Just passing Apollo Bay (& big ship), all good so far.

Caught 2 lots of seaweed, 1 on each prop after 20 deg detour for survey ship!

Preparing for departure to Cleeland Bight, waiting for sunrise & tide to change. Here's hoping we have calm winds & smooth sea's around Cape Otway & no craypots or kelp wrapped around props! Eta 1500hrs tomorrow.

Waiting for todays front to go through and head off on it's tail in the morning. We have decided to go straight through to Cleeland Bight, Phillip Island and not go into Apollo Bay as there is a another nasty front coming behind us & we could end up stuck in there for weeks. We have spent our time in town at the shops, the markets & a wander down to the beach. 30 degrees here yesterday & the place sure fills up. Garry went on a day trip with our friends off Tramp 11 to the Tower Hill Volcano & saw an abundance of wild life. We are tied up to the wharf here right beside the boat ramp & fish cleaning tables (& a gazillion fly's) with the majority of our time being taken up with the antics of 1 very cranky bull seal who hangs out here for fish scraps, he has already taken a chunk out of a womens leg last week & we had to call the rangers in to stop the crowds of people harassing the poor thing.

Arrived safely Port Fairy averaged 8 1/2kn wind speed max at 35kn, 4 1/5hr sail. All good.

Departed Portland for Port Fairy, eta was 1400, someone just turned off the wind!!!Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Tab A on the Telstra Mobile Network

Portland is quite a lovely town, no Bunnings but awesome store that sells all sorts of "stuff" excellent. No matter were we go Rod always meets someone he knows & bumped into his cousin, 3 times, 3 different places over a couple of days, amazing. Our friend Maureen (previous owner) had one of her Women welcome women worldWide group come down to meet us & was kind enough to take us out for a drive to Cape Bridgewater to see the Petrified Forest, blowholes etc & a had a humongous hamburger for lunch & a drive around town, very nice. Have 4 boats from North Haven here, 2 of which were on the slip in Adelaide with us at the same time, Golden Cowrie & Tramp 11 (with whom we had a most enjoyable evening, albeit late) and Pappion 11 who is berthed here for 12 months. Off into town today for a few supplies had lunch & then Garry & I went off for a walk to the Botanic Gardens where they have 181 Dahlia varieties in bloom, very pretty (had to go there as we have a friend called Dalia, cheers).

Arrived safely in Portland Marina 5pm after 30hr haul, tired and super ready for drinks, feed & showers, flopped in front of telly where the guys promptly fell asleep. Big sleep in this morning. Had alternator collected for testing then gave the girl a big bubble bath and general tidy up. Off to the Richmond Henty for tea tonight and pool tournament continuation. Just got excited about possible trip to Bunnings but alas there's not one here, colour me sad!

Heading smack on 090E to Cape Nelson, as we motor past the Wind turbines (there's an irony) as there's been barely a breath of wind since Robe & what there has been, is.....you guessed it, on the nose! Lucky if we get into Portland Marina by 5pm at this rate, distance travelled this run approx 145nm.

A 15kn nthly was predicted, however despite several course changes throughout the night the wind has stayed on the nose all the way! We are now well past Port Macdonnell & Mt Gambier and have crossed the border into Victoria. Cups of tea & hot cross buns for breakfast, yeah! Our crew has complimented us on his accomodation & has stated he would much prefer a coffee machine rather than the bread machine in his cabin ( had to wait for bread to finish before we unplugged from marina prior to departure, to hot to put away, hence his cabin floor!

Just coming up to WPT5 waypoint between Cape Banks & Cape Northumberland SA to change course to heading 115 as several large (read 285mtr)ships are approaching. Counting flashes on lighthouses and confirming whereabouts on chart with Lat & Long checks hourly.

Just departed Robe enroute to Portland, eta approx 12pm tomorrow. Quite swelly leaving entrance and getting around reefs, all whilst trying to spot craypots. Robe is a lovely tidy town with neat marina, adjustable cleats & hose runs. Our new friends on "Time Out" have departed behind us enroute back to Adelaide & we wish them well.

Waiting for fronts to pass prior to our departure for Portland. Gave up on alternator repair for now & put back old one. Had a fun evening on Friday with Peter and Caroline from "Time Out" who are waiting on the same fronts to pass..Garry managed to buy a kite after his homemade one crashed an died so spent Sat arvo flying kite with some locals, who promptly went and bought their own kite. Had a few walks into town, dodging rain squalls, ended up at the Caledonian for lunch yesterday and "Pool tournament" at Robe hotel, back to DB for card comps, really not sure who wins these things as no scoring involved! All good fun.😊

Arrived safely 5pm yesterday after a long 30hr haul, ready for well deserved drink, feed & flop in front of telly where the guys promptly fell asleep. Big sleep in this morning, had port alternator collected for testing and gave the girl a big bubble bath & general tidy up. Off to the Richmond Henty for tea & possible pool tournament continuation. Just got excited at the prospect of a trip to Bunnings but alas, not one here, colour me sad!

Enjoying Robe Marina, had our friends on Alcatraz join us for 2 days before they departed today for Portland. We have had a diode going dodgy in the port Alternator, and had to freight a new one in, better to be safe than sorry! Lucky I have a Marine Engineer husband & Electrician brother to render any repairs! Still having an issue with our track appearing correctly on this site but I'm sure it will be sorted soon. Have Mike here from Robe council who is incredibly helpful and given us a few lifts into town.

Just departed Robe bound for Portland, approx eta 12.00 pm tomorrow. Quite swelly getting out and around reef, but hey we've had worse! Quite a nice marina, with adjustable cleats & channels for hoses, very tidy town too. Our new friends on "Time Out" are commencing their run back to Adelaide just behind us, we wish them well!

Arrived safely into Robe marina after 27 hrs non stop sail, shame that you can't say, "stop the bus, I want to get off" (so to speak) when the sea's are dodgy, read as blah!!! All over the shop, sail up, sail down, 5-6mtr sea's at time's luckily not to high a winds between 15kn to 3okn then down to 3kn's on the nose w/ super sloppy sea's. On a brighter note the dawn brought in a lovely sunrise with albatross greeting us into the new day. Relatively reasonable for the rest of the trip with much plotting and verification. Pizza & beer's, showers and sleep to follow. Still not quite worked out getting tracking right, should show Robe!

Departed American River, thanks to Katie for trip into Kingscote and great photo xx

Preparing for departure shortly (hooray), destination Robe eta approx 10am tomorrow.

Waiting for this next front to go through!. Beautiful clear 22 deg yesterday, watched crabs & stingrays swimming about, polished stainless, whilst guys get new mobiles up to date & Iridium to work. Cooked up pizza's & soup to freeze for "meals underway' today whilst getting thrown about.

Improved - Collection of replacement wind gear has finally fixed this issue, we now have wind info, hurrah! Awesome shot taken from mast head. Also new mobile phone collected from the big smoke as Rod's S7 died, so an expensive day out. We have now missed our weather window to proceed onto Robe and are now waiting again for next window. Used the time to make fresh water (500 litres) and replenish stocks (read more beer)!

Initially named "Double Dutch" when she was built in Sydney by Hugo & Sjirk in 1998. Then re-named "Double Bubble" by the previous loving owners Bob & Maureen until her sale to us in 2008. She has been lovingly upgraded and maintained and is finally ready for her cruising life. We departed from Adelaide at midnight16/3/19 winds ranged from 3kn - 30kn throughout the entire evening depending on when we put the sails up or not, as is the way. Somewhere in the middle of the high seas the 2 yr 5mth old TickTack Wind indicator MN100-2 decided to die so we could only estimate wind speed/direction. We arrived at 8.45am into Second Valley, and enjoyed a pleasant afternoon with the Catamaran Alcatraz before departing on the 18/3/19 at 8.15am for Eastern Cove, Kangaroo Island, arriving at 12.30pm Rocky Point, KI. We anchored there for 2 nights whilst trying to work out issues with wind indicator eventually sending brother dear up the mast for removal and inspection. As high northerly winds were predicted we then entered into American River on the 20/3/19 and have remained here awaiting an Airbag with a new battery which of course, once received, was not the problem (naturally not long out of warranty). So sending off brother for whole new unit via ferry and bus to Adelaide and hopefully get this cruising show on the road so to speak!

At Anchor, American River

Second Valley

North Haven