Eden to Hobart Feb 20-22, 2003

We had a very fast passage from Eden to Hobart. Our weather router surprised us on Wednesday saying that our weather window would be open from 4 PM on Wednesday to 10 am on Thursday. It was time to depart. We chose to get a good night's sleep and depart early on Thursday morning. Our anchor was up by 6 am, then just 40 hours later we rounded Tasman Island. Exactly 10.0kn average speed over the ground from Eden. Eight hours later we were abeam of the Iron Pot at the entrance to the Derwent River. We anchored for a few hours in beautiful Ralph's Bay to catch up on our sleep before proceeding to the Motor Yacht Club in Lindisfarne across the river from Hobart.

Throughout the passage the winds remained from the NE to ENE from 15 to 30 knots. The wind backed to the North on Friday night, and lightened Saturday morning. The seas were easterly for a while, then gradually came around to the NE and became more organized. Our boat speed was mostly 10 knots with some brief surfing episodes in the range of 13 to 16 knots of boat speed, then once Steve watched the boat speed rise to 20 knots in one big long surf - the current record for Adagio. We began the passage with full main and reacher. At 1:30 AM Friday we furled the reacher, put the first reef in the mainsail and unfurled the jib. We received one tremendous underwing slam which caused the dining table to rise up about an inch (still attached to the saloon floor), and caused the large 22" computer screen to take a holiday. We used the screen on the PC for the remainder of the voyage with no problems.

Steve's log entry at 1 AM Saturday was:" Wind came up to 30 just passing west edge of Tasman Island. Throwing a lot of spray from lee bow. Looks like 2kn of current against the NNE seas. Wide band of moonlight from us to base of Tasman Island. Sensation of boat speed is amazing." We thought we might have to beat across Storm Bay, but the northeasterlies remained and we broad reached in comfort on stbd tack, as the wind died.

We have a great sense of satisfaction at our safe and fast passage. While in Twofold Bay, we anchored next to two sailing cats, one a Schionning design, built in Australia, named "Cats Chorus" for an English couple, and the other a Crowther design, named "Hippo", home-built by Mike and Jackie of Freemantle. A fourth boat in the anchorage was "Meridian of Sydney" , owned by two Sydneysiders, Paul and June Rodenhuis. All four boats departed on Thursday morning. Cats Chorus had some problem with their steering enroute to Melbourne. Meridian of Sydney had problems with the wiring to their auto pilot as they crossed Bass Strait. They made it safely to Schouten Passage on their way to Hobart. We kept a Ham radio sched with Meridian, and were joined by a land based Ham operator in New Plymouth, New Zealand.

Steve visited the Salamanca Market yesterday while I napped, then we had a cook's night out - naturally at our favorite Hobart seafood restaurant Kelleys. We are so very happy to be back in Hobart and look forward to seeing all of our friends. There are many items on our To Do lists, so we will intersperse the work with the play. The weather is beautiful and mild -- just what we had hoped for.

Soon the Ten Days on the Island Festival begins - we have booked tickets for about ten events already!