Swanwick, Freycinet Peninsula -> Encampment Cove, Maria Island

Alice’s stats:
Distance cycled: 82.5 km
Ave: 17.9 km/h (19.9km/h before Maria Island)
Max speed: 47.1 km/h

Jessi’s stats:
Distance cycled: 69.2 km
Ave: 15.9 km/h
Max speed: 47.3 km/h

A “brief” note from Jessi about how we met our man with a boat (aka Captain Colin):
Yesterday, after the hot tip from Martin, F and I headed down to the jetty to try to find a boat. Unfortunately, the only boat there was occupied by two unhelpful youths who said their boat was too small and we should find someone with a bigger boat… but no, they didn’t know anyone with a bigger boat (likely story, we know youths lie!). So we took to the streets. Quite magically, within 5 houses from the boat ramp, we found a large boat in a driveway AND there was someone in the driveway doing some beltsanding. After loitering awkwardly until he finished his sanding, we scared the bejusus out of him by saying “hello!”. We  introduced ourselves and explained we were looking for a kind soul with a large boat for a short term arrangement. Colin took very little convincing and within seconds, he agreed to take us, and our third friend, and our three bikes… and all our gear across the river in the morning.

Back to Alice:

F and J had arranged for us to meet their ‘man with a boat’ at 8am, and to fairly divide the efforts, I had been tasked with drawing our thank you picture card without having seen them:
A: “Ok, what did he look like?”
J: “He’s probably in his 60s, maybe 70s, but fit”
A: “What was his hair like?”
J: “No idea, but he was wearing a blue tshirt, oh you only have a black pen, I dunno, maybe say he had hair!”
A: “Okay, how about the boat?”
J: “It was a big white boat…”
A: “Did the boat have a cabin?”
J: “There was an awning-like bit, I think?”
A: “Outboard motor or built in?”
J: “Not sure, definitely had a motor and fishing rods, he likes fishing!”

This effectively cut our day from 104km to a much more manageable 69km. Which meant F and I had a much better chance of arriving in time for the last ferry to Maria Island, which left at 3:15pm.

Jessi’s bus connection was too tight to join us on the side quest to Maria Island, but we’ll meet her in Port Arthur on Feb 1.
We had a quayside lunch and chatted to Jo and Bryan, Kiwi adventure cyclists in their mid 70s before getting on the foot passenger ferry to Maria Island, which was nearly as efficient as Colin and Rose’s craft!

Alice (with intro from Jessi)