Quoin Bluff to Geraldton

Geraldton Again…..

From Quoin Bluff to Gero

Did I say light conditions?  Beat me senseless with a silk ribbon and wash my mouth out with champagne   ( I have a low pain threshold!! J) ………Well it started as light winds and beautiful sunny conditions.  We motored the 5 hours through Shark Bay down to Steep Point.  Coming out through Steep Point we nearly came a cropper as we hadn’t noticed the breakers coming on from the swell off to the port side as the sea came across a shallow area.  We did a sharp turn to starboard and thankfully missed the opportunity to do a Hawaii 5-0 style stunt up the  front of the incoming breaker.

Phew!!  Emergency averted!

Back out on the Indian ocean the swell wasn’t too bad at about 2 metres and the wind about 15 knots, more or less on the nose …usual reciprocal wind situation, so we tacked out to sea to avoid the fall out from the surf hitting the Zuytdorp cliffs.

Motor sailing some of the way and sailing where possible, we bagan the long journey back to Gero.

The first night was motor-sailing and just motoring some of the way in light winds with minimal (2m) swell.  The sky was clear and the milky way looked amazing.  Mike said he saw several shooting stars during his watches.  I had taken seasickness tablets, so for the first time ever, I was able to read whilst we were going along and made the most of my new ability!

The second day wasn’t too bad either, light winds again.  The wind started picking up late arvo and we were trucking along at 6.5-7 knots with full sail on 15-18 knots of breeze.  We discussed reefing the main, but decided to wait until after I had had my arvo nap prior to my 6pm watch.  At about 5pm I got flung across the aft bed and then heard Mike shouting for me go get upstairs.  I shot up the companionway to see him fighting with the wheel trying to stop the boat rounding up and yelling at me to get the genny away.  Hair flying everywhere, I started to wind in the genny, being very careful not to get my hair caught in the winch. When the genny was away I chucked it up into its usual bun and then took the wheel to head up and get the main away.  I am not fond of the in boom furling system.  It takes too bloody long to put the main away. You can just drop it into the lazy jacks, but then you end up with a mess that you still have to put away…and that would not be easy in storm conditions.  As usual the weather forecast (on 3 websites) had predicted 15 knot winds and some light rain….a little different from the 35 knot winds we were experiencing.  Mental note to self, when you think about reefing, don’t just think about it DO IT!!  If you’re thinking about it then it is likely that you will need to do it…if you get my drift!

We had chucked the engine on in order to keep the boat head to wind whilst we were pulling the main down, we turned back on course and let out a small scrap of heady to balance the boat a little and carried on our way.  Overnight the cloud came in and we ended up donning full wet weather gear.  A couple of greenies over the side kept us awake.  At about 0600 hours the skies really opened and visibility was very reduced just as we were in sight of Gero and trying to negotiate our way around some of the big ships at anchor.  Luckily most of these were lit up like Christmas trees due to the poor viz, so that wasn’t too much of a problem.  Winds hit 35 knots again and together with the driving rain made conditions rather horrid!  However the boat handled them well.

We got to the entrance to the marina in Geraldton at about 0830 hours.  It was not easy to see in the conditions and Mike was convinced the entrance was further to port, until we got up closer (too close before you could really mae it out!).  We hung around outside for a while until the winds subsided to around 25 knots and then took our chance and surfed into the harbour….what a relief to get out of that boiling sea.

We made a beeline for the first T head that we spied and tied up on there…I didn’t realise that I was kneeling in Guano, until I stood up and looked at my wet weather trousers…not nice!

We helped Nick and Robyn to Tie up when they finally found their way into the marina.  Turned out they had a problem with possibly a gear box…something wasn’t making a very nice noise anyway.  They’d had a few other equipment problems also en route.

We had booked into Gero marina via email to the DPI, who were very helpful, before we got there, but didn’t want to risk trying to go into the pens in high winds, so we had bacon sangers , showered and hit the sack.  I had been in bed around 10 mins when there was a knock on the hull and the DPI chap had come down with the paperwork and the key, so that was good.  There are showers and a laundry facility within the marina.  Nice to get some R and R after 44 ½ hours at sea.  Hats off to our friends Jill and Paul, who have just completed an ocean crossing totalling 24 days….don’t know how they do it!  We are knackered after 2!!!

Met up with Mike from Zen Again who is bringing his yacht back down to FSC from Indonesia.  He was unfortunate to come into Gero at 10pm last night and ran into an unlit and uncharted fish farm just outside the marina.  Scratched up his hull and had to get Sea Rescue to pull him off.  Stupid place to put a fish farm!  Mind you having to negotiate round all the bloody cray pots that are littered around the lead lines and shipping channels around here was also dangerous, especially if we had hooked one in the conditions we came in under.  Shouldn’t be allowed!

Went for lunch at Skeeters and then had the sundowner on Zen again with Mike.  Beans on toast for tea…couldn’t be arsed to cook – didn’t need it anyway after lunch and the sundowner.  Sometimes just a simple meal is call for and today was one of those times……