Sailing THE BIG LAP continues. A big sail... EDEN TO PORT LINCOLN ..Oh! rope around the props...Ep39

After waiting at Eden@SailingZatara and @TheCruisingKiwis for a weather window and checking the weather updates many times each day, we decided to leave. We had learnt that if we stop in Victoria we wouldn’t be allowed into western australia at that time. So because going all the way from Eden in New South Wales, to somewhere in South Australia was a long passage requiring good weather for longer than the weather predictions are reliable for, we needed a backup plan. The passage to South Australia includes crossed Bass Strait which is renowned for being difficult. Our back up plan was to stop at King Island which is part of Tasmania and to the north west of tasmania. However, we were very fortunate and the weather remained excellent for our passage all the way to Port Lincoln in South Australia. We passed between the mainland and Kangaroo Island and into Port Lincoln’s harbour. Initially we had choppy seas with 4-5m seas at 14 seconds after leaving Eden but once we reached Victoria the sea calmed and we started to get wind from behind. And for the rest of the trip we had following seas, wind and current – we knew we were incredibly fortunate that the weather remained as predicted. We caught a southern blue fin tuna and Russ tried out his new fishing cutting table. We also had a frightening experience just off Portland in Victoria when a fishing trap line got caught around our propeller. To find out what had happened we put the Go Pro into the water and sure enough there was thick nylon line around the port propeller and it wasn’t going to come off of its own accord. Russ reluctantly decided there was nothing else that would fix the problem other than him getting into the water with a knife to cut the line loose. Fortunately it only took a few minutes but they were long minutes as we were both very concerned about sharks in the late afternoon, with cold murky water.

We met Hannah and James from @SailingTangaroa , as well as their 5 day old daughter and this was a massive highlight for us. James and Hannah very kindly lent us a car to get groceries which made a huge difference. We also visited their new plastic free wholefoods shop called “The Shack” in Port Lincoln where we bought lots of delicious and healthy foods and sun butter and local SA roasted coffee beans. We certainly encourage all cruisers to pop into their shop for some great quality and value foods. After a couple of days in the marina we moved to Memory Cove for a night where we caught squid and went for a walk. The next video shows us getting ready to cross the notorious bight!!!