Port Arthur (Tasmania)

[Kyle]It took us two legs to get from Hobart to Port Arthur. The wind was variable strength and against us, so we popped into Wedge Bay for a day to wait out the worst of it before carrying on.

Sail via Iron Pot Lighthouse to White Beach

Amazing cliffs and a few dolphins to keep us occupied on route to Port Arthur

The next leg was all tacking, but we still managed to make it into Port Arthur by early afternoon.

We were up early the following morning in anticipation of a full day. We started with a walk across the peninsula to Remarkable Caves. This is a y-shaped tunnel that punches through the sea cliffs to an isolated cove inside. We got there at low enough tide for me to get halfway through for a few pictures without getting too wet. Apparently, at high tide, it’s quite treacherous and during storms the cove is completely flooded with churning water, so I guess we were lucky to get down to water level and see it. {Maryanne: or 'someone' planned it that way... duh!}

First stop ashore was to see the 'remarkable cave'

Our next stop was the historic center at Port Arthur. We stuck out our thumbs in hopes of shortening our walk and were quickly picked up by a lady named Helen, who owned a holiday home in view of Begonia. She dropped us at the door at the museum and then told us to pop in for a beer on the way home.

Port Arthur was one of Australia’s first maximum-security prisons, it was for those considered too bad to be locked up in Hobart (repeat offenders). Hobart was already one step up more miserable than Sydney, mostly due to the climate.

Around the Port Arthur site

Built on a peninsula on the Tasmanian mainland before the construction of a road to Hobart, prisoners were brought by boat to a giant complex that didn’t even have an outer wall. The Tassie bush was too inhospitable, the sea was freezing. There was nowhere to go. The few prisoners that did escape eventually returned starving and thirsty, ready to take the brutal punishment for attempted escape.

When the prison was shut, Port Arthur became home to a mental asylum and then, eventually, a regular old township. Most recently, in its museum status, in 1996, it was the site of Australia’s biggest mass shooting. That one was so bad that Australians all got together afterwards and decided that only very few types of people should only be allowed very few guns each.

Now, on a nice day with big leafy trees everywhere and the bright sun bringing out the warm colors of the stone and brick ruins, it seems like a perfect little Eden. It was hard to imagine it as the site of so much suffering.

We enjoyed the pretty views of the bay on the walk back. At the last road before the beach, we took a right instead of a left and popped in to see Helen. There we met her Husband Steve and their dog, Bertie. Also there was their friend Jason, who was a competitive “over 18” sailor (small catamarans). It didn’t stop there. Another catamaran had come into the anchorage during our day out. Steve had bumped into them and invited them over as well.

Well, it would be hard to wish for more - good company in a lovely, peaceful setting. We talked about Australia, Tasmania, boats, travel...

We were lucky to meet with Helen and Steve during our visit

On the other boat were Graham and Helene. Helene was a long time regional jet pilot for Qantas Link, before quitting to go sailing. Now she is a successful romance/mystery novelist. Romance? Well, at least I had someone with which to trade aviation acronyms.