13 February 2018

Albany


Our time in Albany, Western Australia is quickly coming to an end as we will be shortly departing and heading on the next leg to Tasmania.  You can track our progress in the “tracker” link above. Before we shove off, we wanted to share a bit about Albany as it is extraordinary place. 

View of Albany city from Mount Clarence


Wind farm along the coast provides power to Albany


Rugged south coast
Albany sits on the southern coast of Australia, near the southwestern corner of the country.  The landscape is awe inspiring, and in many ways reminds of our time in Alaska.  Bald granite hills, verdant and diverse foliage and beautiful beaches.  The misty cool mornings make us feel like we are back in Seward, Alaska.

Western Australia’s oldest city, it sits on the shore of a huge natural harbor and is rich in history, beautiful old buildings and wonderful cafes. It is also the harbor from which more than 41,000 people departed Australia to serve their country in World War 1.  Australia and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) suffered major casualties during the war, and the new National Anzac Center in Albany has become a cultural pilgrimage for many people.
The Cheynes IV whale chasing ship has been beached
and is part of the museum

 Albany also has a long history (178 years) of whaling, with the closure of the shore based whaling station in 1978.  The whaling station has been converted to a museum that was well worth the visit.  We appreciated that they documented the stories of the workers, the whales and preserved the equipment and buildings and even one of the whale chasing boats, the Cheynes IV.  The whole experience was really well done.


Blue whale skeleton on display at the old whaling station
The coast line in the region is simply spectacular.  With white sand beaches, the ocean takes on the most amazing hues of blue and turquoise you can image.  Each beach is more beautiful than the other.  It was impossible to pick a favorite.





Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve


Hamming it up
One other thing that we really enjoyed in Albany was the availability of locally grown fruit and vegetables.  In fact the first weekend we were here, the was a small Saturday market a local church.  There were about 10 or so stands, mostly older women selling jams and marmalades.  We learned the Albany also has the best marmalade we ever tasted!  In fact is was so good, we called one of the makers and went to her farm to buy more! 

3 comments:

  1. Great progress and thanks so much for sharing! It looks like it just doesn't pay to hug the coast. I'm hoping the rest of your voyage goes as well as the capes. :)

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  2. Hope you enjoyed Albany. Home Port of Taipan.
    Enjoy the crossing

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  3. HI again, Not sure what yacht club you're in but it may be the one with the photo on the wall in the bar of a huge wave with a pod of pilot whales leaping out of it. This was taken in the Tasman Sea and I looked at it daily before we set off to cross the Tasman some years ago. However we experienced days of total calm, an eerie flat sea surface with no swell like the doldrums. We also saw the luminous discs you describe along with pipe like forms as well. We motored through them for hours. Very unusual.

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