We reached Low Head Pilot Station at 1800 on Friday night and tied up at the public floating jetty. The wind was gusting up to 30 knots from the west, so it was good to get into a sheltered anchorage to recoupe….so we thought!
During the night, the pontoon swung 90 degrees to port and the bow sprit ended up hitting the walkway. We were not sure how much further the pontoon would swing towards shore so while we were still tied up, Mark put Escapade in reverse, and we pulled the jetty around to its original position. Mark then tied a rope from the pontoon to a steel ring on a concrete block on shore to keep the pontoon from swinging back around again. But during the following night we swung 90 degrees to starboard (back the opposite way), it was quite bizarre as we could not work out what (if anything) held the end of the pontoon in place, normally a floating jetty would be held in place with a pile at the end.
Our mooring was located just below the Low Head Café and Museum. The old buildings and grounds were well maintained with a sandy beach located 200 metres away. The Low Head museum certainly lived up to its name, poor Mark being 6 foot 4 kept knocking his head when walking through the doorways, very nasty!
It has taken us 3 months since leaving Victoria, but we have finally circumnavigated Tasmania. One day we would love to come back when we have more time to explore different ports, but for now it is time to cross Bass Strait and head up the east coast of the mainland for some warmer weather.
Tomorrow our plan is to sail to Prime Seal Island (off Flinders) and then on Tuesday (weather permitting) depart for Eden in NSW. With the terrible weather that NSW had last week we have received reports that there is a lot of debris that has been washed down the rivers and into the ocean. Once on the east coast we will have to be vigilant with our watches to ensure we do not hit anything.
To those that have been impacted by this extreme weather, our thoughts are with you, stay safe.
Great to see you made it safely to the Tamar, we must have nearly crossed paths on the Friday morning, we left Devonport on the Spirit at about 0900 that morning. The seas seemed pretty good then, but the wind must have sprung up later. Have a great trip up the east coast, hopefully our next rendezvous will be Horseshoe Bay at Maggie.