The Cleanup for Upper Primary Day 3 : 19-02-2017

After a day’s sailing through some rough, messy seas. we are finally anchored last night at Ketchem Bay. I created this map below before we began the journey to keep track of important places for people travelling by boat to this place. See if you can locate Ketchem Bay and why do you think it's important for boat people?

Today my inquiry question was: What are the characteristics of the land and coastal waters of Southwest Tasmania?

Captain Adam knows all about this because he has been working on his boat in these waters for about 30 years. He said, “Sailing these waters you sometimes get peaceful weather but often the wind, waves and swells combine to make it very challenging. I love it!"

Now our boats are anchored for the night in a sheltered bay. On the shore the bush drops steeply down to jagged light-coloured rocks which are continually smashed by the waves.

The land has a pre-historic feel. If you asked me for a list of words to describe this land I would say:

- rugged
- steep
- wind-blown
- rocky

Some of the land is covered by very dense bush, in other places there are grassy areas. In fact I can’t see any places where the ground is flat except for one narrow beach!

The first few meters of water are a mass of swirling kelp and the sea is full of fish, seabirds and seals. I can’t wait to dive down there and see what lives in these waters.

Nobody really lives in this place, it is only visited by Park rangers, fishermen and a few other tough adventurers such as bushwalkers.

I think one of the reasons this place is so wild and unspoiled is that it is so hard for people to get here and when they do get here it is so hard to move around on land.

Another reason is the weather! Have a look at this map that shows where all the rain falls in Australia, as you can see SW Tasmania gets more rain than just about anywhere else.

I think that this landscape must have been shaped by the rain, storms and winds, but I wonder if there are any other factors? Can you find out for me please?
Before I left I found some information on a Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife website but didn’t have time to read study it. Please read it and help me answer if you can.

One of the other people on our boat is Rex, who is a professional drone pilot! How’s that for a cool job? He has lots of flying machines and camera gear with him.
Tomorrow morning Rex is going to use his drone to help Rachael (one of the scientists on our boat) get photos of a seal colonies near here. She will use these photos to count the numbers of seal pups.

If the weather is good tomorrow we will sail around to Spain Bay and start cleaning our first beaches.

Until my next report: This is Pat - signing out.