Hobart and the generosity of strangers.

So a little sooner than expected we were in Hobart.
 The rally circumnavigating Tasmania wasn't due to start until the 12th of February with the briefing evening. The rally is run just after the Wooden Boat Festival, which is a brilliant four day festival  for yachting tragics. All sorts of wooden boats from rowing dinghies, yachts, Tall ships, fishing vessels ,work boats, Couta boats, you name it, it is probably there. The boats are generally on display afloat in and around Constitution Dock ,and the dockside warehouses house the static displays.
The rest of  K'Gari's  crew for the circumnavigation were flying in on the weekend of the 9th and 10th, so we had a few days to kick back and wait for the smoke to ease, which it did over the next few days.

Anchored off  Sandy Bay, we found easy access to the shops, and even better a wonderful establishment, Manning Reef Cafe,  doing tempura battered fish and tempura vegetables  was only 200m away.

We explored the waterways of the Derwent , sailing into Sullivans Cove and checking out the MAST provided mooring arrangements for visiting yachts and then shifted over to Bellerive for a change of scenery.
Here we again had relatively easy access to shops and discovered we could also obtain water from the nearby wharf. We met "Live Louder" a catamaran from Brisbane, who were a veritable mine of information about all sorts of local things, including the best bakery!
Kangaroo Bay which is the bay we were actually in, is a small (very full of moorings) bay, as the Bellerive Yacht Club is located there. We anchored just outside the bay, but close enough to be able to get ashore- if the weather was right. Just before sunset it started to get a bit lumpy as the afternoon seabreeze had kicked in,when we saw a dinghy approaching.
Tidings of good news- they had come to offer us the use of a mooring inside the bay! The mooring belonged they said, to a friend of theirs who had said we could use it - depending on our length. Having told them our length, it was decided we would fit the space- it might be tight, but there would be enough room and the mooring had recently been serviced we were assured.
Decision time,as it was going to be dark within 30minutes. We decided it would be more comfortable within ,so heaved up and took up the offer from our mystery benefactor.
The next morning we went over to the boat who had been the purveyors of the offer and asked for the phone number of the mooring owner.
I rang and explained who I was , and that I was in fact sitting on the mooring at the time. "I know- I can see you" was the reply.We arranged to meet ashore later that day, the wonderfully generous Denys. We explained what we doing ,why we were in Tassy from Queensland , the rally etc and he said we could use the mooring until we departed on the rally if we wanted,as his boat was actually currently in a berth at the yacht club. He couldn't have been more generous, asking if we needed fuel or anything at all. I was genuinely moved by this act generosity.I have in the past in Gladstone stopped when driving past obvious yachties making their way back to the marina burdened down with shopping and given them a lift, but never expected someone I didn't know would offer the use of a mooring and the offer of future help with obtaining fuel etc . Wow ! A random act of generosity which will long be remembered
We had a booking for a berth at the RTYC starting in a couple of days , so thought we would only really be taking up the mooring  for a couple of days over the weekend. Being on the mooring meant we could both happily go ashore and not worry about dragging , now a preoccupation in our minds, as you can tell.

Monday we shifted back over to Sandy Bay to enable me to drop off the towline which I had purchased whilst in Sydney, for the drouge, to have an eye spliced into it.
Whilst over there we used the opportunity to check out the allocated berth at the RTYC. Being a catamaran, and space being at a premium, having seen the allocation we decided that on balance we would be far more comfortable on the mooring and travelling across to the clubhouse for the pre rally briefing by road,than at the allocated space, which to my  mind was uncomfortably close to the slipway. So we cancelled the berth.
We spent the next few days over on 'our' mooring interspersed with with a sail up the Derwent as far as we could go,just beyond the Risdon  wharf  to the Prince of Wales marina,just to see what was there.

We also met up with a mutual friend we had both separately sailed with in our professional lives many years ago- Richard.

Whilst taking on fresh water one morning we found ourselves again alongside with  and talking to the couple on Live Louder. The result of our  far ranging discussion over coffee and delights from the bakery, was that once they had returned to their mooring in the next bay around ,we were welcome to borrow their 25kg/55lb Rocna anchor , to see if it would satisfactorily fit my anchor arrangement.

The borrowed 25kg Rocna on the mat.The 'not a Rocna'-20.4kg is seen aft,
and looking at the photo I see that safety as always is top of
the list - just look at that  safety footware!

So we did, the following morning we  zipped off around the corner in the dinghy  and borrowed the anchor. Dean simply lowered it into our dinghy, we unshackled it  and returned to K'Gari where we shackled it on to our chain and hoisted it into place , where as luck would have it,it fitted well. My concern had been the shank length and the roll bar and how it would fit with my anchoring arrangement or would I have to adjust my roller position if I decided to upgrade to this size and brand of anchor. Q.E.D! The next job, after returning the anchor to Dean  was to find one available for sale in Tasmania. Serendipitously the chandlery closest to the public wharf facility at Constitution Dock had precisely one such anchor in stock .Sold and held until I could get across to pick it up!

New and shiny and in situ.