Andante in Wynyard!

She’s here – the Andante has successfully crossed the southern ocean from Albany to Wynyard under the stewardship of Kev Kinnear and Deb.
At 9.30 yesterday morning the red and white boat motored in to the Inglis River and tied up at the wharf. Kev and Deb came home to a well earned shower and snooze after 10 days of 2 hour round the clock watches.
The Andante crossed the Bight in 250 hours, mostly motoring quietly with just the jib up. They had big seas (7+ metres) but only light winds. The new bulwarks took a few slaps across the ear, but held up without problem, as did all our new plumbing. Kev and Deb were rolled around with the steep seas, including a couple of biggies which rolled the boat about 45 degrees – making eating and drinking a real challenge; but the good old boat remained watertight and very buoyant. The fuel efficiency was fantastic – at about 3l per hour, it put paid to Kev’s father’s fear of running out of fuel. Our heartfelt thanks and appreciation to Kev and Deb.

Now come our plans… what will we do now?
Our options are: (a) continue with the original plan to go to Cape York and return at the end of 2014. (b) explore the Tasmanian coastline and islands for summer, then head north for a while (c) go to somewhere warm – maybe Magnetic Island, and base ourselves there for most of the year….. and any others which haven’t yet crossed our minds.

We will spend a few weeks here in beautiful, peaceful Tiabunna enjoying friends and family; and weeding, weeding and weeding. We will have a boat/ wharf party sometime soon, so watch this space….

Any Wynyard folk who are reading this, we’d love you to drop down and visit us; and also check the boat as the 3m tides make tying it properly very difficult. Also, its the silly season, so a few extra eyes making sure ratbags don’t do any damage would be great too.