STN 0 · The bow
Crewed sailing from North Haven: day sails on Gulf St Vincent, and three to five days across Investigator Strait to anchorages on Kangaroo Island’s north coast. One yacht, a skipper and a cook, and eight guests at most.
From North Haven
Wind from
Beyond a day’s sail on this wind. The skipper would wait for a better one.
Pick where you’d like to wake up and turn the wind. The line is the quickest way across for this boat on that breeze, worked out half an hour at a time. A tack turns the bow through the wind; a gybe turns the stern through it. Illustrative wind and routing, drawn for this page. Not for navigation.
STN 2 · Beam 3.30 m · Foredeck
To port
Out of North Haven in the morning and a long reach down the Gulf (a reach: the wind across the side of the boat), lunch at anchor in a quiet bay, and back alongside by late afternoon. Up to eight guests.
To starboard
Three, four or five days across Investigator Strait to anchor under Kangaroo Island’s north coast. Nights at anchor, walks ashore, swims off the step, and home on the wind that suits.
A kedge is a second, smaller anchor, rowed out ahead and set so a boat can haul herself off a sandbank or hold her head to the swell. It is the patient part of seamanship, and we took our name from it.
STN 3 · Beam 4.15 m · Mast and chart table
The evening before a passage, the skipper sits at the chart table with the forecast and a pot of tea. The anchorage isn’t fixed when you book. It is chosen for shelter from the wind we expect: a south-westerly sends us to the lee of Emu Bay, a northerly might keep us tucked into the Bay of Shoals.
Some mornings the right call is another day in the Gulf, a long breakfast and a sail along the coast, and we make it without fuss. The sea sets the timetable. We set the table.
STN 5 · Beam 5.00 m · Saloon
Tea at the helm, a long reach, lunch in a bowl, the anchor down before dinner.
One long table seats everyone aboard, with the hatch open overhead, the chart unfolded at one end and a shelf of books along the other. It is where breakfast happens, where the skipper talks through the day’s wind, and where the afternoon goes quiet.
The saloon is the widest part of the boat and the steadiest. When she heels, the settees hold you; when she’s at anchor, the portlights frame the bay like pictures on a wall.
From the passage you planned at the bow. Illustrative.
STN 7 · Beam 4.86 m · Galley
The cook plans the menu around the passage and the season and makes it all aboard, from the bread in the galley oven to the fish on the grill. Tea, coffee, lemonade and cold juice from the icebox, whenever you want them.
Tell us what you don’t eat when you ask about dates, and the cook plans around it.
| Day | Breakfast | Lunch | Dinner |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eggs, flatbread, tomatoes | Chicken and freekeh salad | King George whiting on the grill, lemon, potatoes, green salad |
| 2 | Yoghurt, Kangaroo Island honey, stone fruit | Lunch ashore: bread from the galley oven, cheese, figs | Lamb shoulder slow-cooked under way, pomegranate, flatbread |
| 3 | Shakshuka | A picnic under way | Home by dinner |
STN 8 · Beam 4.60 m · Cabins
Nights at anchor, with the Southern Cross to the south.
Looking south · 18° up
Four double cabins, each with fresh linen, a reading light and an opening hatch over the berth. At anchor the only light in the bay is ours, at the masthead, and the skipper keeps an anchor watch through the night: a look at the chain, the wind and the shore every so often, as good practice asks.
Star positions from the Yale Bright Star Catalogue, placed for your own clock at the anchorage you chose.
STN 9 · Beam 4.30 m · Cockpit
The helm is yours whenever you want it, and the skipper sails her either way. Nobody needs to have sailed before. Take the wheel for an hour, trim a sheet as the breeze comes round, learn a knot or two, or sit on the high side with a cup of tea and watch the island come up.
STN 10 · Beam 4.00 m · Swim step
Tell us roughly when, and how many. We’ll come back with the dates that suit the season and the boat. Passages run in the warmer months; day sails, most of the year.