Friday 31st May 2019 – Monkey Mia (Shark Bay)

We wanted to sail from Monkey Mia to Turtle Bay on the North end of Dirk Hartog Island to visit inscription point, but according to the weather report there would be 18 knot easterlies and there is only good shelter there from southerlies, so we delayed our departure plans. 

We may even decide to go straight from here to Carnarvon which would be disappointing.

We spent a relaxing morning on the foreshore after the daily sausage factory had taken all the tourists for the dolphin feeding and then the fake sail on the two tourist catamarans that parade up and down the beach.

The flies at Monkey Mia at the moment are some of the worst I have ever uncounted. Everyone is wearing the compulsory $10 fly net and I even saw a dog wearing one too.  They are bad enough to drive you insane.

Offshore there are few fly’s, but at night our lights attract moths in the millions and the boat is full of them. During the day swallows sit on the boat and crap out all the fly’s and moths they have eaten and yesterday when we returned to the boat it was covered in crows and quite a bit of crow shit.

Monkey Mia is a nice relaxing beautiful place, but now that we have our fuel card we just want to move further north where the water is warm and where we can go snorkeling all day. Here the water is cold and there is no reef to snorkel on and the fly’s are driving us nuts.

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Thursday 30th May 2019 – Monkey Mia (Shark Bay)

After a relaxing sleep in we swung into plan B and called our helpful friend Macca in Denham and explained our predicament and asked if he could help us if we slipped him a few bucks. 

Good old Macca came to the rescue and picked us up, showed us all around the area, took us to the Denham post office and returned us back to Monkey Mia with our new gold-plated Baileys fuel card.

Small lagoon near Denham

Denham in the distance

Denham moorings

While walking along the foreshore back at Monkey Mia someone said “You two look like yachties” and we looked around and a couple sitting down had a similar waterproof bag as ours and it turned out they were from SV Anna Caroline anchored offshore.

We chatted to Wietze and Janneke for several hours and they were so interesting having come from the Netherlands, they had sailed all around the world and were heading to Indonesia. We traded stories and laugh and eventually parted ways.

Later in the afternoon we called them and asked them over for dinner with us on Sirocco. It was a pleasant evening and we talked and drank till very late in the evening when they disappeared into the night in their tiny dingy.

Track Sirocco’s progress

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Wednesday 29th May 2019 – Herald Bight to Monkey Mia (Shark Bay)

It was an upwind passage from Herald Bight to Monkey Mia in light winds and calm seas so we had to motor sail to make decent progress. The STV Leeuwin 2 was near us struggling to make any progress as it tacked upwind, also destined for Monkey Mia. Late in the afternoon it also gave up and motored the rest of the way.

STV Leeuwin 2 (Sail training tall ship)

As we cruised into Monkey Mia a nice guy on a catamaran said we can use the mooring in front of his as the owner is away, so we moored up to this convenient mooring directly out front of the resort.

Strait away we went ashore and tried to find a ride into Denham so we could pick up out dam fuel card from the post office. The nice girl at the resort reception kindly offered to take Putu with her when she knocks off at four.

With this great news we relaxed and went off and got an ice cream and then went to the bar where I settled in with a frothy. Come four o’clock the girl had not messaged Putu and was not answering Putu’s messages. It was getting too late as it was a thirty-minute drive and the post office closes at five.

Unfortunately, the girl had to work late and was not able to get Putu to Denham in time so after trying to get a bus, taxi or hire car without success we gave up and ordered a pizza and a few more beers before heading back to Sirocco after dusk.

Track Sirocco’s progress

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Tuesday 28th May 2019 – Denham to Herald Bight (Shark Bay)

We were up at 07:00 and had arranged to meet Macca on the fuel wharf. We had to wait thirty minutes while a cray boat fueled up.

We took on 165 liters and also filled the water tanks while we had the opportunity. (or should I say while no body was looking)

Jan and Duncan from the trailer sailor we met last night wandered over for a chat and farewells. They were hauling out today and heading back home to Pemberton.

Macca was a bloody legend, he helped us out mooring the boat, helped us with refueling, helped us out with the water then he had to run off to work as he works for a mini skip bin business.

While I’m filling up the water tanks, this vehicle backs down the jetty and I’m thinking "here we go, got sprung stealing the water" and bugger me it’s Macca again with a mini skip asking if we have any rubbish to throw out. What a nice bloke. People in country Australia are always so nice and much more approachable than in the city.

After refueling, we headed off up the Peron Peninsula, heading for Herald Bight as our anchorage for the night. The wind picked up to eighteen knots southerly which gave us a good start, but fizzled out after a couple of hours to only nine knots, so we might have to find a closer anchorage if time runs out.

We skirted the two-meter contour line all the way up to the cape and the water was crystal clear and I spent hours up on the bow watching the sea bed looking for scallops.

We saw quite a few turtles and stingrays and for twenty minutes we had five large dolphins swimming on the bows. We never get sick of watching dolphins as they are such beautiful creatures.

The wind completely died and I rolled up the flapping genoa and just motor sailed with the main giving a bit of lift. At 2800 RPM using one engine, we can cruise between 5-6 knots burning only 2.5 liters per hour. So, it’s very economical and we can cover a lot of ground on a tank of juice, although of course we would much prefer to be sailing any time than motoring.

 Roast pork dinner

As we approached Cape Peron, the colours were spectacular with deep red earth and white dunes against a blue sky and turquoise sea. Also, near the Cape we passed two separate beaches that had thousands of pelicans on them.

We rounded the Cape around 16:30 and even though there looked to be a couple of good anchorages on the Cape and there was no wind, I elected to gun both engines to get to my original destination (Herald Bight) before sunset.

[We pulled into Herald Bight around 17:45 right on sunset and dropped the pick in 2.5 meters of water. This bay is extremely protected and there was hardly a breath of wind, but the bugs came out in force as soon as they saw our lights turn on.

After a lovely roast pork dinner, we grooved to the tunes of ABC Carnarvon. With today's run of forty four nautical miles, tomorrows run in to Monkey Mia of only eighteen nautical miles will be a nice short one.

Track Sirocco’s progress

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Monday 27th May 2019 – Denham (Shark Bay)

I had a bit of a nervous sleep as the depth dropped off to 1.3 meters overnight. Officially Sirocco draws 800 mm, but I like to keep at least 2 meters under the hull.

Over breakfast I called the VMR to ask about getting fuel on the commercial jetty and bugger me, you have to have a Baileys card (whatever that is) to get fuel from Denham onward. So, we get given a number for DPI in Carnarvon and give them a call. They say we have to speak to Baileys in Perth.

Baileys in Perth say we first have to register an account and then do the on-line safety induction, and then they will send us our new Baileys plastic card to our nominated address. (Bloody hell)

So luckily by now in Denham we have mobile phone coverage, so we go on-line and create a Baileys account. Then we took the tender ashore and find the Denham post office and organise to get our new Baileys plastic card sent to them. Then we call back Baileys in Perth and organise to get our new Baileys plastic card sent via priority post to Denham post office which was now going to take around two days to get here.

Rather than waste our time sitting here waiting for our shiny new Baileys plastic card to arrive, I thought if I pore a couple of jerry cans of diesel into Sirocco, we can then keep going and move around to Monkey Mia and further south down the eastern gulf and when the card arrives, Putu can hitch a ride from Monkey Mia to Denham to pickup the card and return to Monkey Mia where we can fuel up.

Old pearling lugger

One of the original houses made out of hand sawn shell bricks

Close-up of the shell bricks that are unique to Denham

But it turns out there are no refueling facilities at Monkey Mia, (as it irritates the dolphins blow holes) so it would mean back tracking all the way back to Denham. So now we go to plan B.

Maybe if we hang around the fuel dock, we could ask someone who has a Baileys fuel card if we could use it to fuel up and pay them cash. Luck had us meeting a local fisherman who said just give Macca a call and he will look after us. He didn’t have Macca’s number, but just said go ask in any shop as everyone knows Macca.

It didn’t take very long and we had Macca on the phone and he said no worries, so we said we’ll meet you in an hour after we go and get some cash. Well, three broken ATM’s latter and only being able to get half the amount required from IGA, we had to call Macca back and ask if we could do it tomorrow. (Bugga)

This all took the best part of a day and we were getting sore legs from all the walking. We were killing time in a tiny little gift shop and I mentioned our plight to the old lady and she handed us ten whiting fillets which was lovely of her.

The day was shot, so we walked back to the dingy and took an empty petrol drum across the road to fill up at IGA and we asked if we could borrow a shopping trolley to carry the fuel drum back to the tender. They said no problem and it was a funny sight pushing our fuel back to the beach in a shopping trolley.

On the trip out to Sirocco we stopped off at a trailer sailor to chat with the lady on deck. She was very nice and we were there for twenty minutes when her husband motored up and he offered me a beer, so we stayed for another twenty minutes. They were up from Pemberton and had been cruising around for the past week.

We said fair well to our new friends and motored back out to Sirocco and enjoyed our beautiful whiting fillets for dinner. (Thank you old lady)

This evening the wind dropped off to nothing and it was very pleasant.

Track Sirocco’s progress

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Sunday 26th May 2019 – 3-Bay Island to Denham (Shark Bay)

I woke up at 07:00 as usual to a beautiful sun rise, and after putting the kettle on, having a pee over the side and scratching my balls. (all the usual stuff) I decided I should hand the dingy on the davits for the passage back up to Denham.

So, I pulled the tender along side and tied it off with a piss poor knot while I reached for the davit hooks to connect to it. Thirty seconds later I looked around in horror as the knot was untying in slow motion and the painter dropped into the water and away went the tender off to Denham without us.

My mind was racing, by the time I pull anchor it will be out of sight, so I stripped off and dived in after it. The water was freezing (20c) and as I swam the 10-15 meters, I was thinking how was I going to get in as the outboard was up.

I finally caught up with it and by then the adrenaline was pumping and I launched myself like a hard-core navy seal and did a big fat naked beached whale bally flop into the dingy. Then I though shit, I hope the outboard starts or this could be one embarrassing rescue.

Luckily the old Yammy started first pull and I was back tied up to Sirocco in no time. After the ordeal, I decided to just leave it on the tow line and go and have a hot coffee and toast like I should have done.

It was a beautiful sun rise and the wind was only about ten knots from the south, so it was a pleasant six knot motor sail down wind up the Henri Freycienet Harbour, forty nautical miles to Denham.

Our chart wall over the TV

The cruise to Denham was rather uneventful and as I started to get some mobile phone signal, I put my phone on mobile hot spot, put it in a bag and hoisted it up the mast and then took the opportunity to update my blog using the Internet on my laptop.

Denham is very shallow and there are very limited places to anchor. I spent quite some time looking for somewhere to anchor, almost running aground several times in the process and when we finally found a suitable place between some moorings, it took three goes to get anchored and hanging the correct way.

Once settled, we jumped into the tender and headed into shore. It was quite a long way and there is only a very small area of sand to pull up. After securing the tender we walked down the road to the supermarket to buy a few things and after shopping, we walked up to the pub and had dinner and a few beers. Its a good old country pub with lots of memorabilia.

After a pleasant dinner, we went looking for the tender in the dark with our torch. The tide had gone out a bit and we had to drag it back out with a cold 15 knot wind blowing. We got underway and managed to find Sirocco in the dark without running into any cardinal markers, moorings or other boats.

Slightly wet and cold, a hot shower was just what we needed before settling in for the night. 

Track Sirocco’s progress

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