Flinders Island – A Home to Sea Dogs and Sea Eagles

[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”1056″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”1051″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Hobart photographer Andrew Wilson launched his highly successful ‘Old Sea Dogs’ at the last MyState Australian Wooden Boat Festival.  He’s working on a second collection, concentrating on Tasmania’s out islands and remote harbours.  This month, Andrew writes from Flinders Island…

When I was 16 years old, I helped my father deliver his yacht Vite back to Hobart from Port Melbourne, the adventure of a lifetime for a young lad. At some point during the passage across the strait, Vite’s exhaust pipe broke, pumping volumes of grey diesel smoke throughout the cabin. At the time we were in Banks Strait, so the decision was made to take a detour to Flinders for temporary repairs.

It was May, and the weather was calm, so much so we had to motor much of the way. My father and his friends had competed in the annual Three Peaks race many times, so knew the passage to Lady Baron well, a good thing given it was after midnight when we made the run.

We only stayed on the pier at Lady Baron for 4 hours, overseeing some hasty welding to seal the exhaust. Mostly I remember the Pot Boil on the way out, an infamous stretch of water where tide, current and depth converge, making the surface water bubble and surge like a boiling pot. Vite, a triple planked, swamp gum, 30 foot sloop, could only motor at 6 knots. The Pot Boil picked her up and violently threw her sideways, with yells of “Rocks!” ensuing, but in the end we were through and safe. Soon after the Farsund wreck was astern of us and we were heading south once more.

That voyage has never left me, and late in 2013, when travelling the state capturing images for my book Old Sea Dogs of Tasmania (oldseadogs.com.au), I found myself standing at Musselroe Bay, looking across Banks Strait to Flinders, wishing I could re-visit her beaches and mountains.

Two years passed and after numerous more Sea Dogs popping up here and there from under rocks, barnacles and offcuts of King Billy I decided to start work on a second volume of Sea Dogs. This time I vowed that I would make it back to not only Flinders Island, but King Island and Port Davey as well.

Below are some of the Sea Dogs, Sea Eagles and Sea Scapes captured during my trip to Flinders for Sea Dogs 2, an amazing place full of wonderful people and stories, a place everyone should visit, given the chance.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”1055″ img_size=”ful” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”1050″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”1049″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”1053″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”1055″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row]