A good day for us, not so good for others.

I have to say that the Bligh Museum was something of a disappointment, a few old maps, copies of log entries and one or two artifacts that had been collected by one man over a quarter of a century. However we did discover that not only Bligh visited here, he did so in the same party as James Cook. That was in 1777, some five years after Cook visited for the first time, and 130 years after Abel Tasman came here in 1642. But it was Captain T Furneux (an Englishman) who named the bay after his ship, HMS Adventure in 1772.

Bligh came again in 1788 and planted apple trees here, since then this island and the surrounding area has become the fruit growing region of Tasmania.

But things were looking up- after a lunch that included fresh berries and ice cream at a Berry Farm we took a trip on a yellow boat. A bit of recent history here- in 2011 Robert Pennicoat, the owner and founder of this company, circumnavigated Australia in a 5.4 mtr inflatable dinghy and raised over $287,000 for polio eradication. Needless to say, he is a Rotarian, and I was privileged to meet him before we set out on our boat trip.
With 3 300hp outboards engines, these boats can move, and we were soon down at the most interesting part of the island, inaccessible by motor vehicle. Dolerite sea cliffs towered above us, and we were soon entering deep sea caves, formed over 160 million years by the action of the wind and sea.







At one point we passed at  speed between "The Monument" and the cliffs, it took our breath away as there was only about two foot clearance either side of us.





We passed out of the Tasman Sea into the southern Ocean, where we felt the full power of the wind as we left the shelter of the island
Shortly we encountered seals basking on the rocks and playing in the water around us. Mainly young immature males,  some were practising the fights that they will have later in life when they have to defend their harems.
Many birds were seen nesting and flying above us, shearwaters, gannets, terns, cormorants and sea eagles. I was a little disappointed not to see an albatross, but we can't have everything.

As we returned we could see smoke arising from the other side of the bay, around Port Arthur.About twenty miles away, it was difficult to get a good photo.  It was only later that we found out that it was indeed further north than that, at .Forcett, where our friends Julia and Graham live. We are unable to contact them at this time, we just pray that they and their lovely house are OK.
This day has been the hottest we have encountered in Tasmania, and indeed one of the hottest since we were in Exmouth, some months ago. At 38 degrees C, with a very hot wind, we ere glad to be on the water, however it makes for very dangerous fire conditions on land, as we found out.