Two Australian sailors have crossed Bass Strait – one of the most difficult ocean racing crossings – in a 14ft skiff. Their intention? To raise awareness of the Tasmanian Devil’s near extinction.

Bass Strait is well known to ocean sailors world wide as the treacherous crossing in the annual Sydney to Hobart race. The winds whip the Southern Ocean into vast seas, which pass under the southern coast of Australia before hitting the shallow waters of Bass Strait and the landmass of Tasmania. This can occasionally turn the waters into a maelstrom.

Adrian Beswick and Josh Phillips (pictured) left Tasmania’s north west coast at 06:00 on Tuesday (17 March) and traveled with one mainsail and one spinnaker.

“It was slower than we expected,” Josh explained. “We had two to three metre swells and the seas were pretty choppy. We wanted to put up a spinnaker and go all the way under kite but we had to drop it because we kept nose-diving the boat and tipping over!”

To find out more, visit www.strait4devils.com.au .