A CRUISER’S DELIGHT
We spent the first few days relaxing, fishing, swimming and exploring some of Barrier’s magnificent sheltered anchorages, and soon found that a couple of hours fishing still got our adrenalin rushing and provided a delicious dinner. Our bodies had become used to the warm waters of the Med, and although we found the Barrier’s 18 degree (65 dF) sea temperature a little chilly we enjoyed swims in the clean water most days.
The mid-summer weather was dry, fine and sunny, but unusually windy conditions prevailed, and most days we encountered over 20 knots. One night exceptionally strong winds were forecast, but the Barrier has many sheltered bays with good holding, and even though we experienced winds well above 40 knots none of the many visiting anchored boats reported major problems.
The Barrier doesn’t exactly have a busy social calendar, but one not-to-be-missed event is Port Fitzroy’s Annual Mussel Festival. Dotted around the Barrier are several commercial mussel-growing farms and the Festival promotes mussels as a delicacy able to be prepared in a wide variety of mouth-watering ways, much like Forrest Gump’s shrimps. Most visitors to the Barrier are easily identified by designer t-shirts, shorts and caps, while many of the locals look like they got lost after Woodstock and just turned up there. We enjoyed wandering around some of the market stalls, listening to local musical talent, and washing down sumptuous mussel fritters with cold beers.
A great armosphere among the stalls at the Barrier Mussel Festival
Much as we enjoy spending time aboard boats it’s great to go ashore for a change, and we often had late afternoon drinks on different beaches while listening to music from our ghetto-blaster and smoking fish using a portable smoker; the taste of freshly smoked fish on bread and butter with a glass of chilled sauvignon blanc is hard to surpass. The unique smoky flavour is provided by heating up sawdust from native manuka shrubs, which abound on the Barrier.
An excellent place to meet fellow-boaters ashore is Smokehouse Bay, where land has generously been made available by the Webster family to build a communal bathhouse, fish smokehouse and open-air laundry. The facility stems from times when cruising boats were much smaller than today, and few had such luxuries such as hot water or showers. Swings are provided for the kids, and boats can replenish their fresh water here and use a sturdy grid during low tide for hull cleaning or below waterline repairs.
Smokehouse Bay has a grid for cleaning hulls at low tide and a bathhouse
The rustic bathhouse
Enjoying some time ashore with Consort in the background
A BBQ ashore on a gorgeous sandy beach
Several years ago heavy rain caused a landslide that destroyed most of this facility, and thankfully a small band of enthusiastic volunteers quickly re-built it using donated materials and services.
One day as we loaded gear back into our tender from an excursion ashore a curious stingray glided towards us with wings flapping gracefully. These generally shy creatures are not aggressive, but their spiny tail can cause injury so we gently prodded our visitor away with a stick … more to follow.
We spent the first few days relaxing, fishing, swimming and exploring some of Barrier’s magnificent sheltered anchorages, and soon found that a couple of hours fishing still got our adrenalin rushing and provided a delicious dinner. Our bodies had become used to the warm waters of the Med, and although we found the Barrier’s 18 degree (65 dF) sea temperature a little chilly we enjoyed swims in the clean water most days.
The mid-summer weather was dry, fine and sunny, but unusually windy conditions prevailed, and most days we encountered over 20 knots. One night exceptionally strong winds were forecast, but the Barrier has many sheltered bays with good holding, and even though we experienced winds well above 40 knots none of the many visiting anchored boats reported major problems.
The Barrier doesn’t exactly have a busy social calendar, but one not-to-be-missed event is Port Fitzroy’s Annual Mussel Festival. Dotted around the Barrier are several commercial mussel-growing farms and the Festival promotes mussels as a delicacy able to be prepared in a wide variety of mouth-watering ways, much like Forrest Gump’s shrimps. Most visitors to the Barrier are easily identified by designer t-shirts, shorts and caps, while many of the locals look like they got lost after Woodstock and just turned up there. We enjoyed wandering around some of the market stalls, listening to local musical talent, and washing down sumptuous mussel fritters with cold beers.
A great armosphere among the stalls at the Barrier Mussel Festival
Much as we enjoy spending time aboard boats it’s great to go ashore for a change, and we often had late afternoon drinks on different beaches while listening to music from our ghetto-blaster and smoking fish using a portable smoker; the taste of freshly smoked fish on bread and butter with a glass of chilled sauvignon blanc is hard to surpass. The unique smoky flavour is provided by heating up sawdust from native manuka shrubs, which abound on the Barrier.
An excellent place to meet fellow-boaters ashore is Smokehouse Bay, where land has generously been made available by the Webster family to build a communal bathhouse, fish smokehouse and open-air laundry. The facility stems from times when cruising boats were much smaller than today, and few had such luxuries such as hot water or showers. Swings are provided for the kids, and boats can replenish their fresh water here and use a sturdy grid during low tide for hull cleaning or below waterline repairs.
Smokehouse Bay has a grid for cleaning hulls at low tide and a bathhouse
The rustic bathhouse
Diane uses the primitive but effective laundry facility
Enjoying some time ashore with Consort in the background
A BBQ ashore on a gorgeous sandy beach
Several years ago heavy rain caused a landslide that destroyed most of this facility, and thankfully a small band of enthusiastic volunteers quickly re-built it using donated materials and services.
One day as we loaded gear back into our tender from an excursion ashore a curious stingray glided towards us with wings flapping gracefully. These generally shy creatures are not aggressive, but their spiny tail can cause injury so we gently prodded our visitor away with a stick … more to follow.
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