Monkey Mia again :) to Quoin Bluff

Friday 16^th May

Left the G spot (Guichenault Point) early at 0800 hours and travelled back south to Monkey Mia again, as Jermey and Margie on Moonshadow had order some new sheets (rope to all you landlubbersJ) for their heady, to replace their old and fraying ones.

It was wonderful to be back at MM after the unrestful nights worrying about dragging anchor at the G spot.    We had a lovely couple fo days their walking miles along the beach and seeing the shovel nosed rays in the shallows.  The second day there, we had taken the dinghies across to the mangroves and had watched the fish jumping out of the  water and seen a stone fish…lucky no one stepped on that one!

We had a wonderful weekend at MM again, enjoying the café (and the coffee) and doing a run over the Denham in TInika and Bills car to reprovision…which was good…I was down to my last 6 bottles of Champers!  J

Wednesday 21^st May

Midday..

Just leaving Quoin Bluff after the most amazing 2 days.  Arrived at Quoin Bluff on Monday early afternoon after a wonderful and fast sail from Monkey Mia, with the wind on the beam most of the way and anything from 8 knots to 18 knots. 

Leaving Monkey Mia at 0400 hours and also leaving Moonshadow and our good friends Margie and Jeremy who are to continue on their journey north to Darwin.  We wish them all the best.  Margies sister Tinika and her hubby Bill have been fantastic, doing a couple of BBQs for us and loaning us their car twice during our stay so that we could get more provisions.  They are on hols at MM for another month before they head home to Perth, so at least Margie and Jeremy still have company whilst they stay at MM

Setting off was problematic when our friends  on DS radio’d to say that their engine wouldn’t start again, but then radio’d back 10 mins later and admitted that they had the CF award for that day…had been pressing the kill switch instead of the engine start button in the dark!  …happens to everyone!  J

Quoin Bluff has very little written about it in the cruising guide, but it is a truly beautiful place and we had some wonderful experiences with the local watery fauna.

Arriving just after 2pm, we had a dolphin escort into the bay and could see some large rays, either mantas (not sure if they come down this far) or eagle ray pectoral fins were sticking out the water and then disappearing.

Anchoring at Quoin Bluff is easy in 2.5-3 metres of water with good sandy bottom over mud.  Excellent holding.  We were about 0.3 NM from shore and landing on the sandy beach was easy, as we kept away from the landed sea grass to the southern end of the beach.

We went for a short walk ashore on Monday after arriving and settling in.  We found the remnants of a building and bumped into a couple off a small power boat who pointed out the remains of the stone Guano jetty which is right in the south corner of the bay…starting to get munched by sand flies, we retreated to the boat for a sundowner and to plan what we were going to do during the next few days.

Wonderful restful night in perfect anchoring conditions with very little light winds from the south and no swell.  The following day we had morning coffee on ours and then headed to shore where we began a long trek along the beach and then up the bluff.  From here we could see the beautiful  but shallow waters of the bay which houses Egg island.  Stunning views across both bays from the top of the Bluff.

We reached the edge, taking care not to treat on any overhangs that might give way.  As we stared down into the crystal clear waters from the top of the bluff, Mike made the comment…”well this is supposed to be Shark Bay and we haven’t seen any sharks!’  A few minutes later as if on cue and much to our delight.…one came swimming along the shore line.  Nick got some excellent photos of it and several other sharks, one of which looked like a tiger and the others may have been grey reef (pointier noses!), but difficult to tell in the shadows of the ripples in the water.  From our vantage point on the Bluff, we also saw several large sting rays (appearances in keeping with eagle rays) and several turtles, one of which looked like a large leatherback.  A huge sea eagle soared overhead and we spotted 2 massive nests on the cliff face.

Our walk took about 4 hours and we returned to the boats hungry and headed over to DS for some pancakes…as they had loads of pancake mixes left, which had to be eaten.

Planned to take off at lunch time.  Back to our boat for a well earned rest and watched a video before crashing for the night.  We had another wonderful night in perfect conditions with a tiny easterly breeze and no swell.  Following morning after brekkie, we motored across to the end of the bluff in the dinghy and drifted back towards the shore from there.  Hoping to see some more sea life close up (especially the sharks).  We were rewarded with huge numbers of sting rays, both eagle rays and blue spotted rays, turtles….and one tiny shark about 75cm long..  The sea eagle circled overhead.  still cant complain.

Left Quoin Bluff at midday on our way to Geraldton.  I have to say it has been one of Mikes and my favourite places.  Restful nights and lots of interaction with the sea life   Mike even saw the tail of what he thought was a Dugong on the way out of Quoin bluff.  It is so calm today that I am able to write this as I am going along.  This is a first for me…I normally get very seasick even looking at a book.  So I am quite chuffed at this achievement!  J

We now have a 40 hour sail to Gero in light winds with minimal swell, so shouldn’t hopefully be too bad, even if it is 2 overnighters.  We will be keeping in close company with DS and have arranged pens for when we get there with the DPI (who have been very good BTW)…so can rest up then before our onward journey south to Dennison and the cold weather.  BRRRRRRR!  (not looking forward to that)