Turtle Bay Abrolhos Islands

Well here we are at beautiful Turtle Bay in the Abrolhos islands.  Approximately 50kms off the coast of Geraldton.  Large 4m swell, so very surgy with all boats dancing around on their moorings like complete lunatics!  Going to dive the reef here later in the week when the winds and swell settle a bit.

The sail over was fairly uneventful apart from the fact that Divided sky couldn't lift their anchor at Gero, as it was entwined in another old discarded anchor.  We had already lifted anchor and headed out...then started to head back as we realised that the problem wasn't resolving...thinking that we might have to go for a dive to retrieve it.  Fortunately Nick and Robyn managed to find a way to untangle it and we headed off.  Our main halyard got tangled up i the faulty winch AGAIN!!  Must remember to keep a close eye on it when we are using it so that it doesn't happen again.  Very swell, rolly ride over and seasickness was rife. The only people that didn't get sea sick were Robyn (divided Sky) and Jeremy from Moonshadow.  Mike and I (and Margie) all ended up taking stemitil.  It knocked me unconscious...I crashed (completely oblivious) downstairs for about 1 1/2 hours!

It wasn't until we were  about half way here that we realised that we probably had miscalculated the time and speed ratio required to get here before dark and the wind had swung around straight on the nose. There's so much reef around here, we wouldn't like to be coming in after lights out....it is really really dark here...no street lights.  So we ended up motor sailing for the last few hours.  Got in, hooked up and then their was the issue of trying to get hold of Geraldton Sea rescue to log off....pity they didn't tell us they knocked off at 6 when we rang to extend our ETA at 1630!  Anyway, thank god (or Mum and Dad) for the Sat Phone...managed to get hold of sea rescue, Mum and Dad and also let Nick and Robyn's son and partner know we had arrived OK.

Went for a sundowner on Moonshadow (about 50 metres away) and couldn't see AV at all in the dark (didn't put the anchor light on did we!) luckily we did take a torch with us and got back safely.

Not having an issue with power at the mo, wind genny working on full power..blowing in excess of 20 knots here.

Heard some sad news today about a guy we know from FSC who hit a submerged object in his yacht on Saturday 80kms south of Perth and had to be winched to safety as his beloved boat and home sank....Poor guy.  Thinking of you mate.  Glad you got off OK.

Been for a walk on the Island this morning.  Checked out the Osprey nests.  The islands are very wild and untamed.  No large trees grow on the islands it is just bushes and low lying plants.  Must have looked very bleak to shipwreck survivors in the 17th 18th and 19th centuries.

Mike has managed to fix one of the speakers on AV so we now have mono sound, which is much better than nothing...not used to having no music...funny how you miss stuff when you haven't got it!

On that note, we will probably be staying around here for at least the next few days, there are roaring easterlies forecast for Shark bay, which is our next destination, until friday, so will probably stay put until those settle a bit...we will just go with the flow.

Taking lots of photos, but they are not uploading onto the main computer for some reason, so haven't been able to put them on the blog...will have to investigate this further, see what I can do.......until next time......

one week in...

Well here we are one week into the adventure and we have only got as far as Geraldton, where we are anchored in front of the yacht club.

Mum and Dad saved the day AGAIN by bringing much needed supplies up to Port Denison, the day before yesterday.  This included a new wind genny as ours has ceased to function and was B.E.R (Beyond Economical Repair) even if we had been able to get the parts.  So Mum and Dad did the 400k drive each way to come and bring us a new one.  They also brought a new olar power kit up for nick and Robyn as well as a special cable for the AIS, which we still can't get to work in order to receive info, because it needs an update on an old (and small) "card" which we don't have!!  Never mind, other ships can still see us - lucky them!!  Hopefully will stop Mike trying to crash into the next one!!  :)

Got Mum and Dad to run all the boys down to the Petrol station, whilst they were here and fill up all the jerry cans.  Nick was then filling his tank on board with the Jiggle hose (more commonly known as the "Vankenhosen" (said with a german accent), which was a name I came up with after approaching Nick from behind whilst he was using the Jiggle hose one day (not having seen one before) and wondering what one earth he was doing...you have to use your imagination here!  :)  Robyn still laughs about the expression on my face from that day i first was it being used.  Anyway the name stuck and it emulated such a belly laugh that Mike ended up getting  a Vankenhosen for his birthday from Nick and Robyn!!  :)

Took Mum and Dad for lunch at the Starfish South Beach Cafe whilst they were here.  Really nice home made burger patties.....

We had a beautiful time at Denison.  Cant really remember what we did, but we were busy all day every day.  There was a lot of socialising with Moonshadow and Divided Sky.  We would get up and have brekkie, then have morning tea at the cafe on or someones boat, followed by lunch and then a sundowner with the other guys again and finally dinner (hen we could fit any in) and bed.

Did 2 lots of washing..lugged them over to the caravan park at Denison (who kindly let us use their showers and laundry for a small fee).  The boat ended up looking like Mrs Chins laundry.  Spent a fortune at the local shop - prices there were extortionate in comparison to Perth.

Had a superb sail up to Gero today. on a broad reach most of the way here, before the wind swung around from behind again.  I am managing very well now to cook downstairs whilst we are going along without vomiting, so Robyn is very proud of me....I will soon be up to her standard of a 3 course meal!!

Anyway gotta go....safely anchored outside Gero Yacht club....off for another sundowner on divided sky...oh what a hard life.....  :)    I can think of worse things we could be doing!!

...And we're off..........

...and we're off!  Left on Saturday morning at about 11.20 hours and did a short hop up to Hillaries yacht club, so that we could leave Freo, but also so that we could call for any supplies to be dropped off that we had inadvertently left behind!

As we left Freo and had our friends on Anki heading towards us to say good bye...we suddenly lost the steering.  We had notice that the steering was very stiff under load before we bought the boat, but we thought the problem had been sorted.  It was now locked in position and I could not move it.  I shouted to mike that the steering had seized.  He then tried to move the wheel and couldn't. He then was frantically pulling everything out if the back locker to see if something had caught on the steering cables when he heard a familiar ziiiiiip, ziiiip zip ziiiiiiiip sound.....red faced he looked up...."the auto helm is on!"  What a pair of plonkers...someone must have inadvertently pushed the button as they moved passed!, emergency averted, we called up our cruising buddies and admitted our faux pas!  The cluster f**k (CF) award goes to us today me thinks!!

I forgot to tell the pen mistress at Hillaries how wide the 2 Catalina's were and unfortunately we were both too wide for the allocated pens and consequently spent the night on the collector jetty, praying that no one wanted to get out of their pen in the night!  Fortunately they didn't and we slept well.  We were up at 0530 hours to leave at first light, which was about 0630  hours. We motor sailed for the first part of the day until the wind came up and then turned the engine off and sailed through the night until the wind dropped again at 0530 hours, when we put the motor on again until it picked up again at 0800 hours.  During the night we had a close call with a container ship.  Mike had radio'd Divided Sky to get a position, telling them that we had snuck into the lead. Nick had thought we were still behind them. I went downstairs to get my head down for a few hours before my watch and then Mike called down to say that they were in fact still in front, as he could see their stern lights......next thing he knew was that the stern light has got very close and were situated aboard a rather large vessel which loomed out of the gloom straight at us! Obviously not taking any notice of the radar, which we did have together with a radar reflector!  Anyway a severe case of 'they were much bigger than us' and within 200m which is too damn close, so Mike took evasive action to get out of their way.  Otherwise great night sail in good conditions.  AV sailed well with no major issues.  We were in over a KM of water travelling about 25km off shore.

The following morning brought more light winds however the motor went off at 0800 hours and stayed off until midday.  at about 11a.m we were joined by a pod of about 50 Common dolphins surfing the bow wave and playing chicken by shooting across in front of the bow.  Not like the ones off Freo who play for about 2 minutes if you are lucky...these guys stayed with the yacht and played for about 45 minutes, which was wonderful!  :)

Divided Sky had, meanwhile snuck passed us and were scooting along.  I was sitting in the cockpit thinking to myself that Aqua Vitae did not like it up the arse, (God.... that sounds rude!! :/),   she preferred it hard on (that's worse!!!!:/ :/)  I was of course referring to the position of the wind.  Moonshadow seems to like it from behind and DS wasn't doing badly either.  AV was like a slug.  We tried in vain to make her go faster, but in the end we had to admit defeat and resorted to the "sail trim" book to see what we were doing wrong.  Made all the adjustments...and still didn't go any faster.  We then resorted to the iron sail (engine) to keep the speed up between the swells, otherwise we were not going to make it before dark and going into port after dark is not a good idea.

DS was doing well; they managed (with their boom break) to gull wing, we put the heady away in the end and just had the main out, easier to control in rolly conditions.  We were making good speed 6.5-7.5 knots with the motor ticking over.

When it came time to turn in toward the leads for Port Dennison,  DS radio'd back that there were hoards of cray pots at the point where we needed to turn!  NICE...NOT!!  We didn't know if they were all tied together somehow or not, so after deliberating and cogitating for some time, made a dash across the line of pots and didn't snag anything.

AV then took off, hitting 9.8 knots at one point, averaging between 7.5 and 8.5 knots...we were at Dennison in no time at all....and then it happened .....the engine wouldn't start!!

Bugger~!!!  and a few more expletives too rude to write here.

I steered the yacht under mainsail only whilst Mike tried flushing the fuel lines and changing the filters, (the engine hatch hit him in the head, so he dropped one of them in the bilge) but in the end it still wouldn't start, so we had to call sea rescue for a tow into Dennison, as sailing into Port in the dark, into the wind would have been impossible and downright dangerous.  We pottered around for 10-15 mins or so outside Dennison in the dark waiting for Sea Rescue, we managed to get the main 3/4 furled away and dropped the rest into the  lazy jacks and then put a small amount of heady out so that we had some steerage, which we put away when sea rescue arrived.  They came out and towed us in with no problems at all and pushed us into the jetty, where some of the locals helped us to tie up.  People in these smaller communities are always so helpful and we really liked Port Dennison the last time we were here, but this wasn't quite the dignified entry that we were hoping for!!!

Doug from Grey Douglas, had arrived the day before and scooted over in his dinghy to give us a hand  with the engine and putting the rest of the mainsail away. (thanks Doug, that was much appreciated!! :).  Seems like their was a load of crap in the fuel (judging from what came off the filter), it must have got stirred up when we were rolling around out there with the engine going and then blocked the lines when we healed over to make our final approach without the engine on.  Anyway, still wouldn't start, so we had a couple of stiff drinks, showered and crashed.  both got a good nights sleep and Mike sorted the problem out first thing this morning and we moved the boat onto a mooring, before going for brekkie at the local cafe.   Then trotted down to the chandlery to get some more spares and then back to the boat.

Need to do some laundry, quick arvo snooze and then it will be time for the sundowner and Barbie.

Heading off to Geraldton (Gero) day after tomorrow and then probably out to the abrolhos islands.

The Final countdown has begun!

Photo by Jeremy Dixon Photography

Had a little boat christening for the 2 new Catalinas Aqua Vitae and Divided Sky on the VIP jetty Saturday with lots of champers, nibbles and loads of good friends and family.  Frantic day getting everything ready but had a great evening.... got totally Ozzied!!  :0).  Haven't done that for years...liver definitely is not used to that any more!! Total lightweight these days.

Slept on the boat that night.... Mike reckons my snoring kept him awake(me, snore??....Noooooo - i have never heard me anyway!!! :)...that and the fan for the fridge going on every time he dropped off, plus the Yacht banging against the jetty in between!  I was unconscious, so didn't hear any of it!

Anyway, much the worse for wear, went for Brekkie with Nick and Robyn from Divided Sky the following morning feeling very very seedy...

Had to take Aqua Vitae out for a sail on Sunday, as we have only been out in her twice, once for the test sail and the second time we headed over to Garden Island.  She sails really well, heels over and takes off...but sailing with a queasy stomach on any boat is not nice!!  it was 2 O clock before my stomach settled down...but we needed to get out in the boat to get used to her and see how she handled partially loaded.  Jeremy and Margie on Moonshadow followed us out and then we did a big U turn and snuck up behind them.  We had a fabulous sail to a couple of KMs north of Rotto and then did a U"ey and turned round and headed home.  She cruises well, up to 8 knots, averaging about 7, with the heady 1/3 furled most of the way.  Got back about 3 on sunday after our sail, absolutely exhausted and headed home to a yummy roast (thanks Mum) and early night.  Found that the front hatch on the boat was a bit leaky on the cruise, so Mike headed down to the boat tonight and fixed it. Such a dab hand at everything...talented is Mike!!

Few more days at work and then we are off!!!  Cant believe it is finally happening after all this time planning....but can't wait...