It’s July in Melbourne. Middle of winter. I’m my office in the Melbourne CBD trying to make a quid but increasingly thinking about our next adventure on Margaret Pearl. My definition of adventure is “an activity with more than a modicum of uncertainty in the outcome”. Almost any activity can be an adventure if the right mindset is engaged. For me, it’s not always about danger and physical risk. A trip to city by train can be an adventure………The higher the level of uncertainty - the bigger the adventure. And by any measure our 2027 cruise in Margaret Pearl has the makings of a big adventure.

This week we have a chat with Jim Woods about his plans for a trip in 2027 from Hobart to the Louisiades in his beautiful Cray Boat, the MARGARET PEARL. Jim talks about preparing a Bass Strait boat for the tropics, how to manage the fuel supply issues, what keeps him awake at night and why he’s undertaking this great adventure.

Boats for Sale, films to watch, people to farewell, festivals to visit. News from around the region this February.

The boats also floated, to some extent, the economy of the village. They bought material for maintenance, supplies for fishing trips, groceries and the like for their families when they were in port and fuel for the diesel engines which powered the cray boats. The townsfolk all knew each other and were linked socially as well as through the fishing fleet or the little enterprises which supported it.

The South and West coasts of Tasmania are places that demand respect. The isolation, the exposure to the southern ocean, the lack of communication, all conspire to make the coast daunting. But all coins have an obverse side.

But the takeaway for me as one of the current custodians, is that I didn't realise how much these old wooden boats still meant to the people who had been involved with them.

Any musical genre will be considered. Jim’s especially looking to find a jazz/blues piano player to take on melodica duties but he’s also hoping to see bagpipes, bush ballads, bosa nova, bebop and blues - perhaps not all at the same time!

MAFALDA was first Launched in 1926, so I guess she wasn’t named after the character in Harry Potter or the famous Argentinian comic series of the 1960’s.

The Abrolhos are phenomenal! Clusters of islands and reefs hover just a few metres above sea level and are interspersed with fishermen’s dwellings that are occupied during the high season.