Our journey on the sailboat Good as Gold

We spent well over 24 hours sailing south through the Bass Strait in light rain and solid grey cloud. We’d been heading straight south to avoid a low pressure system and the winds were reasonable. By the middle of the second night at sea the low pressure system was behind us and we turned onto a south-westerly course to actually get to Tasmania. We saw a couple more northbound Sydney Hobart race participants heading back home. As morning came, the clouds cleared and we could see land off in the distance. There was no smoke here from forest fires and we saw blue sky for the first time in weeks. Tasmania and blue skies!! The clear weather also meant no more wind, so we motored the final few hours into Wineglass Bay and anchored. We were actually in Tasmania now. The forecast had underestimated the winds and after a few hours rest, the wind picked up, created quite a swell and it became uncomfortable. We raised the anchor and moved south, around the peninsula, to a quieter anchorage. This

Summer had arrived and we were ready to sail south to Tasmania. We had two concerns: the bushfire situation impacting the coast of New South Wales and the weather in the famously treacherous Bass Strait between Tasmania and the Australian mainland. We had hoped to stop and provision in Batemans Bay or Eden, but the severe fires had us adjusting plans. Southerly winds had pushed a large fire towards Eden and officials advised that boats not stop there. The Australian Navy was helping to evacuate the local towns and villages and there was no fuel, provisions or docking for additional boats.  We decided to stop, at least to rest, in Batemans Bay, just north of Eden. We had a lovely overnight sail and motored the last few hours, arriving into the bay in the morning. Batemans Bay had been evacuated a few days earlier and there were still fires nearby. Some of the residents were sheltered in the local sports complex and from the boat we could hear the occasional