South West Tasmania by Sailing Dinghy - Part 1: Macquarie Harbour to Port Davey 

Thanks. Yeah, I get that a bit about the video length. Short is just easy, sorry. Good luck with your Vancouver Island circumnavigation. I know that place from the Alone series - looks harsh!

It's a little bit deceptive there Philip, becuase I didn't get the camera out for the times I was hunkered down under the tarp pouring rain and howling wind😉

Hi Bruce, I think I remember you going south as I was heading north out of Allonah? Gee it got windy an hour or 2 later! I was doing 3.5 knots under bare pole for a few minutes there. Re weather forecasts, I've got a Garmin InReach, a little satellite communicator that I can pair my phone to, and through that I can request marine forecasts from Garmin. They're okay, but they miss details like the synoptic situation and when fronts will cross, so I'd get my wife to message me with that extra info. My hand-held vhf was also picking up the coastal stations broadcasting the local weather. But usually by that stage I'm all over the weather forecast.

@@thedinghyspart2474Yes I was going south in BARYONIC and the wind did indeed pick up which made the last bit to The Quarries take a little longer that day 🙂.Thanks for the info re the Garmin.

That part of the video where I'm dragging the dinghy up the beach was prior to a 7 metre forecast swell coming in and I wasn't going to wait and see what that looked like. Otherwise that was a good anchorage. But generally, if I'm just spending a night or 2 at a spot, and the anchorage isn't too rolly, I will anchor. Also when it's not really suitable to land (like a rocky shore). But generally, I find life on the shore a bit more convenient, and I sleep a bit better if I'm not rolling around or worrying in the back of my mind about dragging anchor etc. Being able to land ashore when an anchorage turns to shit is one of the few occasions that I've seen cruising yachtsmen be genuinely jealous of me 🙂

Swell was down to about 3m by then. I was safely ashore during the 7m swells.

Hi Dominic. Yes, I've got a few inflatable boat rollers that I use for that purpose a sometimes. They double as buoyancy in my boat, so with the time it takes to disentangle all that and put it back in, it's sometimes quicker to just use driftwood (or kelp stalks, which is what I used mostly here). The 1:8 with driftwood, or whatever, has just become my go-to, because sometimes the ground is not so suited to rollers (eg: sharp rocks, or big clumps of driftwood).

@@thedinghyspart2474 oh that makes sense, thanks. Btw how much does spat weigh, do you think?

@dominictarrsailing just the boat, rigging, rudder, cb, about 150kg. On a trip like this with all the gear, batteries, motor, water, food etc, probably close to 300kg.

@@thedinghyspart2474 wow quite a bit! how long would you be provisioned for?

@@dominictarrsailing about 4 weeks. I'd guess the boat could fit 6 or 7 weeks of food before space started to become an issue.

I camp either in the boat or maybe in a tent on the land if there's a good camp site. Cooking with a jetboil stove. Wash by swimming then rinse with a bottle of fresh water, or if feeling decadent I might warm a pot of water and have a sponge bath. I suppose I smell after a few days of not washing, but luckily I can't tell, and there's no one else around to smell me.