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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