The North West has such an impressive coastline with its typical Bass Strait colours: rugged foreshores with jagged granite boulders painted with orange and yellow lichen, deep ultramarine seas and aqua waters close to the sandy shores.
In the last few days we have enjoyed brighter weather, though still windy and chilly, and great sails. One of the highlights was sailing around Rocky Cape and anchoring at Burgess Cove: truly spectacular!
Anchored at Burgess Cove on a windy day
The Nut, Rocky Cape and Table Cape stand as sentinels in this part of the coast. There is an aboriginal dreaming about these headlands. They stand alone, representing three teenagers punished and cast out into isolation by the elders for not looking after the tribe’s younger children as asked, causing their drowning in the cold sea. The landscape is intertwined in this story about the consequences of neglecting your duties.
To our eyes The Nut might have been the effusive and headstrong one of the three youngsters, Table Cape the more sedate, even tempered one, but Rocky Cape was the fiery, spirited one. See for yourself… what do you think?
The Nut
Rocky Cape
Table Cape
And now we have moved on from these wild shores to an area where rocky foreshores are replaced by sandy beaches and green pastures. We have sailed to the Port Sorell region in the Central North Coast, 50 miles on. The Rubicon Estuary is popular with holiday makers, so very different to the North West, but it offers protected anchorages along its banks where birdlife is abundant and sandy shores make for pleasant wanders. We arrived on Thursday night and are spending Christmas here while lighter sunny and warm ESE conditions prevail. Merry Christmas to all.
Here is a gallery showing more of the beautiful Bass Strait shores and life on board Take It Easy.
Sv-Anui 
We’re following your travels intently as we prepare to head off for some Bass Straight wanderings. Hopefully our paths will cross at some stage.
Oops, iPad can’t spell Bass Strait
Yes it has done some horrors to our typing too – like commenting on photos and saying great shit instead of great shot!
Hey nice to hear from you two. Bass Strait and especially the Bass Strait islands are very attractive if you do your passages in decent weather. Pristine, deserted anchorages await! What are your plans; we’ll see if we can meet up!
We have the rest of Dec and all of Jan to play. Rough plan is Wilsons Prom and then head down through the Bass Strait islands. All depends on the weather though but tomorrow looks good for heading off.
From the Prom it’s an easy day sail to Hogan or Deal and then Flinders & the Furneaux have lots of beautiful anchoring spots. See you there! Safe passage to the Prom! 😊
Love seeing the cat in command 😉 Great series of images and the one of St Valentines Peak behind Burnie made me rather emotional as that’s where I was born!! Looks like Tassie is having a very British Summer lol 😉 Have a fantastic Christmas and New Year!
Oh Sarah, that Peak was stunning. Now it’s even more special! Merry Christmas to you too. 💕💕
I really hope I can see it with my own eyes once again! I have no memories of Australia or New Zealand as we left when I was only a year old 😦 I haven’t seen images of the Burnie area like that before!! So very special 🙂 💞
Have a great Christmas, and enjoy Port Sorrell.
Same to you Doug! A warm few days at a Port Sorell is a bonus for us!
What a great area to spend Christmas. Keep enjoying yourselves.
Don’t you worry about that! We will😊
You are getting some great photos Chris. Looks like you having a lot of fun too. I hope the weather has settled for you, though looking at Wade, perhaps not. LOL
Thanks Leanne, it is a pretty photogenic coast! Have started using “back button focusing” – big difference in sharpness for wildlife especially. Will add this to the article! And yes we have had sunny weather for the last week. That day where Wade is in full wet weather gear was however very cold at 7.00 am when we were sailing from Stanley to Rocky Point. The 20 knot wind did not help! The last two days at Port Sorell were the first days we spent in shorts since the start of our voyage!
I cant believe Wade is in his wet weather gear in the middle of Summer! Bit of a contrast at the edges of St Vincents Gulf at the moment..we are expecting around 40 degrees tomorrow. Best wishes and with a bit of luck we can catch up in Melbourne before we head north.
Hi Trish – things have improved on the temperature front – in shorts for the last two days!
It looks so beautiful. Wishing you a very Merry and happy Christmas xx
Thanks Susan – and the same to you at he other end of the world.😊
Stunning photos! Disappointed we weren’t able to see Take It Easy in our home port, as we are away for Christmas. Blessings to you both.
Hi guys – have a great Christmas! What’s your home port?
We are based in Pt Sorell.
OMG we did not realise! We are here for a few more days with the weather easterly for a while longer, till the wind goes West again. So if you are back before then, it would be nice to meet you both.
Not back to the 13th Chris, but never mind. We hope to be launched around Easter 18. We may see you on the coast one day! Hey, if you need a lift for provisions let me know. Might be able to rustle up a ride. Thanks for sharing your travels with us. Helps to keep us motivated.
Thanks you for the offer – have done lots of walking and are all fine. We will be back for our Tassie circumnavigation in summer 2018!
You guys are very inspirational with what you achieve and pass on to others Anne and I love looking at your posts and have tried to find you on Marine Trakker but it does not register all the time.This is the first time I’ve posted a comment so I hope you don’t mind
Hi Gary and Anne – we really appreciate comments and your feedback is very kind. And we hope you comment again from time to time! Marine Traffic is a bit unreliable as it depends on being picked up at main ports and by ships… and we tend to avoid ports! But you can see us if you go to the satellite map on that site. We are up the Rubicon River at present.
A really beautiful coast I loved the photos of the 2 vulnerable species, would be a shame if we lost them.
Absolutely – I will be writing an article about them. People don’t know when they can’t see them readily but might care if we talk about them and show how beautiful they are!