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......