Albany to Tasmania - Day 18 ‘Arriving at Maria Island’

Monday, May 19th 2026.

We continued motoring South towards Shouten Island throughout the night, the wind light and the North East swells were gentle. The morning sun hit the mountains around Wine Glass Bay, making them stand out boldly through the morning fog.

The wind was coming from South of South West, right where we wanted to go. As the day progressed the wind and seas built and our progress slowed. By 10:00hrs we unfurled the headsail and were motor sailing upwind at around 5-6 knots. By lunchtime the wind backed to the south making our course further out the sea.

By 1300hrs we had furled the jib completely, centred the mainsail and pointed the bow towards the Mercury Passage between Maria Island and Tasmania. Progress was painfully slow at between 2.5 and 4 knots. It felt like the bow was rising and falling but no water was passing underneath the keel.

For the next five or six hours we crashed into the chop of a force four to five head wind. The tiny two blade propeller was struggling to make ends meet against the chop.

We mostly stayed in our bunks where the motion was the most comfortable, regularly getting up to check for other vessels. As the light began to fade around 1800hrs, we finally entered the Mercury Passage and progress picked up significantly with the absence of swell.

I heated up our last serves of lasagne and cannelloni in the oven and we enjoyed a warm tasty meal in the calm waters.

With our course directly into the wind, I went forward to furl the mainsail. This was the first time I  had left the cockpit since raising the mainsail at kangaroo island, a mere 700 nautical miles ago.

Nice, easy sailing.

With the main down, I turned my attention to preparing the anchor for our arrival, removing the various lashing I had installed to keep it from jumping out of its roller again.

I pulled 20 meters of chain onto the deck to untangle it from within the chain locker. Sailing upwind in heavy weather often causes the pile of chain made by the anchor windlass to fall over and tangle with itself. Not wanting any issues when anchoring in the dark, it was easy to pull some chain out and then feed it back down the spurling pipe to ensure it would pay out smoothly with the electric windlass.

Kevin and I sat in the cockpit, feet warmed by the hot engine and everything else cooled by the cool southerly wind. We counted down the last ten miles as we passed the settlement at Darlington on Maria Island and rounded the cape into Shoal Bay.

Shoal Bay or Chinamans’ Bay as the locals call it is a very protected anchorage on the inside of Maria Island. Protected by the isthmus to the East and mountains of Maria Island to the North and South, Chinamans’ made for an ideal anchorage after a long passage. Another plus was that I had anchored here about 12 months ago in Noa’s Sunmaid 20 so I was familiar with the area.

As we approached the anchorage we slowed down, shining our head torches at the seabed to check the depth. This is one of the few times I wish I had installed a depth sounder.

Using the chart and satellite images we found what looked to be a sandy patch in about six meters of water and dropped the anchor.

The sky was full of stars but the night was dark without any moon. As far as we could tell, we were the only boat in the anchorage.

As we motored slowly astern, I let out about forty meters of chain across the muddy seabed.

The anchor clawed the mud and the chain tightened, I knew we were safe for the night.