An Encounter in Storm Bay

It was cold and damp as we left the dock at the Royal Yacht Club ofTasmania. At 0600 it was still dark; dawn was still an hour away. Wehad over 20 miles to travel down the Derwent River and out into StormBay to the waypoint (43-14S, 147-33E) where we planned to meetShuten-doji II.

By the first light of dawn we could see the weather was about to get a lot worse. A cold front was on the way. The wind was increasing from the south west. It was raining hard and visibility was down to　less than a mile. This definitely was not weather to be venturing into Storm Bay - one of the　roughest pieces of water in a windy part　of the world.

We stayed in the lee of Bruny Island on the western side of Storm Bay for as long as we could. When we were due west of the waypoint we left the shelter of the coast. You had telephoned from Japan to say the Minoru was about 15 miles south of us at 0700 (Tasmanian time).
By now it was blowing 25 to 30 knots from the south south west and the seas were making. Our 7 metre twin engined tri-hulled dive boat was just about handling the conditions which were far from comfortable. Visibility had improved to about 3 miles but the sea and wind conditions were getting worse.

Just as we got to our waypoint, Minoru called on the sat-phone to say　he was some 6 miles further south east (43-20S, 147-38E). This was　not good news. In strong or gale-force south westerlies, the east　side of Storm Bay anywhere near the steep dolerite cliffs of Tasman Peninsula can be very rough indeed - much too rough for our little dive boat. Nevertheless, we pressed on south east.

We had several more calls from Minoru on his satellite phone. With his engine out of action, he did not have sufficient power in his batteries to use his VHF radio.
Then we saw Shuten-doji II a mile to our south. The next time Minoru rang, we told him we had him in sight. Something was lost in the translation. Minoru was below trying to give us his new position while I am trying to tell him to go on deck so that he could see us.It wasn't until we had passed 25 metres from his stern that he finally realised we were there.Then there were greeting salutes across the gap between us. The sea was too rough to safely get close enough to have a proper conversation. Indeed, at one point our little boat all but capsized.Unfortunately these are not good conditions for photography, which is why the attached pictures are not of a very high quality. I am sorry about that. They are the best that were possible.

We made two more passes by Shuten-doji II but the seas were getting more dangerous the closer we were getting to Tasman Peninsula. With a sad heart we finally waved goodbye to Shuten-doji II and Saito san and wished them *bon voyage* for the remainder of the circumnavigation.
Minoru looked to be fit and cheerful. It is a pity we could not get close enough to pass on greetings from his many friends in Hobart that he made when he was here 4 years ago (on Circumnavigation No.6). They were quite disappointed he could not stop this time.
Now we had the tricky task of making it back to the shelter of Bruny Island without being capsized or swamped by the now quite large Southern Ocean seas. Obviously we made it - and here is the email to prove it!

Kind regards

Jeremy