Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

Monday 20th October we left Geraldton on a lovely sultry day. Perfect for motoring, or sailing, so luck was with us for once. The staysail that we borrowed from Rob worked a treat giving us more speed and stability while motoring. As we were travelling, we were accosted by blow flies, bush flies, wasps, midges and anything else that pesters or stings with wings! Port Denison was the first stop on our way back home. We arrived just after lunch, soon after another yacht, ‘Mind’s Eye’ who had also left Geraldton that morning. We picked up an anchorage and rowed ashore to try to get some relief from all the bugs and to cool down. It was actually HOT! It was not much better at nightfall and there was a notable absence of wind. What’s the use in hanging around here we ask? So we drop the mooring line and start on the next leg to Jurien Bay.

Gee, how lucky can you get, we dropped anchor at 8.15AM, just as the wind starts to howl in. While Steve slept, I watched the locals going to and fro on the town beach and thanking our lucky stars that we were not out in that weather. At 4PM we decided we better fuel up (don’t like this noisy, smelly engine stuff, oh for a mast) and head for the fuelling jetty. While there, Mind’s Eye ties up to the jetty as well, after a stressful sail from Port Denison in those awful winds. And the winds are just starting to die down now! Looks like another night trip. We head off at 6PM, into a spectacular sunset. There is nothing much between Freo and Jurien Bay for yachts to berth, thus while the going is good, we might as well make Rotto the next stop. Dropped anchor at Thompson Bay early afternoon, again just as the wind started to pick up. On the way we saw more whales, but as we have the motor on, they do not come as close. Maybe that is lucky as Mind’s Eye hit a whale on their way back from Geraldton last year and had to head to port for emergency repairs.

Thompson Bay on Rotto was deserted, probably cause it was ssssooo cold. We anchored windward of a big mooring, so that if we dragged (there is always that possibility as it is thin sand over rock there) we would just pick up the mooring. They are touchy there if you pick up a mooring and it is wiser just to try the anchor. Steve was intrigued by the maze of chain near the mooring and decided to investigate. It was too cold to dive so on goes the goggles and snorkel, and he plonks his head under the water to have a gander, while he is on the marlin board at the back of the boat. I am down below and I heard a plaintive wail. It sounded like ‘help Ally, come and give me a hand’ but I wasn’t sure. I mean to say, Steve sounded so far away, and when has he needed my help? Confused, I make my way to the back of the boat, glancing around for the camera as I go (didn’t find it though) and getting there JUST in time to see Steve FALL in the water. Really, I could not catch him, Really and Truly!!! Oh I do wish I had found that camera........

We left Rotto the next morning and motored to Freo, arriving just after lunch. It was good to see Mum and the kids again and catch up with the guys at the Freo club as well. The weather report was for a blow from the north tomorrow (Friday) so it was reassuring that we were secure for that as well. The next day blew and at nightfall, a fierce squall came through and we enjoyed watching masts of yachts in the pens swaying dramatically. Glad we were tucked up like a bug in a rug. Saturday morning we waken to a commotion outside and stick our heads out bleary eyed (I mean it was REAL early) and see Knee Deep trying to squeeze into the small gap behind us. No go though and they ended up, rafting to the FSC support vessel. They had just finished the Geraldton Return race in record time (along with 3 other yachts) after sailing in those stormy conditions for the entire race. Lots of torn sails, but easy fixed with a sail maker as part of the crew.

I was going to a sleepover at Mums place for the night, and Trev and Brownie were going to keep Steve company at Pig Trough Bay off Garden Island. They were under orders to catch heaps of squid, but did they listen, NOOOOOO! When I met them at Rockingham, after my bonding time with Mum(who had been great keeping her nervousness about the trip from me for the full 6 months) I saw nothing.... The boys had anchored next to the Silvery Wave, our old gaff rigger. She was looking neglected and sad. Inti was anchored nearby and when Rob came over later that day, we resumed our discussions with him. There is so much that guy knows about cruising and his stories keep you dreaming. By now Trev has nicked off so he could go to work and we head off for the last leg, as it looks like windy weather coming again soon.
Monday morning we left at 7.30 am and were soon bogged trying to find the channel under the Garden Island Causeway. After that time flew and by lunch time we were tying up to our pen with Gary and Evas help.

I was happy to be home, but not happy to have ended the trip. Steve just wanted to go out fishing again. Lots to do at home though as we were starting work in less than a week. Time flew and soon it was the weekend. I was already missing the sailing and competed in the dinghy racing. The following Sunday I had a new crew, Mady on the sharpie. We had lots of capsize practice, as any good coach knows that all the safety drills need to be done in theory and practicals. Sunseeker and Sail Away Too arrived that day after sailing through the night to get home. Also on that day a swarm of bees decided to make the wheel of a pushbike their home, not far from our yacht. The next day, while I was at work, they decided to find a new home. The club had tried to get someone to take them away but with no success. Well they swarmed over the boats, with Stan and Vinny shooing them off their boats, and headed for our way. Steve managed to close a few hatches on our boat and Gary and Evas, but Battlestar next door was wide open. Well we always said it was a comfortable boat and the bees thought so too. Rod turned up after work and Steve stirring him up while at work, armed with 2 spray cans and protective gear. He had no choice but to eradicate them, he is a brave man!

Life still has fun and excitement in it. We are definitely going cruising again and the sooner the better. It was the best cure I could have had for the fire trauma and I am happy again.
To all our friends, thank you for putting up with me when I went weird and everyone’s support. With all of your help, I have managed to go to a new phase of my life. No, it’s not old age, but it is finding the time to enjoy life with family and friends.
Just remember that you don’t stop playing when you get old, you just get old when you stop playing.

Bye until next time
Love Ally

Exmouth to Geraldton

9th September to 19th October

9th September 2008 –Tuesday
Left Exmouth after washing off heaps of the Dampier Red Dust while we were at the marina. We had submitted the form for payment from our visa to the marina office and emphasised that we were staying less than 24 hours. (This is because we had heard that the charges were excessive at this marina, and after Stan telling us that he was charged for 4 days when he had been there for 3, guessed that they were charging calendar days) Despite this, we were charged for 2 days and are still trying to get a refund after 5 weeks!!!! No wonder people say steer away as it is expensive.
Winds were light, but in the right direction so it was a slow and leisurely sail under spinnaker to the NW Cape and around. Wonderful, we could sit back and relax, not getting seasick and admiring the view. As we rounded the Cape, the winds picked up and were on the nose, once again. That’s OK as it meant we would be in Carnarvon quicker with the stronger winds. We were hoping to surprise Stan and Ros from Sunseeker and Vin and Rachel from Sail Away Too who would be leaving Carnarvon on Thursday Morning. We were zooming along when Freo decided we needed to practice our Man Nearly Overboard procedure. The kite went over, but was tied on so acted as a sea anchor. Steves lures that were trailing from the back wanted to get in on the act as well, and caught the kite, just in case! Can you imagine a 15m X 12m kite, wrapped up in fishing line, 2 lures, and wrapped around the keel? What a mess. Steve had to cut the kite in half---oh dear----aggghh!! I had had my eyes on the floating kite bag, but by the time the kite was free, that had sunk! Oh well, at least we still have the bullet proof kite left, and we DO tend to sail close hauled most of the time and rarely use the kite.
Just after 4 in the morning, the auto pilot broke, so Steve took Freo into Norweigen Bay for a rest and a repair. This is a huge bay that used to be a Whaling Base. Winds were about 20 knots and we were protected from the swell, but we still had waves and dragged anchor, however despite everything, managed to sleep a bit and at least have a bit of a rest. After fixing the auto pilot, left the bay at 11am and headed into a southerly buster. It was heavy going, so Steve took the opportunity to anchor at Point Maude, just north of Coral Bay for the night. A good night’s sleep makes things seem rosy, so we were off once again early the next morning. We had missed the guys at Carnarvon, but we were certain we would catch up soon. We tied up to the piles at Carnarvon, as we could not get into the yacht club due to our draft. The outboard shop had arranged to send the replacement outboard to one of the CYC member’s homes for us. When I rang them, they delivered the outboard to our boat, virtually as soon as we landed! Just our first taste of CYC hospitality. Romeo, who delivered our outboard, took me into town so I could do our shopping, while Steve worked on the boat (he was meant to be resting....)
Friday night was club night at the yacht club which took the form of food, drinks and socialising, so dressed in our good clothes, with our showering gear (nice hot showers there) we set off to the club. We took the dinghy into the beach and 2 CYC members met us there. Murray and Rosemary had seen us come in, assumed we were going to the club and waited on the shore to pick us up. The club was packed with members and yachties heading south. It was a good night with many tall tales told and lots of new friends.
After a few more minor repairs, we left Carnarvon at 11am on Saturday with an aim to catch up with the 2 other yachts in Monkey Mia, and it was a dream sail, on the nose of course, but the wind just took us straight there. We were having cuppas with Stan and Ros at Monkey Mia that night.
The Fitzgerald clan from White Magic was also there and we all enjoyed beach cricket. Karen and Trevor arrived on Monday morning after driving up from Mandurah and we were a whole family for a week. We had missed them and appreciated Karen for coming to stay on the boat, though she doesn’t like the boating life. Karen would commandeer the tender and go to shore frequently. I went Camel riding with Karen on the most friendly camels. Karen bought her camera with her as ours had stopped working in the Montes. It was great to be able to take pics while we were waiting on the arrival of a new camera. Trevor enjoyed the fishing with his Dad and Stan, but the windy weather was not conducive to dinghy fishing. We all sailed out to a weed bank further into the bay in Freo and saw Dugongs on the bank. With Trevor around it was necessary to play lots of ‘UNO’ with lots of fun had by all. Time flew and they had to go back to work and they left early on Sunday morning. It didn’t take them long to get back to a windy and wet Mandurah.
Sunseeker and Sail Away Too were still at Monkey Mia and I had a bit of fun taking Stan as skipper out in the Walker Bay sailing. We will have to call Stan ‘Captain Araldite’ as we were out for ages and Stan had a permanent smile on his face. The next day was Ros’s turn while the boys went fishing and Steve was baking. We had a lot of fun together and were a fair distance away when we decided we needed a sail adjustment. As we were adjusting the sail, Steve, up-anchored Freo and came over to ‘check’ on us. Cheeky! We came back under our own steam and after dropping off Ros, tied up to Freo and de-rigged. Soon Steve was pulling up the anchor of Freo as he decided that he needed to go for a sail as well. After a couple of hours we returned to anchor at MMia, after the local charter boat, which was once one of QLD’s fastest racing Cats tried to race us. (so we were told later, otherwise if we had realised, Steve would have taken in his fishing lures)
With all the boys being mad keen fishermen, they were constantly looking for different fishing spots. Vin offered to take us all on his cat to Faure Island, which is surrounded by shallow water. It was pleasant sail, though I still was seedy from sea sickness! Since the cat only draws 4’, we were able to anchor close to the island, in lovely clear water. There were a few very large turtles and as we approached the shore, there were lots and lots of reef and shovel nose (up to 6’ length) sharks swimming around in the shallows amongst the fish and rays. Steve caught a few shovel nose sharks by hand, and then let them go and the other boys had a good time trying. May be it was an age thing? It was a great place to go and the boys were already making plans for a re-visit.
It didn’t take long, 2 days in fact and Sunseeker and Freo headed off on an adventure to Faure Island again for an overnighter. After Ros and Stan sang happy birthday to Steve over the radio, we were off and sailing. It was a great sail there with Stan cheating and getting there without running aground on the numerous shifting uncharted sand banks. We had fun ploughing the banks trying to get where Stan had anchored. Eventually we made it after some smart alec comments from Steve that we should have bought a larger motor for the dinghy, more suitable for pulling a big yacht off a sand bar. Even after all that, we were both anchored a fair way off the island and had to motor in the dinghies a loooong way through choppy waters to land. We had heard there was an old homestead on the island and set off to find it. After following a fence for about 1.5km we saw a modern shed that looked like it was still being used. May be the farm is still being used? We pressed on to some palm trees that looked planted, keeping away from the new looking shed and found yards, windmill and water troughs that may? Still be in use. Now we were feeling were really trespassing so back the way we came to our dinghies. That night we had Stan and Ros on the boat for a slap up, Birthday meal for Steve.
The next day we decided to leave early as the forecast was for strong winds. (Though it was glassy calm at the moment) Stan set off and was bogged pretty quickly, so we re-anchored and Steve took the dinghy out to explore for deep water. In the end we decided that it was better with Steve on the bow indicating left or right, backwards or forwards as we slunk around the banks. Fun! Lucky there was no wind, what happened to the promised wind? We motored for the morning, only stopping to check for fishing spots on the way. No luck for the type of fish that Steve wanted though! Fussy...? Well the wind finally came so off goes the motor and up goes the jib and we were hooting. Sunseeker dropped their sails and started their motor. I don’t think we are thrill seekers......well may be we are. Sailed to the anchorage and once anchored, we noticed a cat drifting backwards. Steve was off in the dinghy pretty quick, but found once he was there, the boat had come to rest on a bank. At this moment Sunseeker was having trouble anchoring themselves so he was standing by in case they needed assistance. Fortunately, after a few minutes, the owners of the cat were seen running along the beach to their dinghy so they could rescue their cat. That night the wind was still blowing so we set the anchor alarm and got some shut eye. No problems, the anchor held and we had a decent night’s sleep. When we were having brekkie, Steve noticed that Sunseeker was dragging. After an un-answered radio call, Steve is off in the dinghy on another rescue mission, but when he is nearly there, we see Stan and Ros heading for their action stations and re-anchoring their boat to a position closer to us. It was then we found out that they had dragged during the night as well as losing their outboard from their dinghy when it was tangled in a mooring line! Now all that remains of the outboard are the brackets that were still on the dinghy. What a night that must have been for Sunseeker.
The wind was always blowing and blowing and we were thankful for our lovely anchor that held nicely. We were concerned for the cat that was always having problems with their anchor. This was highlighted the next night when we saw her adrift again! Steve was half way to her, when they raced out in their dinghy flat tach. We let them sort it out, but after noticing that they were aground, and they were trying to sail off the sandbar, which in fact was making the situation worse, we decided they probably needed help. Out of Sunseeker, Sail Away Too and us, we had the most powerful motor, so we thought we could try towing with Freo. After a couple of hours in choppy waters and heavy winds we managed to get her facing into the wind and an anchor off to windward. They then waited for high tide to motor off. The next morning we found them exhausted and stuck on ANOTHER sandbar, but not as bad. They were new to sailing and were learning the hard way.
Time to move on. The wind was still blowing, but maybe a downwind ride to the north of Peron Peninsula would be OK and not too stressful? With just the jib up, and furled at that, we were hurtling along at 8 knots. It didn’t take long, so we thought we would like to travel further. We were towing the dinghy and it was surfing the waves behind us, sometimes overtaking the yacht so it was pulled on board as soon as we had a bit of shelter. We were sailing well, just on the jib, despite having problems with the leach cord and anchored at Herald Bay, off Dirk Hartog Island for the night. After some temporary repairs to the Jib Leach cord and the required weather forecast (no different to many others before it), we headed off to Steep Point. This is a gap between the mainland and Dirk Hartog Island and offers good protected anchorages. We started motoring to try to save the jib, that was still having leach problems and just as well, as Steve caught a mackerel on the end of his Nicole Kidman Lure. Well he had caught a couple, but this one fought back and the lure got HIM. He had over ½ inch imbedded in his index finger to the bone. ‘I hate mackerel!!!!!’ At the same time we were just starting to negotiate a shallow channel. Well here I had Steve trying to get the hook out while I was guiding us through the sandbars before the channel and trying to get Steve to REST (an impossibility) By the time we had made the entrance of the channel, Steve had feinted while sitting in his chair after trying to twist the hook to pull the barb out. (Steve calls it ‘passed out’) His eyes were rolled up and he was making gurgling noises. Of course I left the steering as I was deeply concerned for my darling. It took a while for Steve to come to, and then all he concerned about was our course#*#!#! After getting back on course (we were in 33knots of wind and had a 4knot current against us) I was busy handing Steve all sorts of implements (rusty tools) to extricate the vicious hook. In my spare time I was navigating and trying to get Steve to wait till we could get to a doctor. Soon enough we were anchoring at Steep Point, but we could not rest as the tide verses the wind made Freo ride forward over the anchor chain. The best option here was to put out another anchor. This anchor was wedged aft in the very stern of the boat, and as it was 15kgs, I could not manoeuvre it out, so Steve has this lovely job, while he still had the fish hook in his finger. Ouch! I carted 40kg of chain from a forward locker, in stages. It’s amazing what a bit of adrenalin will do to add strength to a person. Now the boat was reasonably stable and we could concentrate on this stubborn hook. Steve asked me to try to bash it out with a pair of pliers. This had me worried as he has known me for over 23 years, and he should know by now that I CANNOT hit straight. I asked if he was sure, and he must have been desperate and said yes. Well, I was true to form, and wacked his sore finger 3 times before he said no more, no more, this is not working. Plan X was to hit his finger hard (I had already done this before but in a different way) with a bit of wood and that forced the point of the hook to the skin. Yeah! We had progress. With some small bolt cutters we cut the shank and Steve did his own surgery to get the rest out. Just as well he’s tough! Two anchors are not good, but they are better than none and we needed a rest so we left it at that, put the anchor alarm on and had a good night’s sleep. The next morning Steve dived on the anchors and as he was getting the second anchor ready for removal, he stirred up the bottom of the sea floor. A large Baldchin Groper came to investigate. This is a beautiful eating fish, but as we did not know the fishing rules regarding spear guns in this area, Steve had to let him be.
The next day (Wednesday) and favourable winds are predicted, so off we go again, out into the Indian Ocean, on our way to Geraldton. We were to meet Brownie there and have 1 week at the Abrolhos with him. It is a bit windy at the moment, but the direction, tide and forecast are right so with reefed sails we poked our nose around the point. Mmmmm, it is OK, the boat is sailing nicely and we settle into the old routine. Not for long though. Two of the expensive roller mainsail slugs come away (again), and as the seas were confused, we decided to head back in to wait for a better time when the mainsail is ready to go again.
The wind changed for the better that afternoon, and with a SW wind predicted, everything looked rosy, with the main back in order. Fantastic, looks like the weather bureau got it right (for once) we were making good headway, while waiting for that SW wind to take us back to the coast.
By Thursday the winds were STILL SSE (a very comfortable 18 knots though) and the SW wind was now predicted for Friday. Drat! Even though we had been having a lovely sail, we had gone a long way in the wrong direction, in anticipation for the SW, now we had to tack back towards the land. At lunchtime (12.30) we were eagerly awaiting the next forecast down below on the radio when we heard a swishing, then a bang, and both of us cried out in unison,’ we have lost the mast’ Steve ran out and made a quick assessment and called for the bolt cutters, which I was already getting. He was already cutting away halyards that were making the mast bash into the boat. A fitting had sheared at the bottom of the forestay and the mast let go where two sections had been joined with a sleeve in the mast. We had to cut away the rigging and lost the mast from the bottom spreaders up, along with the jib and furler. Gee, we were lucky we were on our way home and not at Cocos or Christmas Islands, but we were unlucky in that we had replaced our rig recently, and anything that had not been replaced, had been checked out professionally. The last thing we wanted was a mast to come down on us. We were 70nm NW of the Abrolhos and had enough fuel to get there. Steve jury rigged an aerial for the HF radio, and we called up the Water Police as a precaution, before making way again. We tied up to a mooring at 4.30am on Thursday at Turtle Bay and bunked down for some sleep. We had anchored next to a large motor boat called Awesome with 6 gentlemen on board. Bob who owned the boat siphoned diesel out of his tanks for us, and offered hot showers and any other aid we needed. By the end of the day we were having a sundowner on their boat, swapping yarns at a great rate. Bob also offered us his pen in Geraldton until Wednesday, which coincidently was next to a pen owned by Lusky, the former owner of ‘Freo’ (Lusky was also at the Abrolhos and due to return on Sunday)
Saturday 11th October we motored to Geraldton and finally had the elements with us and made better time than anticipated, making Geraldton by 1pm. We rang friends and family, went shopping and cleaned the boat. Steve was in bed fast asleep early and missed out on the music and fireworks that Geraldton put on for us (actually it was the opening of a new looking esplanade public area) Sunday was spent hosing down the boat and getting it presentable for Lusky and the insurance people. Lusky had already heard, and his comment to Steve was ‘what have you done to my boat?’
The Insurance people were on the ball as well, coming over for a preliminary look on that Sunday, followed by another on Monday. Geraldton proved to be a nice place, despite the rolling surge that is always there. The pens would creak and groan so we opted to go out of the marina and anchor in front of the club, as it happens on the start/finish line. There was a twighlight race that night and the locals reckoned that having a largish yacht in the middle of the line made the race more interesting. The yacht club is a lovely old club that is in the process of being re-furbished. The new look esplanade has given it a new look with a grassed area replacing the old railway. Sunday was also the yacht club opening day and I was able to meet some of the regulars (Steve already knew many people as he has sailed many Geraldton Races) We had a yacht anchor next to us by the name of Inti and she was a classy looking boat. We were surprised to learn that she was a next generation lightweight ferro-cement yacht that drew only 1 m with a swing keel and would sail to windward very well. Rob who sailed on her is a sea gypsy and has sailed the world for 30 years. Rob has a sail making setup on board, in the saloon and helped us out by lending us a sail that we could use on a rig that Steve set up, using spinnaker poles. This way, the boat will rock less while under power, and we may even be able to sail part of the way home, instead of using the motor all the way. (Fingers crossed) the Geraldton race started on the 17th and yachts arrived Saturday. We were looking forward to meeting up with old friends and there was no shortage of weary friends enjoying the friendship of the club. We plan to head off tomorrow morning (Monday 20th Oct) as the winds are looking good for our trip back home. We are back to work soon, and will have to have time to sort out our mast and work gear before that (and remember how to drive)

Christmas Island to Exmouth

Christmas Island to Dampier
Sat 9th August-Sun 17th August

Left Christmas Island at 8am, just as another yacht comes in. It would have been good to meet them, but we decided it was better they have our mooring which was further from the lee shore. We were prepared for strong easterlies as that is what we always get, despite the forecast and went out with a second reef. OOPS! The wind is more than we estimated. Fancy that. A quick duck back into the bay and we put in a third reef and set off again. Much better! Pity about the 2.6 knot current against us #!!$#$#!*!&
At 10am, just as we are clearing the south end of Christmas Island, we get a call from Rod on Berri Millar. They have been heading back to Geraldton from CI for 2 days and are coming back, playing it safe. They are in a cat, and it has been a hard slog for them as the seas are big and it is blowing 35 knots. They have to motor sail and are afraid that they will run out of fuel, if they continue. We are glad they play it safe; they are a nice bunch of guys.
They suggested we should turn back also, due to the appalling weather. They are 90 nm from us, in the direction we are going. The final decision was to keep going as the seas were less than the trip from Cocos to CI, and we are used to the heavy winds. The boat was sailing well, and at this rate we would have a fast trip. Glad we did as we only took 8 days to get to Dampier. In fact it took less than five days to enter Australian Waters, west of the NW Cape. We tried to contact Berri Millar on the radio when we figured we would be in range, but ‘no go’. Once we were in mobile range near Dampier, we found out they made it safely back to CI, and flew home after putting the cat on a ship.
When we were out of Australian Waters, we saw the inevitable Indonesian Fishing Boat. Seen one, seen them all, but they do add interest to the day. At one stage we sailed through a wall of rubbish, mainly plastic bags, and 500 miles from the nearest land. Upon closer inspection, when removing plastic bags from our trailing lures, we found they had Asian writing on them. The wall was deep as you see down and as far towards the horizon as you could see. On our trip to Cocos we had a similar occurrence where 2 currents met. Freo is easier to sail this trip as we have and extra reef in the main and we are managing the leaks better. Much more comfortable. As we approach Barrow Island, we lose the trade winds; in fact we lose any wind and are forced to motor! Sacrilege!!! After motoring for 8 hours the wind comes in again and builds up to our usual heavy style (40 knots) which is with us until we anchor at Dampier.
Dampier
Back to Dampier after being away for nearly 2 months. A whole new set of boats in the harbour and we find it hard to find a place to anchor. While clearing customs, Austmaid sails in. Austmaid was one of the states great racing yachts and is being delivered to a new owner in QLD. The heavy winds forced them to head back to Dampier and stay there until they abated, which took awhile. Max, who used to sail on Battlestar was onboard so we now had someone familiar to talk to at the club.
After thinking it would be safe to leave Freo, we head off for a walk. We didn’t get far. We met up with Babs and Beth. Babs is off to Indonesia soon and Beth is heading down to Hillaries. As we were gossiping, Beths Husband, who was on the cat next to us, called on the phone to say we were dragging. OK. Better fix that fast and re-anchor. We were lucky as Freo just missed a boat on her merry way to freedom. Once we were safe, went to thank Mike and was introduced to their 2 boys, and shown over their lovely cat, ‘White Magic’. They also have a pen at Mandurah so we are hoping to see them there. Also met Andre from Misty Rose who also plans to head south with his family. Andre has been one of the Dampier clubs assets and it has been decided it was time to retire and do some cruising. He had been planning to head off for a while now, and every Wednesday there was a ‘going away party’ for them. He was very well liked!
Rod from ‘Berri Millar’ introduced us to his brother Shane, who lives in Dampier. Shane took me into Karratha and traipsed around everywhere trying to find a couple of parts for the boat. If it wasn’t for this help, we would still have leaking windows, or a dodgy outboard. He was fantastic and I also enjoyed his company. He was just like his brother. Pity he had a busy work schedule and we couldn’t spend time with him on our boat.
We were waiting for a part for the wind generator to come in the mail, so decided it was a good time to fix the leaky keel. The keel case packing had fallen out, and Steve intended to use some foam and silastic to replace it. Dampier port was a bit murky, so off to the islands to do this as well as have a look around. The sailing waters around the Dampier Islands are wonderful and vast. After a messy job on the keel, which was only a stop gap and no idea if it would work, we started exploring. On Enderby Island we found a lure in a sea eagles nest area. It is what we call a ’Nicole Kidman’ as it had a white body and red head. Stan had been told they were good, but had not been successful using one, but Steve thought it was worth a try. That night we had freshly caught mud crab as a mornay. Very tasty. We headed for Angel Island after Stan telling us that a part of Nyari, which was lost a few years back, is washed up on the beach. We have both sailed on Nyari, with Steve spending some time Ocean racing on her. She was a Mandurah boat and we had fond memories of her. After spending all day trying to find her, following Stan’s PRECISE##**^ directions, we came across her at sunset the next day. hh;l’’;ljgdfdfhfhghjklj On the way to Nyari we passed an Oil Platform parked in a channel amongst the islands, we are assuming it was in having an overhaul. That day, Steve also caught 8 Crays (yummy) and a fish. No more seafood drought!
The next anchorage was at Whalers Bay, and you guessed it, there used to be a whaling station there. Pretty basic though with a couple of BIG boiling pots set in rock! We met up with John and Chia there who sail a Trimaran called Nothing too Serious. They came on board and were so easy to talk to; they ended staying for a feed of crays for lunch. We were both heading back to Dampier that afternoon, The Tri for another of Andres going away party’s (it was Wednesday)and us to get the mail. That afternoon Steve was off over the side looking under the water, so I went in for some goggling as the day was warm enough. The honeycombed coral reef was brimming with large Coral Trout. It was a good day!
The part was in the mail on Thursday and it looked complicated to install, but as Steve is so clever, he managed it and by Friday afternoon we had wind power. Yeah!!! It’s off to the Montes tomorrow, Andre said he would join us there on Wednesday, if we were still there.
Leaving Dampier 30th August
Forecast was good, following winds, perfect. We head off at 10am and catch up to another yacht, Enigma in the channel. They are heading for Serrurier Island. We play chasies with them in the Mermaid Straights, with the wind playing games with us both and a yacht further ahead. Once we clear the straights, we realise the wind is on the nose, AGAIN! The weather bureau lied....Oh well; we are used to this, though not with such light winds. By the time we get to the Montes it is dark and we anchor in Main Bay, like we did before. After spending the night there, the wind finally comes in, a day late mate! No boats here....I think they have all headed south already. Most cruising boats want to be south of Geraldton by October to miss the big winds.
Maybe there are some boats in amongst the islands. We need to share some fish that Steve has caught. He has been banned from fishing till we eat what we have!
A look at the chart and we decide to try Stephenson’s passage. It is very tidal and the anchorage is rocky. The entrance is shallow and we have to go in just before high tide. Well we get there, it is heavy winds (of course!) and the tide is roaring in. We try 3 times to anchor without success and decide to head back to Main Bay. While anchoring in Main Bay, Steve yells out to me, look, ‘it looks like a whale beached over there. I look over and since I have not seen a whale yet, comment that it looks a bit small. Steve replies that maybe its a baby whale, look, there is another hovering in the water. So with due concern, we pack the camera to certify the situation so we can inform Fisheries on the facts. Surprise! Surprise! It was not a whale!!!!!????? It what a Turtle (female), in fact the other body was a male turtle wanting to play and we embarrassed them and they decided to play in deeper waters. As we went ooooh! Ahhhhh! Another turtle came to watch. Turtle city here! After that little drama we retired back to the boat for a good laugh.
Next day the wind had died down. Yeah!!! So we try again for Stephenson’s channel. It was soooo good, we went further into the maze and anchored at Brandy Bay. We knew we would be stuck there till tomorrow, but it looked like a nice spot. Off we go exploring. It is magic. There were birds, fish, rays and turtles everywhere. The water was clear and the scenery magnificent. We also did some exploring through the mangroves in Willy Nilly Lagoon. By the time we get back to Freo, there is a fisheries boat at the DEC camp in Brandy Bay. The guys there spent all afternoon going to and through between the boat and the camp. Their boat was high and dry by the time they had finished due to the spring low tide. Meanwhile Steve had gone to explore Willy Nilly at low tide. During this time, I had the pleasure of a visit from the water police; they just called to say hi. They had come on their big boat (50ft) Delphenous towing the fisheries boat from Dampier. Steve came back just before dark raving about how wonderful it was and dragged me along to show me. He was right. The low tide had concentrated all the marine life into a small area and it was so lovely to be there. When we got back to Freo, she was sitting in a puddle of water, just a bit bigger than she needed. Judged that well! It was lovely in Brandy Bay. We were content. The sun was warm, wind moderate, lots of places to go exploring and a good place for Steve to practice his throw netting tactics, but we had to go after a few days on the last spring high tide, high enough to get us out.
So off we go to Onslow, and gee did I make a big Boo Boo. I added up the legs for the course and misplaced 2 decimal points, about 50nm short. Ooops si daisy! And we did not find out until later. Just south of the Montes we spot some whales. They were playing and you could see their long fins flopping around in the water. On our journey we saw quite a few whales, in fact by nightfall; we were a bit worried about hitting a sleeping whale. The wind was against us so we made for a place where we could anchor, just SE of Barrow Island. It was not a good anchorage, but it would do until the wind changed. The winds did change, and we head off to Onslow again, anchoring there in the morning. One fishing boat and one power boat there, that’s all! I have heard it’s a nice little place, it must be as John and Chia live there. We find a typical out back town with the dry red soils, pub, service station, supermarket and tin homes. After a brief tour around the place, we were off again, headed for Serrurier Island. We had been there before and would anchor at night. On the way a whale surfaced right next to the boat, startling Steve, who first thought we must be close to a reef. The whale dodged the dinghy, then 2 trailing lures. Lucky!!
While on Serrurier Island, we found we had arrived for Turtle Mating Season. They were everywhere, lining the beach, either mating or waiting for nightfall so they could check out nesting sites. On the Northern part of the Island there were osprey with nests containing chicks and eggs as well as Terns with chicks running around the rocks. The baby Osprey would lie in their nest, not moving, their feathers camouflaging them making them seem like part of the nest. As you walked by, you could see their eyes following you. The Turtles were everywhere. They lined the shores and every now and then, you would see a Turtle head pop up, have a look around, then go below again. Some were lying on the beach at the waterline, resting. Many were in the ankle deep water, sleeping and waiting for night. And a few were mating, in a lovely slow motion dance. We spent 2 days there and it was lovely, but itchy feet and as soon as the wind was favourable, we are off to Exmouth.
It was wonderful. We had our first reach for the whole journey It lasted a WHOLE hour and during that hour we travelled 1/3 the distance to Exmouth. Then the wind died down and of course swung around to on the nose. Fancy that, it must think we like it that way? During the trip we saw many Humpback Whales with one nearly bumping the boat, veering off 1m away from Freo when he noticed us. An extra 8 hours found us in Exmouth anchoring in the dark. The winds were predicted to come from the shore, so we figured it would be a safe anchorage. There is a marina, but we had been told it was packed and we would have to raft up. By 10pm the wind had come in and it was NOT coming from the shore. The waves started crashing and the wind blew up to 35 knots. We tried moving to another site in the area, but still no good. Freo and the dinghy behind us were both bouncing and lurching all over the place. We looked at getting the dinghy on deck, but the act of getting the outboard on deck was too much of a hazard and just supporting the dinghy out of the water, next to Freo, risky that the jolting would shear the support to the dinghy. We set the anchor alarm and both of us feigned sleep. We felt like we were up all night, checking the anchor and dinghy, but I managed to sleep at 2am, Steve didn’t. When I woke early, the wind and waves had subsided. Steve said ‘Don’t go outside’ Well I am an optimist and so let’s look on the bright side, we didn’t lose the dinghy, just the OUTBOARD. Just as well Steve has the Hooker (the sort you go diving with) He dived in 12m of murky water for 2 hours. He could only see 2 feet in front of him, and all he saw were sea snakes who chased him, but didn’t bite him (thank goodness) Time to call it quits and get down to business. Organise fuel (as we are nearly out) and find another outboard. The fuel was easy with Kailis supplying diesel at the jetty for the same price as in town. The outboard we got for the same low price from the same supplier in Fremantle. We arranged to have it shipped to Carnarvon where we hope to be soon. The Harbourmaster at the DPI marina managed to find a pen to stay in overnight so I was very happy at the thought of a hot long shower to wash my hair, seeing Exmouth and washing down the boat. Exmouth is a pretty place and the people were friendly. It was a long walk into town but we got a lift both ways. In the pen next to us was a motor sailor. The owner is Ross Winzer, who I was acquainted with from when I was sailing the laser in 1996. Small world. His mate had given us the lift into town so when we arrived back to the boat, he already knew about the outboard! Next morning we are off, and on the way to Carnarvon.........

Part 6 Christmas Island

Wednesday 23rd July and we have the neighbours come to visit. We have a lovely time. There is Gilles who is a top French Chef, Petra his German, bubbly and competent wife who is a great sailor, Then Nicola who is 8 and loves his fishing and talking and finally Lara who is 3 who has a sweet smile and loves to dress up in pretty dresses. Petra brought a lovely cake that she baked which was eaten pretty quickly! Their boat is an Adams steel 45’ sloop that they are taking to Phuket (via Cocos) for a refit.
Thursday 24th July we went for a lovely walk up the road past the lovely old and stately administrator’s residence which is not used any more. Steve has been going for walks around the island finding places I would be interested in and taking me along to the easier spots at a more sedate pace. So he had sussed out this area before and took me to see some bird nests with chicks in them. We also went to a cave, which Steve explored, while I tried to read a book while trying to fend off red crabs. They are more scared of me, but there are so many that I found them hard to avoid. Steve came out of the cave muttering to someone. It was a big robber crab that he was trying to reassure that he only wanted to take it to show me, then he would let it go. It was not amused.
Friday 25th July and I have to try to get the paperwork done for Bali. It takes ages on the internet so by the time I get back; Steve has itchy feet and decides to go for a longgggg walk. He loves his walks as after his walk he takes me on a twighlight walk so I can climb some steps to an old war bunker and look over the views of the harbour, breathtaking!
Saturday 26th July it’s time to fix the main just in case we need to order any supplies. It takes most of the day as we had damage to 6 slugs and had to swap fittings around so we could use what we had on hand.
Another boat arrives. It’s a cat and it’s real exciting to have another boat in. We started called it rub a dub as there were 3 men in the tub! It was late afternoon by the time they anchored and we just had time to call out welcome and then we were off to the movies. Open air movies sitting on Aluminium bench seats. We had been warned to take a pillow. We were not sure what was showing, but Steve braved it, and hoped it was not the rumoured ‘Sex in the City’. We started up the big hill (movies are about 5kms up it) hoping to get a lift. We did not hitch as we thought if someone wanted to, they would stop to give a lift. Steve was enjoying the walk and I did not mind the first 2kms, but I started to sag and Steve was being very encouraging to me. By the 3km mark we started the hitching and we managed a lift by the 4km mark while Steve was virtually dragging me up the hill. The moral to this story is to start hitching early as the lovely citizens do not know if we do want a lift or to walk! We had a bit of time to spare once we arrived so we had a nice cheap meal at the local Chinese of fried rice and Chinese tea and the waitress told us what was showing and not to sit in the pink seats as there was a bit of a party at the flicks. Well you guessed it, it was ‘Sex in the City’ and as we walked down to take our seat, a male voice called out from the back with relief that there was another guy around. There ended up being a total of 4 men there. The movie was sponsored by a beauty salon and they had wrapped 3 rows of seats in pink, and the ladies were having a great time dressed to the nines, drinking champagne. They added a great atmosphere. Getting home was easier. It was downhill and we started hitching straight away. Soon we were in a car with the local Policeman and his 2 boys and he took us direct to the boat. Lovely people.
Sunday 27th July was market day at the Parks Department. This time we decided to go for noodles before we started to hitch up the hill. As we prepared to cross the road, the customs lady stopped and asked if we needed a lift up the hill. Well you can’t look a gift horse....so we hopped on board thinking we can eat up there. She took us direct to the market as she was setting up a stall there. We went for a nature walk while waiting for the market to start and saw heaps of crabs (robber and red) and were surprised to find out that there is more than 1 red crab per sq metre of island!!! After the walk we met up with the multi-cultural’s and the rub a dub dubs. It was then we found out that the radd’s had taken 23 days to get from Phuket, were sick of the boat and have been staying in a hotel while here. The only other silly people we know that are cruising into it like we are!
Monday 28th July and its time to check if we have any info about getting to Bali. Nup! There was an email to Mr Allison and we obviously have a language barrier. Try again.... We also turned the boat upside down trying to find the engine filters. Now that is all I can think about and we still can’t find them. Later on in the day after the umpteenth search they were found. In the first place that Steve had looked, but unfortunately for us they were in an old water pump box.........
We had a BBQ on shore at night as the multi culturals were leaving. Steve tried hard to catch a big fish. To do this he had to catch bait fish, so off he goes with gidgi in hand and catches 2 dozen big Gardi’s. The local constabulary was on hand when he surfaced to lecture him about spear fishing in a Marine Park. We didn’t know, honestly! Well in the end, we had no big fish for the BBQ so Steve whipped up some lovely mince patties. All through the BBQ Steve was being ragged about not catching fish. When we arrived back at the boat, we found the largest flying fish we had seen had landed inside the cockpit, onto the carpet.
Tuesday 29th July Still trying ways to get to Bali and manage to get on a morning (6.30am) sched and get some very helpful information from Bjorn on Mischief and Alec and Val from Hanuman (via Stan) We head off and drop all of Steve’s gardi’s and one big flying fish to the multi’s son Nicola. Still no luck with the emails but now we have some ammunition to help us with our Bali efforts, but we do get a reply from the wind generator mob. The wind generator broke on the way to CI and Steve looked at it and decided to email for help. They were terrific and talked us through the diagnostic steps. Then off to the noodle house. It’s genuine Chinese and a great cheap meal. Get back to the boat and find the multi’s are still around so we go to their boat for a cuppa and to say goodbye. I will miss them, especially Petra. She loves the sailing, is very self sufficient and capable and bubbly also.
Wednesday 30th July and the multi’s leave real early in the morning and we watch them disappear around the corner after hurriedly getting dressed while Steve is waving them off. Boat tidy day and when we go for a rest to check the emails, we also check out a bit of info that the multis told us. Apparently the big Supermarket has an upstairs section that has hardware and appliances there. Should have known. I only found the cold store section by watching people disappear behind these yellow big plastic curtains and poked my nose in to find out what was there. The manager there is another one of the Christmas Island’s Gems. He has offered us his Ute any time of the day, as it is parked outside the shop all day. No answer from Bali, but more help from the wind generator mob. Steve decided to go exploring again while I am checking the email. Steve being Steve decides the challenge of a vertical cliff was too much to ignore. Up he goes armed with thongs to protect his feet on the viscous larva, camera to show what I silly billy he is and a walkie talky so he can tell me he will be late to meet me at the dinghy. Once he was ¼ of the way there, he could not go back. He found all the stinging and prickly bushes on the way and itched all night for his efforts.
Thursday 31st July and we wake in time to listen to the radio scheds. We are pleased to hear that the multis are sailing in light conditions; however their main is a bit ripe and hope it will last to Thailand. After the email thing we find a little cafe open and enjoy a milk drink. A rare opportunity on this island. We find out another boat has just arrived so decided to head back to the boat to meet the new comers. They had cleared customs and when they finally arrived back at their boat it was late and spent much time trying to figure out how to stop the mooring from bashing their lovely yacht. This is something that Steve had just worked out finally, but they could not use that control method as their boat had a bob stay in the way. As a result they will be leaving asap. Steve was wakened in the night by their mooring attacking their boat and the killer dinghy attacking our boat. We had actually just managed to stop our mooring attacking our boat. Steve had tried all sorts of tricks, including attaching a long bamboo pole to fend it off, but the most successful way was to pull it up short and have lots of fenders on the bow. Problem this method does not work for boats with a bob stay as the neighbours had.

Friday 1st August and we are going on a mine tour. We are picked up from the jetty and I find we are travelling with Jenny and Rob, 2 lovely people I met on Wednesday while walking around. Our tour guide is Jude and we have already heard good reports from other yachties, Rob and Nat about him. The tour was an eye opener on the methods of mining and rehab for the phosphate mine. It was also good fun and saw more of the island. After the tour we do the usual email thing trying the Bali thing but now the internet is not working. What a good excuse to see if a dress shop is open (every time I have been there in the past, it has been closed) Well I saved some money, even though it was open, but still Steve was fed up and had gone back to the boat so it was up to me to try the emails again. We get a reply, but not what we wanted, so it looks like Bali is not on. We also get an email from the wind generator mob and they will ship a part to us. Great service. We will get the part sent to Dampier, so it will be there when we arrive.
Steve has an early night and is tucked up in bed when the boat is rudely jolted waking him up with a start. I was already up having noticed something was wrong when shutting the boat down for the night. We were closer to the beach than usual. Warning, Warning. The beach consists of rocks and corals! I am just racing back from the bow, after finding ½ a mooring line attached to the boat when we bump and I bump into Steve racing out of the cabin. Engine on, keel wound up and we are off pretty quick. It doesn’t help that I drop the boat hook in the water. Lucky it floated. We get back onto the mooring, but in the meantime, we have given our neighbours a scare and they spend a long time watching their wayward mooring that has already given grief the night. The neighbours tell us that another 5 boats are coming in soon. And none of them are crazy enough to come from the west. The French and the neighbours will be leaving Monday, but that will only leave 2 moorings free. The other alternative is to tie up to the humongous ships moorings. What a nightmare!
Saturday 2nd August and we decide to take the killer tinny to shore to dry out and get the barnacles off. They didn’t take long to grow. Then I’m off into town to get some milk etc, etc. Would you believe the engine conks out as I approach the jetty in the WB. No panic! If I can’t get it going, I will float ashore. I am trying different fuel tanks etc to get it going and one of the French Yachties asks if he can help. He is high up on the jetty. I call back that I’m OK, but when he goes out to his boat, will he call by Freo and tell Steve the engine is broken. He dives in from that great height and swims the 300m to Steve to tell him. He must love his swimming. On the shore the locals had a surf life saving course happening and they were very eager to rescue me. I have no choice but to accept. Good fun.... It’s movie night tonight and it is NOT a chick flick this time, it’s called 21,(about counting cards at blackjack) so Steve will come. There have been a few scattered showers thru the day, so we pack the very expensive emergency rainwear (2 garbage bags) and head on up the hill to catch a different Chinese Restaurant before the movie. It did not rain during the movie and Steve didn’t sigh too much during it. It is so hard to get him to sit still for a little while.
Sunday 3rd August. Mid morning I look out and see a yacht in the distance. It took a while before we realise that it is actually sailing away from us and it must have come from the next bay. We later found out that they had come in late yesterday afternoon and had anchored at the re-fuelling facility. It was a large yacht and a shame we did not get to meet up. Though it is gusty but we decide we have to get the WB rigged up for sailing. I am having withdrawals. Steve gets most of it rigged up for me as it is in his best interest to get me on the water. As the beach is entirely unsuitable, I have to launch the WB from the yacht. We also consider it a safety factor to take a radio. So off I go and quickly find out the wind is changing 180 degrees and 5-20 knots in the bay and past the point the wind is only changing 90 degrees at 15-35 knots. Can’t win either way. I choose the option of the heavier winds but have to drop the jib to compensate. After my sailing fix we packed away the WB sail kit as we are due to leave CI soon. The only problem I have with CI is that it is not a good place to sail dinghies from.
Monday 4th August and the French boat ‘Anka’ leaves early and we start preparing the boat for the sail back. I found water in the forward bilges and was not happy. We had always thought this part of the boat was dry. Another job to do! Also washing day as there will be a phosphate boat in tomorrow which will share some of its precious cargo with us.
Tuesday 5th August is tour day and we pay $80 each to go in a Landcruiser (Steve in the dinky seat in the back) and see the parts of the island we could not hitch to. It was nice but it was a shame we could not hire a car to see more of the island. In the morning another boat comes in.(Floating Point) We had already heard on the grapevine that it had lost its prop and would have to sail in. The local rescue group towed it in to the mooring next door. We thought this was a good chance to get rid of the killer tinny as we did not need it anymore, so it was promptly donated to the rescue group who will have fun practicing retrieving it as a sunken boat. We will have our revenge!!! During our sundown walk we meet up with the Floating Point crew and are invited back to the boat for a sundowner for tomorrow.
Wednesday 6th August is Mums Birthday. Happy Birthday Mum! Time to finally go to the Grotto. No bikes for hire so decide to walk. Ugghh! I was worn out half way and despite a lift for ¼ of the trip, I was more than willing to go for a swim, even though the water was cold. It is a cave on the land side of the coast, fed by the sea. When there is a wave, there is actually swell in it. It was fun, but decided to hitch asap to get back. We had to travel halfway before a car came by; the young fellow gave us a lift to the local noodle place for a bit of sustenance. Sundowner on FP was enjoyable. She is a lovely ketch from Michigan at 50’ long.
Thursday 7th August was shopping day. The shop manager, Eddy, who we had met before when hitching, gave us his ute to lug our shopping back to the boat. What a lovely guy. I paid the harbour master the mooring fees and while there, his wife rings from Perth (on holiday) and has just met Karen, who served her at Hog’s Breath. A small world! After a bit more work on the boat, we have a sundowner on the beach armed with a crossword. Didn’t get a chance to do the crossword as there were too many people to talk to.
Friday 8th August is our last day at CI. The last day for this blog before we sail for Dampier. Cheryle and Gerald from Nannup, who we met on the tour came for a visit and we had a lovely time. They are flying out today. We are now stocking up on water via the water maker and then off to post this blog and check out with customs
Catch you all in Dampier

part 5

Cocos Keeling
The trick to surviving here is to be aware of the ferry timetables, when the shops and facilities are open and join in the laid back lifestyle.
The anchorage at Direction Island (under Port Refuge for the tide tables), well away from the 2 communities on Home Island and West Island. Direction Island is uninhabited and is the best swimming beach of the islands. West Island has about 100 residents who mainly cater for the tourists, and government services. The resorts are on West Island. Home Island is home to the Muslim community of about 500 5th generation decedents of the original Malay workers. Home Island is about 15minutes tinny ride from DI and West Island is a further half hour ferry ride and 15minute bus ride from HI.
The ferries operate for the school children and workers to go to the other islands, and for the tourists from West Island.
Everything is closed for a lunch hour. Sometimes a business will re-open after lunch, for an hour or so, but usually the hours of a business are either morning or afternoon only. Nearly everything is closed on the weekend. Everyone is happy. It is such a laid back lifestyle.
Communications are unusual. Most that arrive by sail are ‘overdue’ as officials have no concept that ETA is an approximation and they think the minimum time for a trip. Everyone at the anchorage knows where you are from already before you arrive. There is a phone on DI of the type that you would have at home. All local phone calls from this phone are free, there are no card or coin slots on this phone. The options for contact at Cocos are
· Satellite phone, one you have bought with you.
· Hire a mobile phone as your mobile will NOT work
· Reverse charge your calls from the phone at DI
· Buy or subscribe to a local call phone service (Telstra has one you can get from the PO, or you can use a company like Gotalk)
· Use the pay phones on HI or WI
· Use the internet services on HI or WI
· Use Sail Mail from the HF radio
Mail is another experience. Cocos is served by a small plane on a Monday and Friday. That plane is for tourists, letters and express post, perishable food and parcels, in that order of preference. Therefore, if the plane is full, the parcels are left off until there is room, regardless if they have been sent ‘airmail’. The thing is, sea mail is VERY unreliable. The ship comes once a month and last month it broke down and never made it and the month before, the weather was too extreme for the ship. When we were there, the ship was due ‘any day now’ and after 3 months the shelves in the shops were very bare, even after rationing.
The climate is ideal as the rain was mainly at night and then the sun would come out to play in the day. I also had enough wind for my dinghy sailing as it blew every day 15-20 knots average, which also moderated the temperatures.
On Home Island there is what they call the ‘big house’ it is not such a big house by today’s standards, however the adjoining courtyards are about 1acre apiece. They have 10 foot high ancient brick walls with archways just like the secret garden. There were fruit trees of enormous proportions bearing various fruit of different shapes and colours. The grounds were spectacular with the appearance of a botanical garden with the expanses of mowed lawns. I must say the lemons were the best we had tasted and put to good use.

When we arrived, there were 2 yachts with masts and 2 yachts without masts. The 2 boats without masts were Kitmore and Spyglass. Kitmore had been left neglected after much of her gear had been stolen by another yachtie. After doing his time in prison, this yachtie sailed his own boat to WA, calling for help 50 miles off Fremantle stating that his engine was not working. This was a ruse as we had been told that his engine never did work and this was what he always did. Sad that there has to be one that gives yachties a bad name. Spyglass was from Fremantle and had lost his mast on his way back home from Cocos. They were waiting on the new mast coming on the next ship! The ones with masts consisted of a cat named Sautilage with Di and Bea on board and a ‘Farr 11.6’ L’Atitude with Claude and Ollie. Both yachts had sailed from Darwin and had been there since November. The cat had been there several times and helped maintain the Island to make it like home. Di and Bea were sea gypsies and sources of much valued knowledge. Claude, a sparkly French lady and Ollie, a sociable gent who made us welcome were hooked on diving and had found a ‘Nemo’ (clownfish) reef near the boats. A week later came Linda and Bill in Valiam (named after their kids before you may ask) who had just sailed from QLD via Malasia. Linda was great at organising get together’s and Bill was a talented forester who had harvested and processed the materials the make the boat that he also built himself. A week after came Dita, a German, sailing single handed and Rob and Natalie, from California, who had just travelled from Christmas Island. Soon after that came another single hander, Jim from San Fran Cisco who had sailed from Darwin, Then came Geoff, a pom who had also sailed from Darwin.
We had many a get-together swapping yarns (of which Steve told his fair share) and picking each other’s brains on cruising matters. We were very fortunate to have a wonderful stove/oven (a Wallas Diesel) and Steve could cook up wonderful treats for the parties. Once he just brought one of his fabulous loaves of bread which was better than the shop bought bread which was eaten with flourish.
The sea life was everywhere. Sharks were abundant, but were mainly the harmless black tip or bronze whalers. There were a few Tiger sharks around, but we tried not to think of them. Fishing was a pain. When you went fishing by line or gidgee, the sharks would hone in on your fish as soon as you caught it. You had to be fast to reel them in before the sharks did! Steve ended up giving up on the small stuff and caught a nice little 3’ shark which we all enjoyed at one of our group BBQ’s. When he went diving, Steve would take the gidgee and prod any sharks coming too close and they would just tootle off away. One day he went off diving and I said not to come back without a cray. Guess whose boat had an impromptu party on it?? Enough to feed the crowd that arrived. The sea also had Dolphins that performed magic jumping feats and many shy turtles and a dugong called Sam.
The animal life was very different. Every island in the South atoll had chooks wandering everywhere and very few native birds. There was a drive to eradicate the feral chooks, and nurture the few native birds left to get the numbers back up. The authorities would come for a days’ culling of the chooks now and then and it was sad to know they were being shot, but after each session, you could still hear roosters crowing on the island. DI also had many rats that would come out at night, scampering around. Trouble was that the Parks people could not poison them as also on the islands were Hermit Crabs as well as Ghost Crabs. The Hermit Crabs were incredible. Shells with little orange legs were moving all over the island and you had to be cautious where you stepped. They were very shy and would hide in their shells as soon as they saw you.
Steve’s days were busy trying to outsmart the sharks, exploring the many reefs and islands, trying to keep the tinny afloat, telling the yarns at the get togethers’ and trying to get to a shop when it was open. Once while walking between islands in knee deep water, a shark went full pelt towards him, thinking that his ‘muscled’ legs were a tasty morsel (the shark could not see the rest of him above the knees) Steve had to use his drink bottle as a projectile which he hurled with great velocity into the path of the oncoming leg eater! Thank goodness for Steve’s legs the shark altered course after that. After many attempts to catch fish before the sharks did, Steve decided to catch a shark instead. He set up his ‘patented’ shark alarm and did a crossword while waiting for the guaranteed result. That night the yachties were licking their lips after proclaiming Steve a top shark chef!!! Steve loved being underwater so much, that the cuts he was getting from Cray’s and reefs were not healing. Some of those cuts were pretty big, and the silly bugger tried applying liquid nails, and when that did not work, sikaflex to close it up. He still has some sika under the healed up skin. In desperation I pulled out a jigsaw and banned him from going in the water until healed. That lasted a day, for which I was grateful as he is a fast healer (comes with practice). The tinny sunk twice whilst hanging off the back of the yacht while we were sleeping, submerging the outboard both times. The first time we lost Steves thongs, the all important bailer bucket and the gigi. I found the bucket on the beach, but could not find the thongs. Steve found the gidgi not far from the boat on the bottom. Every time the outboard was dunked, Steve managed to get it back working after a good deal of work. It was time to fix the tinny! A bit of Sikaflex works wonders and it was up and going again in no time. Steve spent many hours exploring in that tinny and once after exploring the back of the island, realised that fuel must be a bit low, so decided to take a short cut through the breakers. You guessed it. The tinny went topsy and now he had truly lost the gidgi. He had a backup gidgi but it was not as good. We know the local shop sold good reasonable priced gidgi’s and fishing nets, but they were never open!!! One night Steve decided it was time to try out certain yachties theories that crays were easier to get at night. Trev had once given Steve a prawning light as a pressie and hey presto, Steve had attached the 2 torch batteries we had and fans long electric cable. These he mounted in a crate and towed it around when night diving so that he had portable light as he dived.
My days were spent sailing in the Walker Bay, reading, exploring with Steve and trying to contact people. The WB was great as I could either rig it on the beach or hanging off the yacht. I enjoyed pottering around in the bay looking for fish and turtles or sailing it to HI. One time when I arrived at HI it was low tide making tacking into shore between coral bombies quite difficult? By the time I arrived at the wharf where I usually just luffed up and tied on to, the tide was too low for me to reach the top of the wharf with my short little arms. My only other option was to get out near the slipway. What a shenanigans! I bailed out a little too deep and the mud sucked up my sandal. After groping around in the mud for the missing sandal, I saw it floating away and had to swim after it. We kept the WB hanging off the back of the yacht with its mast up when not in use. That way when Steve was off in the tinny, I still had my transport. When we went exploring, we always found WW2 relics, thongs and floats. The thongs and floats floated down from Asia and it was astounding to see how many there were. There were a couple of hammocks on the beach and sometimes it was just pleasant to read a book in a hammock under the coconut trees. What a life.

Time to move on to Christmas Island to see new sites.
Cocos to Christmas Island.
10-7-08 – 16-7-08
Thursday July 10th at 8am we set off on a promising day. We hope for the SE winds so we don’t need to tack as much. Well we had SE winds and Easterly winds; however we also had big seas, a current against us and strong winds. We can handle that! The main had a number 2 reef in, and the jib could be furled easily as required. But the waves were knocking us down and the current was affecting us. What we thought was a 4-5 day trip became a 6.5 day trip. The starboard running backstay needed emergency repairs out at sea and on the last day, the main sail track lugs pulled out forcing us to drop the main. Also the front hatch developed a leak and the new window we had only just had installed. Grrrrr... Water was also coming in through the keel hydraulics and under the deckhouse clears. The bilges were awash and Steve was constantly clearing them. When we arrived we had heaps of washing to do (and I was still doing it after 4 days) we are trying work out better ways to protect our gear from water while travelling!
Halfway between Cocos and CI we came across another Asian Long Line Fishing Boat. It was international waters and near the location we saw the vessel on the trip to Cocos. This one was pretty blue and as with the other fishing boat it aimed for us, hopefully just to have a look, but anyway, we were travelling too fast for them and it was not long before they were just a speck on the horizon behind us.


Christmas Island
First impression was a mountain shaped cloud, but it didn’t move like clouds do so we were very happy to know that we were actually looking at CI. Next was the number of birds. They were everywhere. They would enjoy escorting us flying above us level with the top of the mast. Sometimes they would dive on the lure Steve was trolling, but at 2m deep, they would land above it, duck their heads under water to look for it, shake their head in disbelief that they could not find it and start their flight pattern again. It took a few goes before they would give up.
Half an hour out of CI, customs called up. On the ball here. (it was getting near knock off time) They met us on the jetty and we had our first taste at the famed CI friendliness.
OK so now it was walkie time, oh joy. Steve reckons I was swaying all over the place. Everyone waves to you here. We found a quaint Chinese shop and they knew we were from the new yacht in town and that we had come from Cocos. Along the way we also found the big supermarket and the tourist centre, from which we bought a map. We also learnt a bit about the testy jetty. This jetty is some jetty. It is the Port Authority Jetty for the pilot boats and is VERY high, has a ladder underneath with no decent handgrips, a nice little surge from the waves, and last but not least, the pilot boats are craned in and out of the water from on top of the jetty.

Thursday 7th July Armed with our trusty map, we set out to test Ollie’s story that CI people like yachties and that it is impossible to walk up the steep main arterial road without someone stoping to give you a lift. We were picked up by the Shire President who pointed out places of interest and dropped us where we needed to go, only slightly out of his way. We checked out the Laundromat, hardware, and then finally found the car hire place, just to make enquiries. We ended up hiring a little 4WD for 2 days and finished the day touring the interior of CI. It’s lovely with the rainforests and steep slopes towards the coast. We will have to hire a serious 4WD later to do some serious exploration!

Friday, 18th July we still have the car, so Steve stays on the boat to get some maintenance done, while I run around trying to find the hard to get bits and pieces we need for repairs. I rock off to the jetty in the tinny and realise that Steve had the keys to the car last. So it’s back to the boat, nup, back to the jetty to check the bags, nup, back to the boat, finally, they were in his shoes. Boy is I flustered. Especially as on one of these little trips, I thought they were lowering a pilot boat on top of me and the tinny. I was shouting halt! Halt! And trying to reverse and duck under the jetty as fast as I could go. Later I found out that they did not stop it for me, but to let the crew on while it was on the top level. Jeepers!!! We were in radio contact so that I could check with him if I had a problem and the radio had already been used heaps today. We didn’t expect the great result we had, but due to the CI friendliness, we were put in touch with people who could help and did with amazing efficiency. I was also happy to find a surf shop open. Now, I hope you are aware, that being seasick does have a GOOD side effect. I have lost weight and I needed new clothes. Well something that did not fall off me anyway. Well Steve caught me out and radioed in just as I was trying on a bikini and some other lovely clothes. How embarrassing to hear Steve’s voice coming in from my bag. I don’t know what the attendant thought at first. I did manage to get a nice dress though no bikini. I still have more to lose for the bikini! OK, so now I have had my fun, it’s time to do the washing. 10loads we did. Imagine doing it all by hand. I had a bit of a problem with the bleach bottle which has resulted in some lovely tie died effects on some items. At $12 for a large bottle of Rum, Steve has been enjoying his Dark and Stormys. Trouble is the ginger beer is not as good, still you can’t have it all! The range of instant coffee mixes is vast and Steve is enjoying having a go. These come from Asia and have some exotic flavours.

Saturday 19th July the boat had washing all over the place drying out. Steve decided to go for a dive around the corner and I tried to dry out more of the boat and clean up in the process. Steve came back to a mess as my way of cleaning up is obviously not the right way. Just as he was losing more hair while pulling it out in frustration, we received a call that one of the parts I chased up the other day was ready and could I come to the jetty to get it. Reprieve! So I got into killer tinny and made my way to testy jetty. Well you wouldn’t believe it, as I was tying up, a surge took me out of reach of the jetty and as I leaned towards it, I fell off the killer tinny. Claimed another victim! I knew from past experience that the tinny is too high for me to get back on board, and also the jetty steps too high as well so I tie up the painter to another dinghies painter, grab my trusty dry bag with my purse in it, and proceed to swim sidestroke to shore with my purse above my head. I must have looked a sight when I presented myself to the chappie with dripping hat, blouse and skirt to pay him for the job. Later that arvo, we were invited aboard the neighbours boat. He is French and can speak moderate English and she is German and is fluent in French and English. They have a boy, about 7 and a girl about 3 who both speak 3 languages. We had a great time, but I can’t tell you their names as we were told, but could not understand them enough to retain the foreign type of name. They will be travelling on to Cocos and then to Phuket where they will be getting their yacht fitted out.

Sunday 20th July and I look around the boat and we still have stuff drying everywhere. I am getting pretty down so Steve does a wise thing and knicks off to get out of my hair. I spend all day washing, drying and water protecting items. Steve came back with a Barra and cooked a lovely meal then we went for a walk to the point that overlooks the bay. It is lovely here.

Monday 21st July and Steve hooks up the hooker to retrieve a fishing line, a jagged hook and trace and the top to the bait box. It is 20m below the boat and even though the waters are clear, I can’t see him when he is near the bottom, five metres from the yacht. All he managed to retrieve was the hook and trace as he had marked that with a float! We figure we might try the noodle house for lunch. Closed. That’s Ok. We had left over Barra and fresh bread instead. The supermarket was busy as the container ship had just unloaded the first bulk shipment to the island for 3 months. These guys were not as bad off as Cocos as they were able to use their planes for the smaller cargo as their planes are larger.

Tuesday 22 July and Steve wants to invite the neighbours over. Big tidy up. He is so house proud. Now I have time to write this blog and get a bit of paperwork done. Once I get organised, I am hoping to go for a sail in the Walker Bay. I will have to rig, de-rig and sail from the yacht though as the beach is unsuitable for sailing dinghies.

part 4

19-6-08
Its Thursday and we have had a lovely sleep in. After having breakfast we see the ferry at Direction Island Jetty. Too late, we missed it, we had not realised there would be one and were going to take the dinghy over to Home Island. 8.15 it came, and it was not on the timetable that we had been given. It would have been so much more convenient than the dinghy as the weather was pretty ugly. It was warm enough, but wind and rain.....yuk! So we pack up our laptop securely in a dry bag, put on a wet weather jacket, and take the dinghy off to the island. It bucketed down! I had my skirt tucked up under my jacket and Steve just had a tee-shirt and shorts. Once we made shore, the only dry thing we had was the computer. If only they made dry bags for people!
We were in no state to go to the internet place, so after trying to make ourselves look presentable, I enquired at the Post Office about phone cards and mobile phones. Oh joy, oh joy...they only had a $10 card left and the mobile phones are delt with over at the other island. The next ferry is in 3 hours. Oh well, we can do our internet stuff, ring the oldies and get them to pass on messages and have lunch. Steve chose to wander about instead of hanging around the internet place as it was sooo cold from the air-conditioning and his Tee-shirt was acting like a Coolgardie Safe.
Finally on the ferry, aware that we would only have 1 hour on West Island before the last ferry back.
Little did we realise, the town was NOT walking distance from the jetty and we needed to catch a bus to town (15 mins)which in effect left us 20mins in town. And guess what, the Tourist Centre and the phone place were closed!!!! Looking on the bright side, we had a nice ride and we found the shops and found out the hours.
Tomorrow we will try again.

20-6-08
We were up too late to go to West Island and decided we needed a bit of healthy exercise. The remedy was to circumnavigate Direction Island, when the tide was low. (it is only a small Island) We were also looking out for two things. There is a hut on the Island with mementos of visiting yachts, so we were looking for a unique idea for our boat. Also we were not happy with the anchor after hearing stories from Latitude about dragging, and aimed to get a washed up float to attach to an existing mooring without a float.
Steve took the high tide route and I waded in the rock pools having fun with the rock crabs and mud skippers. The coast was littered with World War 2 debris. Along the way Steve found a SART (a bit like an epirb, but uses radar instead of satellites)It was making a noise, but once Steve picked it up, it really took off. He carried that awful noisy thing around most of the island, and rang the police when we were back. No answer so he left a message on their machine and then we went back to the boat. We tried to radio the police then and still had no luck. After a very short time, it was really getting on our nerves (it must have had a good battery) and as we could not find a way to de-activate it, Steve took it ashore and did some diving while waiting for the Police to turn up. Thank goodness they did.
Ollie and Claude from Latitude invited us over for drinks at sundown. We had lovely company on a lovely boat. They came from Darwin on this Farr 11.1? via Ashmore Reef and Christmas Island and had been at Cocos since November so were locals. It was good to swap tales and check out their boat. It is very well setout and I was very impressed in their orange covers. Ollie and Claude are avid divers and were intending to head off to Chagos, however with new rules that ban apparatus assisted diving, they had decided on Thailand instead. All this after heaps of drying and preserving getting ready for an un-inhabited archipelago. Steve enjoyed the taste sensations of the dried food with the French touch (Claude is French) and we enjoyed their carefree sense of humor and adventure

21-6-08
Saturday is ferry day on this island, but nothing is open on West Island so we decide to finally get the Walker Bay tender sailing. Yippee!!!! The mast has been lashed to the deck and its missing a couple of fittings, but that can be rectified. The boat is tied on to the back of Freo and after stepping the mast, we had a few problems with the sprit. That is rectified by Steve taking us ashore with tools and a radio and he goes back to Freo and a crossword. It took me ages to rig the WB. Still could not get the sprit going properly and managed to jury rig something that would do for the moment (I will have to deflate the inflatable ring of the WB to get the Sprit support fixed in) I also met a gent from Mandurah on the beach and we get to talking...have a chat Ally..
Once we were sailing, lovely.....I was so happy.
Steve took the opportunity to check out Horsburgh Island. He took the radio to keep in touch.
When I tried radioing him, I received no answer and found out when he returned that he had lost it and after searching for it, still had not found it.

22-6-08
No ferries at all, nothing open. Steve is intrigued by all the fish, sharks, old moorings and wrecks. I am forced to throw some of Steve's precious home made bread to the fishes while he is under water watching. The sharks follow the smaller fish in. (the sharks are black tip reef sharks or bronze whalers, harmless according to Steve) It's low tide at Lunch time so it off to Horsburgh Island to find the missing radio and to show me the old cannons and the huts there. He didn't tell me about the breakers we had to cross to get to the beach. He did not want to scare me. It was fun though. There are 2 huts on the island. One is well cared for, the other just a place to go. I stayed near the well cared for hut and tried to snooze when the chooks would let me, and read a book otherwise. Steve came back with the radio. LUCKY!
Then its back home, via the breakers. I was wishing I had a waterproof video camera as it was fun. Once home, restless Steve decided it was time to create a mooring for Freo and constructed a top part for an old, very large admiralty anchor that he had found wedged on the bottom. Of course the sharks followed him everywhere.
To cap off the day, we BBQ'd some T-bone and chicken on the beach and watched the rats scurrying around.

arrived at cocos keeling islands....

15-6-08 We had been traveling at a decent speed with the kite up. We have a sock that makes it sooooo easy to put up and down when you are short handed. Well the block that fed the kite through the mast fell off when the shackle holding it on broke. There was a big bang and Steve who was down below thought it was just one of the big waves we had been having. When we realised what was the matter, then it was down with the kite, on with the slower jib. Well, it could not be fixed until we made land, or the seas calmed down (as if)

16-6-08 Excitement plus. We passed a boat!!!!!! I was on watch as was sooo excited that when I called Steve up from his well earned sleep, he rushed out of bed thinking there was an emergency. Sorry Steve, but, but..... It might have been a pirate ship, but I was informed by Captain Steve that it was a 'high bowed Indonesian Long Liner' and would only do 5knots of speed. Indeed, after watching him aim for us for ages, I was apprehensive about his intentions. We altered course which made us surf the mountainous swell at 13 knots, and soon the Pirates??? were crossing 100 metres behind us. We watched them go, wallowing terribly (as these boats have no stabilizers)and no one was seen on deck. This all happened in International waters, just before we re-entered the Australian waters around Cocos! It is getting cloudy towards night so we are glad that we just have the jib up. I was feeling seedy again, but was still restless and didn't want to sleep, so I stayed up a bit longer doing what I do well, look at the horizon. The night was not dark and I saw a bird circling the boat. Whenever I saw a bird, I would always comment that the Terns were coming back, so Steve took no notice that I was carrying on about a bird trying to land on the boat. After a few aborted landings, he finally ended up in the dinghy on the davit's, again. I had to admit it was not a Tern. I thought it was a GOOSE, Steve reckoned it wasn't and I was a goose! Anyhow, he was there to stay for the night, despite Steve upsetting the birds sleep whenever he had to bail out the dinghy. The GOOSE was off at the crack of dawn, but it was nice having company.

17-6-08 The heavens had opened up overnight and it rained in torrents! during many squalls. The wind was still behind us, so we did,t need to reduce the sail, just had fun surfing down the face of these lovely waves, that were flattened when the rain came. We took the opportunity to fill our water tanks and have a lovely, if rocky shower (just a little bit cold) It was a welcome change, but I was still seedy!!! Steve put on a DVD to cheer me up, and as I could only sleep down below, we watched it on the deck in the wheelhouse with the clear awnings protecting us from most of the weather. I still haven't finished making them and rain gets in at the bottom, where they are still to be fastened. Well we were sitting, in our deck chairs, with our feet up against the bottom of the clears watching chick flick and Steve jumped up with an exclamation that he had been brutally savaged by a killer flying fish. Still flapping, Steve got his retribution and as he was fresh, was made promptly into bait. Now to get and idea of this David and Goliath match, The fish had launched all of its 5 inches over the deck of the boat, under the 1 inch gap in the clears and hit his foot. Now that was a rather large one, but we have had fish as small as 1/2 inch on the deck and even in our dinghy at roof height. They are pretty wonderful characters! It is getting exciting as we will be in Cocos tonight and I keep looking forwards. At dusk I see what I think is the GOOSE again doing circles around the boat, but never landed and flew off into the sunset. My theory is that he was just popping in to say hello! We finally made Cocos at 2245 WST and dropped anchor in the quarantine area, thankful to arrive in a tropical paradise. We could see the silhouette of Coconut Palms against the horizon, the sea 'felt' blue and clear and we could see fish and sharks swimming, even though it was dark. We set the alarm so we could call up Customs and retired, contented.

18-6-08 Woke up early so we could talk to our sailing friends on the radio, but the storm was still going, and causing too much interference on the radio. We then looked around the anchorage and there were 2 sail boats. A cat and a sloop. Friends had mentioned the Sloop called Latitude. They had talked to her during past radio scheds, so it was good to see a semi familiar boat. Called up Customs at 0700 (cocos time) and waited till lunchtime for their arrival. We had plenty to do though and the boat was looking ok by the time they did arrive. When Customs had finished, Ollie from Latitude came over to welcome us and give us a few useful tips. By the time we made it to Home Island Post Office, so we could get a phone card, the Post Office had been closed for 10 minutes. Drat!!^&^& The Home Island Locals are of Malay decent and it was a lovely place to go, with every one smiling hello and scooting around on bikes or jeeps and boats at just about every house. It looked like a care free life in a tropical paradise. Well we missed the Post Office, so lets explore Direction Island, where we are anchored. It's lovely. No one lives there, but its the recreational area for the locals. There are a few shelters and one of them has been decorated by visiting yachties with lots of lovely mementos. We explored the small island, scattering the chooks that were there and being very careful not to step on a hermit crab. There was a local phone there, so I tried to ring Mum, reverse charges. Its great having that facility. All local calls are free and someone had scribbled the reverse charge call number next to it. The Mobile service here is not the same as the mainland, as is the internet, thus the need to get to the PO, so we could contact our loved ones.