Day 31

"Fargo" made an early start today in the grey pre-dawn light heading south across the mouth of Port Davey to the west of Big Caroline and down to Southwest Cape. We had a moment of fishing excitement in passing Stephen's Bay when the water all round us erupted with feeding tuna but by the time I put a lure in the water we were well past the action.

Weather looks ominous but conditions make for quite fair sailing.

The fleet was fairly tightly bunched as we rounded South West Cape with most skippers taking advantage of this fair weather window to make the run around to Recherche.
The cloud was high for most of the day and the wind around 20 -25 knots swinging from W - SW - NW then later in the day and dropping out altogether as we passed South Cape Bay and Whale Head nearing the shelter of Recherche Bay.

The morning turned quite social as we sailed past Maatsuyker Island when the radio crackled into life. Tony Kjar's niece had just arrived by helicopter to Maatsuyker in her role as head of the Island Conservation group. Spotting the fleet in tight formation a call was put out to "Fargo" to have a radio chat with Uncle Tony while we had morning coffee. The geography of the steep sided island precludes a more proximate get together.
We passed large flocks of shearwaters near the Maatsuyker group of islands but no Prions this time. There was a pod of dolphins near Maatsuyker and a young seal gave us a fright by chasing our trolled lure in dramatic porpoising fashion but no fish took a significant interest in our lures in spite of the time spent changing from one lure to another and regularly making sure they were free of floating seaweed.
The days travel was relatively free of excitement as we made good time in the favourable sailing conditions moderate in both wind and wave. We dropped anchor on the clean white sands of sheltered Cockle Bay in warm mid afternoon sunshine and I was soon in the water for a brief but refreshing dip. Tony went ashore to make transport arrangements for an early return to Hobart and with that done we made the short trip over to the chosen anchorage at Coalbins. The local dolphin pod gave us a personal escort all the way.