Scribe Laurie Ford
I had a private trip organised to see the Mutton Birds arrive on Walker Island about the 22nd September - but then Jamie found he had a forced weeks holiday. We cancelled the Mutton Birds, and went a week earlier - letting Bob know we were going.

We arranged to meet Bob at the Montagu Camping ground late, as I had to pick Jamie up after he knocked off, on the Lake Leake highway. Bob was camped in the back of his vehicle by the time we arrived well after dark, and we lost little time in laying out our sleeping gear in one of the shelters - the ones with the signs saying no camping within 20 metres. It was a cold windy night, and the forecast wasn’t promising for the next day.

We packed up early and drove the few kilometres to Robbins Island Rd to launch, and it was a bleak windy day. Bob took his kayak off the roofracks, but then decided it wasn’t really his scene and put it back on again. This was a bit disappointing to Jamie and I as we had been looking forward to his company - and wouldn’t have paddled in conditions that were beyond him. But we couldn’t talk him into it, so Jamie and I set off without him.

I guess the wind was over 25 knots NE as we left Robbins Passage, not quite sure where we were heading for. It was a matter of waiting till we got out away from the shore and shelter of Robbins Island to see what course we could hold easily. It turned out that it was quite easy to sail towards the jetty end of Three Hummock Island, and so we did - knowing that the leeway we would make would put us ashore on Hunter Island up towards Cave Bay or Shepherds Bay. It was a matter of leaning the body to windward for a couple of hours, as the wind increased slightly about halfway across. I had visions of us having to run off before it towards Stack Island, but it eased up a bit and we continued on - now being able to see Penguin Islet quite clearly ahead of us. The waves were noticeably bigger out to the east of Penguin Islet so we altered course to go inside - and gain a brief respite from the incessant wind and waves.

There was a big colony of Pelicans on the islet as we slipped quietly along the shoreline without disturbing them. As we left the shelter of the islet I was feeling the cold a bit, so decided to head in and camp at Cave Bay - which was a reasonable days paddle anyway. We landed through some small surf, and quickly changed into dry warm clothes. It was now low tide so we made our way round the rocks to the north, to climb up to the cave.. It’s nothing spectacular, but if you’re in the area why not have a look? We bashed our way back to the beach over the top of the very overgrown headland, and then decided to walk up to the homestead.

We were just about there when we heard a number of motor bikes revving up, and had to jump to one side as they roared round a corner of the track. They stopped for a minute, and told us to go on up to the house as they would be back in a second. A family from Smithton were staying on Hunter Island, but were now waiting for better weather so a fishing boat could come and pick them up and take them home. We chatted to them for a while, and learnt that the Allistons were now on the mainland. Apparently Commander Alliston had taken on a new lease of life and was into organising dinner parties, while Eleanor was in care.

The boys on the bikes came back and rang up the fishing boat on its mobile to say that conditions weren’t too bad in the bay at the moment. The fishing boat was just leaving Woolnorth Point, and would be here shortly, so there was a bit of a rush to get the family packed up and down to the beach. They all went down in a 4WD, while Jamie and I chose to walk. By the time we got to the bay the family were safely on board the fishing boat, and the dinghy was returning to the beach. It was too cold to stand around so the inhabitants of the island went back to the homestead, leaving Jamie and I to put our tents up.

Despite the cold, we got a good fire going on the beach - partly sheltered from the wind by a dune.

The next morning the wind had eased off and gone round to the north, but forecast to come in gale force from the west during the day. It seemed like a good idea to stay in the lee of Hunter Island for a day or two - as you can always get back to Robbins Passage from Hunter no matter what the weather does (well almost no matter what). So I figured on just going to Shepherds Bay, and maybe walking across the island to the western shore to look out towards Albatross Island. However we were at Shepherds Bay before 9am, so we decided to keep going north along the shore to Cape Keraudren and have a look at the conditions from there.

Well!!! Jamie was just ahead of me as we got to the Cape, and kept looking back to see if I was stopping. I was watching him, and thought I’d better keep going to keep an eye on him - because the waves off the Cape were monstrous, and breaking haphazardly. I was thinking, ‘I don’t want to get out in that lot’, but kept creeping forward so as not to let Jamie get too far away. He saw me still coming so went a bit further - and I had visions of him about to be thrown skyward by a big haystack - the current was hurrying us out into the maelstrom. I finally stopped and half turned back - not going any further for anybody. Jamie immediately turned and came back as well - and we sat there looking out to sea shaking our heads.

The wind was ideal to sail across to Three Hummock Island, so I thought why not - we can sit out the weather for a day or two if we have to. But it was turning into a fine sunny day with lighter winds - surely there can’t be a gale coming on a nice day like this?

It was a buzz to nip downwind almost into Five Sisters Beach, then out and around the shore to the jetty, where we landed. There were a couple of old farm gates leaning against the wall of the boatshed on the jetty and we soon had both these covered with wet clothing.

We knocked on the door of the house and Rob invited us in for a while as we told him our plans, and discussed various matters. Then Jamie and I went off over to Five Sisters Beach, and walked along it and round the rocky point to the start of West Telegraph Beach - stopping for a while in the shelter of some rocks as the cool wind was picking up again.

Back at the jetty we used the boatshed for cooking in, and I decided to camp in it - while Jamie opted to put up his tent on the track coming down to the jetty. There isn’t much traffic these days.

Overnight the SW wind started to whistle and howl, and rattle the sheets of tin on the roof. Rain blew in through some of the holes in the old building and I had to get my bivvy bag out to stop the sleeping bag getting too wet. It probably wasn’t necessary as it turned out, but I wasn’t taking any chances. As the morning dawned I could see that the bay was now seething mass of whitecaps - with waves crashing over the high fence along the jetty. And it blew and rained all day. This was at the time when the ‘Spirit of Tasmania’ was off the run due to contaminated fuel - and a replacement catamaran had come over from New Zealand. On the news that day we heard that the cat was being cancelled FOR THREE DAYS due to the bad weather. This didn’t look good for Jamie to get back to work on time - and we visualised him being a day or two late.

It was a pretty boring day, although Jamie did go off for a walk along the beach. When he came back he had to resort to kicking a polystyrene ball up against the concrete wall to amuse himself. Rob very kindly offered us the use of the old cottage, complete with a couple of ton of firewood - as he could see that we may be here for a while. We got the fire going fairly quickly, and could gauge the wind strength very easily by watching the lino lift off the floor in the gusts. The rain did ease up towards evening, and the roo came out in huge numbers - Jamie counted over 90 just around the paddock near the houses.

Day 4 was still blowing a gale - or seemed to be. The bay was still full of whitecaps, but I stood on the jetty watching them for a while. There didn’t seem to be the strength in them that there was yesterday. Yesterday every wave would have brought you to a standstill, but today they looked as if you could punch through them easily enough. I suggested we launch and paddle across to Shepherds Bay, and then down the coast of Hunter in fairly sheltered conditions. Jamie didn’t see much difference in the conditions, and was a bit doubtful - but once we got on the water was at ease as he realised it wasn’t as bad as it looked. We hit the coast a bit north of Shepherds Bay, and crept along a few metres off shore. Every now and then we would have to go out round a point, and then have to punch straight into the full force of the wind till we could get back in close to the shore again.

I stopped briefly in Shepherds Bay to take Jamie up to the campsite - a reasonably well kept secret. Then we continued on south, hugging the shore for all we were worth. It was still hard work, and at the southern end of Cave Bay we went ashore for a brief rest - but it was too cold to stay there long. Something like 5 hours after leaving Three Hummock Island we arrived at the southern end of Hunter Island, just opposite Stack Island. There was a very sheltered corner on the beach here, with a lot of firewood. We had to wait a few hours for the tide to be right to cross back to Robbins Passage to the car, and spent a cosy time in front of the fire - Jamie went to sleep.

When it was time to go the wind seemed to have eased quite a bit, and it was an easy sail across to Kangaroo Island and into Robbins Passage. We drove back to Burnie after dark and managed to beg a bed each at Bob’s place for the night.