The rain in the cold front hit at 02:00 and it pored and
blew all night and I had to get up to close all the windows. By morning the
wind had completely gone but it continued to drizzle.
In the morning we got all our washing done, I hung the
tender on the davits and filled the water tanks and gave the boat a bit of a
wash down while I could. We paid our pill at the yacht club and as the level of
water in the Fascine looked to be very high, we departed about an hour before
high tide.
Once again it was a tense nerve-wracking time slowly inching
our way back out of the silted-up mouth of the Fascine. At lease I had four way
points I had saved to guide me out, but it still shallowed to 1.2m and I didn’t
dare breath for about ten minutes until we were safely back out in deep water.
Before heading off, we went back into the fisherman’s wharf
to fuel up. We took on fifty-eight litres of what we had used from Denham,
raised the main and headed out to sea around 13:00.
On the way out we cruised past the Lady Caroline and said
good bye to the Duchies.
Once clear of the port, the sea was choppy and confused from
last night’s blow and the wind was light and variable. The forecast hasn’t
exactly matched reality for the past week or more as it was meant to be
southerly around ten knots to push us along, so instead we had to motor sail
once again.
As we passed the coast at Quobba station you could see the
blow holes along the coast shooting up from the large swell rolling in. The sun
went down around 18:00 and it turned jet black with a cloudy sky with no moon.
The Quobba light house was nice and bright and the salt
works at Cape Cuvier were all lit up as we sailed past and it felt very cold
although the water temperature was now 25.4c.
After dinner, I went outside around 19:00 to find the whole
cockpit infested with flying ants and many had snuck into the saloon as well. I
gave them all a good dose of fly spray but they seemed to just keep coming. God
knows where they came from. I had both cockpit lights set to red which doesn’t
usually attract bugs, so it’s got me buggered what’s going on.
I know from living in the Pilbara that after rain the
termites usually take to the air to start a new colony, but these silly buggers
are a long way off course.
As we passed Cape Cuvier there were two huge salt carriers
on the moorings waiting to be loaded right near the Korean Star that is smashed
in half up on the rocks. This place is notorious and creeps me out and I just
want to get past as quick as I can.
It was a very dark lonely night, passing only one other
vessel, a large ship over twenty miles away heading for Perth.
In the early hours of the morning I was completely trashed
and asked Putu to take a watch so I could get an hour’s sleep. I find it hard
to sleep anyway as I listen to all the sounds ensuring everything is okay.
I was in a deep sleep when suddenly I felt the boat swing
around ninety degrees and my off-course alarm was blaring. I raced up on deck
half dazed and grabbed the wheel and tried to access the situation. The boat
was over powered and out of control and for some reason the auto-pilot had
disengaged and the wind had blown us 180 degrees off course.
I wrestled with the wheel and tried to orientate myself with
the chart plotter which was now displaying upside down.
Putu started panicking saying we are headed for the rocks.
That was true, but they were over four miles away. I wrestled us back on course
and engaged the auto-pilot and all was sweet. I’m still not sure what caused
the pilot to disengage, it hasn’t happened before and it hasn’t happened since.
Track Sirocco’s
progress
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