At seven o’clock we woke to see the DOT lady writing down
our registration number and she issued us some forms to fill out and I think it
cost us fifty dollars for the night.
The channel into the Fascine where the yacht club pens is
located had silted over and has been closed for several years now, although we
had been told it was now open.
I would love to have a drive of this bad boy
Legally, DOT has closed the channel, but they are still
charging yachts for mooring to the swing mooring inside the Fascine even though
they are trapped within and can’t go anywhere.
According to our local friends, vessels with a shallow draft
can get in and out of the Fascine and as we only draw around 900 mm we should
be fine to get through on the high tide.
Every one of these towns has many broken dreams
At 09:00 we motored around to the channel entry and while
waiting for our friends to arrive, I cautiously approached the channel between
the cardinal markers and immediately touched the bottom, so I backed out and
waited for our friends to arrive.
Our friends came around in their catamaran and lowered their
tender to lead the way through the deeper part of the now new channel that weaves
around nowhere near the gazetted cardinal markers.
Our nice sheltered place on the end of the jetty
It was very nerve wracking as the depth reduced to around
1.4 – 1.2 meters, and at one point we had to cross the sand bar with half meter
waves rolling in. It wasn’t long and we reached the deeper water inside the
Fascine and motored up to the marina and into a berth.
The Fascine is very beautiful and it is such a shame the
channel is blocked. The government has refused to dredge the channel due to
lack of funds. The local people have been raising funds and have bought their
own dredge and started dredging a channel, but I think the whole process has
now become political and dredging has ceased maybe due to environmental issues
or some other bureaucracy reasons.
The marina is modern and new and it is such a waste with the
access restricted. Some of the boats trapped inside the Fascine have not been
able to get out for several years now.
Our friends were so generous, they lent us their car and we
went and did all our washing at the laundry matt, went to the supermarket and
bottle shop and also filled up a Gerry can for the tender making the process so
much easier.
As the wind was going to be blowing hard all week, Putu
decided to fly back to Perth for a few days to sort out a few issues at home
and I dropped her off at the airport around four thirty then went back to the
boat.
Track Sirocco’s progress
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