and south of Yeppoon. Housing the Keppel Islands, including the very popular Great Keppel Island, it also hosts the Keppel Bay marina at Rosslyn Bay on the mainland. Since the winds were increasing and the seas were picking up, we opted to go into…
Our First Taste of the Great Barrier Reef
Lady Musgrave Island is the second island in the Great Barrier Reef chain of islands. The southernmost island is Lady Elliot, however it houses a tourist resort and is supposedly unwelcoming to yachties, so Lady Musgrave is where our exploration of the Great Barrier Reef was to begin. Lady Musgrave is a coral cay; a small,…
Bundaberg and Hervey Bay
The day we left Fraser Island and headed up into Hervey Bay was one of those surreal sort of days where it is so, so calm and so, so still that it doesn’t feel real. Not a cloud in the sky nor a ripple in the water and no breeze whatsoever. Just a sheet of…
Braving the Wide Bay Bar and Exploring Fraser Island
Ok. So. The Wide Bay Bar. Sounds harmless enough, right? Just another bar crossing. But every time we spoke to someone about it, descriptions like terrifying, treacherous, gnarly, whitewater, big breakers, five metre waves, surfing massive swell, and ‘getting smashed’ were used. Hmmm. It’s also known as ‘The Mad Mile.’ Hmmm. Googling images of Wide…
Mooloolaba and the Sunshine Coast
We farewelled Brisbane on a gloriously sunny day, motoring downstream along glassy, flat water. A quick pit stop at Riverside Marina filled our diesel tank, and then we were out in the bay, hoisting our sails and choofing along at five knots in the ten knot breeze. Lovely! It was late afternoon when we arrived…
Tangalooma Island Resort, Moreton Island
I’ll just put this photo here. Yep, that is us, hand feeding fish to a wild dolphin. Pretty cool, huh?! Well, it was definitely the highlight of my day, that’s for sure. Let me tell you how it came to be. Moreton Island is a large island on the east of Moreton Bay, just above…
Around Moreton Bay and up the Brisbane River
The rain that had been threatening while we were in the Broadwater finally arrived. It began to rain during the night that we were anchored at Millionaire’s Row and it pretty much didn’t stop for a few days. We donned all our wet weather gear for the trip through the channels up to the bottom…
And across the border we go…… Hello Queensland!!
It was finally time for our long awaited passage into Queensland. It was 9th July 2020, we had been on the ‘road’ for almost 25 weeks and we were about to cross into our third state. The Gold Coast Seaway is 100 nautical miles from Iluka, a journey we estimated would take approximately 20 hours.…
Hiking the Yuraygir Coastal Trail
While we were hanging out in the Clarence Valley, waiting for Queensland to hurry up and let us in, we decided to spend a few days hiking the Yuraygir Coastal Trail. The four day, 65 kilometre walk traverses Yuraygir National Park, the longest stretch of protected coastline in NSW. The trail begins in Angourie and…
Cruising the Clarence
We left Coffs Harbour just after sunrise, pulling out with several other boats. There were six of us all heading north towards Iluka and Yamba. The weather conditions were lovely; calm water with some swell but no waves, light winds and a clear and sunny sky. The bar entrance into the Clarence River at Iluka/Yamba…
Coffs Harbour
We spent five days in Coffs waiting for the right window to head north to Iluka/Yamba. Several days were overcast and rainy and we spent them doing jobs on the boat; laundry, re-stitching the sail bag and organising a new anchor bridle from the chandlery. The other days were lovely and sunny and warm and…
An Unexpected Storm
The passage from Port Macquarie to Coffs Harbour is a relatively long one, at 76 nautical miles. We discovered that Trial Bay, located almost exactly halfway between the two ports, is dubbed as one of the coasts best open roadstead anchorages (in the right conditions!). So we decided to break the trip into two shorter…
Forster-Tuncurry and Port Macquarie
After our nine day stop in Port Stephens, it was a relief to be on the move again. We had good conditions for sailing, with a steady ten to fifteen knots of breeze, and so were able to sail for six out of the nine hours of passage time. Although we encountered some big swell…
Newcastle and Port Stephens
As first light was rising, at 5.20am, we slipped our mooring in Coasters Retreat and left Broken Bay, heading north for Newcastle. We aren’t often up and about at that time of day, so watching the sun rise on the horizon over the ocean was pretty special! The crisp, clear morning blossomed into a lovely…
Pittwater, Broken Bay
It is only a relatively short distance from Sydney Harbour to Broken Bay, less than 20 nautical miles, but it took us over six hours to sail there. There was a light southerly blowing from directly behind us and so we zigged and zagged trying to keep the wind at an optimum angle to the…
Sydney Harbour – Part Two
And so it was that on a Monday morning in May, after a leisurely brunch of French toast and bacon eaten in the cockpit while gazing across at the Sydney Harbour Bridge, we found ourselves sailing slowly underneath the famous arches. It was a gorgeous sunny day with a light breeze, just enough for a…
Sydney Harbour – Part One
On Thursday 23rd April, we departed Port Hacking for our passage to Port Jackson, Sydney Harbour. It was a beautiful sunny day, and with very little swell and five to fifteen knot westerlies we sailed almost the entire way. Upon entering through the Heads, we got our first glimpse of the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge,…
Port Hacking
Port Hacking lies on the southern fringe of Sydney, only 30 km from the city centre. With the spectacular Royal National Park bordering the southern shoreline and the surfing beaches of Cronulla to the north, it is a relatively clean and unspoilt waterway. We arrived after an uneventful passage from Wollongong, motoring most of the…
Wollongong Harbour
We arrived into Wollongong at a quarter to six in the evening, after our ten hour passage from Jervis Bay. After first tying up to the public mooring and finding that it wasn’t deep enough for us, we settled on rafting Cool Change next to several old yachts tied to the side of the wharf.…
Bye Bye Jervis Bay…
Well, after 31 days floating around Jervis Bay, we definitely have a love / hate relationship with the place. As mentioned previously, when the sun is shining and the water is calm and flat, then it really is an idyllic place to be on a yacht. But when it is raining, windy and/or the swell…
Hiking and Biking in Jervis Bay
Jervis Bay is surrounded by several different National Parks and Nature Reserves, so we were looking forward to doing a bit of hiking and biking and exploring them all during our stay in the Bay. Luckily, we organised our camping trip in Booderee National Park before the coronavirus restrictions started, as that National Park has…
Wet and Windy….. in Jervis Bay
Day 24 in Jervis Bay. We’ve had a few challenging days over the past week. And by that I mean we’ve had rain and we’ve had wind. Not just a little bit. A lot. A lot of rain and a lot of wind (and no it wasn’t Matt). Sometimes together, and sometimes separately. Either way,…
Starry Starry Night
We have been in Jervis Bay for two and a half weeks now. About two weeks ago, we did a twilight/night walk starting from Hole in the Wall where Cool Change was moored and around the Munyungawaraga Dhugan trail to Governor Head. The walk winds through some beautiful bushland filled with scribbly gums, and then…
Jervis Bay
Well, we are still here in Jervis Bay …….. and with no plans of moving on at this stage unfortunately. How quickly things are changing at the moment; every day it seems there is a new update, and a new set of guidelines and restrictions. The recent call to stop all non-essential domestic travel, and…
Moruya River
Matt’s birthday is Saturday 7th March – the day we planned our second attempt to leave Narooma. As I mentioned in the last blog post, on the Friday, when we were to leave originally, the conditions in the bar were too dangerous and so we postponed our departure. But on the morning of Matt’s birthday…
Fishing Frenzy in Narooma
We left Bermagui on a calm day with almost no wind and so we motored the entire way to Narooma, taking about three and a half hours. Just as with the Lakes Entrance Bar, we had a specific time that we were aiming to cross the bar at Narooma; high water, on an incoming tide.…
Beautiful Bermagui
We spent a delightful seven days in Bermagui, a beautiful little town, with plenty to see and do. With Cool Change berthed at The Fishermen’s Wharf, we had easy access to hot showers and laundry facilities, as well as leaving our bikes on the shore, so we had ‘wheels’ as well. Over the week we…
Port of Eden, NSW
Yes, we made it, the passage from Lakes Entrance to Eden, more than 120 nautical miles, took us 25 hours and we tied up at Eden Jetty at 8.20 am on 13th February with a sense of satisfaction and a sigh of relief. One of the potentially more challenging parts of the trip was behind…
Paynesville, Gippsland Lakes
I arrived back at Lakes Entrance on Thursday night to find Matt with his feet up in the cockpit drinking a beer. Wonder how often that was the picture in the five days I was away?! Matt assured me he’d missed me terribly and we went to the Pub for dinner to celebrate my return…
Lakes Entrance
Special guest contributor Matt (some embellishment for the sake of the story follows) Having arrived at Lakes Entrance and finding a nice four hour berth that would be our home for the next week, about 50 metres from the pub, it was time to undertake some general maintenance and running repairs on the boat. To…
Welcome to Lakes Entrance
And what a welcome it was – completely flat and calm water, beautiful sunshine, a secure dock to tie up to and then a spectacular sunset. After our 15 hour passage, Lakes Entrance was a very welcome sight. But let me backtrack, and explain a bit about our journey. After leaving the Kent Group Islands,…
Deal and Erith Islands, …. Tasmania
On Australia Day we left The Prom behind us and headed out to sea, aiming for a small group of islands in Bass Strait, called the Kent Group. About one quarter of the way to Tasmania, the Kent Group islands are considered part of Tassie, and so we reached our second state of the trip…
First stop…… Wilsons Promontory
Hi everyone, apologies for the delay in posting, we have not had internet coverage for a while. We’ve been sailing for almost 2 weeks now, and our first stop was at the beautiful ‘Prom.’ We spent four nights anchored in Refuge Cove and one night in Little Waterloo Bay. Sleeping in, hiking, taking photos, snorkelling,…
Home Sweet Home
Today is the day! We have finally set off on our adventure, our circumnavigation of Australia. Cool Change, our 43 foot yacht, will be our home for the foreseeable future. Still surreal, but I guess it will be our reality all too soon! We delayed our departure due to the fires down the east coast…
Trial Run – Port Phillip Bay
Practice, practice, practice…….. Since Boxing Day we have been sailing around Port Phillip Bay, introducing friends to Cool Change. It won’t be long and we’ll be off on our circumnavigation of Australia.
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