Travel in March ,April its the best time of year the cruising books and knowledgeable people say well........... ...........its all bullshit !! or it could be that i have the touch of a jinx on me ?
So far we have had winds from all directions but always from the direction we wish to travel to .We set off from Edithburgh  for Port Davenport last Saturday the winds were 5-10 kts and the wind was on our port beam but to get to our destination before dark we motored sailed and arrived there at 3.30pm at first attempt our anchor didn't hold so we put 2x anchors 45 degrees off our bow and i set the anchor drag on our gps.At dusk we had a 45 degree wind change which made the anchorage very rolly and at dawn we were not happy being here as a further wind change made us on a lee shore (boat being blown towards shore 200m away)  and as this place is really a no mans land we only saw i house that looked abandoned ,there are no facilities its just bush so if you get in trouble your there by yourself, we tried our laptop again as the previous night we had no reception for either phone or internet,on checking this morning we had internet and on checking the weather the big front that had been hovering off Perth was now halfway between Perth and

Adelaide and being concerned that we would get caught out before we reached Althorpe Island i made the decision to go back to Edithburgh which was soul destroying as we were so close,but as we haven't sailed this area before i would rather be safe than risk us

Hello family and friends sorry for not posting earlier, but here goes we didn't leave to cross the gulf till Wednesday as the weather was crap and to be honest we wish we had waited as the crossing was very lumpy we had at times a  2m swell and with all sail up we averaged 5.5 kts. We arrived at Stansbury at 3.06 pm and that night we got hit with a thunder storm quite eerie thinking are we going to be hit by lightening ! but we were ok had some good gusts of wind though

Stansbury anchorage 

Thursday 27-3-2014

We are now motoring towards Edithburgh its 9.30am and having just passed the Oyster bay spit pole we are alarmed to see that the oyster lease passes past the spit pole by about 200m I wouldn't like to be coming into here at night from the south.As is usual with us and sailing we had a head wind the entire trip so we motored  the whole way,we arrived at 1.50 pm and picked up a RSAYS mooring ........nice.Later on we put the dingy down and had a wander around Edithburgh and restocked with only essential items  like farmers union iced coffee  !,after returning to tri-n-escape we fished and the squid jag was only in the water for 30 seconds before we had 3 squid fighting for it ,we also caught some tommies and a few small leather jackets.

Edithburgh anchorage

Today Friday we have just looked at the weather and in 2 days time there will be a 25kt wind change to the S/E which will put us on a lee shore some where around Stenhouse Bay, so what we have decided to do is we will go to Troubridge Island and anchor there for a few days till we can make the crossing to Wedge Island !  well that's it for now hope all is well with everyone take care Andy &Tina

pre - trip planing for our epic adventure

It seems an age since i have taken out our tri, being the small boat clubs commodore for the last three years has a lot to do with it ,but in the not to distant future we ,that being my wife Tina and myself will be heading off for a whole month of cruising. We hope to head of to Port Lincoln and the Sir Joseph Banks group of islands around the 24th of March all going well (fingers crossed)/Sailing at this time of year should be light winds and if anything more motoring than sailing which is a bummer but that's the trade off  ,I have allowed enough fuel to motor to Port Lincoln if we have to, but a nice 15kt breeze would be excellent !.I have spent these last few weeks finishing up those niggly little jobs that we all say we will get to one day well for me one day will be next week !.I have purchased all the charts of Spencer Gulf and i never knew how many islands there actually were its amazing and the fishing ! twenty + islands to fish along , and we have a cray pot so hopefully we will catch some.

on a previous trip to Port Adelaide

Our first port of call will be Stansbury  and from there we will sail to Edithburgh and from there hopefully west to Spencer gulf but if the weather gods are against us we will go to Kangaroo Island instead but with a little over a week and a bit to go its still unknown as to what way we will go ..........but thats it for now my next post will be on departure day cheers Andy