We had a fabulous day! We tried again for a spot at Kettering (oyster Bay Marina) and this time were successful, thank goodness. At 11am my friend Emma Snodgrass came and collected us in her ute for a day at her (parents’) farm, about a 15 min drive south. The farm is stunning- the dams and gardens have been carefully planned and sculpted, from the Norwegian pine forest to the orchards full of pears and apples and the dam that was re shaped to better fit the contours of the garden…… Emma had a friend staying (Kristy Rumble) and between them they had a large bunch of kids and kids friends. The kids had heaps of fun with activities just not possible in the city- from building big fires (and exploding marshmallows) to riding quad bikes and building a huge potato shooter……  All very dangerous and great fun!

Emma cooked up a huge feast for lunch and we sat in front of the fire all afternoon drinking way too much good wine!

On Monday, Mark and I walked to a petrol station up from the Marina to fill the tender fuel canister- buying a big box of handmade chocolates at  a great little chocolate shop we passed on the way – you never know what you’ll find…..

We all had a quick, but good, lunch at the Kettering Hotel- then Emma, Kristy and the kids arrived for an afternoon cruise. It was a gorgeous day and we were hoping to spot dolphins- but unfortunately they were all hiding somewhere! But we sat on the Flybridge wrapped in blankets and cruised to Adventure Bay and had a really nice afternoon with the kids playing cards and steering the boat.

On Wednesday morning we set off to explore Bruny a bit, so we headed back to Barnes Bay. Mia, imi and I decided to go for a walk and took the tender to a jetty, tied up and set off- until we realised it was a jetty for a private house.. Oops….  We found a great shell next to the jetty though, which we put in the tender- unfortunately we forget to remove the largish crab first- which came out as we were motoring back to Northerly and caused lots of screaming until we could get it out…..

The oysters on the rocks are enormous- too bad none of us like to eat them…..

for lunch we took the tender into Sykes Cove, headed for the Bruny Island Smokehouse. We had to take off our shoes and wade in because there was no jetty, then climb a barbed wire fence to get to the road to walk about a km to the Smokehouse. The restaurant had a lovely view, but food was average and very expensive….. The highlight of the day was the hilarious sheep we passed on the way- it was so excited to see us it was bounding beside us like a puppy- I’ve never seen a sheep behave like that- we wanted to take it home!

We had a really good dinner- Tasmanian steaks, potato-bake and a salad, washed down with a Tassie chardy – aboard. And,  I must admit that we’re liking having a TV aboard- it’s nice to watch a movie after dinner…….

Our last morning was another gorgeous day- we’re all sad to be leaving Barnes Bay and heading back to Hobart!