After breakfast we left Rosemary Island and headed for Cape
Bruguieres twelve miles away. Along the way I caught a Spanish mackerel that
will be nice cook up fresh.
We passed a large rig tender and several other vessels including
an LNG tanker waiting for a cargo. There is so much more marine traffic than
when I was living here years ago.
We anchored Sirocco in a calm sheltered bay and headed off
in the dingy to my secret crab location.
There is a four-metre tide here and you have to time it just
right or you will not catch any crabs and you could be stuck there for the next
eight hours until the tide comes back in.
This place is amazing, a one-kilometre strip of mangroves
that is a nursery for turtles, sting rays, shovel nose rays, sharks, fish,
birds and all sorts of other critters.
Putu stayed in the dingy while Sarah and I headed off to
catch some crabs. Along the way we came across a huge dead turtle. It seemed
such a waste to leave such a beautiful shell there to rot, but it was still
fleshy and very smelly.
There were sting rays everywhere and you had to be careful
where you walk. Now and then a shark would swim by and every couple of metres
there would be a baby turtle either floating by or sleeping amongst the
mangrove roots.
As we walked along, I picked up several mud crabs. Sarah
rescued a small turtle caught up in some mangrove roots and we dodged large
sting rays as we walked through the mangrove trees.
We got enough crabs for dinner and headed off back out
before we got stranded there for the night and headed back to Sirocco.
On the way we pulled up on another beach for a walk and a
few more shells. Back at the boat I did some calculations and realised we would
dry out very soon so I quickly pulled the anchor and we carefully made our way
back out into deep water.
I was going to pull up in a close by bay, but as it was
going to blow twenty knots tomorrow and we are going to go into Karratha, I decided
to head back to Hampton Harbour even though it would be in the dark.
It was a white-knuckle cruise the seventeen miles back to
Hampton Harbour dodging all the many channel markers, the odd boat and a couple
of un-lit moorings. With the aid or radar, I managed to find my way back to the
anchorage out front of the yacht club amongst all the other yachts where I
dropped the pick between four other yachts.
Right away we put a large pot on the stove and started
cooking the crabs. It was 20:30 by the time we finished eating and we were all
so full, but still had enough room to fit some chocolate brownie in. It was a
big day and we were all pretty exhausted by the end of the night and we will
sleep well.
Today’s run was 32 nautical miles.
Track Sirocco’s progress
No comments:
Post a Comment