Day 45 Wine Glass Bay Cruise and north of Coles Bay

Miserable day weatherise as we awoke and we were made more miserable when the caravan park advised we would have to move if we wanted to stay another night. Recall we had a plan to do the Wineglass Bay Cruise on the next day. Our solution was to try for Cruise today and leave tomorrow. Well, they were running the cruise today so off we went.

130415 "Welcome aboard the Wineglass Bay Cruise"

It was overcast and very choppy for our voyage down the Great Oyster Bay side of the Peninsula and then we turned through the Schouten Passage to be met with the swells coming across the Tasman Sea. It was "hang on" if you moved from your seat. This added a degree of interest to the voyage and, what with looking at the spectacular coastline, marvelling at the albatross as they winged their away inches above the water, wondering how hard we would hit the water as we surfed off the top of the swells - and hanging on, we had little time to get motion sickness.

The coastline is a series of rocky headlands with very little vegetation due to the incessant and strong winds. The rocks are a reddish coloured granite and bear the results of weathering and growth of the now familiar lichen. They stand like sentinels resisting whatever the Tasman Ocean throws at them. Today it was throwing plenty.

130415 Mt Amos from Great Oyster Bay

130415 Making foam on an overcast day just after leaving harbour

130415 Promise Rocks in Great Oyster Bay

130415 Schouten Passage - Freycinet Peninsula on LHS,
Schouten Island on the RHS

130415 A sea eagle's nest which has been there for 25 years

130415 Rounding Cape Degerando

130415 Cape Degerando

130415 Slaughterhouse Bay

130415 Spray to prove how rough it really was

130415 More of the eastern coastline of Freycinet Peninsula

130415 Mt Freycinet from the east

130415 Waterfall Cove

130415 A seal at Lemon Bight

130415 Approaching Wineglass Bay

130415 The southern headland at Wineglass Bay

130415 Some of the locals at the entrance to Wineglass Bay -
resting out of the wind

Eventually, after passing this spectacular rocky coastline we reached our destination, Wineglass Bay, where there was peace, a welcome calmness on the water, a beautiful white sandy beach and lunch.

130415 Third party photograph of Wineglass Bay from Mount Amos

130415 Our cruise lunch - all Tasmanian produce including
the wooden knife and fork

130415 Whale bones washed ashore in Wineglass Bay.
Once was a whaling station there

35 minutes later we started our return and were once again beating our way across the swells. However, the clouds were moving, the sun was starting to find its way through the grey clouds and this improved our spirits and our photographs. We did see some porpoises on the way back, but when they saw us, for some reason, they disappeared.

130415 The Hazards as we departed Wineglass Bay - sun out

130415 Mt Freycinet, 620m, and Mt Graham 579m from Great Oyster Bay

We barely noticed the swells after we entered the Schouten Passage, so small were they by comparison, and the sail up Great Oyster Bay was a sedate, comfortable and sunny experience.

Upon our return we did a short drive to Cape Tourville and this spot probably produced the picture of the day, as we looked back towards the entrance to Wineglass Bay, this time from the north. Unfortunately we could not see inside the Bay.