Your Short Stories
These are your short stories: things that happened while cruising or interesting places you visited.
The Proposal
Seals and eagles witness Maatsuyker Island lighthouse keepers' engagement
The couple's routine was a little different on Thursday morning — with Mr Ryan choosing sunrise to pop the question. "It's been very hard throughout the whole process to try and hide the ring," he said. "I'd been trying to work out the right time."
Around Tasmania or bust
The adventures of Adam, Anna and Alibi,
the very small Compass Northerner 28.
by Adam Gittins RG1092, April 2019
The roots of our Tasmanian circumnavigation were solidly terrestrial. We spent two years volunteering for Tasmania Parks & Wildlife; Deal Island, Maatsuyker Island, Bruny Island, Maria Island, Schouten Island as well as Cockle Creek and
Melaleuca on the “big” island. Well, if you spend that long staring at the sea and reporting on the weather, you HAVE to go sailing. At this time we got to know Coast Radio Hobart (as it was named back then). Barry invigilated our radio exam at
the old base and, on Maatsuyker Island, the skeds and our chats with the operators were a real feature. We also honed our radio skills chatting to the fishermen who appeared and disappeared with the changing weather.
MV Eva Blanche
from David Conway RG289, March 2019
Image: Mark Watson
David Conway (RG289) is one of Tas Maritime Radio's newer members. In February he sailed his vessel, the MV Eva Blanche from Franklin to Constitution Dock in Hobart to participate in the Australian Wooden Boat Festival.
When we asked David to provide some history of this historic vessel for our website, he readily agreed and provided the following story.
Around Tasmania by Jetski
January 2019
At 0801 on Sunday 30 December Tas Maritime’s operator received an unusual radio call from a vessel named Jetski KQ which was departing Devonport and heading for Stanley.
As the days, phone calls and radio calls rolled on, we discovered that Jetski KQ was in fact Lindsay Warner from South Australia who was circumnavigating Tasmania on his
jetski starting from Devonport and returning there on Friday 11 January.
An Accolade for MAST
by Paul Reardon RG597, January 2018
Until we recently upgraded to a cruiser we had a trailer boat with which for many years we explored southeast Tasmania, launching from boat ramps between Swansea and Dover with the odd further trip to St Helens and even one trip to Port Lincoln in South Australia. Over the years we have seen the occasional presence of Tasmania Police at or near boat ramps and on the water, but we have never been challenged or checked for safety gear, licences, registration etc.
Juliet in Port Davey Feb-Mar 2017
(This article was originally published in Albatross April 2017, magazine of the Cruising Yacht Club of Tasmania')
by Andrew Boon, Commodore, CYCT, May 2017
I won’t bore you with descriptions of the fantastic weather, terrific anchorages and great company that we found during this year’s trip to Port Davey and Bathurst Harbour on board SY Juliet. Except, perhaps, for a couple of highlights.
2 POB and 1 4-paws
(A story of a Tas Maritime Radio and a Cruising Yacht Club of Tasmania Member.)by Sheenagh Neill, Vice Commodore, CYCT, April 2017
I am a proud paying member of this volunteer group. TMR is my connection to others on the water.
Tas Maritime Radio and Maatsuyker Island
by Bruce and Kate Frankcombe, November 2014
Kate and I have just returned from 7 months volunteering for the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife service, living on Maatsuyker Island located off Tasmania’s south west coast. Just the two of us were there for the winter from February to September 2014.