Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t as good as it was yesterday
and I wasn’t feeling too well, so we had a relaxing lazy morning. After lunch I took the dingy for a look around as I noticed
some objects in the water not far away from the boat.
It turns out these were the power cables used to power the atomic
bomb blast on-board the HMAS Plym. I followed them both into shore and up over
the sand dunes and came across the mangled generator right where it was left
running prior to the blast.
Nearby the generator I came across this big old dead turtle
that has laid undisturbed for a very long time, remarkably with every small bone
still exactly in place.
From here I decided to go for a run down to the far eastern end
of Trimouille Island to where a large reinforced concrete bunker is a stark
feature, silhouetted high up on the highest point.
On the walk up the hill I scared a few rat kangaroos and
came across several discarded fuel cans.
The building was fully in tact with only the door missing
and all the internal equipment cabinets still remained although the equipment
had long been removed. Judging by the
layout and many coaxial cables, my guess is that this was a telemetry radio transmitter
used to transmit all the measured parameters from the bomb blast back to a central
location.
It was interesting to
note the rubber shock mounts on all the cabinets
There were unused rolls of cable left laying around the sand
dunes and the remains of a radio mast.
It was a beautiful view from high up on the Island and I
noted how sheltered and calm it was on the northern side of the Island. I
slowly made my way back down to the beach and took the dingy back to Sirocco.
Back at Sirocco I down loaded the latest weather forecast and
unfortunately it was going to blow hard for the next few days. Even though I would
like to spend a couple of weeks here at the Monties, there is not much you can
do if it’s blowing a gale.
Analysing the wind strength and direction for the next few
days it would be advantageous to use these winds to blow us quickly up to
Broome and closer to the Kimberly rather than waste time sitting it out here.
There would be periods of twenty knot easterlies followed by
lulls occurring over the next three days until the wind drops off completely.
Based on this analysis, I decided to move Sirocco around to
the ocean side (north) of Trimouille Island overnight to the sheltered waters I
saw from the high point of the Island previously, and get an early start to
Broome tomorrow morning.
As I was pulling the anchor up, I noticed a catamaran
sailing towards us. It was Purnama who we had first met at the Abrolhos Islands
and latter seen at Exmouth. They were going to anchor with us and after I
discussed my plan to them, they decided to follow us to the ocean side of Trimouille
Island and anchor with us, then depart for Dampier around 3AM.
Purnama
Laia and Ricard (and kids) from Purnama invited us onto
their beautiful cat for dinner and their two lovely boys cooked us up some
crayfish they had caught themselves that morning.
Putu quickly whipped up some Crème Bruley and I supplied the
red wine. We had a great evening and we said our farewells around 11PM before
taking a wet rough dingy ride back to Sirocco in the dark.
Track Sirocco’s
progress
Ah, the turtle :-)
ReplyDeleteHow sad!
Looks like a fantastic place to take a look around. All the rubbish, sorry heritage and historical artifacts, is still there.
I didn't realize you can access this site without a special permit.
Luc, the Monties was off limits to the public until the early nineties. No permit required, but it is recommended that you only go on land for no more than one hour each day.
ReplyDelete